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New and refreshed Amex SPG/Bonvoy cards - August 2018 & February 2019

Old Jun 28, 2018, 2:47 pm
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: RedSun
Existing and new SPG cards as of August 1 2018

The Marriott Bonvoy American Express Card (Legacy SPG AMEX Card) $95 fee
  • 6X Marriott Bonvoy points on eligible purchases at participating Marriott Bonvoy hotels.
  • 2X Marriott Bonvoy points on all other eligible purchases.
  • 1 Free Night Award every year after your Card account anniversary. Award can be used for one night (redemption level at or under 35,000 Marriott Bonvoy points) at a participating hotel.
  • Complimentary Silver Elite Status, with an opportunity to earn Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite status after making $35,000 in eligible purchases on your Card in a calendar year.
  • 15 Nights Elite Credit (Non Stackable)

Marriott Bonvoy Business American Express Card (Legacy SPG AMEX Business Card) $95 fee ($125 starting from 3/28/2019)
  • 6X Marriott Bonvoy points on eligible purchases at participating Marriott Bonvoy hotels.
  • 4X points at U.S. restaurants, at U.S. gas stations, on wireless telephone services purchased directly from U.S. service providers and on U.S. purchases for shipping
  • 2X Marriott Bonvoy points on all other eligible purchases.
  • 1 Free Night Award every year after your Card account anniversary. Award can be used for one night (redemption level at or under 35,000 Marriott Bonvoy points) at a participating hotel.
  • Additional Free Night after $60K spend
  • Complimentary Silver Elite Status, with an opportunity to earn Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite status after making $35,000 in eligible purchases on your Card in a calendar year.
  • 15 Nights Elite Credit (Non Stackable)
Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant American Express Card (Legacy SPG AMEX luxury card) $450 annual fee
  • 6X Marriott Bonvoy points on eligible purchases at participating Marriott Bonvoy hotels.
  • 3X Marriott Bonvoy points at at U.S. restaurants and on flights booked directly with airlines.
  • 2X Marriott Bonvoy points on all other eligible purchases.
  • $300 MARRIOTT BONVOY STATEMENT CREDIT each year of Card Membership for eligible purchases at participating Marriott Bonvoy hotels
  • 1 Free Night Award every year after your Card account anniversary. Award can be used for one night (redemption level at or under 50,000 Marriott Bonvoy points) at a participating hotel.
  • COMPLIMENTARY GOLD ELITE STATUS with your Card. Earn Marriott Bonvoy Platinum Elite status after making $75,000 in eligible purchases on your Card in a calendar year
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New and refreshed Amex SPG/Bonvoy cards - August 2018 & February 2019

Old Jun 26, 2018, 6:42 am
  #91  
 
Join Date: Apr 2013
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Originally Posted by slickvik
Luxury card to be released August 1, upgrades August 9

Wonder what Amex will offer for upgrades.
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Old Jun 26, 2018, 12:46 pm
  #92  
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Originally Posted by eajusa
Wonder what Amex will offer for upgrades.
I wonder what Amex will offer for new applications. I don't think even that has been announced yet.

Before we know what they offer for new applications, it would be impossible to evaluate any upgrade offer (unless Amex denies a new application bonus upfront but allows you to upgrade an existing card with an upgrade bonus).
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Old Jun 27, 2018, 8:23 am
  #93  
 
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From DoC (caveated as a rumor but with 90% certainty):

"American Express will launch the SPG Luxury card on August 1st, we dont know what the sign up bonus will be (although we have made some educated guesses). 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. Interestingly they wont look at whether youve had an SPG personal/business card."

More here:

https://www.doctorofcredit.com/rumor...t-spg-bonuses/
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Old Jun 27, 2018, 4:23 pm
  #94  
 
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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.

