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Marriott Rewards/SPG Changes – Updated Summary
The upshot is that the changes look good – in fact, far better than most people will have dared to hope! Obviously the caveat is that there might be some devils hidden in the detail, but here are the top lines:
- Nothing is changing until August 2018.
- At that point, a unified programme will be created, bringing Marriott Rewards, Ritz Carlton Rewards and SPG together.
- You will be able to earn and redeem Points without having to transfer them and elite benefits will be unified.
Five Elite Status Tiers:
Check out the chart here.
SILVER ELITE 10-24 NIGHTS/YEAR
- 10% Points Bonus
- Priority Late Checkout
GOLD ELITE 25-49 NIGHTS/YEAR
- 25% Points Bonus
- 2pm Checkout
- Welcome Gift = Points
- “Enhanced Room” upgrade
PLATINUM ELITE 50-74 NIGHTS/YEAR
- 50% Points Bonus
- 4pm Checkout
- Welcome gift = Points, breakfast, or “amenity”
- Upgrades include select suites
- Lounge access
- “Annual Choice Benefit (5 Suite Night AwardsTM or Gift Option)
*Awarded with 50 qualifying nights”
PLATINUM PREMIER ELITE 75-99 NIGHTS/YEAR:
- 75% bonus
- Additional Choice Benefit (5 Suite Night AwardsTM or Gift Option)
*Awarded with 75 qualifying nights
PLATINUM PREMIER ELITE 100 NIGHTS + $20K QUALIFYING SPEND:
- Ambassador Service
- “Your 24”
Earning Points:
- Base members will earn 10 points per dollar
- Silver members will earn 11 points per dollar
- Gold members will earn 12.5 points per dollar
- Platinum members will earn 15 points per dollar
- Platinum Premier members will earn 17.5 points per dollar
Redeeming Points:
In August, standard redemption rates for hotel Categories 1-7 will go live. Peak, off-peak and Category 8 redemption rates will be introduced in early 2019.
In the short term, the big difference here is that the top-tier Marriott properties currently require just 45,000 Points – but Ritz Carltons can require as many as 70,000, and SPG 90,000-105,000. The big question is how many (and which) hotels are going to be Category 6+, and how many are going to be Category 5 or below. Longer term, it will be interesting to see how Peak/Off Peak dates work and how many hotels will be placed into the new Category 8 in 2019.
SPG’s fantastic airline transfers are being kept
- You’ll be able to transfer points to more than 40 airlines, including new options, such as Virgin Australia, Aegean Airlines and Air New Zealand. The new ratio will be 3 points for one mile.
- Plus, starting in August, we’ll add 15,000 points for every 60,000 points you transfer to airline miles, providing you with a total of 25,000 miles in the airline program of your choice.
Ben over at OMAAT reports that, “Marriott Hotel + Air Packages are also here to stay. However, I’m told that pricing on some of those packages may be changing in the near future, though the details of those changes haven’t yet been revealed.” Good news, but something to keep a close eye on.
Bottom line
There’s an awful lot of information to sift through and a lot of detailed questions that probably won’t be fully answered until nearer August. That said, at first glance, this looks like it will be a very compelling loyalty programme – with good elite benefits, decent earn rates and great transfer options.
What do you make of the announcements so far?
Live Blog
Ladies and gentlemen – it’s time to find out if the new Marriott Rewards / SPG reality matches the rumours! I’ll be updating this post live as details are announced – fingers crossed there’s not anything too terrible to report!
If you would like to watch for yourself, you can find the live feed from New York on the Marriott Rewards Facebook page here.
Ok, Marriott is playing a seemingly endless intro video on Facebook, but it looks like all the details are already on available on the website here!!!
STARTING IN AUGUST, MARRIOTT REWARDS®, THE RITZ-CARLTON REWARDS® AND STARWOOD PREFERRED GUEST®(SPG®) WILL COME TOGETHER AS ONE POWERFUL PROGRAM.
Individual program names will stay the same until 2019, but we’ll consolidate everything else into one set of benefits to give you easier access and more opportunities.
How existing status will map across to the new programme:
For Marriott elites:
This looks good.
For SPG elites:
This looks like mildly bad news for SPG Golds as although the new programme Gold benefits are similar, they aren’t quite as good (2pm late checkout rather than 4pm etc).
One big question is what happens to people who at the moment receive the generous current Marriott Gold benefits as a result of their SPG Gold status (like all the Amex Platinum cardholders), and who may have already booked nonrefundable Marriott bookings after August, in part, because of the free breakfast and lounge access they were due to receive.
