Want a New SPG or Marriott Card? Check out the new Rules!

With the merger of Starwood and Marriott, their co-branded card programs are getting an overhaul too.  On the surface, new card options are always good for our community!  However, these new cards come with quite a few rules to follow.

These rules fall into a three buckets:

1. You can’t get X card because you’ve held Y card within the past Z days.
2. You can’t get X card because you’ve opened Y card within the past Z days.
3. You can’t get X card because you’ve received a welcome bonus from Y card within the past Z months.  (Chase 5/24 strikes again!)

It’s getting harder to redeem for great hotels…

Here all the rules:

• You can’t get the new American Express SPG Luxury card if:
  • You’ve had the Ritz Carlton Rewards card in the past 30 days.
  • You’ve acquired the Marriott Rewards Premier Plus, Marriott Rewards Premier, or Marriott Rewards Premier Business in the past 90 days.
  • You’ve received a welcome bonus from the Marriott Rewards Premier Plus, Marriott Rewards Premier, or Marriott Rewards Premier Business in the past 24 months.
• You can’t get the American Express SPG personal card if:
  • You’ve had the Marriott Rewards Premier Plus, Marriott Rewards Premier, Marriott Rewards, or Marriott Rewards Premier Business card in the past 30 days.
• You can’t get the American Express SPG business card if:
  • You’ve had the Marriott Rewards Premier Business or Marriott Rewards Business card in the past 30 days.
  • You’ve acquired the Marriott Rewards Premier Plus or Marriott Rewards Premier in the past 90 days.
  • You’ve received a welcome bonus from the Marriott Rewards Premier Plus or Marriott Rewards Premier in the past 24 months.

• You can’t get the Chase Marriott Rewards Premier Plus card if:
  • You’ve had the SPG personal card in the past 30 days.
  • You’ve acquired the SPG Luxury or SPG Business card in the past 90 days.
  • You’ve received a welcome bonus from the SPG Luxury or SPG Business card in the past 24 months.
• You can’t get the Chase Marriott Rewards Premier Business card if (same exact restrictions as the personal Marriott Rewards Premier Plus card):
  • You’ve had the SPG personal card in the past 30 days.
  • You’ve acquired the SPG Luxury or SPG Business card in the past 90 days.
  • You’ve received a welcome bonus from the SPG Luxury or SPG Business card in the past 24 months.

So which card will you open?

For me, I’ll be hanging onto my current SPG business card, and possibly closing my personal SPG card.  Closing my personal card would open up the opportunity to snag a new Chase Marriott card bonus, but only the business one, as I’m nowhere near under 5/24!

Let us know which card you’ll open in the comments, and check out our credit cards page for more great offers!

Hat tip to the great write ups by Doctor of Credit and u/xkr0p on Reddit for compiling some of this information.