Keyser

need a little bit of advice....i have both the spg amex cards as well as the chase marriott card....i don't see any point in holding on to all 3....in any case none of these 3 are my main cards....i'm happy to give up 2 of them....any suggestions on which to give up & which to keep????

ckelly14

Are all 3 personal cards or is one a business card? Elite status?

I wife and I each have a Starwood business card that we'll plan on keeping, and we'll put all our bonused gas, restaurant, wireless, shipping charges on those.

I'm lifetime gold, but I am considering the new Amex luxury for Plat status through non-bonused spending. I travel for leisure only, so elite status is really only doable through spending but I not sure how "worth it" platinum over gold status is.

You may want to keep all three based on how valuable you think the 35,000 point free night award will be. Otherwise, the personal cards for silver or gold status aren't worth keeping IMO.

Keyser

2 are personal cards & one is a business card but i no longer have the need to keep all 3....once the programs merge in august i will be lifetime platinum premier so i'm not looking for the cards to get status....nor am i interested in getting multiple 35k points free nights....i'm just looking to keep one card i can use when i'm staying at spg/marriott properties....

SHLTP

I got rid of Amex business. Upgraded Marriott as it now gives same on property stay points as Amex .

Will keep Amex personal until Aug 1 and will cancel or upgrade to Amex luxury potentially . I too don't like certificates so do not want or need so many cards . Will probably keep Marriott only because visa is far more accepted in areas I travel (don't thank ive ever used Amex in city in which I live unless eating or doing and staycation) .

Amex is losing my loyalty (see above for my cs experiencr will them on devaluation) .

Though I might do Amex hilton, though they don't have enough nice resorts in Asia to offset cost will resort credit

phltraveler

The Double Cash is seriously underrated. With no sign up bonus it's not the best card for churners, but it's a great card for general spend with no-nonsense rewards on general domestic spend (2% on everything) and a great benefits suite (Citi's price protection and Extended warranty benefits are far more generous than most other issuers). Easy PC from another citi card too without changing account number or losing age of credit history on the account.

ESpen36

So now I'm wondering how useful the 35k free night will be to make it worth paying the annual fee to keep these cards. If I have the SPG Personal and SPG Business and the Chase MR (just upgraded to the new Premier), that's 3 free nights per year at the 35k point level. If stacking is allowed (i.e. 3 free nights together on the same reservation), that could be pretty valuable for a longer stay....IF they actually can be used at properties where I would want to stay.

I currently have the Chase MR and I can't find any properties that are in categories 1-4 where I would want to stay. Most major properties are category 6-7 or higher....ugh. That was a waste of the annual fee and the certificate.

zorbachs

ESpen36

Am contemplating keeping the SPG Business for the 4x points on restaurants and gas stations, which is actually an improvement over the current earning rate in these categories (1 SPG / 3 MR). However, does anyone know if "restaurants" will be broadly inclusive?....not just sit-down restaurants, but also Starbucks, Dunkin, Chipotle, basically any merchant that offers on-premises dining and/or takeout? Does anyone know?

ESpen36

Exactly. Part of the skeptic/cynic in me is thinking that this "free night certificate" benefit is pretty much a joke, if it can be used only at undesirable properties/locations that have lots of empty rooms anyway (=costing Marriott very little to provide the benefit). Sort of like those "companion" airfare certificates that have so many blackout dates and restrictions that they are basically worthless.

ckelly14

Never mind....

ckelly14

I guess it doesn't matter in your situation. Personally, I'm getting rid of the personal card...

Keyser

i'm definitely getting rid of the business amex....don't know whether to give up the personal amex or the chase visa....

pinniped

The Marriott free night certs have the same availability rules as any other award room. In other words, I've never had a problem using them.

Over the years, the power of a Cat 5 cert has obviously weakened, but I still find them to be greater value than the cost of the annual fee. 3-4 years ago, I used them mostly in Asia. In the past couple years, I've been using them whenever I have an unavoidable night in an airport hotel. I figure airport hotels are universally bland yet often have high-ish rates ($175-200). So an effective, if boring, way to get value from the certificates.

zorbachs

I'm sure that's why. I'll obviously wait on the new categories to come out, but as of now, the free certificate I received on the Chase Marriot card is basically worthless. The best I can find is using it in a Courtyard, which I guess is a decent value.

bgriff

Spoiler alert, but the entire business model of hotel loyalty programs is that it costs Marriott very little to provide the benefits most of the time That doesn't make a free hotel night any less valuable to you ... it may only cost the hotel $10 if you stay at a low-end hotel where the room would have otherwise gone empty, but they were still going to charge you $150 if you didn't have the points.

The chart that has been published showing new points required in selected cities should give you an idea of what a 35K points room will get you. Obviously it will not get you a free night in central NYC or Paris, that shouldn't be any surprise. But I think most people should be able to find use in a 35K night ... surely at some point during your travels you may have need for an airport hotel room or a stay in a less expensive market somewhere. We'll better be able to judge when the full list of destination cities comes out, but I would note that in the initial sample Marriott didn't really give any examples of what hotels in less expensive markets -- say a Berlin or Chicago -- might cost, and I suspect there will be some decent hotels available for 35K or less in cities like that. The closest analogue was Mexico City, where for example the W costs 35K points per night, which would IMO be a perfectly good use of the credit card free night certificate and would easily justify the annual fee for me.

Not sure how it will work but you may have to book a multi-night stay as separate stays in order to use the certificate on one of the nights; in my experience it is never a problem to stay in the same room throughout your stay with minimal added hassle if you've done this, though it does have the one downside of making it hard to use SNAs.

(The fact that the SPG Amex is one of my oldest cards, making me want to hold onto it for credit score purposes, and the fact that Amex has changed rules on product changes and won't let you convert the SPG Amex to a no-annual-fee card any more, certainly also plays into the decision.)