Chase has confirmed a number of changes to the Ritz-Carlton card and the Marriott business card. These changes will go into affect on August 26th. Let’s dive in.
Ritz-Carlton
- Card will earn at the following rates:
- 6 points per dollar at Marriott properties, including SPGs and Ritz-Carltons (currently 5x)
- 3 points per dollar at restaurants, car rental companies and airline tickets purchased directly from airlines (currently 2x)
- 2 points per dollar on all other purchases (currently 1x)
- Addition of a free night certificate that can be used on properties costing up to 50,000 points per night
- Card will offer automatic gold status (previously you needed to spend $10,000)
- Removal of 10% annual points boost
All other benefits on the card will be staying the same. Getting gold status automatically seems like an upgrade, but under the new program old gold status is really Platinum status so it’s a downgrade.
Chase Marriott Business Card
- Name of the card is being changed to Marriott Premier Plus Business card. Looks like it won’t be a new card launched, the name on the current card will just change instead.
- Card will earn at the following rates:
- 6 points per dollar at Marriott properties, including SPGs and Ritz-Carltons (currently 5x)
- 4 points per dollar at gas stations and restaurants, and for shipping, internet, cable and phone services purchases (new categories)
- 2 points per dollar on all other purchases (currently 1x)
- Free night certificate that can be used on properties costing up to 35,000 points per night (currently it can be used on category 1-5 properties. That maps over to this same value)
- Earn gold status by spending $35,000 in a card member year (previously $50,000)
- Removal of 1 elite night credit for every $3,000 in purchases
- 15 elite night credits every year from 2019 onwards (this can’t be stacked if you have multiple SPG/Marriott cards. Most of these cards will come with this benefit, but if you have say the Marriott business & personal you’ll only receive a total of 15 elite night credits and not 30)
Chase Marriott Personal Card
- Free night certificate that can be used on properties costing up to 25,000 points per night (currently it can be used on category 1-5 properties. This maps over to 10,000 less points in value)
Our Verdict
When Chase talked about exciting changes to the Ritz-Carlton card I was kind of expecting more to be honest. I had hopes there would be a reasonable spend requirement for Platinum status, but that remains at $75,000. The Marriott personal card is getting worse with that free night certificate and I’d suggest most people will struggle to redeem a free night certificate up to 25,000 points. The removal of the elite night credit after $3,000 in spend on the Marriott business card will also hurt some people. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below. I’d also be surprised if the Marriott personal card doesn’t also see the spend $3,000 get an elite night credit removed, but seemingly no announcement yet?
Representative requires an invitation code to match the 3 Free nights offer, anyone know where to retrieve this info or bypass the representative requirement?
15 Elite qualifying nights confirmed for the Ritz card, just FYI.
But also confirmed that you only get 15 nights per year in total, no matter how many cards you have that offer the benefit. Most people already have either a Marriott or SPG card (or both)/
“A maximum of 15 Elite Night credits will be awarded per Marriott Loyalty Program member even if the Marriott Loyalty Program member has more than one Marriott Rewards, Starwood Preferred Guest, or Ritz-Carlton Rewards credit card account or is a member of more than one Marriott Loyalty Program.”
Regarding the new SPG Amex earning rate. I spoke with both the Marriott program rep and the Amex SPG rep. They said if there is enough people complaining about the SPG Amex card earning rate of 2 Marriott pts per dollar, then Marriott might consider changing it to 3 Marriott points per dollar on everyday non-category spend earning rate. Please call the Marriott Loyalty program representative on the 800 line to complain. Hopefully, they will change the earning rate to 3 Marriott pts per dollar, which would be equivalent to the 1 SPG pt per dollar from the previous earning rate
Made a bet back in the spring to get rid of my personal Marriott cards rather than to wait for the changes. Looks like it was the right decision… even though it was hard to believe that the card could get any worse!
I’d just like to point out that the 1 Elite night per $3,000 spend term is still listed on the Internet by Chase!
See: https://creditcards.chase.com/marriott/cardmember/premier_business_benefits/elite_status
In addition, if you use that link, you can find both the same term very much extant for the lower level Marriott Rewards business credit card (whose offering page may have been removed — but you still may be able to downgrade your existing business card to this lesser one should you wish), as well as the Personal Marriott Rewards Premier (not the Premier Plus) credit card — it has the same 1 elite night per $3,000.00 spent term.
This may not mean much, or it may be an argument for this term continuing regardless of what has been said on various blogs by bloggers.
One would think that Chase and/or Marriott would have to inform existing card members of this material change — one I might add, many have written about as a reason for NOT upgrading their personal/business cards, as yet.
Secure message sent to Chase has finally received a reply. Chase Marriott Biz is indeed losing elite night credit per $3,000.00 spent but Chase Premier (personal) Marriott (non-upgraded to Premier Plus) still retains ability — AS OF THIS WRITING — to earn 1 elite night per $3,000.00 spent.
Fortunately for me, I received a $50 retention offer on the personal card before the changes went into effect, but bupkis with respect to the Biz card, whose annual fee was just charged on July 1, 2018.
Guess which card I’m going to ditch!
I believe your understanding about the new category is not correct. Marriott old cat5 (which requires 25k points) is approximately the same as the new cat4 (also requires 25k points). Don’t be confused by the category, what’s important is the number of points. During this transition, Marriott didn’t devalue its points too much for redeeming for hotel stays. Besides, since now we can choose SPG hotels as well, actually the new 25k free night is better than the old cat5 free night!
I had hoped for better, but it still works for me. A free night in a Ritz from time to time is just icing.
The only dealbreakers for me would be changes to the travel credit amount, to the # of allowed guests in Priority Pass, or the free Authorized users.
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Planning to keep my Marriott personal for free night. Several 25k a night hotels in downtown Minneapolis and Chicago. I’m there frequently for a night or two for different concerts since we live in Iowa.
So what do people recommend I’m thinking about getting ritz card is it worth waiting to see a better signup bonus or just sign up right now? I was debating between ritz or spg luxury but I guess ritz comes ahead with $100 visa portal discount and primary CDW. And flexible to use the travel credit instead of going to the hotel like spg.
As I mentioned above, it may be more likely that applications for the Ritz card will totally disappear before any different signup bonus for it ever appears, given that Chase apparently doesn’t have the rights to “market” a high-end card in the new program (only Amex does), and the new program debuts in August.
So it’s better to get the card sooner than later? I also wonder if they will let us keep the old card and grandfathered old customer with old cards like keeping the same benefits?
From what I understand, yes. At least for the near future.
I’d say it’s better to get card sooner rather than risk there being a later, if you definitely want the card are OK with the current signup bonus.
As to “grandfathered”, the card yes, it’s likely to remain alive for some time for those who already have it. But there’s no guarantee on every single benefit (nor is there ever with any card). They just announced a change to benefits (see the article at the top off page), and there’s nothing stopping them from changing the benefits yet again after it’s grandfathered. So while there would likely be no change to the benefits simply BECAUSE OF the grandfathering, there can always be changes to benefits at any time INDEPENDENT OF that.
just curious, is it “confirmed” that only amex will have the right to market luxury cards?