Marriott Bonvoy Merges SPG
Marriott merged SPG and Marriott Rewards, likely reducing point value. The unified program has a single points currency and category chart.
On August 18, 2018, Marriott folded Starwood Preferred Guest, Marriott Rewards and the Ritz-Carlton program into a single scheme with one unified points currency and one category chart. Three programs became one overnight — and SPG, the program points geeks actually loved, ceased to exist as a currency.
For members, the merger traded SPG’s quirks — the outsized transfer arrangements and undervalued sweet spots its loyalists had built entire strategies around — for the blended economics of a single mega-program. The category chart unified, the currency unified, and the pockets of outsized value that made SPG worth concentrating spend into began their long fade.
Our take: this is the canonical hotel-points lesson, and it’s why we value Marriott Bonvoy points conservatively today (₹0.55 in our index, trending down). When a beloved program merges into a bigger one, the sweet spots are the first casualty — they exist precisely because someone hasn’t rationalised them yet. If you’re sitting on a currency whose program just announced a merger, book the outsized redemptions now; the unified award chart is never built in your favour.