I think it depends if you enjoy other benefits from a card. My primary card is currently an Amex Plat with a $399 annual fee:

- For spending 5 nights at Fairmont that I would do anyway I get:
- $100 worth of dining certs - value $100
- 2 Suite Upgrades - value $50 each
- Free night - value ~$200
- Plaza Premium lounge access - I'd value it in the ~$80 range yearly as it provides a full meal and I don't have to spend money eating at the airport
- Misc other stuff like Fine Hotels and Resorts, SPG gold, CX Gold (for a year at least)

The base fee for a card these days seems to be $120 unfortunately, more for Amex Gold and alike. My spending doesn't warrant paying permanently for more than 1 card. I'll churn fee cards for a year but won't keep them. So far I think I'll get decent value out of the Plat, but will see this year.

Of course I dodged how valuable the Amex points are, there worth a min of $0.0125 (with the plat) as you can simply turn them into cash at that value for a travel expense. BA may have some decent short haul redemptions which aren't terribly sexy, ANA has some interesting partners but with fuel surcharges etc and of course there's always Aeroplan.

For my backup I have an MBNA World Points that's been converted a few times, originally was a SPG MC. No fee and 2% cash back, so can't complain.

I really do like SPG points, mainly for cash and points redemptions and it probably be my next choice of card.