edcho

The Platinum Elite Years at Marriott would only count if you actually stayed 75+ nights at Marriott. Marriott status awarded via matching will not count. If you did stay at Marriott and earned Platinum on your own, you may have enough years combined.

Pseudo Nim

edcho

Depends on who you ask -- If you have 2M Marriott Rewards points (shown on the Marriott site) and combined 750 nights (both SPG + MR), then maybe. SPG Lurker on the SPG forum says yes while others say no. Looking at the rules, it doesn't say clearly state that it will count. The agents are going off the same text we are so it's equally confusing. You aren't going to get a clear answer on here so I would just hope for the best but plan for the worst.

margarita girl

Marriott15

What I was told on the phone with a rep....they will combine your nights from starwood and Marriott come August 18th. To determine your 20,000k spent is based off of your base rate you spent at the hotel. She said tax was not included toward the 20,000. She didn't know if other things would be included like if you spent money in the restaurant.

Now you would of had to accumulate 100 nights and 20k spent in 2018. Then you will be ambassador in 2019.

yerffej201

given their crap IT i'd be really impressed if they managed to aggregate base spend from both programs

Marriott15

That's what I am worried about! I created a excel spreadsheet with each stay from marriott and starwood with confirmation numbers if they try not to add all of them together! Very time consuming but worth it! Again I don't see a bid difference between platinum and ambassador!

tatmtr7

lexdevil

You need to attach them by the 17th if you want to be certain to redeem them for face value (5 nights hotel at the designated level). If you wait until after the 17th you risk Marriott replacing the certificates with a new certificate or simply rebating you a certain number of points (value unknown).

If you know the hotel you want and its cost in points will increase or remain the same after the 17th, you should attach the certificate now to protect the certificate's value and the redemption price of the hotel.

If the hotel you want will decrease in cost, you may want to wait, but you will be risking however Marriott chooses to dispose of/convert the old certificates. There is some indication that you will be able to call in and arrange a point refund/adjustment if the point cost goes down in the new system, so I think you are still most prudent to attach.

If you don't know the hotel you want or it is an SPG property, you'll have to wait and see.

The price in points will go up if you alter the reservation after the 17th. You will need to pay the difference between the point value of your old certificate and the point value required by the new chart. If you change the reservation in 2019, there's a good chance you may also be hit with a peak season surcharge of 5-15K points per day. So try to get your dates right!

This table gives the points price of most properties in the old and new programs. It should help you figure out whether the properties you have in mind are increasing in cost after the 17th.

sinfonia

I searched but could not find the thread on what happens to Megabonus free night certificates (cat 1-5) after the merger. I read that they will be converted into points, but am not clear how many points and if it is a better idea for me to attach it to a reservation now or just let it be converted into points.

CJKatl

My understanding is they do not convert into points that will be deposited into you account, but into certs which can be used up to a certain points value. It is not clear, but it also appears you will not be able to add additional points to stay at a higher level hotel nor carry forward unused points for a second night; ie use a 25k point cert for a 15k night and then apply 10k to another night. We will not know for sure about any of this until the certs are actually converted into the new program as Marriott has not given specifics, only dropped hints and sometimes hints which point to competing explanations.

Pseudo Nim

FWIW, here's what happened with the Japanese American Express cards, which give a Cat6 SPG 1-night cert: they are being converted to a Marriott "up to 50K points" certificate, where you CANNOT add any points to make it a higher end redemption, and you cannot split the points into different ones. So basically exactly as you describe, except that's the official position on that particular certificate type.

sinfonia

Thanks for that information. So is it best to try to book a cat 5 hotel with this now, attaching the reservation, if I have one in mind? I would assume they would still honor it if attached to a reservation?

CJKatl

That is my understanding and the Lurkers are encouraging us to attach thee certs before the 18th,

sdsearch

They will concerted to points certs, not actual points.

While Marriott has not said how they'll be converted, Chase has said that the card that currently earns cat 1-5 certs will earn 25000 point certs after August. So that's the best guess at what existing cat 1-5 certs would convert to as well.

What you need to know to interpret that: In 2019, cat 4 will be 25000 points nominally, but that can go a bit up or down based on season. And when it goes up in high season, you won't be able to use a 25000 point cert for that hotel, even though will be able to use a 25000 point cert for that hotel the rest of the year. And we don't know how long "high season" will last at any hotel.

Other than that, there is a new chart available, so you can see which hotels are going down and which are going up. But it's a hard co maneuver around on the Marriott website, since you can't jump to any page, you have to increment page by page by page, and there are something like 56 pages . I think someone may have converted that to a spreadsheet, but if so I'm not sure which thread has a link to that.