There's a rumor floating around by Doctor of Credit that AmEx will kill the current sign up bonuses ... as early as tonight.

As upset as I am, bet the owners of pay1040.com are even more upset. SPG Amex plus 8x year taxes (twice per quarter max) was the best points generator ever for many,

>50% devaluation for Rooms?
 

I hope I'm wrong but booking nights might be even worse at 50-75% devaluation? For example, booking Cat 5 hotel costs $12k in charges, but with new Marriott cat 5, it might increase from $12,000 in charges to $17500-$25000 in charges per night.

Category 2 hotel requiring 4000 starpoints... Best case scenario = Marriott Cat 2 / 12500 pts per night, Worst Case Scenario = Marriott Cat 3 / 17500 pts per night.
Category 5 hotel requiring 12000 starpoints... Best case scenario = Marriott Cat 5 / 35000 pts per night, Worst Case Scenario = Marriott Cat 6 / 50000 points per night.

I pushed the PAUSE button on using my SPG AMEX after the Marriott merger was announced due to all the uncertainty. I was worried I had way too many SPG points already so I moved my Everyday Spend to either the Chase Freedom or the AMEX EDP cards. With things a little clearer now on the future of our points, I wonder if I should now try to make a final push to accumulate some more SPG points before the earnings ratio is reduced later this year.

What are other thoughts? Not sure if 1 SPG point is worth more than 1.5 AMEX MR or 1.5 Chase UR points.

Until the introduction of the Amex Blue Business Plus @ 2 MR points per dollar with 50k cap. That is when I changed from SPG Amex.

How much did Marriott pay these bloggers, either in cash or points?

A long time favorite credit card is being axed, and they sideline this in their blogs. So much positive spin everywhere, it's rainbows and unicorns all around.

Depends on how you use your points I suppose. I only use SPG points as my main currency to transfer to airlines but with the 2 pts per $ for everyday spend after August...that 33.33% hit will make the airline transfer a losing situation.

After August it's sadly a no-brainer that only MR/SPG hotel spend will go on the new card with the reduced value proposition. I'm trying to figure out if I want to spend as much as possible UNTIL August on the SPG card or if I am better off with AMEX MR or Chase UR points.

Called to cancel my personal card today and explained it was due to the change in the program; was offered 7000 points for $500 spend in the next month. Will keep it for a bit longer...

I really wish Marriott issue MR AMEX CC in more countries ...

Without knowing how you use your points, kind of hard to answer that.

They are also going to offer a new "upgrade" bonus in August. You may want to wait until then to cancel assuming your AF doesn't hit between now and then. They supposedly will offer both for the lateral transfer and upgrade to premium should you desire that.

Hopefully we will find out what the "upgrade" bonus will be and what the "new" sign up bonuses will be for the AMEX product. Might make sense to cancel and sign up vs upgrade.

Bloggers are saying the Chase product will come with a 100k new signup bonus and likely between 10-50k upgrade bonus. You would think AMEX would need to be in the same ballpark to get any activity at all.

I would like to be wrong, but it's wishful thinking to imagine that American Express will treat the $95 SPG cards as "new" products for bonus purposes. A bonus for upgrading to the $450 card makes sense, but I don't see why there would be any bonus if applying for the $95 personal or business card if you have held the same card(s) recently.

I got my first Amex card in 1970 when I was 18. (My dad was kind enough and trusting enough to co-sign for me.) When Sheraton first introduced their Optima card I switched over and then eventually to the SPG card. But this devaluation is truly bad news and, to me, the worst part of the new Marriott program. I've been online all afternoon checking out potential replacement cards. :(