Questions and Answers

For years I had the SPG card and could MS enough spend to earn Gold status. Of course it got converted to the Marriott Bonvoy card, Amex took away my MS ability by no longer giving miles for Simon Mall purchases and gold status is now basically worthless since you don’t even get free breakfast. The free night is nice, but I’ve also had the Chase Marriott card for years and also get free nights with Hilton, IHG and Hyatt. Some years I have trouble using all my free nights. Can anyone think of any reason why I should keep the Amex Bonvoy card?

The first casualty of any mega merger are the loyalty programs. I’m always amazed when people are excited about mergers believing they will get something better after the dust settles, yet I’ve never ever seen that happen. And Marriott is no different. To answer your question, I don’t see a reason for keeping that card, but I’d try to downgrade it to a no fee card if that is a possibility otherwise I’d dump it. I recently downgraded my Chase Marriott card to their no fee Bonvoy Bold just to have access to my remaining miles to top off if necessary and also to keep my credit score age of average accounts intact since my Chase card was ten years old.

I’d probably keep the AX for the offers over the Chase if I was choosing one of the two (assuming you’re not actively MS’ing on the cards and Simon isn’t your only option).

Simon is my primary MS option and I have at least 5 other Amex cards. Frankly I am rarely able to use Amex offers as they just don’t work with places I buy things and as I typically plan trips so far in advance I don’t think I’ve ever been able to use one of the hotel bonuses.

[QUOTE=”MidSouth Skier, post: 66529, member: 184″]Simon is my primary MS option and I have at least 5 other Amex cards. Frankly I am rarely able to use Amex offers as they just don’t work with places I buy things and as I typically plan trips so far in advance I don’t think I’ve ever been able to use one of the hotel bonuses.[/QUOTE]

Sounds like an easy choice then 🙂

[QUOTE=”Gaurav, post: 66535, member: 79″]Sounds like an easy choice then :)[/QUOTE]

I just used my free night from my AmEx Bonvoy(old SPG) and my Marriott Bonvoy cards for two free nights at the Fairfield Inn next to Disneyland. As a Gold Marriott member I also got upgraded but the real selling point was the location and free rooms. Using the free night certificates was definitely a lot cheaper than paying for the rooms and made up for the annual fee.

So I’m keeping both cards for now but if I ended up not being able to use my free nights I would ditch them.

Canceled via chat in under 1 minute, I think. Didn’t even try to keep me as a card member though perhaps it’s because I have several other accounts.

[QUOTE=”MidSouth Skier, post: 66539, member: 184″]Canceled via chat in under 1 minute, I think. Didn’t even try to keep me as a card member though perhaps it’s because I have several other accounts.[/QUOTE]

I’ve never had much effort to retain via chat. It’s good option when you know for sure that you want to cancel.