lkar

Well, I misspoke. It's not required that you actually spend on groceries. It's only required that you spend in the grocery store. So, for example, if you could, just for the sake of argument, find something in a grocery store that you could use to pay your mortgage, or your taxes, etc. . . . .

TheDapperDon

I concur...

Happy

An FTer friend in SoCal spent close to 50K in grocery store since Feb when a particular prepaid card has gone 0 fee and some Vons allow purchase paid by CC. That is just barely over a month since this spending spree started.

And yes, a few Ks out of the 50K went to pay the property taxes. @:-)

ckgunn01

They are called gift cards. They do cost 2 bucks more at grocery vs CVS though.

PainCorp

Is anyone else worried about increased transfer fees because this is such a cheap(er) product compared to the Gold/Platinum cards that usually carry the transfer benefit?

mia

No, but I think the free version will be a short-lived product if it doesn't attract the target audience. If it succeeds, points will probably be redeemed more for giftcards rather than airline miles.

Locke42

With the PRG, you have to spend EXACTLY $30,000 to get 1.5 points per dollar. If you spend $40,000, then you're only getting 1.375 points per dollar, and it goes down the more you spend.

Whereas with the Everyday Preferred, you get 1.5 points per dollar no matter what, as long as you have 30 swipes per month.

The difference is marginal, of course, but it's worth mentioning.

silver6054

Right, I think the (slight) danger is that if there is a big uptake, AND more redeem for miles than expected, the transfer ratios will decrease (MR->Miles) as too many MRs will be out there

TOMFORD

Both the free and the AF version can transfer MR points?

I wonder if I can product change my Amex Blue to the free version...

mia

There is always the possibility that American Express will decide to abandon 1:1 as they have in some other markets, and change the rate to 3:2, but it wouldn't be due to one consumer credit card. What matters is the transaction volume, not the number of accounts, and the charge card base is huge. This card will just be a blip, like The Knot, The Nest, and Zync all of which were targeted at specific demographic groups, but available to anyone.

aw82

This is very interesting to me.

My game is Avios for shortish-haul (1,000 mile) domestic flights normally costing $400-500 round trip. So I value Avios at $0.03. With average MR 25% transfer bonus, I value MR at $0.0375. We have $48k of annual expenses (without MS), so hitting the 30k PRG bonus is doable.

My plan (newly implemented) was to tag-team PRG and Chase British Airways (since AmEx isn't accepted as many places). That would net us $1830 in rewards per year (3.8%).

But, since we have almost exactly $6000/year in grocery spend (with maybe $1500 in gas spend), the Everyday Preferred might be better. That would be 31,500 MR. Then put the rest on the Chase BA or maybe even keep the PRG and MS to hit the 30k bonus.

Hitting 30 transactions/month would be a pain, though...

Edit: Keeping all three cards could net (after AFs), over 6% for me...even without MS.

eajusa

Wow. Certainly a lot of discussion on this new card. Isn't it simply a card that rewards the same categories of spending as the 2 cash back cards; but instead of giving the consumer cash back, he or she receives MR points instead? Seems to me that it comes down to deciding which is worth more to you, the Cash or the Points. So if you have determined how much a MR point is worth to you, you should have no problem deciding whether this card is for you. Personally I find the cash more worthwhile; but then I do not have the PGR card with the 2X and 3X points.

freyj6

It's hard for me to decide on this card because I've never used MR before. If I can get 1.5+ cents per point without a huge amount of hassle, this card would be amazing. If I could get 2 cents, that's 9/6/3% in what are probably my main categories.

...but if it's not practical to get more than 1.5 cents, it's a complete waste.

Can anyone give me a rough idea of what I could reasonably expect to get out of redeeming MR for economy flights (mostly in the US flying out of Seattle area)? Is it a huge hassle to redeem for 1.5-2 cents per point?

Thanks!

aw82

What airline do you normally fly? What cities do you normally fly to?

Find a transfer partner airline that serves SEA (http://www.membershiprewards.com/cat...2D576E7A6C1D65) and then look up typical costs for flights to cities you'd like to visit.

Keep airline alliances in mind (oneworld, Star Alliance, Alaska's ad hoc alliances, etc.). For example, if you regularly want to fly to SFO, you could use 15,000 British Airways Avios on American (Avios are distance-based). Tickets for May are about $225, so each Avios is worth 1.5 cents. Getting 4.5x back on groceries means you're getting 6.75 cents for every dollar spent, if you plan to transfer to Avios (4.5x times 1.5 cents). BUT, if you are able to take advantage of one of the Membership Rewards transfer bonuses (typically 2-3 times per year for British Airways), which are often 20-30%, you could effectively be getting 8.43 cents for every dollar spent on groceries (4.5x plus 25% bonus times 1.5 cents).

Of course, that all assumes you want to fly to SFO.

You can also use Avios on Alaska Air to get to Sacremento, LAX, etc., but you have to book over the phone.

Oh, and you could do Seattle to Honolulu for 25k Avios on Alaska Air (A $500+ ticket), which would cost you 35-45,000 AAdvantage miles. Using MR (with transfer bonus) to fly on Alaska using Avios would be like getting 11.25% back on grocery purchases with the Everyday Preferred card.

(someone check my math).

crimsonAA

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