Hi Everyone,

I'm a consultant based out of Dallas. Most of our work is local, but I will be flying/staying in hotels 1-2x a month, and therefore have a corporate green amex. I've been a chase person my whole credit card life, but I'm debating cashing out before my 2nd annual fee for my CSR kicks in and switching over to Amex for my general spend, and just keeping my chase freedom unlimited for vendors that don't take Amex.

The thing is, I'm not really sure if membership rewards are that useful, given that I'm based out of Dallas (aka American Airlines and maybe Southwest). Obviously, MR doesn't transfer to AA, plus even Avios aren't 1:1 anymore. I could use MR/UR to transfer to British Airways and fly American domestically, but the non-1:1 thing sucks, especially since UR IS 1:1. The hotel options also stink for MR, while Chase has Hyatt. Hotels, I've found, are usually easier to redeem awards for, so this is a big consideration for me. Finally, at the very least, Chase gives me the option to redeem points for 1.5 cents for travel or 1 cent in cash. Membership reward points aren't even worth 1 cent for cash/statement credits, which is ridiculous to me.

Therefore, my question is if it's worth paying the fee to start collecting MR rewards given where I live. I generally will redeem awards for domestic economy travel or premium international. The continents I want to travel to internationally are South America and Asia. I'd also normally redeem for hotels, but Hilton has terrible redemption value and Starwood (which I love) is at a very poor ratio.

Will I get more burn from Amex than I think I will or does it sound like it's not worth it and I should just stick to chase and not bite the bullet on the corporate green card?