Tagging Miles

  • Saverocity
  • Home
  • About
  • Ask Tagging Miles
  • Support Us
  • Store
    • Reselling Tools
  • Guides
    • Beginner’s Guide to Fulfillment By Amazon
      • Start Here
      • Setting up an account
      • Analyzing and adding a product
      • Shipping 101
      • Shipping 201
      • Ungating Product Categories
      • Amazon Seller App
      • Amazon Seller App Part 2
    • Expert’s Guide to Fulfillment By Amazon
      • Dealing with Returns
  • Mile High Reselling Club

Marriott announces deal to buy Starwood Hotels and Resorts

November 16, 2015 By Trevor Leave a Comment





Marriott and SPG

Early this morning, Marriott announced that it would buy Starwood Hotels and Resorts. The deal, which has Marriott paying $12.2B in cash and stock, will create the largest hotel chain in the world.

The Tale of Two Loyalty Programs

This has the potential to be huge for hotel mile and point collectors. Here you have on of the strongest point currencies in Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG). They’re transferable to so many different programs with a 25% bonus when you transfer in increments of 20,000 points, so much to the point that there are SPG points hoarders (heck, I’m one of them, having been sitting on 200k for a while). But SPG points aren’t just valuable for transferring to partners like Alaska Airlines, they’re also super valuable for use at Starwood hotels as Points and Cash rates.

SPG Points and Cash

Pretty huge, if you ask me, much better than anyone else, including Hyatt, which is pretty good, in my opinion.

On the other side you have Marriott Rewards. Last year, I posed the question: Is Marriott the Red Headed Stepchild? Perhaps the most meaningful part of posing that question on Twitter, was this response from Gary Leff:

Big hotel chains don’t need to be rewarding, smaller chains must be more rewarding.

That part scares me, because, Marriott is going to go from a big hotel chain, to the biggest.

But, Marriott Rewards actually does have a strength. Its the Vacation Awards you can get, if you can accrue enough points. This is where you get a 7 night certificate, and transfer a number of points to the mileage program of your choice, see the options below:

Marriott's Hotel + Air Packages, book 7 award nights at a Marriott and get 50,000-132,000 miles!

Marriott’s Hotel + Air Packages, book 7 award nights at a Marriott and get 50,000-132,000 miles!

Wrapping Up

The deal won’t close until mid-2016, so there is still time, if you’ve been hoarding your SPG points, or if you’ve been saving up for the Marriott Rewards Vacation option. I don’t have a crystal ball, but I’d say that those areas where we see the greatest value, e.g. Transferring to a ton of partners with a 25% bonus when you transfer in increments of 20,000 points. I wouldn’t be surprised to see those transfer partners change. The biggest question for me though is, the scale. Both rewards programs are vastly different in their redemption scales. Which one wins?

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email
  • LinkedIn

Filed Under: Hotels Tagged With: Marriott, Marriott Rewards, spg, Starwood

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Stay in touch!

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Search

Subscribe

Subscribe To Our Newsletter

Subscribe To Our Newsletter

Join our mailing list to receive the latest news and updates from our team.

You have Successfully Subscribed!

Topics

  • #Avgeek
  • Airline Programs
  • Ask TaggingMiles
  • Awards
  • Cashback Portals
  • Credit Card Match-ups
  • Credit Cards
  • Destinations
  • Dollars and Sense
  • Editorial
  • Events
  • Frequent Flyer 101
  • Giving Credit to Credit
  • Hotels
  • Manufactured Spending
  • Mileage Run
  • Miles and Points
  • Podcasts
  • Portal Update
  • Random
  • Rental Cars
  • Reselling
  • Saturday
  • Savings & Loan
  • Tagging Miles
  • The Brass Ring
  • Travel
  • Travel Insurance
  • Travel Programs
  • Uncategorized
  • Weekly News Roundup
  • Where Credit is Due

Recent Comments

  • double btc.com on Get Ebates Cashback In-Store
  • john nicholas on Tagging Miles Portal Updates – 10 December 2020
  • daftarnova88.info on Why I’m not a fan of the Amazon Seller App enhancements
  • ion club on Why I’m not a fan of the Amazon Seller App enhancements
  • Rachel on Introducing Tagging Miles Portal Updates!
Note: Opinions expressed here are author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airline, or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities. The owners of this website may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links and advertisements posted on this website. For more information, please see our Legal Notice.

Copyright © 2021 · Tagging Miles

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.
This website uses cookies to personalize content and ads and to analyze traffic. Our ad partners may combine this information with other information you have provided them or that they've collected from your use of their services elsewhere. You consent to our cookies if you continue to use this website.OkNoRead more