Last week, when I thought this bonus might be going away sooner, I wrote that I was having a conundrum about whether or not to jump in for this 100,000 points bonus. (100,000 bonus Marriott points when you spend $5,000 in 3 months).
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To be sure, it’s a sweet bonus – and although it does require $5,000 in spend I can always meet that using Plastiq if all else fails.
And it used to be simple:
Get. All. Bonuses.
But it’s not that simple anymore.
We’ve had the Chase 5/24 policy for a while now. But then American Express started with a somewhat random new tool to decline your bonus based on – anything.
And then this little doozy – that Amex may now deny you the bonus on the upcoming SPG Luxury card if you have received the bonus on the Chase product in the past 24 months. And we aren’t even 100% sure how that all works…. does it count bonuses from the personal card only? Personal or Business? My theory is both – because the most logical way for Chase to collect the data is via your SPG/Marriott account history rather than directly from Chase.
For me, since I got the Chase Marriott Business Card at the end of last year, I’m *thinking* I’ll get this card – just because I have two 5/24 slots to fill and REALLY value SPG/Marriott points quite highly – especially right now when from August to December we can book even the most luxurious all-suite hotels (of course, pending availability!) for just 60,000 Marriott points. And if I’m disqualified from the new SPG Luxury Amex bonus, then I already am…
But what if you haven’t had a Marriott card in the past 24 months?
Then I think there is a gamble to be made – if you have a bit of risk tolerance (and a 5/24 slot). Get this card now, don’t meet minimum spend requirements until the 3rd month. Meanwhile, apply for the SPG card when it launches in August and meet that MSR first. Then complete the spend on Chase. Since Chase wouldn’t have this restriction, you should be able to get both.
With the minimum spend met, you’d have 110,000 Marriott points – enough for as few as (almost) 2 nights at the highest end to, in theory, as many as 22 nights at an off-peak Category 1 hotel in 2019. Me? I’d use for the 2 nights in luxury…. or combine them for a 5 night stay which requires only the amount of points for 4 nights (perhaps in Bora Bora or the Maldives). Or save to transfer to a mileage currency that no other transferable points can be moved to, like Asiana.
And of course, we don’t know the future bonuses…. it may drop to 75,000 or 80,000. It may drop and come back to 100,000. We don’t know. All we know is that 100,000 is a solid offer and it’s likely going to decrease right now.
What are you doing about this card offer? Let me know here, on Twitter, or in the private MilesTalk Facebook group.
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New to all of this? My new “introduction to miles and points” book, MilesTalk: Live Your Wildest Travel Dreams Using Miles and Points is available now.
