Originally Posted by
garykung
Freedom is an average no-AF card. It is good only if you can maximize the quarterly bonuses. Other than that, it is a typical reward card. I would rather use something more definitive, like CSP if I can justify the AF, or Citi Double Cash for its simplicity.
You seem to miss the point that
anything you earn on Freedom can be redeemed for real airline miles and/or real hotel points as long as you also have an AF UR card (at the time you need to redeem). That's not possible with Citi Double Cash or any other "cashback only" card.
So IMHO it doesn't matter if you max out or not, as long as you're going to link it to an AF UR aco.... and use it to transfer to real miles or real hotel points which have a greater value for you (based on how you redeem) than earning cashback on the same spend could ever have.
Since I redeem my miles only for business class longhaul international flights, I get
way more than 2 cents per mile on most of my miles redemptions. Obviously, someone who redeems 25k for $400 coach domestic trips would have to look at it completely differently.