Plans to Consolidate Marriott Cards?

[ridgebackpilot]

I've got all three Marriott cards, including:

• the Marriott Rewards Premier Plus (obtained in December 2015);
• the Ritz-Carlton Rewards (October 2017); and
• the AMEX SPG Luxury (August 2018)

Now that Marriott has completed its merger with SPG, I wonder if there are any plans to consolidate these three cards? They each offer the same point earning potential: 6 points per dollar spent at Marriott properties.

Given the merger, I don't really need each of these cards anymore. One would probably do fine. However, two of them are issued by Chase (Marriott & Ritz) while the other is an AMEX card (SPG), which could make consolidation more challenging.

Anyone have any intelligence on what might happen here?

[K-in-Boston]

No official word has come from the three parties (Marriott, Amex, Chase) but the original press release stated that Amex would be handling business and super premium cards, while Chase would be handling premium and consumer cards.  Ritz-Carlton is no longer available for applications.  My assumption is that we eventually see the regular Starwood card and the Marriott business cards also disappear for new apps, and at some point down the line the Chase business and Ritz-Carlton cards would move to Amex with the regular Starwood cards moving over to Chase.  That's just speculation, and they could just continue to service existing customers open ended.  I would also anticipate a stripped-down no annual fee (or low annual fee) Marriott card from Chase at some point.

The Ritz-Carlton and SPG Luxury are nearly identical cards.  If you are considering closing the Ritz-Carlton, do keep in mind that it is a Visa Infinite that actually offers true Visa Infinite benefits like the $100 airline discount that the CSR and many other cards do not.  The annual free nights and credits should more than pay for both cards.  Both the Ritz-Carlton and SPG Luxury can be product changed to lower AF cards, as well.

[Anonymous]

Did u compare pros and cons of them? Including benefits etc.

[PointsBonus]

Interesting topic.. following

[redpat]

Close your Marriott premier and move the CL to one of your other chase cards and do the same w/ Ritz if you don’t use the $100 airline rebate.

IMO, nothing more is going to happen that we don’t know already. So there is really no sense in having essentially 3 Marriott cards.  If anything, they would gut their reward program even more down the road.