Originally Posted by
krazykanuck
That's a bittt hyperbolic. An hour? How long did your post take?
Amex cards, and I'd say the MR ecosystem, are a bit more effort and require more knowledge to optimize than Chase cards and the UR system. I'm not going to disagree with you on that, but I'd say that there is a lot of potential value upside in the Amex corner. The benefits and credits are more YMMV when it comes to easily getting value out of them, there is no easy travel portal or cash back, and some of the transfer partners need a bit of thinking, but depending on your travel and spending habits can be a better value.
I'm flying r/t from the US to Asia in biz later this month on EVA, ANA, and back Asiana for 95k MR points. You can't do that with UR transfer partners. You just can't. You find the Gold card to be a hassle, I find it to be a Gold Mine of MR points. To each their own... and I say that as somebody with as many Chase cards as Amex cards
A very basic search on reddit gives you a very long list of people's reports how Chase UR prices are inflated. Some said their targeted bookings are 30% higher!
https://www.reddit.com/r/awardtravel...ent=t1_eifodlm
I think my MR related Round the World redemption would be right up there as yours - J award 160K US to Europe, Stopover, then Europe to Australia via Asia, Destination, followed by Australia to Asia, stopover, then Asia back to US - flying TP, TK, SQ, BR, and the last leg is on UA which unfortunately is in coach - but at a < 3 hrs hop I would take it. Can't do it with UR transfer.