Originally Posted by
Adelphos
I disagree - while you you can redeem UR at 1.5 cents for groceries, you only earn 1x for grocery spend on the CSR (not counting recent 2x offers). I put all grocery spend on cards with higher earn (Citi Premier in my case). I would rather earn 3x transferable points on grocery spending, and use UR points for Hyatt (worth at least 1.5 cents per point) as posed to using PYB. Which is why I downgraded my CSR to a CSP
This. I still put groceries on my 3% back BCE. Not the best card ever, but it has no AF and 3% back is better than 1.5%.
Originally Posted by
Super Mario
This isn't my point though. I don't doubt that people *would* pay for something like that. My AFs are just a bit over $1000. I would double or triple them without a second thought if I perceived enough value for myself. My point is little-to-nothing proposed about future AMEX changes have garnered an ounce of excitement. Especially, the push to "lifestyle credits". If anything, I see the big spenders are saying "I value the current perks enough that I would pay more." That's not quite the same thing as saying a $1500 Opti-anything is instant value. Are people looking for a "Centurion light" going to want a coupon book? They'll pay, but they want status. They want exclusive. They want perks. The best exclusive perks we can come up with at the moment is airlines and hotels to further devalue their co-branded offerings and loyalty programs by giving their best statuses to American Express for some reason. Maybe they do. Probably they don't.
Yeah I think we're agreeing? My point was that a) a $1500 AF card has a viable market and b) that market includes some FT types who would look to extract calculable value, but is more geared toward people who find intrinsic value in the "status" such a card brings them.