Originally Posted by
MJLouise
I got this even with the $125 ann fee and still consider it a good investment, to help pay for domestic econ tickets for a family of four. Those type of tix are hard to get with FF miles. Booking through the TY points portal offers many more choices, especially time-wise for a family on a tight time-line, than airline's FF low mileage flights.
Different purposes, different uses, different value for different situations.
Actually now that I realize your approach I see the unique value of Chase Sapphire and Citi TYP. I see the free annual companion fare. This must be worth quite a bit. Say I fly YUP fare, does my partner fly YUP with me as well? The yearly bonus is quite nice and encourages loyalty. But 60k points for $665 of airfare is mehhhh. AZO - MXP is like $1500 or 40k AA miles. The 33% reward bonus I guess is there to try and compensate at the time of redemption though, plus the anytime any airline thing. You can always pull out a great reward redemption that works if time is on your side.
I really agree with your statement regarding the lack of flights. Quite pathetic and very inconvenient in nearly all travel situations. Being able to book on "any airline, anytime" with this card is quite awesome.
TYP are a different game. I am learning that dollar amounts of flights don't always correlate well with reward redemption', but with TYP it is all about bottom dollar airfare pricing and conversion of points with 33% bonus to dollar figures.