Originally Posted by
Kacee
That's not necessarily true. The RC premium card requires $75K spend for Plat. It offers other benefits (club upgrades, travel credits, etc.) to justify its premium fee.
I can't imagine many people achieved Plat by $75k in general spend on the RC card. That would be the most costly possible way I can think of to hit Plat. If people spent a lot on that card, it's because they were actually staying in Marriotts to begin with and therefore were going to hit status either way.
Anyway, the bar has been set. A new super-premium card with a Marriott brand on it is going to look pretty weak if it merely confers Gold status. HH Diamond is out there for the taking, and let's be honest: as much as we bag on Diamond, it's no worse than Marriott Platinum. Marriott at least has one card up its sleeve for real road warriors: it can keep the higher levels of SPG Plat intact in some way.
I honestly *hope* I'm wrong and the super-premium offering includes a certain number of confirmed suite upgrades instead. I'd rather be mere Gold but know I had, say, 3 confirmed upgrades per year at any Marriott/SPG brand that had meaningful upgrades to give. I just don't sense that's coming, as it'd be a whole new award mechanic to introduce to the Marriott system. They'll do what's easy, and that's give people the base Plat level.
All super-premium cards have travel credits. That's a basic, expected benefit of this card. $200-250 rebate on airlines, waive my Global Entry fee, etc. Net cost to me needs to be $200 or less before hotel benefits are factored in or the whole product is dead on arrival.
Originally Posted by
FlyingFrZ
As someone with an Amex SPG card and the Chase Ritz Card, I wonder how this is going to play out.
My guess is that SPG Amex stays essentially the same. That'll be the "midlevel" (default) product. No idea on the RC card. Option to convert it straight to the premium product when they roll it out? I can see some members not wanting the card if it doesn't retain its Ritz-specific benefits. It'll be interesting to see how/if the combined company decides to keep the luxury brands "different" from the rest of the brand stack.