bhrubin

lexdevil

I hope that you are right, but I am concerned that you are not. I have called/tweeted/emailed Marriott and received a range of responses, including silence, "we don't know, they have not told us yet," and "you will only receive credit for spending on your own personal room." This last answer was given after the customer service agent had put me on hold multiple times to speak with supervisors.

I also was connected with the Ambassador line a couple of months ago in my attempts to get this question answered. I spoke with someone who told me my current spend on record. The number they gave me was roughly 1/3 of my actual spend. My guess is that it was calculated based on my base points earned, which is limited to 3 rooms. If they choose to track spend in this manner (probably the simplest way to automate it), my spend will be radically underestimated.

bhrubin

CPRich

This is the MArriott FAQ - https://members.marriott.com/faq/#ca...rewards-points (too long for FT to handle


Wayback machine has the same "In August" in May and June, and no versions between those and June 2017, which doesn't contain the question.

CPRich

https://www.spgpromos.com/amexcomingsoon/faqs currently has:

The promo that this was tied to (which is odd) appears to be expired, so there may be no way to get to this other than via Google search/cache. But it does show what was available at one time.

But having been through multiple IT mergers, I can say that going live even in the same month as originally announced well in advance is pretty good. And no matter when they go live, someone will need to be planning for stays the month after it's supposed to happen. Yes, live in late August makes it hard for booking in October. If they went live in June, we would have heard the same complaint for people booking August.


Regardless - it's now a TBD date in August. We wait to find that TBD date. "But you said August 1" isn't going to change anything.

joeags

This is where I think the real impact will be felt. Marriott is maxing most credit cards to the silver and gold level They're capping night credits to one credit card (I received 30 for the biz and personal Marriott cards this year. ) The new cards have no mention of 1 elite night credit for $3k in spend. No rollover nights. No credit for up to 2 extra rooms like the SPG program This really looks like a cull to me. Anyone who has complained in the past about crowded lounges and no upgrades and can hit platinum through BIB should be happy in my eyes...

hedoman

How many nights to qualify for top lifetime status? Thought it was 750, now seeing 600 on Marriott website.

Hipplewm

afaik, it is 750 and 2 mil points

after it will be 10 years of XX status gets you that lifetime

CJKatl

Legacy Marriott Rewards and Lifetime Plat Premier in the New Program
The highest LT level in the legacy MR program is LTP which requires 750 nights and 2m points. Those who are presently LTP in the legacy program or will reach those numbers in the legacy program by the end of the year will become Lifetime Plat Premier (LTPP) in the new program. Shortly after the beginning of the year LTPP will close and members will no longer be able to qualify for that LT status. LTP will become the top status for which members will be able to qualify in the new program. In addition to all legacy Marriott LTP members getting LTPP, so will SPG LTP w/>750 LT nights, those who merge accounts and have at least 750 nights and ten years' history as an SPG P and/or a MR P and/or G (these are the levels which required fifty or more nights/year) and those with at least 2m MR points (no SPG points added) and at least 750 nights between the two programs. The Starwood Lurker has answered a question which clearly states "Yes" to whether someone in that last situation will become LTPP but some doubt the answer because of the explanation attached to the answer.

Lifetime Platinum in the New Program
To become LTP in the new program, members will need >600 nights and at least ten years' history of reaching at least the fifty night status in the new program, which will be P50, and/or one or both of the legacy programs. Points will no longer be a LT qualification criteria. The fifty night levels in the legacy programs are SPG P and/or a MR P and/or G.

jeanie

After talking to my mother, I realized that she will be platinum in August while not paying for a night in a Marriott or Starwood brand hotel in the last several years.

She got the Marriott Personal and Business Visas in 2016, and got 30 elite nights. Other than meeting the minimum spend, she didn't really use the cards after that. Then 20 nights rolled over into 2017, and she got 30 more nights from her credit cards in 2017. She did redeem the free night certificates and a couple of reward nights for a total of maybe 2 or 3 nights each year. This is how she got the 50 nights to become MR Gold towards the end of 2017.

She likes the thought of being a platinum in Marriott, but honestly, she doesn't have much use for it. She mainly stays in Towne Place Suites and Fairfield Inns.

I think it's kind of funny. This may be the type of thing that Marriott wants to minimize in the new program. I forgot to ask her, but she has had Marriott credit cards for close to 10 years now. I bet she will be lifetime silver in the new program even though she only stays in Marriotts 2 or 3 times per year on reward stays. Lifetime gold probably won't happen for her, though. Yes, she has a lot of points banked up. I have got her trained to get new cards every 2 years or so to get a new bonus. Maybe she will take a nice trip to a hotel that is above a category 1 sometime.

JBord

I think the impact of someone like this is actually minimized in the current program. Your mother got a year of status due to the credit cards. Marriott gets paid from selling points to Chase. One year of Gold and then Silver via credit card for someone who stays a few times a year likely works out in Marriott's favor as your mother doesn't really claim many of the benefits provided (and there are almost none at Silver anyway).

But if Marriott gains a high spend customer maybe once for every 10 like your mom, they probably consider that a good deal. Sometimes people confuse the cost of awarding benefits with the cost of redeeming them. Points are likely booked as a liability. But things like free breakfast, upgrades, and even extra points are an expense ONLY if someone claims them. I don't think they'd care if they have 10 million Silvers who use the credit card and only stay 3 times a year -- as long as the cc means they choose Marriott when possible for those 3 stays.

kennycrudup

FWIW, and someone distract the SPG crowd while I type this, but as someone else who shops by price and has stayed a variety of MI room levels, I've discovered that not all FI/CY rooms are all small and cut the same; most of them have at least one better (and occasionally great) room on every floor, and that's what I get out of my (LT)P status (especially when FIs can command $300/nt in California for a regular old room).

Newman

Am I correct that beginning in August when I log into my account on the Marriott website and enter a location (let's say Miami, Florida) and a date (let's say Jan 15-21, 2019), I will be offered a choice of not only the usual Marriott family brand hotels, but the Starwood brand hotels in the area as well?

Thanks.

NEWMAN

stc

I would NOT bet on that.

RogerD408

The details, as they exist now, is ONCE they merge the reservation systems you will be able to choose from all the MR, RC, SPG properties from a single point. However, they have not published a hard date as to when they expect to have that ready to roll out. Should they hit any major issues (maybe existing system coded to handle up to 25 brands), the August date may get pushed out further.

We are all guessing and those that know the facts aren't here to tell us.