Originally Posted by
bradleysjones
I honestly have no immediate plans. The one place my wife and I have targeted for a summer trip is Chicago.
I live in Auburn, AL so I would either fly out of Birmingham or Atlanta, just depends on what is cheapest. Atlanta is obviously Delta, but Birmingham usually has good Southwest options.
I could take another credit hit, although it would probably need to be a few months since I just got the Club Carlson and Chase Ink.
I'm thinking I drop the Sapphire Preferred as I don't spend very much on travel/restaurants on a regular basis. The only problem with dropping this is that I lose my transfer ability for points earned on Ink Classic and Freedom.
I also tend to agree that even though the HHonors card provides gold status (free internet and breakfast), it takes $10k to get a decent room redemption.
I'm thinking if I cancel the Sapphire Preferred that I use the AMEX Blue Cash Preferred for groceries (500/mo spend) and gas (200/mo spend) and Freedom for 5% where available. All other generic spend goes on AMEX Starwood or Club Carlson (bogo night goes a long way).
I've also been thinking about this a lot recently. It will be interesting to hear what the seasoned FTers have to say on this but here is my 2 cents.
Points aren't liquid until they reach redemption thresholds so it is sometimes counterproductive to put spending on a card earning category bonuses. You don't want to pay multiple annual fees just to maximize categories.
I put spending on my cards on this order:
1. min spend requirements to meet sign up/retention bonuses
2a. cards that will get me to redemption threshold
2b. cards that have better value than 2% (include effects of category mutipliers)
3. 2% cashback cards
After reading your post, I suggest focusing on Hyatt/Southwest (Chase UR), Hilton & Club Carlson. Here's why:
Hyatt and SPG are better programs for US hotel awards than Hilton, Marriott or Priority club. Concentrate on maximizing Chase UR for Hyatt program. Last year I averaged 2.5x with these cards (I'm sure you are already doing it). I've had great success with the Southwest program for domestic travel. So CSP may be worth keeping. You can probably get 4% value with the cards you have.
SPG points would work well for you as well so accumulate SPG points before the anniversary. Dump it when the AF comes due so you start the clock on churning.
Hilton card is worth keeping only if you are able to put 10-15k on it. If you can spend enough to get another award night at the free night hotel (most likely 50k points). It's a pain to change hotels every night on vacations, so this will be a good way to maximize the Hilton card benefits (3-4% value for ~15k spend plus breakfast). It will not be productive to rack up more Hilton points as they are less valuable without Axon awards (available with Amex Hilton cards) at aspirational properties. HHonors is also skewed towards higher point redemptions. Their value within US is even more limited.
For your Chicago trip the Club Carlson card will be handy at the aqua blu hotel. That card is worth keeping for 40k and bogo but I'd not use it without a redemption in mind.
Amex BCP & Citi forward are nice. Think of possibly adding another cash back card. Good no fee candidates are US Bank Cash+ and Barclays Priceline (excellent for 5x on bidding rental cars and hotels).