UA-NYC

Long story short - yes it now sucks for everyday spend and nobody is happy and thus nobody is using it for that anymore

goodeats21

Annual fee time for my SPG card. Low spend on this card, so wasn't really expecting much of a retention offer.

I wasn't disappointed....so, card is now cancelled.

Quite the contrast with Chase, who offered a path to keep a Marriott card, with same benefits as Amex, but with a 50,000 point bonus.

swag

Where to find the Amex certs and the timing of when they post is discussed here:
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marr...edit-card.html

It looks like a bunch of people had the certificates show up on Oct 2, and maybe none since. I'm still waiting after a Sep 18 annual fee post, so I'm hoping it's a monthly batch job and it'll show up in the next week.

NNerland

William - I would love your feedback on this....I am going to take to The Points Guy, Doc of Credit, and OneMile at Time too. I already posted on my TUGG Vistana Board. Users be ware.....LUNACY at Amex SPG Card.

I have gone round and round with Amex and their "resolution team" and they are not budging. So I am taking to the message boards instead.

I have had 3 issues in 4 months with earning entitled bonus credits.

In July, before the new terms and conditions took place I made a purchase of SPG points through their website. They were 2 charges of $682.50 for 30,000 points. On my August statement I only got 1x points. I had made this same purchase in February and got 2x, I made the same charge on my wife's card in December and got 2x points. I opened a chat when receiving my statement and the agent agreed she could see that in the past I got the points. She would resolve, and ensure that at the time of 2x going to 6x on the new rewards program that it would be resolved correctly. THREE TIMES I followed up, THREE TIMES investigations opened - finally rejected. Not eligible. I asked, but what about the 4 other times you paid, and this charge was pre-card change of terms Aug 1 or program changes.
They won't budge and I simply asked them to justify as clearly in the past they paid the correct bonus. Hard to believe, they would pay 2 separate times. Again I believe this was due to a change, but the agent assured me all activity Pre July 31 would be paid.

The next 2 are absolute JOKES --
I paid for my "taxes and resort fee" at a Renaissance Paris Hotel with my SPG Amex. They claim the hotel code comes through as not eligible for the 6x. Seriously, a hotel booked on points through Marriott.com isn't programmed correctly when they urn your card. What if I had paid Cash and lost out on many thousands of bonus points.

I prepaid for a WESTIN LAX hotel room through SPG.com. $197, paid through SPG/Marriott Direct. They said, sorry not eligible for 6x. You cannot be serious.

I have my $8000 in VSE Dues coming up and I am leaning heavy towards going to Chase Reserve for these charges. Has anyone had any luck getting extra points. They sent me some terms about Vacation Ownership, not eligible. I will not miss out on what should be 48,000 points to have them say, sorry, not sorry.

I am taking this to our message board, the TUGG SPG/Marriott, Facebook, etc.

Amex better get their stuff straight or I am gone. The Free night is worth $95 so won't close, but certainly won't spend. I have spent so much time on this and rather than reopen investigation I am taking to the message boards. It is about 8,000 total Marriott Points (doesn't even get me a free night and worth so much less now) - but I won't risk losing out on valuable points in the future.

If anyone has earned 6x on SVO charges (loan or dues) please let me know. I would like to keep this chain to this TOPIC --

Starwood Lurker

I would be glad to have our corporate liaison follow up with American Express regarding this, but I don't think taxes and resort charges are eligible, so I may not be able to get any traction for you on that part. To do so, I need your loyalty account information and as many specifics as you can provide on all of the issues cited sent to the email address below.

Best regards,

William R. Sanders
Social Media Specialist
Marriott International

[email protected]

NNerland

SPG, Marriott, and Amex have to realize – by picking and choosing what they are going to pay 6x on with a GIANT asterisk on their disclosures means this……HELLO CHASE RESERVE as they pay 3x with no questions asked. If I have to figure out what I get extra points on with my SPG Amex when I pay my bill I will never use them again. I am not going to risk losing out on bonus categories. How can they pick and choose within the charge what earns 6x......COMPLETE LUNACY



Now if you want to talk about how we get SPG Points – for our stay…fine you have me and fine print me away. But on the card?????



