To answer your questions given what you ACTUALLY did instead of talking about your hypotheticals:
Long term, keeping the old card and getting new ones will HELP. You'll have more available credit, so (assuming you're not going to USE more credit), your (credit used)/(credit available) will be lower, so you'll have a better credit score.
Most credit card issuers won't close your account if you're not using the credit card, but if it sets your mind at ease you can ask Bank of America. However as someone above said, converting it to a better card will allow it to keep the same account age, so that's not going to hurt your or anything.
So everything you're doing is positive or neutral. The only caveat is that mortgage lenders often look at the amount of inquiries on your credit IN ADDITION TO YOUR OVERALL SCORE. So if you're applying for a mortgage in a year or two, more inquiries=bad, even if you've got a higher credit score than you would have.
There are no publicly known metrics on that exactly, and I'm sure each institution is better. So in conclusion, I think you're only helping yourself out here.