Questions and Answers

Hi Lucky! Huge fan of your site and recently got into the miles and points game. I just completed my spending for the Chase Sapphire Preferred and received the 55K award. I love the bonuses so I’m going to keep that as my primary card. However, my girlfriend and I want to plan a trip to Disney in the next year or two, and we’d like to use points to pay for the hotel, which means that we’d have to stay at the Swan or Dolphin (since we want the perks of staying at a WDW Resort Property).

Originally, I was going to sign up for the starwoods amex to get the 25K starpoints bonus towards this trip. However, since Marriott is taking over, and Marriott is a transfer partner for Chase UR, I was wondering if you thought it makes sense to keep spending on Chase with the expectation that post-merger, we will be able to use Marriott Rewards to book the Swan and Dolphin? I understand that Starpoints are the most valued currency, but it is so hard to accrue points without bonus categories, and I don’t travel enough for business to make acquiring elite status with SPG a goal. Thanks for your help!

MSD, it’s impossible to say what will happen with the merger with any kind of certainty. You can only decide based on the information you have. At this point SPG points offer a valuable hedge currency that you can transfer to airlines at the very least. Why not start building there while still using your sapphire card for its bonus categories for the best of both worlds?

[QUOTE=”Gaurav, post: 10508, member: 79″]MSD, it’s impossible to say what will happen with the merger with any kind of certainty. You can only decide based on the information you have. At this point SPG points offer a valuable hedge currency that you can transfer to airlines at the very least. Why not start building there while still using your sapphire card for its bonus categories for the best of both worlds?[/QUOTE]
I’ve thought about it, but I’m not a huge fan of opening up two cards with an annual fee. I know the SPG is waived the first year, but after that, especially for a card like SPG where it is so hard to accrue points without bonus categories, I’d much rather stay with CSP, consolidate rewards there, and pay 1 fee.

Then it seems like you already have your answer 🙂