Math in favor of 2% cashback vs. 1x airline card with some last minute bookings.

There is a $75 close-in booking fee for 3 weeks in advance or less with AA and UA. DL does not have availability for 25K round trip awards for less than a week in advance when I looked the last time. Of course, DL has poor availability in general. If I have more than 3 weeks to book, I can get a good fare to most airports.

Example:

$293 from SFO to ORD on AA today (a Friday) nonstop one-way.

- $75 fee

$218 saved in exchange for (12.5K AA miles). This is less than 2 cents a mile for a last minute economy ticket.

The 12.5K AA miles could have earned $250 with a 2% cashback card. The net cash cost with a cashback card is $43 plus you earn 2k miles worth around $30 to get to a net cost of $13. You might choose to not include the $30 since those are highly likely to be orphaned. So we are back at $43 cost for the 2% cash back card.

However, if you don't need to fly, you have $250 in cash to spend on anything you like including emergencies that don't require flying. Can't do the same with 12,500 in virtual currency. If you have an emergency that requires flying, you just saved $43. If not, you have 12500 in virtual currency that is hard to spend without spending more real cash (eating out, rental cars, etc). Having to spend miles means you tend to overspend cash as well even though your airline and hotels are "free."

Of course I would use Chase Ink to get 5x UR instead of 2% cashback card. However a 2% cashback card is often better than a 1x airline card or any hotel card after collecting signing bonuses.