My marriott account I just emptied on an upcoming redemption and I used up my spg points for the most part. I may transfer them out to an airline because I only have like 3k or something so maybe I will send them to my krisflyer account where I have a bunch of miles sitting for an upcoming redemption. I am wondering how these possible changes will impact people in terms of their credit cards. I try to stay at marriotts when I can because I have gold status with them and can get upgrades. Some of these possible changes seems to be making gold almost useless. If this is the case I will probably focus more on hilton stays for a better chance of upgrades.
How it impacts my credit cards is interesting though because I just got the amex business plat to keep spg/marriott gold status since I thought my status may lapse this year. If some of these changes come true then that is a devaluation to the amex plat. I already have an amex hilton card I can keep for gold status with hilton so and I have a CSR for lounge access etc. I have some delta flights coming up but I rarely fly delta and am only doing so because I have redemptions with them therefore the skyclub access won't matter after my delta flights. I'm going to check out the centurion lounges but usually if I am flying international its in F and I have lounge access already. So this change to gold status if true may lead me to cancel my amex plat next year. The CSR I actually use for bonus spend. Rarely am I getting bonuses on my amex plat. I gave up my amex spg card last year (nice card but I had better cards for spend so it wasn't worth the AF) and I got rid of my marriott card which didn't have much value beyond the signup. If these changes to marriot come to pass how will it impact your cards?
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Agreed with the grandfathering. If you book now they should honor it. I booked a ridiculously expensive (for a Cat5) property across the street from a theme park for Memorial Day weekend and that is one of the properties that recently became a Cat6. My Cat1-5 certificate I got through a MegaBonus and the Cat5 points redemption Inused are still being honored.
With the Platinum, that is a very good point. However, Marriott Gold wasn’t pushed by Amex. SPG Gold was, and the proposed changes to Marriott would mirror the SPG Gold, which for those without the business SPG card is certainly inferior to Marriott Gold. Getting real Marriott Gold along with the 3:1 transfers have been the cornerstones of my rewards strategy. I was already planning a PC to CSR very soon, so if the Marriott Gold is watered down and combined with revenue based rewards, I’m highly likely to move my spend from Amex Plat/SPG to the Chase trifecta. Hopefully someone at Amex realizes this may be the case for a lot of people and muscles into the conversation.
With the Platinum, that is a very good point. However, Marriott Gold wasn’t pushed by Amex. SPG Gold was, and the proposed changes to Marriott would mirror the SPG Gold, which for those without the business SPG card is certainly inferior to Marriott Gold. Getting real Marriott Gold along with the 3:1 transfers have been the cornerstones of my rewards strategy. I was already planning a PC to CSR very soon, so if the Marriott Gold is watered down and combined with revenue based rewards, I’m highly likely to move my spend from Amex Plat/SPG to the Chase trifecta. Hopefully someone at Amex realizes this may be the case for a lot of people and muscles into the conversation.
Sitting on 201k SPG points and starting to get a bit worried. 
@SkyCommander wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Also, If you pre booked an award stay for next year and the programs combine this year, will your reservation be grandfathered in?
I uneasily want to say yes. This is going off of when properties announce category changes and people book their points rate before the change goes into effect and you get that category rate.
Agreed. I can't imagine they would cancel awards that are already booked. I mean people may pay for plane tickets etc to get to a location. There aren't a lot of laws that cover this and it would depend on the jurisdiction but I remember in Oregon there was an eclipse and several hotels decided to cancel a bunch of reservations on people and massively jack up the room rate. The attorney general in Oregon was not amused and took action against the properties. I can't believe marriott would want to risk the bad publicity. Just imagine articles about couples having their honeymoons ruined by Marriott or senior citizens on a once in a life time trip having no place to stay etc. The public backlash would be severe and not worth the hassle of properties making a few extra bucks.
@Loquat wrote:Sitting on 201k SPG points and starting to get a bit worried.
I can almost hear your heart pounding from here. ROFL
@Saleen099 since my stays are from vacations and weekend getaways only, I’m only at around 20 or so nights a year. For better or worse, I don’t travel outside of Boston metro for work and DW only does rarely. Ritz-Carlton never got fully integrated into Marriott and I don’t foresee any changes to it happening with the SPG combination.
@Loquat wrote:Sitting on 201k SPG points and starting to get a bit worried.
Same. Sitting on 220k+ points with my sisters' incoming as well and...well it sucks to say the least.