Questions and Answers

I had assumed that we’re all capped at 15 elite night credits across all Marriott/SPG/Ritz co-branded cards. Now I’m wondering. Here’s why:

I have the Marriott Rewards Premier Card, and was offered 10k points a few months back to upgrade to the Premier Plus card. I didn’t, not wanting to give up the ability to earn one night credit per $3k in spend. However, yesterday I got another offer, this time for 50k points if I upgrade. Curiously, the chart in the email shows a comparison between card benefit.

For the old card, it says “15 credit towards Elite membership every year after account anniversary.”

For the new card, it says “Coming in 2019, receive 15 Elite Night Credits each calendar year. [I]Restrictions Apply.[/I]” (emphasis added)

The absence of the restriction disclosure on the old card has me wondering, could there be something on the back end that’s preventing them from taking away the benefit on the old card such that keeping the Premier instead of upgrading to the Premier Plus would allow me to earn 15 credits [I]on top[/I] of those I get from my Amex SPG? I realize the T+Cs seem to say otherwise ([URL]https://creditcards.chase.com/marriott/cardmember/premier_benefits/terms[/URL]), but their eagerness to get me to upgrade is surprising.