Originally Posted by
PWMTrav
I value MR at 2 cents per point. If the PRG is giving you an extra 35k a year, I value those at $700. If that's really what you'd be adding, I'd suggest just adding a 3rd card to the wallet since the benefits far outweigh the AF. I am also taking into account what you said below - you can afford coach airfare around the world, so it's not that you can't afford the PRG AF, it's that you want to make a cost-benefit decision. If I'm correct in that assumption, it sounds like the PRG is a good card for you. Whether you keep the Platinum depends on whether you value its benefits at >= $250 (net of the $200 airline credit) - I personally get a lot of value out of FHR alone, enough to cover the AF.
I put spend on Platinum as well, at least for now, for the same reason as you - I value the aspirational quality of MR. However, now that I have a 1 year old, it's less likely that I'll redeem for SQ suites. More realistically, I want 3 seats in J or Y instead of 2 in F - or even just 2 in J with one on the lap because of the space between seats. However, I'm likely to keep putting at least some spend on Amex because as of now, Alitalia is the only carrier that flies direct BOS-FCO (or anywhere in Italy for that matter) and that's one of our preferred destinations. Amex lets me attack that through AZ itself, who often doesn't show inventory, or through KL and DL, who often do at low level. Chase can't touch that.
But I did sign up for the 60k Ink offer, and I can probably manufacture enough spend at 5x to keep me flying *A J for a long time. I'm just not sure how I'll balance the two.
The thing about CSP, though, is that the Travel category bonus is for everything - not just airfare. The plane ride is often not even the most expensive part of the trip - hotels and food are. That's a good card, and right now I'm trying to decide whether I want that or the PRG as my 3rd card. It's a lot of annual fees, but if you travel, the benefits do outweigh it (for me). It's highly likely that the first issuer to offer 3X at grocery stores is going to get my money, because it's already a good part of my budget, and is also a great avenue to manufacture spend.
We always budget in a good amount of $$ for travel every year to visit family numerous times a year and always add stop overs along the way to different countries we've never seen before. So regardless of earning mines or not with Chase or Amex, visiting new countries every year is always planned. So when we use miles it just saves us extra cash (but actually we've only been using the miles to book
other family members), but at the same time, every once in a blue moon, saving up for SQ suites (they only allow one suite award per flight anyway, so i would book E for me, Suite for her, then hang out in her Suite, so the redemption aren't as high as one would think) would be the fun part of saving MR points.
It definitely makes sense to redeem 3 seats in J/Y then 2 seats in F if you need the third seat, or even 4 seats in E if you have a 4th. Not only do I want to make a cost-benefit decision, but I want to avoid hard pulls (possible house and car purchase coming). I think the easiest way for me to decide is to go ahead and try PRG for a year, that way I know for sure how much of the Plat i'll miss out. Thanks for the input, surely helped.