naumank

I just called the customer service and she told me that the 50K offer was available to my account. I would be getting a new card in 3-5 business days. The account # will stay the same and exp date will change. They will refund my $85 annual fee (this month is my anniversary month) and charge me $95. I waited until now to upgrade because I wanted to make sure I get the 15 elite nights this year. The downside is that I will wait for another year to get a 35K cert because I just received my 25K cert a few days ago. Overall, this is a great offer because of the 50K bonus points. The benefits of the PLUS card are identical to those of the AMEX SPG card which I have. I will decide whether to keep the Chase card next year. Someone was saying that the 35K cert easily outweighs the annual fee. Perhaps I will keep both cards.

sdsearch

If you can make "good enough" use of each cert each year at a hotel where the paid rate including tax* would more than the annual fee, you've come out ahead.

I call these types of cards "net negative annual fee" hotel cards. (These exist for Marriott, Hyatt, IHG, and Hilton, though in Hilton it's only in the case of a high-end card for which getting value is more complicated.)

* You do not pay any taxes on most free night stays. In a few cases, you may pay resort fees which are not taxes, or small flat local taxes which are assessed independent of the hotel rate. (I don't know if these exceptions apply in the Marriott program or not.)

Of course, there are several kinds of people for which these cards don't work as well:

1. People who don't do personal stays in chain hotels (costing at least this much) every year.

2. People who only want to stay in hotels that are excluded by the points cap (35000 points in the Plus case, 25000 points in the non-Plus case). In many areas, these points caps exclude most or all "full-service" hotels, in some other areas they don't. In most areas, these points caps do exclude most "luxury" hotels, of course. (I would think people who mostly stay in big city centers or at resorts might fall into this category, while people who often enough stay in suburbs or smaller towns are less likely to have a problem with these points caps.)

3. People who only want to use one hotel program even when they can make money by staying for "free" at another hotel program.

4. People who don't do the math and just "instinctively" balk at annual fees.

pitflyer

Has anyone upgraded shortly before their legacy 25k cert would have posted and then got a 35k cert on the legacy renewal date? I'm in the bucket that my cert is in December. I'd upgrade now if that cert would be a 35k cert. But so far been holding off if the worst case is that my next cert now comes in November of NEXT year (effectively skipping 11 months).

It seems that people end up with the cert on one annual schedule (staying the same) and the annual fee on a different annual schedule (moving based to when you upgrade) but still not 100% sure.

tomwhom

I just upgraded a little two weeks ago after I got a few 20K and this 50K bonus offer emails and received congratulation email from Chase. I received the new card last week and have made spendings still no bonus points posting. Odd enough this morning I got the same Chase 50K offer again to persuade me to upgrade. So inefficient Chase marketing to say the least!

RMZ2006

After upgrading and receiving my new card, I made a purchase and received 10k bonus points (my original offer). Called Chase and was told it could take 6-8 weeks for the other 40k to post. A few days later my statement closed and included was an adjustment for the extra 40k. So all good for me.

wilma one

Shortly after my anniversary date in Sept., I was trying to decide if I should take the 10k offer or cancel my card and get the Premier Plus card and 75k bonus (w/ $3000 spend). I procrastinated and now I have the 50k offer. Just wondering if there's any advantage to accepting the offer now or waiting a while to see if they increase it.

sdsearch

First of all, I doubt we'll know if the offers after this one are bigger, smaller, or non-existent until this offer is over and gone. So waiting to see if there's a better offer involves a risk of the the offer going down or going away forever.

Second, keep in mind that upgrading doesn't affect your 5/24 count, but closing and applying from scratch does.

wilma one

I didn't suggest waiting until after the offer expired. I have until the end of the year, so there's no risk involved.

I'm well aware of 5/24. It's not an issue for me.

wilma one

Let me clarify my question. When I asked if there was any advantage to accepting the offer now or waiting, I wanted to know how this would affect my anniversary date and cert timing.

naumank

Can someone who received the PLUS card through this offer share how long it took for the card to arrive? Did they send it via regular mail or overnight? I upgraded 5 days ago and still no card, although the agent said that "I would receive the card in 3 -5 business days."

sdsearch

The current offer requires the purchase to be done with the new card after you get it, and yet requires that purchase to be done by Dec 31. So it seems to me the offer is likely to either end or be extended or replaced before the end of the year, as it's pretty impossible to apply, say, on or after Christmas and be sure get the card in time to do a purchase on it by Mon Dec 31. But how long before, I can't guess.

jeanie

I got my new card in about a week and a half. However, it came regular snail mail. The USPS won't deliver on Monday, Nov. 12, because it is observing Veteran's Day. As we get closer to the holidays, delivery by the USPS will probably get slower.

jeanie

Most of my travel is on business, and I am required to use a company credit card for that. But my company allows me to keep my rewards points. It would be much more useful to get 35K per year instead of the certificate for the Premier Plus. However, I understand the accounting reasons why it is better for Marriott to give the certificate. I am sure a significant number of card holders don't redeem the night before it expires. Because it expires, there is a limited outstanding obligation for the certificates as well. Unredeemed reward points can be considered a mid to long term obligation for a company.

So for me, there are a lot of 'ifs' associated with determining whether the card is worth the annual fee or not. If I already have plans to stay in a hotel that qualifies for the certificate, and if I can use a certificate for that date, then it may be worth it. Otherwise, I would use points for the stay.

I appreciate this post from sdsearch because it recognizes that different people have different needs instead of criticizing someone for not spending all rewards points on travel. For me, there needs to be a convenient use of the reward for it to be worth it. If I have to go out of my way to redeem it, then it is best for me to get a different rewards card.

wilma one

Good point, thanks.

pitflyer

I believe the credit card number doesnt actually change on upgrades. So my own expectation was that I could make one purchase on my old card as soon as I upgrade to get the bonus.

While I have no direct experience with Chase in a similar situation with Amex I get all my SPG Luxury benefits even though I am using my old card.. and expect to not receive my Luxury card for a long time due to shortages at Amex (over a month now)