Happy

It still is a $150 net fee card. Even it earns 3x on travel and dining, it means you would need to spend $5000 in those categories to just break even - i.e. fill the hole of the $150 as versus a 2% cash rebate no fee card, the same $5000 spend earns you a cold hard cash of $100. But you are just break even with your CSR.

I am surprised so many think that $300 travel credit as a nice perk... This just goes to show how smart the marketing is - to make you forget about the annual fee is quite high - it can be justified with the OTHER REAL PERKS, such as the 1.5 redemption rate when used to book travel, AND the lounge access including unlimited guests, the primary car insurance, travel interruption etc etc

Those are REAL Perks a cardholder should look at, and justify the fee paid should s/he actually use those perks.

One other thing - the 1.5 travel redemption has a major drawback because if you use it to book hotels you LOSE the hotel stay credit and the elite benefits - so that extra saving is not as high as it is on paper - because a free breakfast, or a lounge access, often costs the same as the saving if not more, in expensive cities.

Another thing on the travel redemption is, UR site could only show the cheapest, "basic economy" type of fares - this can be a serious trap if one is not aware the implication. To illustrate - I was looking at some intra-EU SAS flights - UR site can book it, but at the "Go Light" fare only. That does not offer one free checked bag, and the carry-on is restricted to 8kg only.
If you go one step up the fare on SAS site that includes 1 23kg checked bag, the difference is only $18. However if you buy the "Go Light" and buy the checked bag separately, the fee is $25. On UR site, the only fares available are the "Go Light" - and you would be out $35 even on your 21" carry-on unless you magically could keep it under 8kg!

All these perks look very good on paper, but in reality, as we see it now in the AS BR situation, are not really as nice as we are led to believe.

I would say if the PP becomes worth-less, much less, the $150 net AF is not cheap at all because other perks all have some kinds of "buyer beware" type of draw back, even the primary rental car insurance and the purchase protection. (Very annoying experiences dealing with Chase version versus AMEX version).