How many Marriott & SPG credit cards will you keep?

[GetawaysRus]

I have a "collection" of Chase Marriott and AmEx SPG credit cards. Between my wife and I, we have:

1 Chase Marriott Premier Plus (personal) card - that's the new card
1 Chase Marriott Premier card - that's the older personal card, and I haven't decided whether to keep as is, upgrade, or cancel
2 Chase Marriott Business cards
1 AmEx SPG personal card
2 AmEx SPG Business cards

So that's 7 current accounts. Even if we cancel the Marriott Premier card, we still have 6 remaining.

In the old days:
- the 4 Chase Marriott accounts spun off 4 "free night" e-certificates. But I didn't mind paying the annual fee on these accounts because we were always able to use the certificates and get more than $95 of value for them.
- The SPG points earned on the AmEx cards were so valuable that I simply accepted and paid the annual fees.
- I deducted the annual fees on my business credit cards as a business expense on my tax return. That effectively reduced those fees.

Under the new Marriott program, let's say I were to keep 6 credit card accounts. That means 6 "free night" certificates, each worth a 35K point hotel stay annually.
- But it also means nearly $600 in annual fees - wow!!
- And the new tax law has me confused - will I still be able to deduct the annual fees on my business credit card accounts?
- Finally, the value of the SPG points earned on the AmEx SPG cards will be devalued in August. One SPG point will then convert to 2 Marriott points rather than 3 Marriott points as in the past.

So I'm undecided about what to do. The issues are:
1. Will we be able to use all 6 certificates and get a good value hotel stay for them?
2. The new Marriott program will introduce peak pricing for hotel award redemptions in 2019. What if the hotel we want to redeem at goes to a peak price of 40K points per night for the timeframe we will be staying? That may seriously crimp our ability to use our certificates. Unless I am wrong, I haven't seen any information to suggest that Marriott would allow you to use a certificate and also kick in 5000 more points to redeem for an award when a category 5 hotel is a peak award pricing.

I know that there are others on TUG who play the credit card points and miles game. So I'm curious what others are thinking about doing with their credit card accounts. I get great benefit from our award accounts, but I am very conscious of the fees we are paying.

(I'll add one more tidbit. My wife has a Chase Sapphire Reserve card and we have a number of other Ultimate Rewards points cards. I transfer all Ultimate Rewards points to her Sapphire Reserve. A good chunk of our spending actually goes onto the Ultimate Rewards cards. The Marriott credit cards do get used, but far less often. But, as I said, I've always kept the Marriott cards because the value of the annual hotel night certificate essentially "washed" the annual fee.)

 

[kds4]

I think we will likely keep our current SPG card. I just received an email this morning regarding the new free night benefit for SPG card holders effective 8/1/18. It will be worth a Category 1-5 property (like the new Marriott card) as opposed to the Category 1-4 that the old Marriott card gives.

 

[VacationForever]

I will keep the current SPG AmEx and get rid of the old Marriott Visa Premier card this week. My husband just got his Marriott Visa Premier Plus. We will keep those 2. In 3 months time if they still have the 100K Visa card then I will apply for it.

My SPG AmEx's membership fee has been discounted for me since about 3 years ago when they raised it for everyone else. I did not ask for the discount but I guess I put so much $ on that card that they simply decided not to raise the card membership fee. They sent me a mail "apologizing" for an earlier mail about membership fees increase and that it did not apply to me. I am still paying the old fee.