Originally Posted by
mjb59463
I've also thought about applying for the SPG Amex, but I'm concerned as to what the future will hold for that card with the merger. If it's going to go away in 2018-2019, it might not be viable for a long term earning strategy.
Nobody knows sure, but the strong likelihood is that the combined program will more closely resemble the Marriott program rather than the Starwood program.
So if you mean SPG Amex + Starwood 1:X:1
transfers into many airlines (but not toward UA), that is very likely to go away, because no other hotel program (including Marriott) has ever had that, and Starwood was likely able to have it because it was one of the smallest "major" hotel programs, while the merged Marriott+Starwood will be one of the biggest hotel programs period. If UA remains a Marriott partner, then UA transfer may improve relatively, but not likely to anything better than Chase UR trasnfers.
So unless you mean SPG Amex for hotel points, it doesn't seem to have a long term future.
See this this thread for more speculation: