Good morning everyone, happy Friday!  I’m not a huge fan of SPG or Marriott and didn’t give too much thought to choosing a reward package, so I’m far from an expert when it comes to the SPG / Marriott merger.  But I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night…  But I did just combine my old SPG / new Marriott account with my existing Marriott account, so I wanted to show you the steps and share some of the interesting things about the combination process.  First thing first, I signed into my new Marriott account (old SPG account) and it shows that I have 3,495 Marriott Rewards Points, which sounds right, since I did have 1,165 SPG Points in my account.  It also shows 2 “Standard Redemption Rate” awards – I’m not sure what those are, but I think they are related to my 2 SPG award stays booked on July 11.

Under the Profile tab, I can see my old SPG number and my new Marriott number (both blacked out).  I could have clicked the Get Started link to combine my accounts, but I wanted to start from my existing Marriott account instead.

Meanwhile at my existing Marriott account, I had an account balance of 181,241 Marriott Rewards Points.  Before I converted my JPMorgan Chase Ritz Carlton Visa Infinite Credit Card to a Chase Marriott Rewards Premier Credit Card, I had 3 Ritz Carlton room upgrade certificates that I never used, so those are still showing in my account.

Under the Profile tab, I clicked the Get Started link to start the SPG / Marriott account combination process started.

On this screen, I clicked the Get Started button, then entered my old SPG account information, and clicked the Next button.

This screen is really important, but also very confusing.  After combining my accounts, I should have 184,736 Marriott Rewards Points, 38 Lifetime Nights, and 5 Free Night Certificates.  Let’s see how many of those calculations are correct.  I clicked the first Next button, then reviewed the second screen and clicked the Next button again.

Marriott states that your Marriott Rewards Points, Lifetime Nights, Elite Status, and Upcoming Reservations will be instantly combined, but the other items can take up to 72 hours.  After I clicked the Confirm button, my Marriott Rewards Points balance went to 184,736 points, but somehow my 38 Lifetime Nights jumped to 163 Lifetime Nights.  Honestly, I have no idea how many Lifetime Nights I have completed between my SPG and Marriott accounts.  I don’t care about Marriott elite status, so whatever status Marriott gives me, is fine with me.

On my combined Marriott account, my points balance was instantly updated.  There was also a note that the rest of the combination process could take up to 72 hours.

Under the Activity tab, I now have 5 awards.  My 3,495 Marriott Rewards Points from my old SPG / new Marriott account moved over too.

Under the Profile tab, my account showed a Pending status while the combination process was in progress.  After ~48 hours, my account showed a Complete status.

I’m curious what will happen to those 2 mysterious “Standard Rate Redemption” awards.  My guess is they will silently disappear from my account when Marriott IT fixes this bug.  If you have any questions about the combination process, please leave a comment below.  Have a great weekend everyone!