Lifetime status:
Starting in August, you’ll be able to qualify instantly for one of our three Lifetime tiers:
Lifetime Silver Elite, Lifetime Gold Elite and Lifetime Platinum Elite.You can qualify for Lifetime status based on your combined Rewards and SPG nights and Elite years. If you achieved Elite status in both SPG and Rewards in one year, you’ll receive credit for two Elite years. You can also qualify via the existing criteria through December 31, 2018. When your current Elite status is higher than your Lifetime status, you’ll receive the higher-status benefits for that year.
And if you’ve previously achieved Lifetime Elite status in Rewards or SPG, you will have that Lifetime Elite status in the new program.
Status Benefits:
Check out the chart here.
SILVER ELITE 10-24 NIGHTS/YEAR
- 10% Points Bonus
- Priority Late Checkout
GOLD ELITE 25-49 NIGHTS/YEAR
- 25% Points Bonus
- 2pm Checkout
- Welcome Gift = Points
- “Enhanced Room” upgrade
PLATINUM ELITE 50-74 NIGHTS/YEAR
- 50% Points Bonus
- 4pm Checkout
- Welcome gift = Points, breakfast, or “amenity”
- Upgrades include select suites
- Lounge access
- “Annual Choice Benefit (5 Suite Night AwardsTM or Gift Option)
*Awarded with 50 qualifying nights”
PLATINUM PREMIER ELITE 75-99 NIGHTS/YEAR:
- 75% bonus
- Additional Choice Benefit (5 Suite Night AwardsTM or Gift Option)
*Awarded with 75 qualifying nights
PLATINUM PREMIER ELITE (100 NIGHTS + $20K QUALIFYING SPEND) 100+ NIGHTS/YEAR:
- Ambassador Service
- “Your 24”
UK Credit Cards
SPG American Express
The ability to earn and redeem at our extraordinary collection of 6,500 hotels across 29 brands, an annual anniversary Free Night Award, and premium Wi-Fi (availability may vary) are just a few of the exciting new opportunities waiting for you in August.
Marriott Rewards Mastercard
The ability to earn and redeem at our extraordinary collection of 6,500 hotels across 29 brands and Silver Elite status are just a few of the exciting new opportunities waiting for you in August.
Points earning:
4x at participating SPG and Marriott Rewards® hotels abroad
2x at participating SPG and Marriott Rewards hotels in the UK
2x for all other purchases abroad
1x on all other UK purchases
Redeeming Points
- Our new unified Award Chart will offer you more than 6,500 hotels across all 29 participating brands — all with no blackout dates. Redeem for overwater bungalows, former palaces and so much more.
- In August, standard redemption rates for hotel Categories 1-7 will go live. Peak, off-peak and Category 8 redemption rates will be introduced in early 2019.
Airline Miles:
- You’ll be able to transfer points to more than 40 airlines, including new options, such as Virgin Australia, Aegean Airlines and Air New Zealand. The new ratio will be 3 points for one mile.
- Plus, starting in August, we’ll add 15,000 points for every 60,000 points you transfer to airline miles, providing you with a total of 25,000 miles in the airline program of your choice.
YES! – Basically, Marriott is keeping the great SPG transfer rates even after August.
Ben over at OMAAT reports that, “Marriott Hotel + Air Packages are also here to stay. However, I’m told that pricing on some of those packages may be changing in the near future, though the details of those changes haven’t yet been revealed.” Good news, but something to keep a close eye on.
So from what I can gather… I was wrong to panic myself into transferring 20K SPG into 25K Alaska yesterday…. ?
I shouldn’t have read Craig’s article lol
At least I still have 11K SPG and 27K Marriott to play around with in the new program…
Unfortunately yes that’s right – no change until August on that score and even then its the same deal basically. However, a nice little stash of Alaska Miles is hardly a bad thing either! 🙂
No you’re right. Thanks to my SPG transfer, some birthday miles and a mileage run on LATAM’s fifth freedom business class 787 route from MAD to FRA (and back hehe) I’ll be sitting on 50K SPG which should be pretty useful right ? And under the new program I’ll still have 25K flexible airline miles available…
BTW not sure if I read this right but is the Marriott/SPG to United transfer rate getting better or worse come August ?
I haven’t spotted anything much about United yet I don’t think – except that it looks like the United/Marriott partnership will be continuing in some form. That would indicate that they might be keeping (or improving) the current enhanced transfer rates to United, on the other hand they’ve also said that they will be looking to ‘simplify’ the travel package options… which is potentially a little ominous got those of us considering a United or Alaska Package, which are both at the upper end of the current options in terms of the number of Miles you receive.
