Originally Posted by
AJNEDC
I believe you are misunderstanding the impact of the changes:
Currently, if you were to apply for a bold card: You would immediately receive 15 Elite Night credits towards the next level of the program status. If you have 0 nights this immediate endowment will give you silver status. That is what has happened to me each year for the two years that I have had the card. So 15 elite nights = silver status.
With the July change: if you do not have the card, you will still need 15 elite nights to reach silver status.
With the July change: Bold cardholders will be given silver status automatically. In addition to this, they will also be granted 5 elite nights. If I will receive silver status immediately, how is this not the same as the previous endowment of 15 elite nights that would have given me silver if starting from 0 nights? And if I am being granted 5 elite nights in addition to this automatic silver status, how is this not technically 20 elite nights total?
Under the current plan: I need 25 nights to get to gold. When i am given the 15 elite night credit I just need 10 more elite nights to reach gold
Come July: I will be given silver automatically and to get to gold at 25 nights, I will just need 10 more elite nights from silver status.
The only how the July change could be a negative impact is if there is no resetting of accounts to 0 as is done with airline FF programs.
You still dont understand.
First of all - Silver status is USELESS in BonVoy program. But you seem to get hung up on it because it is still an "elite" tier. However what benefits this tier gives you are FAR MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE NAME ITSELF! That is why Chase and BonVoy are playing the trick to FOOL people by cutting the most important benefit then give a phony "benefit" to cover the big negativity.
I can see this age-old marketing trick does work, because you are the live example of how folks get fooled when they dont really understand the program.
MANY BonVoy elites own Bold Card solely for the 15 elite nights versus own the fee-based (also get a 35K anniversary FN) Boundless card. A personal and a business card together can stack to give 30 eligible nights just by owning the CCs. A unique feature of Bonvoy program if you will.
Or, you can shell out $650 AF for the AMEX Brilliant and be an instant Plat + receiving 25 eligible nights. However you will NOT receive the regular Plat annual benefit that ONLY can be earned from achieving 50 nights - you will need to add another 25 eligible nights to reach 50 nights in order to choose the annual benefit after achieving Plat, not a Plat from CC. You can check out what the annual benefits are.
By the same token, you will need to add 50 nights to achieve Titanium status which annual benefits incl a 40K FN cert which is what most Titanium folks choose.
When the 15 elite nights is reduced to 5 elite nights, the Bold card is basically a rubbish card due to the extremely poor earning.
Again, the value of Bold currently solely relies on the 15 elite nights without any cost. Without it, I dont see anybody has any analytical skill / understand how a program works, would still think it is worth owning. Of course it is a big YMMV as demonstrated here.