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Just a quick heads-up that the latest Marriott Rewards / Starwood Preferred Guest intrigue should be put to bed later today, with Marriott due to make an official announcement in New York at 16:30 EDT – that’s 21:30 to you and me here in the UK!
You should be able to watch live on Marriott’s Facebook page here.
What should we expect?
Given all the rumours, it’s difficult to say with any precision.
Joe laid out some of the possibilities in detail here and Craig wrote about one the of the rumours that was causing him particular concern – that the ability to transfer SPG Starpoints to airline partners might be removed without warning.
The latest speculation is that people may have got a bit carried away last week, and that the announcements may not be quite as dramatic as some thought. Marriott are giving this a big build up though, so hopefully it should still be interesting.
My view is that the Marriott/Starwood merger has been handled well thus far, so I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. I suspect that if there are any big negative changes, there will also be positives to compensate, and I’m not anticipating anything bad to happen without at least a bit of fair warning. Whether that view is sensible or naive will become clear this evening!
Conclusion
Will you be tuning in tonight? – What are you expecting to hear?
The rumored removal of qualifying “stay” earning, going to qualifying by “nights” only, might be helpful for some and might be unhelpful for others, depending on what works best with one’s travels. We’ll see……..