waylook

I have been a SPG Plat for the past 3 years. The merger now provides the opportunity to achieving that status by spending $75k on the Ritz Carlton card.

All of my travels are leisure trips. I have qualified for this year. However, we are going to have a baby mid-Feb and I am pretty sure that we will have a hard time qualifying next year. What I am wondering is if it is worth forgoing the 50K SPG points that I could earn instead if I just put the spend on my SPG card. Any thoughts?

dannybhoy

Making status through CC spend is a kick in the baws for those of us not resident in the US.

Either the hotel groups expand such avenues to us furriners/non-US residents or they close such "loopholes".

Visconti

The opportunity cost of the $50K you'd allocate to the JPM Ritz would be the equivalent of an approximately 1.3% (2% cashback - 0.7% MR) cash you would have lost. Please note that I'm just attributing generally accepted cpp value and not the dynamic value to MR/SPG points which may potentially be considerably more.

So, if you value SPG/MR Plat at $750 or above, then do it. If not, then (obviously) allocate it elsewhere, SPG in this case. In my view, it's clearly worth it if you plan to stay at SPG/MR for at least 10+ days next year.

Visconti

It's especially egregious considering that many can merely MS it with little difficulty in most States.

mahasamatman

There no way they're going to forego all that additional revenue they get from the credit card companies.

Visconti

At the very least, Chase should make an effort to find an efficient method to enforce their T&C by disallowing "cash" like transactions being counted towards the $75K.

mahasamatman

You have to be realistic. As long as they get their percentage, they couldn't care less about the actual transaction.

Need

Don't forget that if you spend $75K Ritz, you get 75K points on MR/Ritz. But if you spend $75K on SPG Amex, you get close to a quarter mil points on MR/Ritz...

I am actually thinking about dropping the Ritz card...by the time my Plat status expires, the 2 programs may have already merged and it would be a whole new game...

Visconti

All things equal, SPG Points are likely worth around 2.5 cpp (with MR's 3:1), in my estimation. However, the OP needs to account for the $95, since a 2% cashback card would be free.

However, I agree. With SPG Gold ---> MR Gold, there's ZERO reason to spend the $10K on JPM Ritz, unless one were to stay at Ritz properties.

Need

I was perfectly okay spending $75K (more like 100K a year) on the Ritz card until this last week.. now I feel like I am throwing away 200K MR points.. LOL.

Worst thing is that I just cancelled my Amex SPG card because I only use it at Costco and Costco stopped taking Amex. Now if I want it back I have to re-apply. Hmmm....

Visconti

Yeah, I don't think you should do that this year!

waylook

Thanks Visconti. I am going to do it. SPG Plat has been one of the greater pleasures of my traveling life. It will set me up til early 2019 if I do it next year.

My expectation is that the next program will not allow the opportunity so easily. It will probably be 75 nights for a status that gives suite upgrades and definitely not for only $75K spend. But it would be awesome. Probably too awesome.

joeags

Marriott for the past many years has given the opportunity to buy back status to your previous level. They have also given a soft landing to gold if you don't requalify for platinum. I believe it was 40-50k of Marriott points. That would only be ~15 of the 75k if you put it to the SPG card instead. Of course, it would be a gamble with the arrival of a new program.

TommyC80

I wouldn't drop the Ritz card until the merger is done. Chase has a history of keeping previous benefits in place with their program partners, and the 'new' version of the Ritz card...if one even exists in the future, may not be as appealing as the one currently in your wallet.

As MR merges three different programs, I could really see RCR getting sunset along with SPG and being merged into a singular program. If that happened, what would be the purpose of having a "Ritz Carlton" credit card anymore? Of course the "new" MR program have a similar high end, $450 card, to fill the gap left by no longer having an RCR card...but the benefits might be different.

Look no further than the Presidental Plus --> United Club card after the CO/UA merger.

No one can read the future, but I would keep the card open just to have the option to change in the future. If you let it go and they stop offering it, you can't go back.