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Old Jun 27, 2018, 5:32 pm
  #95  
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Originally Posted by eajusa
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 arent churners.
I think this is Marriott being cheap and wanting to minimize the number of new points, free nights, whatever, floating around the ecosystem. I mean why would Chase or Amex care if they got a bonus from the other bank? I'm sure there will be a decent number of applicants for the SPG Lux card, but IMO it's pretty weak vs the Hilton Aspire which has the same fee. As a current Chase Ritz cardholder I'm interested to see what changes Chase has planned for that card.
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Old Jun 28, 2018, 2:40 pm
  #96  
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Now that the award chart is out, I'll keep the $95 biz card for the 35k award night.
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Old Jun 28, 2018, 2:42 pm
  #97  
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Originally Posted by Troopers
Now that the award chart is out, I'll keep the $95 biz card for the 35k award night.
With so much discussion swirling around, I've definitely lost the plot. Would you walk me thru this? Where do we know that our free nights will be at the 35K points level? And this is the legacy card?
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Old Jun 28, 2018, 2:43 pm
  #98  
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Originally Posted by SanDiego1K
With so much discussion swirling around, I've definitely lost the plot. Would you walk me thru this? Where do we know that our free nights will be at the 35K points level?
Marriott Rewards Credit Cards

The $95 consumer card and the $95 biz card gets a free award night capped at 35,000. The new $450 luxury cards gets a free night capped at 50,000.
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Old Jun 28, 2018, 8:17 pm
  #99  
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is it 35k and 50k or cat 5 and cat 6?
because cat 7 offpeak is 50k

Last edited by Kagehitokiri; Jun 28, 2018 at 8:24 pm
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Old Jun 29, 2018, 6:29 pm
  #100  
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Originally Posted by Kagehitokiri
is it 35k and 50k or cat 5 and cat 6?
because cat 7 offpeak is 50k
Your question is confusing, because the categories are all getting rearranged in August, it's not clear if you're asking about pre-August categories or post-August categories.

And onpeak and offpeak don't start until 2019 according the chart of post-August categoriesl

And after August, the whole reason the certs are going to be points-based rather than catagory-based is because of those off-peak and on-peak rates (coming up in 2019).

So unless you're booking pre-August, categories don't enter the picture. A given cert moves between categories automatically as 35k or 50k gets ruled in or ruled out by off-peak or on-peak rates. So a 35k cert is good for any hotel that is asking for 35k or less points per night on a particular date, no matter which category that hotel is in.
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Old Jun 30, 2018, 3:09 pm
  #101  
 
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Am I understanding this new free annual award night correctly for SPG personal:

" Each year, after renewal of your Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express, you will receive one Free Night Award from Starwood Preferred Guest. The Free Night Award can be redeemed for a one-night stay inclusive of room rate and applicable taxes at participating SPG and Marriott Rewards hotels with a redemption level at or under 35,000 points. Redemption levels for participating properties will be available on August 1, 2018."

If my AF posted this month, June, then I won't be getting a free award night until next August (2019)?
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Old Jun 30, 2018, 3:23 pm
  #102  
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If you want a hotel than requires more than 35k per night, can you apply the 35k and the deduct the remaining points from your account? Or does it not work that way? Like if I want a room that costs 60k per night, can I use the cert to apply 35k and then pay an additional 25k to get the room?

(Or is the purpose of limiting to at or below 35k to force you to use less desirable properties/timeframes for redemptions?)
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Old Jun 30, 2018, 3:58 pm
  #103  
 
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Originally Posted by GiantCow
Am I understanding this new free annual award night correctly for SPG personal:

" Each year, after renewal of your Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express, you will receive one Free Night Award from Starwood Preferred Guest. The Free Night Award can be redeemed for a one-night stay inclusive of room rate and applicable taxes at participating SPG and Marriott Rewards hotels with a redemption level at or under 35,000 points. Redemption levels for participating properties will be available on August 1, 2018."

If my AF posted this month, June, then I won't be getting a free award night until next August (2019)?
Close. June 2019, after you renew again.
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Old Jun 30, 2018, 4:42 pm
  #104  
 
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Originally Posted by Diplomatico
Close. June 2019, after you renew again.
Oops yeah, I meant June but thanks for confirming.

Sounds like a pretty bad deal for those of use whose card year is in the few months leading up to August.
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Old Jun 30, 2018, 5:05 pm
  #105  
 
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Originally Posted by GiantCow
Oops yeah, I meant June but thanks for confirming.

Sounds like a pretty bad deal for those of use whose card year is in the few months leading up to August.
Your "complaint" is mildly phrased when compared to others I've seen in the discussion over on the Marriott and SPG sub-forums, lol.
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