So you travel so little that you only use the same Catogery 6 hotels and nothing else? If so, why are you even interested in keeping the card at all?

I would think $45 for no free night cert and no 15 elite nights dropped into your account (making you a minimum of Silver, and about 1/3 of your way to Gold) is actually a lot worse deal!

I doubt I'd pay a single penny for holding this card if it didn't come with the free night cert and 15 elite nights head start a year. But of course those two go together: I travel enough that the 1/3 head start to getting Marriott Gold is very valuable, and thus I travel enough that I can always find someplace to use the free night cert, even the cat 1-4 that you get the first year or that you get from the MegaBonus offers. The last one I used for a night when I was arriving late at BUF airport, while on the way to a Niagara vacation, and all the decent airport hotels (not just Marriott, but all brands) were $150++ a night, but several of them were Marriott family cat 3 or cat 4. No brainer! (I actually used it for a cat 3 Fairfield because it got much better reviews on TripAdvisor than the cat 4 Residence.)