Originally Posted by
~tc~
At the end of the day, this card IS the cheapest way to get a lounge membership. With as much as you're going to connect through IAH, that may be enough in itself, and all the other benes are gravy.
The more I thought about it, the more it made sense. After the club membership (which may pay for itself in free booze!) the card's essentially free. Given my current card requires $35K for 5K EQM stuck in the year I earn them (and my company buys my tickets so I don't get much EQM from united.com purchases) the CO card will get me 7K EQM for the same spend, which I can roll over up to 3 years. (And spend more and earn more, etc.)
I went ahead and applied for the CO card now. I'll hold onto my existing UA card until my anniversary date in December, by which time I hope there's more clarity on what they'll do with a CO-branded card when CO ceases to exist. Worst case I cancel it at the end of the year and got a $300 UA club membership out of it...
The one thing I'm giving up is the extra RDMs I'm currently earning on "everyday" purchases (groceries, etc.) but I think the Flex EQM trumps that in value.