Originally Posted by
Diplomatico
From DoC (caveated as a rumor but with 90% certainty):
Unfortunately it looks like most readers will be ineligible as American Express plans to exclude anybody who has received a sign up or upgrade bonus on any Ritz-Carlton/Marriott credit card in the past 24 months (including Marriott business). You will also be excluded if you currently hold or have recently held the Ritz-Carlton card.
To be expected to upgrade for an extra $400 a year without an upgrade bonus is unacceptable to me. There is no guarantee the extra benefits so far described for the luxury version will be worth it. Consider that for an extra $10 a year Chase gave several improvements to customers who upgraded to MR Premier and offered 10 to 50K upgrade bonuses. If I understand correctly, if you received the Chase upgrade bonus, you are also not eligible for a bonus when outright applying for the new Amex SPG luxury card until 24 months have passsed. Amex must believe plenty of people will take their new card anyway because most aren’t churners.