Source being TPG :
https://thepointsguy.com/news/in-depth-look-new-marriott-airline-transfer-partners/
Cheers Hamiltus! – that’s a really good piece actually.
Sorry about that. 😉
But, as I suspected, airline transfers aren’t getting any better and there is still the “threat” of tinkering with the Travel Packages. So, grabbing the sure thing of 25K Alaska miles is hardly a disaster…
They did get better! They’ve now merged the airlines and so you have extra airlines without shuffling points around – and the transfer rate is the favourable SPG one.
Also, transfers from Marriott tended to be quicker than SPG ones (TPG did an analysis on this).
For me it’s great news.. we just have to wait and see what happens with TPs.
Fair point. Although few will be rushing to convert to Aeroflot, Frontier, LATAM, etc.
I would love it if we discovered an amazing Aeroflot sweetspot now!
As far as I can tell the biggest benefit from the program merger would be the ability to transfer to United at a 20K to 25K rate (unlike the current 2:1 rate). For me that means a world of “Excursionist Perk” opportunities hehe 😉
Thanks for the update, Joe. I’m currently SPG Gold which was matched to Marriott Gold but from what I see, Marriott Gold will become Marriott Platinum but SPG Gold Preferred Guest in the new tier will remain as Gold Elite.
Does that mean when the accounts get linked, the highest tier will be awarded? Any thoughts?
Hi Vigs, I’m in the exact same situation, but unfortunately I haven’t seen any info on that yet. Cold hard logic would suggests that we might be out of luck, because our Marriott Gold status is actually dependent on our SPG Gold status, which only matches across to Marriott Gold in the new programme, not Platinum (argh, I can see writing about this might get confusing in future!!). But, there’s clearly a potential issue about whether the current Marriott Gold status benefits (or equivalent) should be maintained until the end of this status year, rather than being dropped in August – particularly if people have already booked stays with Marriott partly because of that status.
I’ll do some digging around this week and see what I can come up with.
Cheers Joe!
Discussed on Flyertalk, and unfortunately the news is disappointing on this one https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/29649237-post5.html
Thanks Joe for your rundown on the changes. I’m just wondering if you got Marriott gold through spg gold off your amex platinum charge card it appears to me you are going to get downgraded benefits. Ie the club lounge access has been dropped off the Marriott gold benefits which is huge. Have I understood this correctly?
Also what if you booked a Marriott hotel from the airline and hotel package after 1 August. Are you still going to be able to go in the club lounge? This is for a September 2018 stay. I have Marriott gold via spg gold.
My pleasure!
Unfortunately yes that’s what it looks like – BUT I don’t think we can assume that 100% just yet. There’s a bit of conflicting info doing the rounds and there’s the very real issue of people who may have already booked (perhaps nonrefundable) Marriott stays post-August in part based on their current Gold benefits. Changing those benefits so drastically mid-year rather than waiting until the end of the status year isn’t going to do a lot to create feelings of warmth and kindness toward the new programme. If I was Marriott, I would try to be generous on all these fringe issues during the transition – the aim is surely to ‘capture’ members.
So, logically the issue looks quite clear cut and is bad news, but Marriott might have a pleasant surprise for us. If I was betting, I’d call it about 80% that Gold will in fact, sadly, mean Gold in August – but there’s a non-trivial chance we might get Platinum until the end of the status year.
Great job, Joe. Much better summary than what HFP managed.
Best news (apart from the airline transfers not being nuked) is that you can still qualify for Platinum via 25 stays at SPG this year (or 50 nights in total across SPG and MR).
I’m still trying to find confirmation of that 25 stay exemption. Where did you see it?
It’s here at https://members.marriott.com/spg/
Starting January 1, 2019, Elite status will be achieved on nights and not on stays. Until then, SPG members can achieve status based on stays at SPG-associated brands only, but can also qualify based on nights at any of the 29 brands.
So it seems you can still qualify for Platinum Elite (not Platinum Premier) based on 25 stays at SPG this year, or 50 nights across either SPG or Marriott.
However, I have no clue what impact that has on LT status going into the new program.
Cheers Pangolin! Sadly, I’m sure there’s more than a couple of typos to be fixed tomorrow though (I have a new respect for the sports and politics live bloggers – not having time to redraft is tough!)…
Note, the status conversion table pictured as a graphic in the article is for Marriott Rewards members.
