Leaked(?): New Combined Marriott/SPG Status Tiers

[imaximous]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

---

@Mahraja wrote:

so it is official now folks August 1st 2018 is the day .. details below .. just got the e-mail from SPG ....

http://credit-cards.marriott.com/en-us/starwood-preferred-guest-us/terms-luxury

---

This seems much worse than the business card.  Don't care about Priority Pass Lounges.  The business card earns better and has a much lower fee.  They are going to have to have a huge sign up bonus to get people to get this one. 

---

The business card does have great rewards for a lower fee, but not everyone can get a business card. For the regular folk or the majority, the non-business cards are their only options. For those who can, it seems to be a better product.

[Loquat]

The business card is only better if you spend a lot on restaurants and gas or have a really expensive cell phone bill....other than that it's pretty blah as well.

[Anonymous]

I've been considering the personal SPG for some time now and was waiting to see what the big announcement would be. Once I heard about the 30k bonus offer I decided to pull the trigger on it. I had my wife get one as well. 

Does anyone know if we are able to combine our SPG points or our Marriott points as a couple?

[Anonymous]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

I've been considering the personal SPG for some time now and was waiting to see what the big announcement would be. Once I heard about the 30k bonus offer I decided to pull the trigger on it. I had my wife get one as well. 

Does anyone know if we are able to combine our SPG points or our Marriott points as a couple?

---

I think it costs 10 dollars to transfer Marriott points but you can transfer SPG points for free.  You will earn your 60k SPG points by August so you should be good to transfer for free. 

[simplynoir]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

---

@Anonymous wrote:

I've been considering the personal SPG for some time now and was waiting to see what the big announcement would be. Once I heard about the 30k bonus offer I decided to pull the trigger on it. I had my wife get one as well. 

Does anyone know if we are able to combine our SPG points or our Marriott points as a couple?

---

I think it costs 10 dollars to transfer Marriott points but you can transfer SPG points for free.  You will earn your 60k SPG points by August so you should be good to transfer for free. 

---

I don't know about the fee but there's a 50k limit imposed on point transfers per customer through Marriott so better to transfer the points to one account via SPG points before anything else.

[Anonymous]

Ah okay, that's good to know! Is that 50k limit per transfer or 50k lifetime?

[adelphi_sky]

I think this is a good time to drop the Marriott Rewards card and pick up the Amex Aspire Card. It is a $450 AF but at least you get Diamond status, $250 resort credits, free night, etc. A lot of the reviews say the $450 AF pays for itself. We find ourselves staying at Hilton more often then Marriott. I was considering the Ritz Carlton, but Hilton has cheaper hotels for the same AF. lol 

[simplynoir]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

Ah okay, that's good to know! Is that 50k limit per transfer or 50k lifetime?

---

For your purposes it's better to transfer the SPG points to one account first that way you don't have to deal with that pesky fee and point cap. To answer your question though the transfer limit is per year though I don't know if/will it change with the new merger; I don't recall reading any details about that.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, that makes sense. Thanks for your help!

[K-in-Boston]

The points transfer is one of my big concerns that has not been answered yet.  Since there is no family banking option, I like to move DW's Starpoints and Marriott Rewards points to my account.  For Starpoints, there is currently no limit on how many points you can transfer, but they must be in increments of 1000 and you must have shared the same residential address for at least 30 days.  This is great for buying Starpoints since there's a 30,000 per year limit, but if your spouse or other household member buys 30,000, they can transfer them to you for no charge.  For Marriott, there is a 50,000 point limit on total transfers into and out of an account, with a $10 fee (waived for Gold and Platinum Elite members).  So let's say your spouse had 30,000 Starpoints and you wanted to move them to your account... when those get converted to Marriott points in August 3:1 that would be 90,000 Starpoints, meaning you would have to spread the transfer out over 2 calendar years since the cap is 50,000.  There is, however, some wording in the fine print that says "A limit of 50,000 points per year may be transferred into or out of a member’s account. Members who are transferring points in order to satisfy a specific award may exceed the 50,000 limit up to the amount needed to satisfy the reservation." So it may be possible that once you have booked an award (one great thing about Marriott is that you don't actually have to have the points on hand to book an award stay as long as you have them in your account by the time your stay arrives), you can call Marriott and have them move the points over to satisfy the points requirement of an award booking.