Diggity said:

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I use the card that gives me the best return for the spend, which is usually RH or CSR. I only use Amex for travel related spend as the Platinum has crappy points for the most part.

There are certainly some nebulous perks on these cards (Peloton, Oura Ring, Equinox, etc.) but I've found plenty of value in the $300-400 restaurant perks, travel, entertainment, Uber credits, etc.

You're correct that it's not a slam dunk for everyone, but I enjoy the challenge of extracting as much value as possible. I was ready to go down to one card when they both increased their fees, but decided to churn the CSR one more time by signing up my wife.

A good example was the recent $359 Whoop credit. The deal was designed to get members to buy a Whoop band for "free" but have to pay a yearly fee for the service. Reddit folks figured out quickly you could use the credit for apparel as well. Now would I have paid $360 for a bunch of jogging shorts and boxers? no...but getting them for nothing is a nice way to extract value. I would probably value that at $100 rather than $359, but it helps to chip away at that AF.

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YouBet said:

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My plan has taken a hit. I was going to transfer points out from Sapphire Reserve to AA, but I can't do that with AA. Then I was going to just do straight cash back to my bank account. Won't be able to do that in time based on their change to the Cash Back plan tomorrow (see my other post).

I was then going to downgrade to Freedom Unlimited but jeeper says I will lose 33% of value on about 200k points I had prior to the October change so that sucks.

Was then going to upgrade my wife's AMEX Traditional to AMEX Gold which gets better points on dining and groceries than CSR anyway which is bulk of our spend. Travel still gets 3x vs 4x on CSR so not a huge loss. Net gains with AMEX Gold based on how we spend.

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Texag5324 said:

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YouBet said:

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My plan has taken a hit. I was going to transfer points out from Sapphire Reserve to AA, but I can't do that with AA. Then I was going to just do straight cash back to my bank account. Won't be able to do that in time based on their change to the Cash Back plan tomorrow (see my other post).

I was then going to downgrade to Freedom Unlimited but jeeper says I will lose 33% of value on about 200k points I had prior to the October change so that sucks.

Was then going to upgrade my wife's AMEX Traditional to AMEX Gold which gets better points on dining and groceries than CSR anyway which is bulk of our spend. Travel still gets 3x vs 4x on CSR so not a huge loss. Net gains with AMEX Gold based on how we spend.

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You can still transfer Chase points to United or Southwest. If you only want AA flights then you can transfer to British Airways or Iberia Plus, both are alliance partners with AA and you can book AA flights on their websites.

FYI, the best value is transferring to Hyatt. They have the best redemptions for hotels out of all the major hotel brands.

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YouBet said:

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Texag5324 said:

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YouBet said:

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My plan has taken a hit. I was going to transfer points out from Sapphire Reserve to AA, but I can't do that with AA. Then I was going to just do straight cash back to my bank account. Won't be able to do that in time based on their change to the Cash Back plan tomorrow (see my other post).

I was then going to downgrade to Freedom Unlimited but jeeper says I will lose 33% of value on about 200k points I had prior to the October change so that sucks.

Was then going to upgrade my wife's AMEX Traditional to AMEX Gold which gets better points on dining and groceries than CSR anyway which is bulk of our spend. Travel still gets 3x vs 4x on CSR so not a huge loss. Net gains with AMEX Gold based on how we spend.

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You can still transfer Chase points to United or Southwest. If you only want AA flights then you can transfer to British Airways or Iberia Plus, both are alliance partners with AA and you can book AA flights on their websites.

FYI, the best value is transferring to Hyatt. They have the best redemptions for hotels out of all the major hotel brands.

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Yeah, but AA is the best airline for us for where we are going to be. SWA is not a factor for us.

Noted on BA and Iberia.

Aware of the Hyatt deal although it sounds like it's going to lose some of it luster. I might just do that though. Never really stay at Hyatt but they do have some nice brands just like every other big hotel.

Running the math on this though I'm going to lose about $650 if downgrade cards without doing anything with the points, but that's cheaper than paying $1k to re-up.

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Texag5324 said:

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YouBet said:

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Texag5324 said:

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YouBet said:

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My plan has taken a hit. I was going to transfer points out from Sapphire Reserve to AA, but I can't do that with AA. Then I was going to just do straight cash back to my bank account. Won't be able to do that in time based on their change to the Cash Back plan tomorrow (see my other post).

I was then going to downgrade to Freedom Unlimited but jeeper says I will lose 33% of value on about 200k points I had prior to the October change so that sucks.

Was then going to upgrade my wife's AMEX Traditional to AMEX Gold which gets better points on dining and groceries than CSR anyway which is bulk of our spend. Travel still gets 3x vs 4x on CSR so not a huge loss. Net gains with AMEX Gold based on how we spend.

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You can still transfer Chase points to United or Southwest. If you only want AA flights then you can transfer to British Airways or Iberia Plus, both are alliance partners with AA and you can book AA flights on their websites.

FYI, the best value is transferring to Hyatt. They have the best redemptions for hotels out of all the major hotel brands.

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Yeah, but AA is the best airline for us for where we are going to be. SWA is not a factor for us.

Noted on BA and Iberia.

Aware of the Hyatt deal although it sounds like it's going to lose some of it luster. I might just do that though. Never really stay at Hyatt but they do have some nice brands just like every other big hotel.

Running the math on this though I'm going to lose about $650 if downgrade cards without doing anything with the points, but that's cheaper than paying $1k to re-up.

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Yea even with the recent Hyatt devaluation its still way cheaper to book with Hyatt points compared to Hilton or Marriott.

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khkman22 said:

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Has anybody applied for a Chase Ink business credit card without having a side business? Google Gemini said you could do it without a legitimate business and that it is common. Just put $0 for revenue, 0 years in business and a sole proprietorship because they use your personal income as far as the approval goes. It also said they wouldn't cancel the account or any other Chase credit card accounts because they found out there is no actual business. I really don't want to have my other accounts canceled and rewards forfeited because Gemini is wrong. If I can do it without issue, then I'll probably signup for the Ink preferred.

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• UAL Flights - $1000 x 5 MR Points per $ = 5,000 MR Points
• Fine Hotels + Resorts - $1000 x 5 MR points per $ = 5,000 MR Points
• 10,000 MR Points => Schwab @ $.011/point = $110
• $110/$2000 spend = 5.5%