OP, your signature has so many cards it's hard to see them all. This includes many hotel and travel cards.
In my case, I'm keeping the SPG for a little while longer, because I'm still distributing the points for use, and the points transfer is the most flexible I have. I also seemed to have lucked into the $65 AF rather than what I thought would be $95, so that makes my decision even easier.
The SPG is fine for a central point to transfer to many airline partners, and it will earn 3 Marriott points in a pinch, so as a basic point source that goes everywhere it is still unmatched. True, CSR earns more points, but the transfer partners aren't the same. The CSR advantage is that you can redeem for 1.5c per point, which is pretty decent on a general basis, where you want to get an unrestricted flight or hotel booking.
Any conversion speculation will be interesting, but until late 2017 and perhaps 2018 we won't know what the card conversion might entail. But, that may be worth spending $95 just to play the game for another year.
@jsucool76 wrote:
The SPG card can definitely be worth it if you're staying at SPG hotels. Especially with the Marriott merger. It now earns more marriott points per dollar on general/restaurant spend than the marriott/ritz cards do (since 1spg point = 3 marriot points).
If you're not using it then definitely cancel or PC to a no-af card if you can, but it's definitely a strong contender in the hotel market.
I agree that on the earning side it's a decent card spending 1 dollar = 1spg spoint = 3 Marriott points = roughly 2.2% towards hotel... I would probably consider no af 2% back card to be superior though since I don't spend on this card much and no annual incentive to keep the card like marriot or Hyatt card.
I am not aware of any no AF spg card to product change to... any tips on which no AF Amex card this card can product change to?
@NRB525 wrote:OP, your signature has so many cards it's hard to see them all. This includes many hotel and travel cards.
In my case, I'm keeping the SPG for a little while longer, because I'm still distributing the points for use, and the points transfer is the most flexible I have. I also seemed to have lucked into the $65 AF rather than what I thought would be $95, so that makes my decision even easier.
The SPG is fine for a central point to transfer to many airline partners, and it will earn 3 Marriott points in a pinch, so as a basic point source that goes everywhere it is still unmatched. True, CSR earns more points, but the transfer partners aren't the same. The CSR advantage is that you can redeem for 1.5c per point, which is pretty decent on a general basis, where you want to get an unrestricted flight or hotel booking.
Any conversion speculation will be interesting, but until late 2017 and perhaps 2018 we won't know what the card conversion might entail. But, that may be worth spending $95 just to play the game for another year.
I definitely update my cards in a couple days as there are recent changes. Unsure how I can make them bigger and still fit them all in though.
Yeah if I have 65 annual fee, I will probably keep the card. I understand the great point transfer from spg to various airline but it's only awesome if you transfer in a batch of 20k to get the bonus points. Other than that there's no easy bonus category to spend to earn spg points unlike CSR.
I also thought about card conversion post merger but like you said, it probably won't happen until late 2017 or 2018, which means I will have to pay 190 to get to that point... 
If you could maximize the amex offers it should pay for the AF itself. Also the reason I am holding on to it is that it might be rolled into Chase card in the future which I will be able to PC into FU since there is no chance of me getting it with the 5/24 rule.
