With Comenity no longer issuing Virgin America cards and VA pointing to the BOA Alaska card, I've been wanting to look up some previous cases of mergers where the companies involved had cobranded cards to see what happened to those cards after, but I'm coming up blank. We don't know what happens to those VA cards going forward, and that has me thinking about my newly beloved SPG card...
Glancing around at a few articles, I can come up with a handful of scenarios:
a.) The cards remain with their current lenders (Amex, Chase).
b.) As Marriott is the parent company, the rights for SPG will go to Chase.
1.) SPG will remain as is with Chase or modified somehow (i.e. change to Visa network)
2.) SPG accounts will be converted to Chase Marriott cards.
c.) Marriott and Ritz-Carlton cards will move to Amex in one of the above two ways. Unlikely, but since losing Costco, Amex could be extremely aggressive in trying for this.
d.) Chase keeps their cards, but Amex converts existing cardmembers to ED or EDP and stops issuing SPG cards.
e.) Credit One comes out of nowhere, buys the Marriott rights, changes their name to American Excess and issues a new Rich-Charlatan card with a $450 AF, 2 free annual nights and $300 travel credit.
As I came very close to closing my 15 year-old Blue card (instead I just reduced the line to $1k), D above is a scenario that makes me reconsider keeping it open. If the SPG were to be become a ED or EDP, I would then just be giving up 15 years of account age to have a card that I could have easily done a PC to from the Blue card.
Anyone have any examples of previous mergers? Obviously everything is pure speculation at this point and likely nothing will happen until after the announcement of the combined rewards program (which is at least 2018 and probably 2019), but again it gives me pause on closing that Blue card just yet.
Either it will stay the way it is or everything will go to chase. I don't see Amex getting everything and I don't see some third party stepping in. Marriott is in current negotiations right now about their credit card deal, so changes could happen sooner rather than later. I think by 2018 we will know what is happening. I'm not optimistic that the spg card will stick around which is sad, since I like starpoints and the card isn't a bad little card to have.
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Before any speculation on the SPG card there has to be some notification from Marriott of what happens to the SPG Starpoints program now that it is technically a subsidiary of Marriott.
Another unlikely but possible scenario is that SPG remains a separate program. The SPG 1:3 Marriott exchange rate and earning points at both brands with each card bridges a lot of issues. The long term weakness of this bridge is that it does not satisfy the cost cutters in Marriott Accounting. Getting this scenario to work relies on the political skills of the SPG program managers to show their loyalty program is bringing in the customers.
So with US Airways, those became the AAdvantage Aviator cards from Barclaycard, while Citi still continues to issue their AAdvantage cards. Initially, the Barclaycard cards were not open to new applicants but that changed last summer. So it's certainly possible that both Amex and Chase could issue Marriott cards.
As much as I would love for the programs to remain as is (but would really like it if award nights at Ritz-Carlton were more available), especially with the flexibility of being able to freely transfer back and forth to get the best bang for the buck, the powers that be did announce that they are working on a single rewards program going forward - and if I had to choose, I'd go with SPG as I think many would even though I stay in current Marriott properties most of the time (big fan of M Club Lounge).
As for the 3rd party, that was really just a joke about Credit One's proclivity for thinly veiled clones - the name, the logo, and sometimes the cards.
Makes sense to collapse all 3 programs and 3 cards into 1 program and 1 card to simplify things, although these negotiations could be too complex to simplify.
Eitherways not likely a change for the good for us customers even if they copy the SPG program across (which would mean Marriott gold losing lounge access), I just hope that they don't look at each program's worst parts and combine those together (We've combined Ritz's room upgrade policies and SPG gold's benefits with Marriott's Plat qualification to better serve our most valued customers
).
All good points, thanks. I didn't even think about the Amex/Citi Hilton, but did remember about the AA Barclaycard/Citi situation. I do wish lounge access with SPG came with the gold status like Marriott.
While I'd like to close my Blue, I think I'm going to hold onto it for insurance. If I get the 3x CLI on my SPG to $48k in July (not positive this will happen even if my Platinum card spending power is certainly beyond that), maybe I'll move the $8k I took back over to the Blue so it's not an eyesore with its neutered $1k limit.
@Anonymous wrote:Just my 2 cents as a frequent flyer/travller with way too many years with credit cards and loyalty programs. There are expamples as noted above with separate programs/credit cards./ I am sure Chase will always keep the Marriott and Ritz cards separate. There is no way the average Marriott credit card holder will pay $450 for a rewards credit card and no way Chase gives up the Ritz card with the revenue it produces.
I cannot imagine that Amex will let this card go as well. They lost too much revenue with the Costco fiasco and their board would not stand by while Amex lost another big revenue generating card.
American Airlines keeping Barclay and Citi as well as Hilton keeping Amex and Citi is a good indication that Marriot/SPG will keep both cards and probably keep separte programs, again just my 2 cents.
Its not up to Amex. Its up to Marriott. I agree that Amex will do what they can to keep SPG. I think the SPG card has real value since i'm sure people spend a decent amount more on the SPG card than they do on most co-brands. Many people just get a co-branded card for the perks and don't spend much on it unless using it with that brand or meeting min spend. Since SPG points are soo valuable to some people they will often use the SPG on non-bonus spend as well. It is likely people are using the SPG card at marriott properties now more than the marriott card (assuming they have both). I'm not so sure Marriott will want to kill that potential revenue stream by handing the keys over to Chase. The flipside is that Chase might try to make a really strong offer to Marriott in order to get exclusivity.