How to Link SPG & Marriott Accounts Step-by-Step

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Thanks to Starwood Preferred Guest and Marriott’s merger, SPG members can choose to link their account to either Marriott Rewards or Ritz Carlton Rewards.

Last September when this shift occurred, One Mile at a Time wrote a post about which account to link your SPG account to. It depends on your preferences. The programs will merge eventually so it’s just a temporary decision, but I’m going to assume for the purposes of this post that more of you have chosen/would choose to link to Marriott.

Benefits of Linking Your SPG and Marriott Accounts

• Status angle: Any status you have in either program matches to the other program.
• Point transfer angle: You can transfer points freely between accounts at a 1:3 ratio
  • Transferring SPG points to Marriott points for Hotel + Air packages. You redeem a certain number of Marriott points for seven free nights at a Marriott or Ritz Carlton hotel plus a certain number of miles in the airline program of your choosing.
  • SPG’s transfer rate to United is terrible. Because of a partnership between Marriott and United, you can sweeten the deal by transferring from SPG to Marriott to United at a favorable rate of 18,667 SPG = 25,000 United
  • If you have an upcoming hotel stay that you want to book with points, go to both sites and check your award options. All other things equal, if the Marriott option is less than three times the number of points, you might want to transfer from SPG to Marriott to make the booking. But if the Marriott option is more than three times the number of points, you might want to transfer from Marriott to SPG.

The following steps will outline exactly what to do to link your existing Starwood Preferred Guest Account and Marriott Rewards account. Both accounts must exist first.

• Don’t have a Marriott Rewards account? Start one here.
• Don’t have a Starwood Preferred Guest account? Start one here.

Steps to Linking Your SPG and Marriott Account

STEP 1

Go to members.marriott.com, and click the LINK ACCOUNT box in the top right corner of the screen.

STEP 2

The following screen will give you the option to choose which loyalty program you want to start with.

It doesn’t whether you choose to start as a Marriott Rewards member or SPG member, your accounts will end up linked one way or the other after the process is complete. I chose to start with my SPG account, so I clicked the purple bar.

STEP 3

If you’re not already logged in, the next screen will ask you to. Input username or SPG number and password.

STEP 4

Click LINK TO MARRIOTT REWARDS on the next screen.

STEP 5

Double check your Marriott Rewards number to see if what’s displayed on the following screen matches what’s on record. If it does, click FINISH LINKING.

STEP 6

Your accounts are linked! Any status you have in one program has been matched to the other, and you’re now free to transfer 1 Starpoint to 3 Marriott points or vice versa.

Credit Card Angle

Until at least 2018, we will see the Marriott and SPG credit cards stick around.

You’ll want to get all the cards before 2018 when one or more might be killed off. And if you don’t already have one or haven’t ever had one, you probably want to get at least one SPG card right now, as both the personal and business SPG credit cards from American Express come with 35,000 bonus Starpoints for spending $5,000 and $8,000 respectively in the first six months of card membership. These offers end this coming Wednesday, April 5, 2017. The normal sign up bonus is 25,000 points per card. This is the highest sign up bonus we’ve ever seen on the cards, tied with the same bonus that was offered last year at this time.

The Marriott card offers 107,500 Marriott points after spending $5,000 in the first three months and adding an authorized user. Yes, the Chase 5/24 rule applies to this card. Although it doesn’t apply to the business version of this card.

After meeting minimum spending requirements, you’d have:

• 83,000 SPG and 112,500 Marriott points
• or 120,500 SPG points
• or 361,500 Marriott points (which is plenty for some amazing Hotel + Air packages)

Credit card links have been removed from posts and added to the menu bar at the top of every page of MileValue under the heading Top Travel Credit Cards.

Bottom Line

There’s no reason not to link your SPG account with either the Marriott Rewards or Ritz Carlton Rewards program or vice versa–you might as well to get free benefits and the ability to transfer points between programs. More options = more value.