I will have this same dilemma.

Some thoughts I had on the card(s)

- Personal may offer more protection with certain purchases compared to Business card.

- Business card doesn't show up on my credit report, so I can make very large purchases and not worry about having to pay them off before I receive my statement (so the CRAs don't see my high spending patterns and high utilization patterns).

- I was also going to try to get the AF waived. I may decide to keep whichever card gets the AF waived.

I'm leaning towards keeping the personal card.

Going on almost 1 month after card approval that I still haven't received any points or credit of stays/nights to elite status. Have gone back and forth with Amex and SPG numerous times and they say the problem has been fixed but we'll see. I really need the night credits to hit my platinum (currently at 47 nights).

Here is a list of what's gone wrong:

1- when card was opened, despite my SPG # being in application, they established a new account

2- called to ask about status of points/credit and was told about the error in #1, rep supposedly updated with correct info

3- called Amex again a week later and was told that rep in 2 only noted my account of the error but the field for SPG# was still blank (meaning he didnt update). Got supervisor involved at this point and she followed up with me a day later and left a voicemail saying all has been resolved and points/status credits would post by this Tuesday (12/4).

4- out of the blue I got a secure message online from Amex confirming the facts on 3. replied to them on Thurs 12/6 saying nothing has been fixed yet and really giving them a piece of my mind (now on multiple hours of phone calls trying to sort this out).

5- got an email this morning verifying that everything will post shortly and offered additional 5K points as goodwill.

We'll see if there's actually any resolution. I;m not too concerned about points posting as I know those will make their way eventually. I really need my status nights to post

That's not going to happen until that duplicate account is merged with the one you want to keep. It takes about 5 minutes to fix. If you need help doing so, send me the two account numbers.

Best regards,

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

[email protected]

Will the personal and business card night/stay credit continue to combine.. That's the only reason I'm keeping both...

Guess will have hard choice.

Yea, I guess I'm just trying to see if anyone has more recent experience. Since I've had the card for about two years, I know sometimes they look at time since application.

To my knowledge, Amex has always concerned itself with the length of time since the customer held that card -- that is, time since cancellation -- and not with length of time since application or approval. (The latter is the relevant metric for Citi AA personal cards; in general, it doesn't matter to them whether you still have your old card when you re-apply, unlike with Amex.)

If I use my Starwood Amex to book a prepaid room on spg.com, will I still get the additional bonus points for using the Starwood Amex, or is that only for post-paid rates?

Both pre and post pay booked on spg.com get the bonus, make no difference.

My past experience, as posted in several other threads (with the Amex Gold card) was that they looked at the time since my last app. I currently have 2 open Gold cards having signed up for the second with the 75k bonus points at the end of June - did the spend and points posted within a few days. First Gold card is a couple of years old, so more than a year since my app for that, but never cancelled it and was eligible for bonus points on the new card. Don't know if this will apply to SPG.

What is about the SPG Amex ?
 

Is there sometimes a good SPG Amex offer? I found a card for 25k bonus. Is this a good offer or shall I better wait?

And: Is there no other benefit but the two additional bonus points plus the welcome points?

Is the $30k spend for gold only on business cards now?

And do they actually total all purchases in the calendar year, or like Citi, do they total up the statement totals for the year? Specifically, I'm wondering if it's possible to make a purchase near the very end of 2012 for accounting purposes but have that count towards my 2013 spend.

This is the offer that is usually available and is in good offer because the highest bonus seen in the recent past is 30k at sign-up.

Other card benefits include a certain number of stay and night credits (don't remember how many) as well as gold status with $30k spend.

The gold status is of no value to me because I hold the platinum status. But a certain number of nights sounds great. Do they count for the lifetime status?

No, they do not. Just for annual qualification; if you would be at say 70 or 95 nights per year then the extra five would bump you up.

even if you were at 45 nights....;)