I have ditched my SM Gold Amex for the UR Preferred Visa from Chase during the 50k bonus UR period. I am pretty happy with the card, especially the 0% foreign transaction fee is a useful perk considering the cheap annual fee. However, the primary reason for going UR was the absurd value of the DL miles I was getting for every dollar spend.

The only somewhat beneficial thing was the MQM booster, however, the threshold was too high. Considering that you need to spend $30k for the initial 15k MQM and another $30k for the second batch is too heavy. Remember, all you get is hard to redeem and impossible to transfer DL miles (valued around 0.4cpm on a good day) and a couple of MQM. Since the introduction of YQ on award tickets originating outside of the US, the 0.4cpm is much worse in practice up to the point where the award ticket is only a ridiculous $100 cheaper in Y than a fully paid ticket earning 100% MQM. Especially this was limiting my redeeming option to only 50% of what I wanted.

A quick MR to Europe is cheaper and you have the direct benefit of actual seeing places and going on adventures. For the same spending with a little coordination, you'll get at least 60k UR points that are transferable to many other programs and may be directly converted into cash (at 1cpm).

As a DM I have little to no use for most of the DL Amex perks up to their reserve card. As I mostly fly international, the tie breaker is of little use, so is priority boarding and free bags. SC membership is included so no joy here as well.

Surrounding unhappiness with Amex at such did the rest for me. As being from "'em forn' countries" I was only awarded with a $5k credit line on everything but the charge card despite the fact that I am a 15yr Amex customer in Europe with an excellent standing in both countries. The credit line was not even enough to book the annual vacation with my family.

Furthermore, I felt cheated out of many Amex perks since I am a card member in two geographical areas, EU and US. That meant that perks, such as the rental car insurance, roadside assistance, luggage insurance, and buyer protection were always a huuuuge hassle. When something went wrong in EU (such as luggage), they said "Oh that is where your home is" and declined assistance. When something went south in the US, they said: "Oh that is where your home is" is and, surprise, declined the payment.

Not to forget, the Amex is not as usable as a Visa in many regions, including bi parts of the EU and Oz. With my visa, I have never had any issues but once with a one-time payment for the University of Texas, strange.