Following the merger of Marriott Rewards and Starwood Hotels & Resorts, travel industry representatives and travelers are wondering, "What will the new unified loyalty program look like?" Two years after the merger, Marriott intends to implement one set of unified benefits for Marriott Rewards, Ritz-Carlton Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guest, which the company hopes will help club members earn points faster than before.
Starting in August, Privilege Club members will be able to consolidate their individual accounts into a single account. Marriott Rewards, Ritz-Carlton Rewards, and Starwood Preferred Guest benefits will remain under the unified benefits system until The new name and concept of the program will not appear in 2019.
David Fluke, Marriott's senior vice president of global loyalty He says the new program will be "richer" for members, allowing them to earn 20 percent more points on spend than they earned under the previous program. The focus, he says, was to combine the strengths of the Marriott Rewards program with the elite benefits of SPG.
"Club members will be able to achieve elite status faster and receive better benefits under the new program," he said.
Following the merger, the company now has more than 1 million rooms worldwide across 30 different brands, making it easier and more likely for loyalty program members to find a hotel where they want to go.
Opinion Julian Kheel, senior editor of The Points Guy, A travel resource dedicated to various loyalty programs has mixed reviews of the company's new unified program.
According to him, the advantage is that some of the most popular and key features of previous programs will be included in the new set. For example, SPG members have traditionally been able to transfer their membership points to partner airlines.
“This feature of the program, which many did not expect to see in the new version, not only remains in the combined program, but has been expanded to even more airlines,” the expert said.
But Kheel cautioned that current SPG members are likely won't be thrilled with their new credit cards.
"SPG cardholders earned one point per dollar on all their purchases. The new program gives them two points per dollar, which sounds better, but the old SPG points are actually worth three times as much as they are under the new program. In fact, the old cards earned their holders three-for-one points, while the new cards will earn two-for-one points. So, while on paper this looks like an increase in the number of points you'll earn with SPG credit cards, in reality, it's actually 33% fewer. I think some members who typically used the SPG card as their primary credit card will be looking for other options once this transition happens in August," the expert added, reports Hhotel Management.
Source: trn-news.ru