Reading this thread last night inspired me to call them. I just asked the first guy that answered to transfer me to retentions. Told them that I had an offer for a SPG Amex and it looked like a better deal, but I'd just as soon not change to another card (and switch all my recurring bills setup, etc).

He asked me what the bonus was and basically immediately offfered me another 5,000 miles for no reason. I got him to bring that up to 10,000 free miles and called it a deal. Didn't bother to ask for a fee waiver as I looked and realized I had just paid it a few months ago anyways without really noticing. He was very eager to hand me over miles and was pretty helpful, told me if I called back later in the year they'd probably do it again -- "make sure to keep us in the loop anytime you think about switching, we will take care of you."

I've been charging about 10k a month for close to three years and now and then carry the balance if my reimbursables don't come in time, and he noted the large amount of business I was giving them.

So my recent experience suggests ask for retentions and ask for miles, they seemed to basically just be handing them out. That extra 10k definitely negates the annual fee in my eyes, it's under a penny a mile.