Originally Posted by
PDXWest
I got into the miles/points game in the past 2-3 years and only seriously in the last 12 months as work travel increased. I jumped on the Amex Biz Gold for 75K points a month or two back but am having trouble figuring out how best to use the MR points. Not easy as AS and UA are my primary airlines AND vacation travel will decrease with another kid on the way. We were just at Home Depot this weekend looking at a refrigerator for the garage. If I was going to spend $500-$750 in cash on a frigde, why not use the MR points that I got for free? While not a business class ticket to another continent, it is still a free $750.
They are your points. $750 is a good haul for one hard pull and a little bit of spend, assuming your annual fee was waived for the first year. If it wasn't, then your real haul is closer to $600. If there were an efficient marketplace for points and it were within the terms, you'd do better because many of us feel we can get better than 1 cent per point and thus would pay that, at least, for Amex points. But, in the absence of such, you really have to do what's right for you.
It also depends on whether you plant to keep accumulating points and miles. The bottom line is that 75,000 Amex isn't, standing alone, worth all that much. You need more, or to combine them with other points, to start getting higher values. If you had another 25,000, then you start to be in the neighborhood of premium class international round trip travel or coach travel for two.
Just don't get caught in the switches. If $750 is what you want to use a sign up bonus for, that's great. But the math gets way different if you're using points you accumulated on credit card spending that way. Unless you're getting bonus categories, it might be better just to get a good cash back card.