mhdena

This is what I plan to do. Hopefully it remains useful one way or the other.

ryan182

I can confirm that, I bought a flight for work right after I got the card and 300 credit posted right after the ticket did. I was debating dropping one card next year (I have amex plt, CSR and Citi Prestige) and while having 3 $450/yr cards sounds silly the when you factor in the airline credits it isn't that bad. The Prestige only costs me $100 after the $250 airline credit and $100 Citigold discount and the CSR is really only $150 after its credit. If you travel a lot it doesn't seem that difficult to extract $100-$200 of value on the points, though the loss of AA lounge next year is going to hurt. Amex needs to step up their airline credit game because that one does seem to only be for non-flight charges and as an EXP who buys J/F I haven't used that credit in several years. The SPG card I only use for hotels, though there was a few $50 Amex offers on Sheraton and Westin recently that made me use my Plt vs SPG but otherwise I keep it just for hotel stays as I figure the extra SPG points I get each year (about 70K) is worth the fee. So end of the day I'd look at the value you can extract from the card plus any credits and compare it to the fee to determine if its worth it.

codesinvan

SPG was already the best card in my wallet. Great redemptions at SPG hotels >3 cents/point, option to transfer to airlines, and now an OK transfer rate to Marriott - which I am going to use for Ritz properties and Ritz properties and flights. We are actually putting all our spending on the SPG card - probably until it goes away.

I should note that I am Canadian, so I am earning 1 point per C$1 and SPG is the best program in Canada for flexibility of transfer partners. No Chase and Amex MR only has a handful of transfer partners here.

Visconti

Regarding the CSR, if one has it and finds the $150 worth it, 3 UR is worth more than 2 SPG for hotel stays, in my estimation. However, for 1:1 general spending where there's no bonus, I prefer SPG points over URs.

teeceedee

I was just thinking about switching to this strategy for the remainder of the year

Need

I was going to switch my 1:1 general spending to Chase Freedom Unlimited for the 1.5 UR per $ spent, but now I am thinking doing SPG Amex. I transfer a lot of my UR points to United. With 1.5 UR, I would get 130,000 United miles with $88,000 spent. With SPG Amex, I can spent $90,000 and get 270,000 Marriott points and use it to get Travel Package for 130,000 United miles + 7 nights at Cat 5 hotel. So for $2000 spent extra on credit card, I get an extra 7 nights stay.

Visconti

Yeah, this is a tough one. 1.5 UR vs 1.5 Amex MR vs 1 SPG, really isn't clear cut which option is best and entirely dependent on specific redemptions.

pinniped

I roughly value Hyatt at 2 cents and SPG at 3 cents, so it's pretty much spot on if the Chase card is 1.5 UR/$.

I'm surprised that some of the bloggers value SPG and Marriott as low as they do. I'm usually conservative in how I value my points, always checking nearby (non-Marriott, non-SPG) hotel rates in addition to just what the award hotel's going rates are. That might mean I'm weighing an SPG or Marriott award stay against a Hilton going for $200/nt. on a AAA rate. Even so, getting 3 cents out of SPG isn't hard. With Marriott, I use the standard 1.5 cpm for the 120k-132k mileage portion of the Travel Package, and even then my blended MR valuation is still well over a penny...usually in the 1.2-1.3 cpp range.

The caveat on Marriott is that you have to get to the 120k TP levels to achieve this kind of value, but the SPG 3:1 exchange makes that substantially easier for me.

TravelinSperry

I agree with what I bolded above. I value them at 2.7 cents per - and oftentimes find redemptions approaching 3 cents (or over with C&P). I never redeem under 2.4 and some bloggers value them as a matter of course lower than that. I think it's laziness. They did a value chart years ago and never updated. It is clear 2.7 or greater can (and should be) had.

Visconti

Yeah, with some prudence especially at some int'l locations, cash & points many times will exceed 2.5. I agree that there's never a reason to accept a value less than 2.5.

Before the merger, unless I needed some FFs to top off a redemption, I almost exclusively use it for opportunistic points & cash redemptions. Great value, high probability of suite upgrade and counts towards status.