FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Let’s talk about alternatives to the SPG Amex after the massive Marriott devaluation
Old Sep 5, 2019, 9:11 am
  #673  
bgriff
 
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Brooklyn
Programs: Delta Diamond, Bonvoy something good; sometimes other things too
Posts: 5,051
Arguably the "bonus 25K Bonvoy points for every $25K spent" promotion going on this year puts the Amex cards back at their original 3 Bonvoy points/1 SPG point per $ value proposition, if you can hit the $25K or multiples thereof. Which is a decent enough return. In theory there are other cards that do better, depending what you value Bonvoy points at and what you value other points currencies at. But my personal answer is, with that bonus, I am back to using the Bonvoy Amex for non-bonus spend, aiming at $25k.

For me a big part of it is, there just aren't many lucrative ways to earn free hotel stays on credit card spend right now. With various bonus category cards I tend to earn a pretty steady flow of UR & MR points so between that and balances already held in airline programs, I'm comfortable that I have enough points for any airline bookings I may want to make, but I'm relatively scarce on hotel points. So I'm willing to sacrifice the "perfect" return strategy a bit to balance my points portfolio. (And I do occasionally use UR points for Hyatt stays, but there aren't a lot of Hyatts and I have better elite status with Marriott, so I don't consider that option a real solution to my relative shortage of hotel points.)
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