Originally Posted by
ThatAdamGuy
Yeah, I see your points about the lightweightness of the 6K cap, but some of us lack the time / opportunity / drive for thicker MS'ing (and as a single guy who gets free meals at the office except on weekends, I'm not spending anywhere close to $6K/yr on groceries
).
re: hotels... sorry, I realize it's a bit off topic here, but have you checked out the Club Carlson card? I've been very impressed with it so far, with an excellent recent 2-nights-for-the-cost-one-1-award-night redemption in a nice hotel in Shanghai. You get 5 club points per $1 on un-bonus'd spend, and the annual fee is far offset by the annual 40K bonus point allotment.
Before AMEX changed the HHonors earning structure we were able to achieve HHonors Gold in the month of March via spend. We could have made Diamond, but our cards are the no fee version hence no such option. Despite the program bloodbath devaluation, there are still some spots the HHonors points could be very helpful. All depends on one's need naturally.
Yes, we each have Club Carlson cards which already earned the anniversary bonus one or two months ago. I plan to get the biz version as an easy way to get 85K+40K for the $60 AF.
We used a few of the 2-4-1 stays in last Jul/Aug trip in Baltic countries and Amsterdam. The hotel in Riga was a 28K property when we redeemed. Then it went up and now it is a 44K after going up 2 years in a row. We will use Radisson Blu in Milan in the upcoming May trip, plus in Paris in the Sept/Oct trip. I am grateful they do not take away the 2-4-1 in this year's program change.