Since A-List Preferred gets a 100% points bonus you can defray this cost by cashing in points for Amzon gift cards (among others) without having a big impact on your points balance. Depending on what you value A-List Preferred at you can actually convert some of those points into cash to offset your out-of-pocket cost. When I was A-List Preferred I was racking up points much quicker than I could use them (with promos sometimes 3X).