When the Marriott Bonvoy program enveloped Starwood Preferred Guest, they acted like the Borg in Star Trek. Every part of the old program had to be assimilated.
This included consolidation of the co-brand cards, which Chase and AMEX offered. Some of the cards would be run by each bank. It was a confusing time because if you held a card from either bank that was eliminated, you could keep the card, but no one could apply for a new card.
Sharon and I both had the SPG AMEX and when the changeover happened, these cards were changed to Bonvoy AMEX. While I still have this card, Sharon took advantage of a limited-time targeted upgrade offer. AMEX gave her 100,000 Marriott Bonvoy points for upgrading to the new Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant (formerly called the SPG Luxury card.)
In fact, until the new metal Bonvoy Brilliant card was available, AMEX sent us a plastic SPG Luxury card.
I’m trying to forget about Starwood Preferred Guest since Marriott has slowly been removing everything that made the program special, most recently destroying the points + flights redemptions with no notice.
We still have plenty of Marriott Bonvoy credit cards and a decent stash of points so I’m not giving up on the program. I just canceled our Hawaii hotel that I booked with Bonvoy points (since we booked rooms at our Disney timeshare), which gave us even more points. In addition, I still have a 50K certificate from our Bonvoy Brilliant, which was extended until June 2022.
Since we enjoyed our last trip to New York in December, we’re going back. There are plenty of 50K-point redemptions available in Manhattan. I picked a hotel that fit our needs and booked one night with the free night from the Bonvoy Brilliant and the other two nights with points. Since the hotel was charging $300 a night, 50K points isn’t a horrible redemption.
It’s when I got the confirmation that I felt Marriott turning the Bonvoy knife into my side a little deeper.
Marriott Bonvoy hasn’t bothered to change the name of the 50K free night certificate and still calls it the “SPG AXP Lux Card Anniversary FNA up to 50k points.”
How hard would it be to change the name of the free night certificate to Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant?
But knowing what a hard time Marriott has with fixing IT problems, I’d bet this is pretty low on their priority list.
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