Originally Posted by
Kacee
I won't use a dime of the Dell, Uber, and Saks credits. And I relate to OP's comment about not having bandwidth to play the game to earn the streaming and phone credits . . . it's a pita to constantly switch payment cards to maximize current best values.
The value I get from the Plat card is FHR and 5x on airline tix. But I'm getting pretty close to the edge with them, due mostly to not really trusting AMEX anymore after an AMEX Travel debacle and an accumulation of smaller annoyances.
Understood. It definitely depends how much you want to jump through hoops. For my wife and I, we use the Uber for Uber Eats (currently and primarily under normal circumstances), but occasionally through regular Uber. This Dell credit we used on Bose speakers we were already in the market for. There's a lot of non-Dell brand products that I'd venture to say most could find value out of. The Saks credit is the hardest, but we've found that it works well for gifts, especially wedding gifts. We're in our late-20s and have lots of friends getting married. Most register for items that are also available at Saks (Schott Zwiesel, Le Creuset, etc.).
It makes it worth it for us to have the Delta and Centurion lounge access under normal circumstances. (We already have Priority Pass through our CSR.) Without the extras in light of COVID-19, we'd likely downgrade in March. But Amex has done enough to keep our business at least until we can use the lounges again.
At any rate, I've hopefully done my job playing devil's advocate to at least give some more critical thought for OP.