Early Stumbles for Marriott and Starwood Loyalty Merger

It was a tense week for some members of Marriott and Starwood’s loyalty programs. On August 18, both systems went down for scheduled maintenance to begin the cutover to a new unified system run by Marriott. When everyone got back to work the following Monday, that system was only partially running.

Points hoarders (and anyone who happened to want to make an award reservation)  panicked. Many didn’t see the points that they had spent years accumulating reported correctly, or their elite status in the right tier. More than a few wires were apparently crossed.

Marriott’s defense, of course, is that merging over 70 million accounts and tens of thousands of hotels onto one platform isn’t a walk in the park. And by the end of the week, it had most systems online and reporting correctly.

Lessons learned? It’s never easy merging two loyalty program bodies together, regardless of how much prep time you put in. And if your account status doesn’t report properly on your first attempt logging in, have a beer and come back tomorrow.

— Grant Martin, Business of Loyalty Editor

Skift Stories and More Expert Insight

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American Airlines Is Trailing Its Rivals on Key Measures: American Airlines CEO Doug Parker probably needs to start sharpening his wine-selection skills.

Air France-KLM’s Incoming CEO Will Face a Litany of Union Demands: Air France-KLM Group’s French unions are drawing up a list of demands to present to incoming CEO Ben Smith, as they continue to bristle over the appointment of a foreign boss and the 300 percent salary hike that lured him.

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Skift Business of Loyalty Editor Grant Martin [[email protected]] curates the Skift Business of Loyalty newsletter. Skift emails the newsletter every Monday.

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