As soon as the acquisition of SPG by Marriott was announced, everybody has wanted to know what will happen to the credit cards that Chase & American Express issue. The latest rumor was that there would be a three tiered line up, but that still didn’t give any information regarding the card issuer. Marriott International has now signed a new co-brand credit card agreement with both Chase & American Express.
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Things To Know
Here’s what you need to know:
- This is a multi year extension for both card issuers. This means that both issuers will continue to issue cards when the programs finally merge in 2019.
- Marriott expects to introduce new, co-brand products starting in 2018 with enhanced member benefits – super-premium consumer and small business co-branded products from American Express and mass consumer and premium consumer co-branded products from JPMorgan Chase. A lot to unpack here
- American Express will launch a super premium card. Seems a personal of this will be launched and possibly a new small business card?
- Chase will offer a mass consumer and premium consumer card. They already offer this with the Marriott Premier & Ritz-Carlton card, so unsure if there will be any shake up.
- Additional details will be shared in 2018.
- In the meantime both companies will retain their existing portfolio of accounts and will continue to offer their current products.
Our Vedict
From my point of view, this is probably as the best possible outcome. The more cards being issued the better and it looks like American Express will be launching a new card or two, making it possible to get the sign up bonus due to the dreaded once per lifetime rule. I honestly thought that after American Express announced becoming the sole issuer of Hilton, that they would lose their SPG portfolio to Chase. I’m not super excited for the ‘super-premium’ product offered by American Express, but that might just be because premium has lost all meaning.
I think I’ll hop on to the Business Marriott since I’m over 5/24 with no intention of every being below again.
And as an aside: Can someone tell me what the point is of keeping the SPG card after the first year? I’m not really seeing why I would after using/transferring all those sweet SPG points. But I know I have blind spots, so educate me.
Don’t you have to be under 5/24 to get the Marriott Biz? I know it doesn’t count toward 5/24, but I thought you still had to be under to qualify.
I keep my SPG card because it’s my oldest card and they’ve been willing to waive the fee every year.
I’ve seen data points folks have provided which suggest you can still get the Marriott Biz even if you are 5/24. I’ll see how it goes for me personally. I plan to get the Hyatt (in March) and IHG (soon as they have the increased offering) first anyways.
As for SPG, the points are just so hard to accrue. 2x at SPG and 1x everywhere else. Once the sign up bonus is redeemed, what’s the purpose of keeping it? I say this as someone deeply entrenched in Chase’s ecosystem and used to gathering UR Points very quickly thanks to the Trifecta. So perhaps I’m just spoiled.
No, that isn’t true. 5/24 doesn’t apply to this card at all.
My question is, will Ritz now be 5/24? I’ve been holding out for the 3 nights again, but I will never be under 5/24 again. Any thoughts on 5/24 being in the new deal?
What does everyone do with SPG points? I’ve heard they’re great but I’ve never had any. Are they mainly for international hotels?
I still kicked off myself for redeeming SPG points for Amazon GCs about 10 years ago when I did not realize the true value of those points at least in my case. I now transfer those to airline partners (e.g. AA, ANA, may be Asia Miles next year etc.) for my international travel to Asia.
Took the family and mother in law to Disney!
I transfer them to Marriott and use them for cheap hotels for my employees.
I used mine to stay at the Westin Grand Cayman resort at 16000 pts per night. Room rates often exceed $500 per night so I was happy with that. And stay 4 nights at Starwood properties and the 5th is free!
Super premium are products with $400+ annual fees. Premium have $80-100 annual fees. Mass market has no annual fee (think the new United/Delta basic cards)
I don’t think Amex will be waiving the annual fee the first year when these new products come out like they do with their SPG cards right now.
agree.. According to this announcement Amex’s only personal card is the super premium card… will prob be $400+. The super premium in the combined SPG/Marriott lineup is the Ritz Carlton right now.. $450.
Should I open a Marriott business card with Chase before these new card products come along? Or should I wait? I still like the idea of getting an anniversary certificate. I definitely make use of it.
I’ll do a dedicated post on this, just waiting for some additional information from some sources.
That would be great! I’m under 5/24 (still new to this), so would definitely like some knowledgeable opinions on how to approach the current SPG/Marriott cards, now that we know at least some changes are coming.
Any recommended strategy for someone with no Marriott/SPG cards at all?
I suspect (hope, pray, beg) that the “super premium” card will be an AMEX version of the Ritz card that earns 1 SPG/$
I’m not sure I agree with your definition of premium and super-premium. I expect the Ritz card is considered “super premium”.
Yes, definitely second that. The Ritz-Carlton card while currently in the Chase stable would be in the super premium category. Probably indicates some shuffling of the card decks… with Amex taking over the Ritz-Carlton portfolio..perhaps a Ritz-Carlton Platinum version or a unique Ritz Carlton labelled product along the lines of the current SPG.
The whole SPG Rewards named program will by definition disappear. That has been stated many times.
Well, it’s also been stated that Ritz will disappear too. Ie, there are THREE programs that will merge into one: Marriott, Ritz, and Starwood.
So these cards will be for the new combined program, and at that point there will be no Ritz card, and the super premium card will presumably more or less replace the “position in the landscape” that the Ritz card currently has.
After exhausting most hotel credit card options over the last few years, 2018 is shaping up to be a great year for hotel credit cards!