Originally Posted by
Beltway2A
CSP is a $95 annual fee with 2x UR on non-airline non-FHR travel spend (. For an extra $155 (or $225 with an AU) per year, the only marginal benefit is an additional UR point per dollar on hotel and generic travel spend.
Pre-Covid the Priority Pass restaurant benefit alone made up the AF difference between the CSR and the CSP for me. Obviously I am “lucky” that many of my trips require a connection at airports that have participating restaurants (and in the case of PDX no lounge option).
During Covid the PYB cash-out option of the CSR helped me redeem bucket-loads of points (got $600 more than if I had used a CSP), and as I recall there were some grocery spend promos that were adding a bit of value, too (don’t recall what promos CSP got).
I have the Amex Plat as well. Primarily for the Centurion Lounge (and similar) access and the 5X airfare earnings. Pre-Covid it saw very little other spend, but over the course of the last year I have, of course, partaken in the various spend offers (streaming, cell service, PayPal) that basically eliminated the AF cost.
For the moment I am comfortable with the cards I have. We will see what happens next. YMMV.