shaferz

Having a difficult time with this.

Background/info on me:

- Generally travel on average 3-4 weeks per month for work.
- Always use American Airlines - and generally book coach unless First is all that is available, and my client is willing to pay for it.)
- I do not have an Admirals Club Membership, nor am I willing to fork over the $450 for one. I would love to have one, but do not want to pay that kind of money for it.
- Always stay @ Hilton properties (or others in the Hhonors family)
- Always rent cars from National.

I currently hold and primarily use the Chase Sapphire Preferred. I understand I can earn 3X UR points for booking through UR travel, but I do not do that - I book directly with AA. So with the way that the CSP is structured, I get 2x points on 'travel' which is inclusive of my airfare, hotel, rental cars, and restaurants - which is essentially most all of my spend. I normally redeem the UR points for statement credits that essentially let me 'pocket' some of that money. I honestly got this card before I realized how much I could make back in UR points - really just because of the weight of the card. Sad, I know - but I really enjoy the physical card. Total monthly spend is generally between $2500 and $5000 - which nets me anywhere from $50-$100 in Statement Credits per month due to the large portion of my spend being on 'travel' which earns 2X UR points.



I have seen a few snippets and information on the Citi Prestige - and it sounds intriguing. Worth noting that I do not have any relationship with Citi currently, nor do I anticipate having any 'relationship' in the future to be able to earn the 'bonus' thankyou points.

With the Citi Prestige - It sounds as if I would actually earn 3X thankyou points for airfare and hotels, 2X for restaurants, and 1X for everything else (rental cars, etc.)

With the Citi Prestige - I would get Admirals Club lounge access.

With the Citi Prestige - Annual fee is higher - but partially offset by the $250 airline credit.

Any off-the-cuff thoughts before I sit down in front of a spreadsheet and try to calculate it all out to see if it is worth it to make the change to Citi Prestige? The thought of losing the nice thick CSP makes me cringe a bit.

tev9999

Do you have any interest in using your points for free travel or do you only want cash/statement credits? If the former, you are losing tons of points by not diversifying your cards. If the later, you are wasting your time collecting and converting points when a pure 2% cash back card would yield the same $50-$100 per month automatically on everything.

If you want travel, get branded cards. Why earn only two points per dollar at Hilton when there are Citi and Amex cards that award six or seven and come with additional perks? While a UR point can purchase 1.25 cents of travel and I only value a HH point at .7 cents, 7x.7 > 2x1.25 - almost double the value.

If you want to fly AA for free, using the CSP is not a great option since they can't be transferred to AA. You could move them to BA and book awards flying AA, but that means two banks of points that may not work for what you want. Getting an AA card would yield two miles per dollar for your existing AA bank, plus give you a free checked bag, 25% off onboard purchases, two Admirals Club passes and 50K points bonus after $3000 in spending.

Personally I would use:
Amex Hilton - 7X @ Hiltons, 5X Restaurant, Grocery and Gas
Citi AA Platinum - 2X on AA plus the perks noted above.

Depending on how much you drive, a 5% cash gas card could be good. I like PenFed since it automatically applies to the balance on the statement date so there is nothing to do to redeem.

You don't have to lose your CSP since you can have many credit cards. I have 26. You don't have to go to that level, but with three you can easily double your rewards if you can use the AA and HH points.

mia

Citi Premier competes more directly with Chase Sapphire Preferred:

Points are worth $0.0125 if redeemed for travel. $0.01 if redeemed for giftcards.

Points transfer to Hilton (1000:1500), and to ten foreign airlines (1000:1000), but not to AA or any domestic airline.

No lounge access.

No foreign transaction fees. EMV Chip & Signature.

Annual fee $95, waived for the first year.

SpammersAreScum

Wait, what? How are you doing that? I have a PenFed Visa with 5% points on gas and 3% points on groceries. I have to go the the website to redeem them for cards, airfare, etc, at around .8 cents/point. Yours is apparently something else?

I now have a Sallie Mae Visa which is a simple 5% cash back -- auto-credited -- on gas, groceries, and bookstores (Amazon!) so the PF card is sitting unused. Both have no AF. The SM card has a monthly limit per category on the amount which earns 5%, so OP should be sure to factor that in when choosing.

takeshi74

Yup -- the PenFed Platinum Cash Rewards Visa card. You have the PenFed Platinum Rewards Visa Signature.

Do not conflate X and %. 5X & 3X at 0.8 cents/point is not 5% and 3%.

SpammersAreScum

Thanks.
Sadly true; that's why I was careful to say 5% points, not 5% cash, and noted the discounted redemption.

tev9999

Correct. You must pay at the pump and it gets no rewards on anything else. The 5% comes off immediately when the statement closes, so if you charged $100 in gas, your statement is $95.

travel_mav

Also keep in mind that the 3X UR earning when booking through the Chase travel portal will be ending in late 2015.

wuchien6401

I always purchase $100 shell gift card from Kroger, which give 200 or 400 fuel point(possible one week per month when advertising) and 5% cash back from my old blue cash. each 100 fuel is $10 cents off /per load from shell or Kroger own gas. So for $100 shell gift card, I get $5 statement cash back and $40 cent off per gallon. It is about $0.40 times 16 gal + $5 statement cash back=$11.40 off per $100 shell card.

tev9999

I use the Blue Cash Preferred (6%) to buy mostly store gift cards - Amazon, Home Depot, Lowes, restaurants, etc. I will pick up BP gas cards if I have road trips or don't need to stock up on gift cards. I only buy during 4X promos and typically fill up twice per month, so $500 in cards gives $70 in gas and $30 cash, or 20%. Since I can get 28 gallons in my tank from E and carry extra cans, I always get the full 35 gallon allotment. I will use the Pen Fed card to get 5% on the $1.39 or so per gallon I end up paying at Kroger, or if I do need to fill up where Kroger is not convenient.