Mark The Date: Marriott’s New Loyalty Program Starts 18 August 2018

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It feels like we’ve been waiting for Marriott to complete the merger of the Marriott Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guest programs for ever but at last the end is in sight. Marriott will have one unified loyalty program from 18 August 2018.

View From The Wing had a discussion with David Flueck, Marriott’s Senior Vice President of Global Loyalty, earlier in the week and we now have a little bit more of an idea what to expect.

1. The new program launches on 18 August 2018
2. As the two programs are merged on the 18^thboth the Marriott and Starwood sites will go offline – it will not be possible to make reservations at this time.
3. Existing SPG loyalty numbers will become obsolete and everyone with a SPG number will be issued with a new 9-digit number.
4. Users logging in to their accounts with an old SPG number will see a prompt showing the new 9-digit number for that account. This is the number that will have to be used to log in.
5. All SPG numbers in existing reservations will be changed to the new 9-digit number automatically and all suite night award requests will change over as well.
6. People who have both Marriott and SPG loyalty accounts (so most of us!) will be required to physically combine their accounts into one. This will not happen automatically and will still need to be done even if the Marriott and SPG accounts have previously been linked.
7. Starpoints will be converted into the new Marriott currency at a ratio of 1:3 on 18 August 2018.
8. Members will be able to use suite night awards at Marriott properties from 18 August 2018.
9. From 18 August the new point earning rates will kick in so anyone checking out on the 18^th(or later) will earn points based on the new earning rates even if they checked-in before the 18^th
10. From 18 August 2018 the new Marriott award chart will come into effect so members will be able to start booking some of the ultra-high-end properties for just 60,000 points/night.
11. People who have an existing reservation which costs fewer points under the new award chart than it did when they first booked will have to call in to Marriott to get a points rebate – rebates will not be automatic.

Thoughts

If you have Marriott/Starwood reservations you need to make I suggest you make them sooner rather than later. The reservations systems will definitely go down on 18 August and no one can predict how many other IT outages there may be in the days after the loyalty programs are merged.

If you already need to call in to Marriott to get something sorted out then to that as soon as you have some spare time. Wait times can already be long when calling in and they’re only going to get longer when people start calling in to get points refunded from reservations that suddenly cost less.

I’m not entirely sure why Marriott can’t simply combine Marriott Rewards and SPG accounts that are already linked and I expect this to cause some people a few issues – it’s easy to forget what a minority we in the miles & points community are so what may be obvious/simple for us often isn’t for others. Be prepared to help out your friends and family.

I know a lot of people are looking forward to be able to book some highly aspirational properties for 60,000/night so, if you’re one of those people, I’d get booking sooner rather than later (if you haven’t already booked) – expect award availability to disappear very quickly.

Bottom Line

Marriott will finally have a combined loyalty program from 18 August but just because the merging of the programs has been pretty smooth going so far don’t expect a flawless transition.

Issues may and probably will arise so plan ahead, be prepared for long hold times if you have to call in and, if whatever you need handling isn’t urgent, wait a few days before calling in so that members with truly urgent matters can have their issues dealt with first.