With the imminent merge of SPG/Marriott into a combined loyalty program on August 18, 2018, here are a few suggested things you should do to ensure all your points and night certificates are safe and to get the best value out of some properties.
1. Take a screen shot of your SPG point balances under Starpoints and Awards -> My starpoints activity
2. Take a screen shot of your Marriott point balances under your name, and your
3. Take a screen shot of your Marriott activity, including “Unused Certificates”
4. Take a screen shot of your Ritz-Carlton Rewards.
5. If you have an American Express Cobalt card, and you are used to transferring the Member Rewards to SPG, do it before July 28 when it undergo a devaluation.
Currently you can change at the ratio of MR to SPG at 1:0.5 and then SPG to Marriott at 1:3, giving you MR to Marriott at 1:1.5
Going forward it will be MR to Marriott at 1:1.2.
6. If you are looking at redeeming for a stay soon with MR points, note that you wont be able to transfer between MR to SPG between Jul27 and August 09, so do it quickly.
7. If you have a eye on a property that is going to require more points, lock it in now with the lower points.
8. If you have a property book that is going to require less points, call in and request an adjustment after the merger – This wont happen automatically.
9. Note that the systems will be down on much of the day on August 18 starting at approximately 6am EST, so plan accordingly.
10. Once the systems are up, confirm that your elite status is reflected correctly and your SPG point converted to Marriott, in addition to any Marriott points along with unused Certificates.
This is a quick recap so please add in comments below if I missed anything.
Image courtesy of https://members.marriott.com/redeem/