That's not the way I understand that it works, but American Express would be your best resource for knowledge in this area.

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Social Media Specialist
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

[email protected]

I have had the Amex SPG card ever since 1998 and have experienced every increase in the annual fee since then, including the most recent $95 fee (for me posted just this past February).

+1 Philwupdx! My experience is the same. Agility must have somehow gotten lucky!

Wow. Nice tenure. What's your plan w the SPG card? Are you using it for now?

I've had an Amex SPG before the hike. That one just renewed with $95 AF

I an Amex cards into SPG just before the AF hike was announced. That one renewed at $65.

There must have been a glitch period. Maybe it will revert to to 95 next year. Maybe it thinks this months AF is the first AF since I got the card hence the lower price. (I paid $65 last year when I changed to SPG )

7000 points
 

Offered 7000 points or $50 credit.

Notably, they indicated that the annual fee is prorated if cancelled after an initial period.

They also indicated that there is no word on the program or Amex participation with SPG or Marriott after 2018, but that it would continue until at least then to match the current SPG information.

First offered 3k points, agent suggested I speak with an supervisor because he did not have enough power.

Supervisor offered 25k.......... First retention attempt offer on the business card, which is maybe why it was offered so high.

Sign up bonus as a retention offer? ...... lucky!

Sign up bonus was 35k ;)

But of course when I signed up it was only 25k sadly.

Pour yourself a celebratory drink - that's one of the best retention offers I've ever heard of! I value SPG points around 2.2 cents each so that retention offer would be worth about $550 to me!

Yes I was shocked. I've had friends get 25k MR for retention but not SPG pts.

No offer for me!
 

I have had the personal SPG AMX for 14 years. I have never asked for a retention bonus. Called the number on the top of this thread. First guy I talked to was extremely nice. Said he had no ability to make an offer. I asked to speak to a supervisor.

The supervisor said AMX does not make retention offers. He said this card is so valuable they don't have to. He wouldn't budge. :mad:

I'll call back tomorrow.

Anyone have any real recent success?

Third year cardholder and called number on back of card to cancel account, transferred to specialist who offered $50 credit statement or 7,000 spg points. Spent > $30k last year and agent cited this as the main reason for the offer. I mentioned it would be hard to match this with costco going away and that I wasn't crazy about the trajectory of spg with the merger. He assured me the program will be intact until 2018. This is becoming an easier card to close but for 7,000 points I'll keep it one more year.

Retention offer
 

Spend $52K in 2015, less than $1K YTD 2016

Two offers:

1) $25 credit
2) immediate 500pts; another 1K pts if spend $1K in 3 months.

Went with Option #1.

$24K spend in 2015, been w/ AMEX since 2008, no offer. I got an offshore agent, so I don't know if that has anything to do with it.