They are saying at Amex – that the charges come through from Vendor and don’t match for 6x. Again, they were booked on the site and through the site.



My issue with the other charge is on PRINCIAPL – Amex paid them out before, why not say you are right, here are points let’s move on and do what is right. I would have used another card.



This is just HORRIBLE PR and I am shouting from the roof tops on this one.

NNerland

Email sent

dtremit

If you read between the lines here, it's pretty clear that Amex is not in the driver's seat with the Marriott relationship:

• 33% devaluation of the new card compared to the previous card for everyday spend
• Marriott codes what's eligible for 6x points and nickel-and-dimes it (just like every other benefit)

And compare the SPG cards with Amex's similarly-tiered Hilton offering. I'm using TPG's valuation of Marriott points at 0.9¢ and Hilton points at 0.6¢ for purposes of comparison; obviously the valuation is different for everyone, but I think that's a reasonable starting point:

• Points:
  • Hilton high-end card: 8.4¢ back on hotel stays, 3.6¢ back on gas, restaurants, and supermarkets, 1.8¢ back on everything else
  • SPG high-end card: 5.4¢ back on hotel stays, 2.7¢ back on restaurants and flights, 0.9¢ back on everything else
  • Hilton $95 card: 7.2¢ back on hotel stays, 3.6¢ back on gas, restaurants, and supermarkets, 1.8¢ back on everything else
  • SPG $95 card: 5.4¢ back on hotel stays, 0.9¢ back on everything else
• Status
  • Hilton high end card: Top tier status at $0
  • SPG: Low-mid tier (25 night) status at $0 and high-mid tier (50 night) at $75k with luxury card;
  • Hilton $95 card: Mid tier status (30 night) for $0 and top tier status for $40k on $95 card
  • SPG $95 card: low-tier (10 night) status at $0 and low-mid tier (25 night) status at $35k in 2019.
• Free nights:
  • Hilton high end card: 1 weekend night at $0 and a second at $60k; valid at all properties except 40 exclusions (and Hamptons in China)
  • SPG high end card: 1 night at $0, up to Cat6 standard (some aspirational properties)
  • Hilton $95 card: 1 weekend night at $15k; valid at all properties except 40 exclusions (and Hamptons in China)
  • SPG $95 card: 1 night at $0, up to Cat5 standard (few aspirational properties)
• Bonus offers:
  • Hilton: currently $750 welcome offer on $95 card and $900 welcome offer on Luxury card
  • SPG: currently $675 welcome offer on both cards
• Misc:
  • Hilton high-end card: $250 statement credit
  • SPG luxury card: $300 statement credit, 15 elite night credit
  • SPG base card: 15 elite night credit

Very few of these comparisons come out in favor of the SPG cards. If Amex were driving these decisions, why would they want to reward Hilton cardholders more than Marriott cardholders? And why, after rewarding SPG cardholders' base spend at a higher level for 15+ years -- and after increasing base spend rewards for Hilton cardholders just last year -- would they choose to cut back?

Based on that -- I have to assume that Marriott, not Amex, is behind the change for the worse. My suspicion is that Amex didn't feel it could afford to lose the portfolio to Chase, and played along to retain customers.

Cledaybuck

My annual fee for my SPG Amex comes due in February, which should also earn me a free night certificate at that time. I would like to use this free night in March. Am I able to book a points reservation for the hotel now and have it converted to the certificate when I receive it in February? Thanks.

sfozrhfco

Cledaybuck

I saw that the terms and conditions say 8-12 weeks. Do you know how long it normally takes? I have seen plenty of places where it says to allow weeks or months and it posts within days for points/bonuses with other rewards programs.

woodje12

My experience with the SPG AMEX was a little better than the official T&C's = 6-7 weeks:
anniversary ~8/10
bill with annual fee was paid ~9/15 (I wonder if you can accelerate this by paying bill immediately instead of waiting for auto-pay in my case?)
free night cert posted ~9/30

damon88

uppereastsider

I did. Didn't know how to react to it

silverforumsurf