Marriott & SPG will become a unified loyalty program on August 18th. Marriott is informing people to expect issues from August 15th until August 19th during this transition. I wouldn’t be surprised if issues linger longer than that. The official warning states:
Manage your account and reservations before planned, temporary disruptions starting August 15.
While we work to launch our new combined program on August 18, our booking and loyalty systems, sites and Mobile app will be offline for several hours intermittently between August 15 and August 19.
During this period, you may experience disruptions with:
- Contacting Member Support
- Making a new reservation
- Managing an existing reservation
- Accessing or updating your account
- Using our Mobile app
- Using points
- If you need to manage your account or access upcoming reservations, please do so as soon as possible. Thanks for your patience.
Rest assured: If you have planned stays, your reservations are secure.
Issues To Be Aware Of
- Point transfers of 50,000 or more are not possible until after the merger. This doesn’t actually seem to be true, despite what representatives are telling individuals. It might help to just call back at a later time and get somebody that can make these transfers.
- Elite night credits not posting automatically. This has been an issue for some people for multiple months, but it seems to be worse than normal currently.
Final Thoughts
I’d recommend being patient during this period and only call if you need something done urgently. If something can wait, then it’s worth waiting until after the 18th/19th to see if your issue resolves it self without having to wait hours to get onto Marriott. It might be worth taking some screenshots of any reservations you make during this period and double checking to ensure points/elite stays credit properly after the merger has been completed. Feel free to let us know any other issues you might be experiencing in the comments below.
Hat tip to Frequent Miler
At marriott.com tonight (Thursday evening), “sign in is currently down”.
Called today to book a 7-day Cat 8 package. Inquired if the Tokyo hotel I am interested in will move from Cat 8 to Cat 9 or Cat 7 with the rewards plan merger finalization and the guy immediately went into a HARD pitch to wait to book until after the 18th so I will know the hotel’s category in 2019. Told him no, but he continued to drop the caveat that the certificates might not work with the hotel I am interested in; followed by maybe you should wait until after the 18th.
Made two reservations this morning and the agent said that I would need to call back this evening to attach the two certs that I have to the reservations because of system issues. Spent about 15 minutes on hold to make the reservations. Afterwards I emailed customer care asking to attach certs to reservations. I got a response back in about 90 minutes that my certs were now attached to my reservations.
Maybe I got lucky but I am really impressed with how easy this was and how Marriott’s agents handled everything.
DP: First call, the representative told me they already stop to do the old version travel package until 18th with new charts. HUCA, second agent help me redeem a 270000 points package smoothly. Hurry up if you want to get a old version travel package.
Upgraded my 1-5 7day cert to a 8, after a little waiting on the phone they canceled the cert then gave a Night Partial Package Category 8, code P950
Translates to M. 90k additional points
If reps say they can’t upgrade ask for them to look up that code, 1-5 cert to a 8
I did the same thing yesterday except it was Cat 6 to Cat 8. I got the new cert but instead of 60k additional points they took 70k. I will probably wait to call until after the 19th to fix that.
They canceled my 1-5 cert, 45k points added, then charged me 135k points for the “partial” package upgrade to a 8, weird way but in the end I got what I wanted.
Notes: this was today, 08-15 @ 12pm
Ask for a manager, grab a iced coffee and some smokes, prepare for a long wait…
If I buy SPG points to make it 90k today, do you think I will get the points in time to use it for the 270k air+hotel package? need 20k to make it 90k, wonder if it’s worth it to buy points now, or should i wait until after the merge (by then I might get my spg business cc 100k bonus). Thanks for your input.
This has to be a massive, ugly, stressful,expensive IT project trying to integrate and cutover two huge hotel systems based on a very public, visible published deadline. Odds are the systems are very different and have some rube goldberg pieces layered on making it even more complicated. If they pull it off with this minimal disruption window, more than a few people likely just made their careers.
Sat on hold for over an hour last night trying to get through to buy a vacation package. When I finally got through, the rep had to process it several times because the system kept going down. She kept at it and eventually got it to go through and I received the confirmation last night. Good luck to those trying to get through, I’d plan on a long wait. 🙂
Booked mine last night around 9pm central with no problems. Call lasted a total of 4 minutes 35 seconds. Received confirmation immediately.
I called to transfer to a vacation package and the agent said the system was down. Guess I missed the chance.
Update: HUCA. Another agent transfers the points successfully in her first try.
Currently have both Marriott and SPG (linked) accounts. Received an email yesterday from Marriott stating that due to information not matching, they issued me a new Marriott number (which in the email was actually missing a leading zero) and that all account info and points would be transferred over. Then I got an email saying my SPG account had been unlinked. Called customer service because I couldn’t log in to either Marriott account (old or new), and they said they wouldn’t be able to get me access because no email was associated with the new account and they couldn’t assign one to it until after Sat. The did confirm my points were in my new account and to just hold tight. Take screenshots everyone!