The $85 annual fee for the Marriott Premier Visa Signature Credit Card is a good deal. It's accompanied by a free Category 1-5 night. I usually use it for a hotel night that would otherwise cost around $200. That's enough reason to keep the card. I also use it for all Marriott spending.

For general spending, such as at grocery stores, the SPG American Express card is much better. Although both cards provide one point for every dollar of general spending, SPG points have roughly three times the buying power of MR points.

It remains to be seen what happens as a result of the merger, but, for now, it make sense to me to have both cards. Other people who are in the MR and SPR programs might also benefit from having both.

The card is actually extremely good when you realize that you are not using it to (just) collect MR points. Let's say you are me and you stay 50 nights per year at $200 per night for work. As a platinum, I get 200,000 points, but I am 10 nights short of getting platinum for next year (50 nights stayed plus the 15 for having the card).

If I use the card for everything and 50% of my use is bonus categories, I get the following for spending $30,000:
- platinum status for next year.
- 10 nights and 45,000 points towards lifetime status.
- 49,500 United miles when I convert to a vacation package. At 1.5 cents each, you are looking at $742.50 in rewards.

Obviously, you can get better value out of United miles or only use the Marriott card at 2x categories to make it look better, but the value is obvious.

I've made a similar assessment for myself. I use my MR card for almost all dining and car rentals. These are 2x categories, and I spend about $15k/year in them. The 5 EQNs help me renew status, and those nights plus 30k extra points each year help me reach lifetime status sooner.

I've contemplated starting to throw my car rentals and dining onto the card. Might make that switch later this year after I complete my HHonors Visa spending to hit Diamond. (HH Visa isn't optimal, but the resulting Diamond status for almost 2 years is worthwhile.)

I'm a longtime SPG Amex devotee but it will certainly be interesting to see what happens to the SPG and Marriott cards as we move towards the program merger.

Between Amex losing the Costco relationship, Amex taking a backseat to Visa in the HH program, and this SPG/Marriott merger...it's entirely possible that 2 years from now I'm not carrying an Amex at all. Or just my fee-free HH Amex (that I never use anymore) for the occasional weird Amex-related promo.