Originally Posted by
Ragnarok
The problem with the second calculation is that the conversion fee is not part of what you were spending in the first place.
You were spending 16,000 USD in exchange for goods and services. The 435 USD conversion fee is something that you are paying extra.
So, like you calculated earlier, you will be paying more in conversion fee than what you are getting back with an SPG card.
If you are working in China for a long period of time, I would suggest reviewing your travel pattern to see if you are really benefiting from the cards you have as some of the benefits may only be useful in the US.
e.g. The Chase Mileage Explorer gets you free first checked baggage, but you are going to get a free bag anyway for a flight between US and China.
P.S. You mentioned SPG Gold as something you are interested in, but by holding a SPG AMEX, you already have SPG Preferred Plus status, which gets the same benefits SPG Gold gets, minus the 50% elite member bonus for eligible charges.
I totally get your points. I think the reason I used my second calculation is that even though I am paying $435 to get $245 back, if you consider all the charges to my card as spending, I am still getting $245 for $16435. For the best Union-Pay rewards cards, you get 400 CNY gas card for 220000 CNY in spending. That's why using SPG in China is even better than local cards.
I fly back to US quite a lot, so US benefits do count. But I do spend around $80000 in China as I do have a home here. That's why I wanna make full use of those spending, which might help with my credit history as well.
I think the Discover card is a good choice, but I do wanna develop a good relationship with AMEX.
Is it possible you can let me know how much I can value points of AMEX Rewards Program?