Keyser

chris, i have a stay at a westin in india on the 18th of august for 1 night so i had a couple of questions....

i've booked 3 rooms but i'm assuming that while i'll get the points for all 3 rooms, i will only receive stay credit for one room....is that correct????

i'll be using your24 to check in early in the morning so it will still be late at night on the 17th of august u.s. eastern time....since i won't have my new spg number at that point, i'll check in using my current number....but i should have the new number available at checkout....is there anything extra i need to do to make sure i get the stay credit & points or would the system pick up the change automatically????

stimpy

Thanks, and that helps a bit. But the part about "waiting for the dust to settle" means that no one knows how some of the finer details may land. I guess I will wait and see what happens in the days following August 18th.

Starwood Lurker III

Yes, that is correct.

The system shall pick up the change automatically. You may keep a copy of your hotel bill in case of a missing credit.

Best Regards,

Christina Zhou
Social Media Specialist
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

[email protected]

mbd4524

I am not sure this is the correct thread for my question, but I am hoping somebody can reassure me I am understanding everything correctly.
To date I have the following: 10 years as SPG platinum, 410 lifetime night with spg and after looking at my Marriott account, apparently I have 84 lifetime nights with them.
If I understand correctly, I have until the end of 2018 to stay another 6 nights and then I would qualify for lifetime plat. Did I get that right?

margarita girl

Sorry that is not correct. You can qualify 2 ways:

1) 10 years + 500 nights at legacy SPG properties
2) 10 years + 600 nights at combined SPG/Marriott properties under the new merger rules

See here: https://members.marriott.com/benefits/

What you could do is get a bunch of Marriott night credits by booking several meeting rooms per this thread, or just let it come naturally by getting to 600 nights in the next few years.

Platinum Status in Eight Days and $800 - No Stays Required

There is some talk that Marriott might be curbing the number of nights that you can get by booking meetings, but nothing has been officially announced yet.

CJKatl

We should know pretty quickly if there are any computer glitches. That will be obvious within days. One poster is spreading a rumor that you might not be able to qualify under the legacy rules if you combine your accounts. That rumor has been debunked by the Lurkers, by Marriott and by common sense yet for some reason the poster keeps pushing the falsehood. He claims the Lurkers once said this but cannot find any quote and even if they might have said it once a long time ago it is not what they are saying now. The Lurker has directly responded to him on Aug 1 but the poster did not like the words used so he acts as though the response is wrong. While you might want to be cautious to avoid glitches, the worst that can happen is you may have to invest time in having the glitch unwound. It is clear that combining accounts will not impact the ability to qualify under the legacy rules. Don't let the baseless fears of one poster impact your rational decision.

mbd4524

Thanks for your reply. I am seeing conflicting reports on this and I have actually been told explicitly by SPG/MR rep that lifetime nights would be combined to achieve lifetime plat in 500 nights. I don't either see from the link you sent clearly one way or another.

margarita girl

Then check the FAQ where this is spelled out:

khabah

I meant that the current SPG app will still exist, but the interface will be redesigned to look like what Marriott currently has on its own app. Marriott will release updates to both apps on August 18th to roll out the same tech platform for both so that we can use our Marriott accounts and newly-renumbered SPG accounts on each app with the ability to search and book across all brands.

khabah

hhoope01

This is my approach as well. While I'm hopeful everything will be merged with no problems or hick-ups, This is pretty big change/merge and Marriott has had "problems" come up after much smaller changes before.

TerryK

Let me ask this: is there any benefit to keep two separate accounts until year end? I assume all will be merged next year anyway.

RogerD408

Unfortunately this happens a lot and with something as major as this merger knowledge is very fragmented. It's not that they are lying but rather that they have not been trained yet. It is easier to say something than spend anytime looking it up and their goal is to get you off the phone. It has been stated here many times and the websites support that if you wish to earn status under the legacy rules the stays have to be with legacy properties, if you wish to earn status under the new program then the stays can be with any of the program properties.

TravelinSperry

There may be depending on how many merged nights you'll have and how they honor the new benefits. For example, I will have less than 50 nights with Starwood and less than 50 nights with Marriott as of Aug 18. However, if I merge I will have >75. The new benefits describe a choice that is to be offered at the 50 night level and again at the 75 night level. If Marriott honors those benefits based on merged nights, it would be an advantage to me (and others in a similar situation) to merge so we can make our choice(s) in 2018.

kaizen7

RogerD408

It appears to me they are not sure they know how to merge the accounts (no absolute matching outside of us doing it). Since we get to choose which account to use after the merge, I don't think there will issues keeping both, other than maybe a violation of the T&Cs with exception until the end of the year.. Other than being a maintenance issue and knowing which one was use for what activity. And don't forget about the times you might have to have someone lookup your account and hoping the find the right one.

As for benefits, one quick item that pops up, it the effect of earning SNAs. Forgetting about the issue of needing to cross the 50/75 nights, if you were able to maintain two accounts, could you earn SNAs in both? Could an SPG account that had 50 nights before 7/27 get 10 now and then another 5 at 75. Will legacy MR accounts get 5 SNAs for having over 50 nights and another 5 at 75? This merger presents so many corner cases I doubt they will all get worked out by the end of the year.