Hey everyone,
So I'm in the midst of re-evaluating my CC portfolio in order to maximize rewards for air travel and hotels. I typically choose to do business with Marriott and Delta, and would like to maximize my rewards with those two companies.

Currently in my wallet for travel cards are:

Amex Delta Reserve
Chase Sapphire Reserve
USBank Flexperks Travel rewards

The Amex and CSR get the bulk of spending, with dining out/hotels on CSR and flights/everyday spending/bills on Delta. I realize there are better cards for groceries/gas and expenditures of that sort, but I figured that charging everyday items would help me meet the MQM bonus spend faster, and it has.

Is the idea of using these cards for most/all of my purchases the right idea? Or is there some better combo I could be using to achieve the goal of accumulating rewards with Delta/Marriott?

I've also thought about applying for the SPG Amex, but I'm concerned as to what the future will hold for that card with the merger. If it's going to go away in 2018-2019, it might not be viable for a long term earning strategy.

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

As far as SkyPesos goes, I don't think you'll do much better, unless you can get the MQM requirement without the card. That opens some doors.

Opening a Freedom Unlimited will get you a little better return on your non-category spending. Even more so if you use the Chase travel portal, will essentially get you 2.25% back after the 1.5x bonus from the CSR.

Nobody knows sure, but the strong likelihood is that the combined program will more closely resemble the Marriott program rather than the Starwood program.

So if you mean SPG Amex + Starwood 1:X:1 transfers into many airlines (but not toward UA), that is very likely to go away, because no other hotel program (including Marriott) has ever had that, and Starwood was likely able to have it because it was one of the smallest "major" hotel programs, while the merged Marriott+Starwood will be one of the biggest hotel programs period. If UA remains a Marriott partner, then UA transfer may improve relatively, but not likely to anything better than Chase UR trasnfers.

So unless you mean SPG Amex for hotel points, it doesn't seem to have a long term future.

See this this thread for more speculation:

Currently SPG card is better for earning at Marriott (cause it gives you 6 Marriott points rather than 5).
Delta points are better earned via Amex MR points transfers, and many Amex cards have bonuses (3x or 5x airfare, etc)