Originally Posted by
agarc
If I'm flying, I'm banking miles and reaching status...never spending miles for my own flights.
I agree, I use SM for flights for my kids when they are traveling with us. I don't use them for shopping or really anything other than flights because the redemption value is even lower than it is for flights. Since I already have Amex Reserve for MQMs I don't need it for SkyClub access, but I find a lot of value in the SkyClub only because the general gate environment is even worse than the SkyClub environment.
If you don't need the points for your own travel (because you want to retain or increase status) then SkyClub seems like a decent way to reduce your point balance IMHO.