It’s Official: Marriott and SPG Elite Status and Point Transfers & How To

Today was the day that Marriott acquisition of SPG would kick in and become official and they have wasted little time in getting their systems working! In fact, right after midnight, it became possible to match your elite status from one program to the other and you can transfer points back and forth! Read about it below.

Marriott and SPG Elite Status and Point Transfers Are Here

Link: The Marriott and SPG FAQ Page

This has to be the quickest, most seamless process yet for switching between merged programs. With the acquisition only hours old, you can now instantly match your elite status from one of the programs to the other program and have it show up!

How To Match Your Elite Status Between Marriott and SPG Programs

It is so simple to match that you will simply head over to a website and enter the information from both programs and instantly receive the same status in the other program! Here is how they are matching:

How the elite status levels match up

If you have any status in the different programs (SPG, Marriott Rewards, or Ritz-Carlton Rewards) you will be matched to it across the other programs.

To do this match, go here if you have SPG status. Enter your Marriott Rewards information and you will be instantly matched to that same status with Marriott! If you have Marriott Rewards status, go to this page to match it to SPG. This page is for Ritz-Carlton status.

This is great news for all American Express Platinum holders since that card gives primary and authorized users SPG Gold status. Now, you have Marriott Gold status! It is also good news for United Gold, Platinum, 1K members as that status gives you Marriott Gold status and now you can have SPG Gold status! It also works great for SPG Platinum members as they will now receive United Silver status!

It is worth noting that Marriott and SPG elite stays cannot be combined until the programs completely merge which they say should be sometime in 2018.

Marriott and SPG Point Transfers

Transfer points instantly between Marriott and SPG accounts

At the same time, you can transfer points back and forth and back and forth again between programs at a ratio of 1:3 Starpoints to Marriott Rewards. This is, in all fairness, not a bad conversion and I will be covering throughout the day what this means for many different programs.

It is really nice news that you have the ability to transfer back and forth and that the points are not stuck in the program you transfer to. This enables you to take advantage of various perks of each programs like the airline transfers and SPG Moments that SPG offers and the stay packages that Marriott offers that can get you United miles and even the Southwest Companion Pass!

How To Transfer Points Between Marriott and SPG

To initiate a point transfer, go to this SPG page. For Marriott transfers, go to this page. Point transfers are instant (though you may need to sign out and sign in again on the receiving account to see them) so that is great news! Finally, SPG points can transfer to something instantly (it can take days when transferring to airlines). This is really good news if you want to transfer some Marriott points to an airline.

You should note that you can transfer up to your full balance from each account and that points can be transferred in 1,000 point increments. If you transfer 10,000 Starpoints to Marriott Rewards, you will receive 30,000 Marriott Reward points. The same works in the reverse. Also, transfers don’t count as a qualifying activity in the Rewards program, so transferring points won’t keep your points balance from expiring.

Summary

It is hard to believe that this is here already and it is so easy to take advantage of right now! The time could be now to really put these programs merge to great use so stay tuned for posts throughout the day on what you may want to look for and do! I do have to say, good job to both Marriott and SPG as the process is (so far) seamless!

HT: Doctor of Credit