Originally Posted by
rajuabju
For annual spending of $1000, an airline, or hotel or any other points/miles card doesnt make much sense, much less so for any such card that has an annual fee. 1% (or 2%) CB is meaningless somewhat meaningless as well ... you're talking about $10-$20 back a year.
IMO, its better to go with a card that has some other benefit... such as 0% BT, or $0.00 foreign exchange fee as someone else above mentioned if the OP does international travel.
Now, for someone who is going to put $100k spend on a card, an airline card to complement their SPG AMEX is a great route to go. If your primary airline is AA, get their AA MC or Visa card, or if you fly UA or CO, get one of their cards. $100k spend a year will get you some nice reward travel.
But does it? My current SPG backup is an AA MC, which is really a couple notches below the Amex. Basically the only reason I have it is the fact that a decent number of vendors won't take Amex. And on occasion the no preset spending limit comes in handy. But as a reward card it's pretty limited and doesn't earn as well either. Maybe it's time to find a non amex hotel card to take the AA MC's spot...if one exists.