SPG Gold (& Lifetime Gold) will go to Gold (& Liftetime Gold) in the new programme.
Only Marriott Rewards Gold (& Lifetime Gold) will got to the new Platinum (& Lifetime Platinum).
Therefore the current SPG status elevation will effectively disappear.
Whether they will people who have Marriott Gold now – from a SPG linkage keep it for the a year (or at least the rest of the current year) is a question.
If they revoke it in August – i.e. don’t let you upgrade (at least briefly) I’d imagine a lot of upset people who have booked non-refundable stays at Marriot brands – expecting their free breakfast from their status link would be guaranteed until the end of the year at least.
Thanks David – really important point. In my haste, I didn’t see the SPG status conversion chart until now. I’ll make the article clearer as soon as I get chance tomorrow. The Amex Plat situation is an interesting one, I’ll be doing whatever I can to get clarity on that asap – not least for myself!
It’s still unresolved as to what the status conversion will be on August 1. We can be sure that Amex Plat holders will not get Platinum in 2019 via their SPG Gold status, but there’s still some evidence that they’ll get the Platinum benefits (via MR Gold) until year end (see the link to Frequent Miler posted by Mike G above).
There’s also unresolved questions about what happens to people who got Platinum this year via a status challenge (see the Wiki on the Starwood forum on Flyer Talk).
Are the transfer rates staying the same if transferring Marriot into SPG?
Right now nothing is changing until August. I say this having just transferred 27,000 Marriott points over to SPG this morning.
Well, this is truly bad news. It favors Marriott members over SPG and it’s particularly uncharitable to anyone less than Platinum. Just about the worst thing you can be is SPG Gold. OK, you might get Platinum for one year but after that, if you don’t make 50 nights you won’t requalify. If like me, you currently qualify on stays rather than nights, you won’t even make Gold. Gold is a downgrade. Silver is an insult. I’ve been trying to make Lifetime Gold in SPG but now I have absolutely no chance of making Lifetime Gold and Lifetime Silver isn’t worth having or striving for. I feel like my years of loyalty have just been thrown in my face. I wish I’d known this in January. If I had, I wouldn’t have even started to try and retain my status and build up more nights. I am angry. Other than redeeming points, I have spent my last dollar at a Marriott/Starwood property. I might even just wait until June and transfer the whole lot of points to an airline programme and be rid of Marriott for good. If the only customers Marriott want are high flying executives who can clock up 100 nights a year and don’t have any business rules on what they are allowed to pay for a night then good luck to them. I just hope there’s there’s enough of that type of customer to fill their 6500 hotels. I’ll be going to IHG or Hyatt.
Hi Dumas,
What is it from the SPG Gold benefits that you value the most that’s missing here? The new programme Gold status doesn’t really seem much worse to me, with the exception that 4pm late checkout will now be 2pm (hotels may still be flexible with this in reality of course!).
Upgrade to an ‘enhanced’ room is still there, as is the welcome gift – though that looks like you have to take Points rather than having the option of a free drink.
The status bonus is 25% rather than 50%, but that isn’t the full story. SPG Golds currently earn 3 Starpoints per $1 (so equivalent to 9 Marriott Points), but new programme Golds will earn 12.5 Points per dollar, so on the face of it that’s actually a positive. Obviously it remains to be seen which hotels will be in each Category, but Marriott has said that that they foresee more hotels will be moving down categories than up. Also, the award chart they have published looks like potentially great value compared to what SPG members are used to – the top award prices are ~40% lower (at least until Cat 8 and Peak/Off Peak get introduced next year).
I just literally had a brain wave about the new program…
My French Amex Gold card offers MR point transfers to SPG at a 3:1 ratio (which technically sucks) but with the new program kicking in I could come out with the ratio becoming 1:1 ?!
If I transferred say 51K French MR points to SPG that becomes 17K SPG but then that same 17K pile becomes 51K again in the new program ?
Am I right or way off base with my thinking cos if this is right then that opens up a world of possibilities for my Amex points and their pitiful regular direct transfer rates of 5:4 to all their airline partners…
Correct – but that’s also the case already with transferring from SPG to Marriott.
Not quite. 51K French MR becomes 17K SPG which becomes 51K Marriott points which will only get you 17K airline miles after August.
Well yes – sorry if I was confusing there. You’ve got to take into account the fact that the 3:1 SPG to Marriott is also reflected in the new airline transfers – ie you will need to transfer 60k new Marriott (20k spg) to get 25k airline Miles.