Originally Posted by
eefor jfp
Help me understand something about the second cat 1-4 cert. The amount you have to spend to get the second cert is $15,000. Let's say you spend that in the bonus categories. So you would get 30,000 WOH points as well as a certificate worth (max) 15,000. But if you put the same spend on the Chase Sapphire Reserve you get 45,000 Ultimate Reward points which can be transferred to Hyatt (or spent on on travel worth $675). Isn't that a wash (or even a point in favor of using the CSR)?
Or are people looking at this mainly for unbonused spend? In other words (especially for those of us who don't have unlimited income to put through credit cards) might this be a decent replacement for the SPG Amex since for the first $15K of regular spend you're essentially getting 2 Hyatt points per Dollar (i.e. 15K points plus a cert worth 15K)? Which isn't a bad deal.
Anyway, trying to understand the possibilities (and to find a replacement for everyday/unbonused/non-bonus spend that I have been heretofore putting on the SPG Amex. Normally a 2% cashback card would be good but we are overseas 75% of the year, so a forex fee free card like the WOH Visa is important.
Your 'bonus' categories you speak of that are in the 2x category on WoH and 3x on the CSR is just travel and dining right? And you can't include Hyatt stays because that gets 4x on the new card. To me, we aren't talking about all that much significant spend in the 2x WoH/3x CSR in the grand scheme of things (non Hyatt 'travel' costs and restaurants is probably at best ~10% of my spending).
For me, putting all my Hyatt purchases on the WoH card will get me to the 15K spend needed as is. I have used my Hyatt card in non-bonus categories a lot during the last year, but now that my valuable >2 cent/pt redemptions aren't really outpacing my natural Hyatt pt earning, I have put most of my non bonus spend on a 2% cash back.