PHL

2017 will be 8 years SPG Platinum for me over a period of 19 years in the program. I have almost 700 nights and LT Gold in SPG. I have over 300 nights in MR. My total points between the two programs, adjusted for the SPG:MR ratio, is over 2M. So I would qualify for lifetime Plat in the new program if it uses Marriott's guidelines of 750 nights & 2M points and all the combined nights & points count. But we have no idea what requirements they will institute. We can hope current LT members in either program will retain their status. My guess is they will implement new requirements for those who are not LT yet that are higher than the current ones like, for example, 1000 nights and 3M points to slow the LT platinum growth.

Given that, I figure I will continue to earn SPG Plat in 2018 since it's 50 nights instead of 75 that MR requires. That will at least - hopefully - carry me into the new 2019 program year if they finally combine the two programs.

Any other thoughts on strategies?

yeunganson

There's really not much that can be planned. We have no idea what the merged program is like for 2019. We don't know the tiers or the number of qualifying nights. We can just stay like we normally do and wait for the new info to come out.

mroseman13

Staying with SPG is probably the smarter move for the 50 vs 75 night requirement. I'm antsy to hear what 2019 has in store...

craigthemif

Nothing worth planning on the lifetime side for until we find out the details of the combined programme.

Personally I don't expect that they will throw combined nights into one big pot. That would seem to reward people who weren't particularly loyal to either SPG OR MR but just happened to get lucky.

However, it is a very safe assumption that re-qualifying for SPG Platinum in 2018 will get you Marwood Platinum in 2019.

PHL

If they do what airline mergers did, the nights would combine. My UA + CO lifetime miles combined, as did my US + AA miles, which did put me over 1M to attain LT Gold there. Not that it's worth much more than a free bag and the occasional upgrade on very low volume off peak flights.

But it seems I, and others in the similar situation, will just roll with it

UA-NYC

Exact same boat - by the end of next year I will have over 1,000 nights combined between the two programs and 2MM points wouldn't be a hurdle. But only 9 years Plat going into 2019

Will be interesting to see if the combined program jacks up the LT Plat requirements...

sfozrhfco

Given the public pronouncements about how successful it was for SPG to offer Platinum tiers, it is almost guaranteed that lifetime platinum or whatever top status will be called will also be tiered. Current LT members will likely get similar benefits to what they have now but higher tier LT status will require more nights, more years, and/or more spend. Makes sense to keep people loyal and to get people to continue to aim for higher levels of LT status.

That said, I would stick with SPG for 2018 as Marriott has the most to lose by doing something negative to SPG members. Thus, you are probably better off having more years, nights, spend accumulated with SPG.

cubuffaloes2004

EWRFlyerAL

I'm hitting 10 years Plat next year. Nights are almost at 500. I'm hoping the LT status lasts when the programs merge.

Dr. HFH

Seems to me that you answered your own question.Hard to develop a strategy to achieve something if one doesn't know what the criteria will be.