Originally Posted by
Beckles
It pretty accurately describes 98% of the discussion here.
Did you do much better than breaking even on the second card? Uber/Saks/Airline basically cover the annual fee. I don't see how these changes affect that it's always been difficult to justify a second Platinum Card, that's not new with these changes. The FHR credit at least basically can cover the increase by itself if you can use it, everything else is gravy. You could gift family members Peacock subscriptions, that might be nice. If you actually pay for NYT access after the promotional first year it's easier to get value ($17/month after the first year).
The one case where you might need the second card is if you need more than four cards for your immediate family, then you might as well add the second full account I believe.
On the FHR credit, I do like to go to Vegas and it is possible to get good value from it there if you can travel on less busy days (even less busy weekends), I've stayed at the Four Seasons there for under $300/night a few times and the W-A once for under $250 (and as a Hilton Diamond you get a ton of credits there between FHR and Diamond).
I completely broke even with two cards. Uber credits were easily utilized (fiancee and I are "busy professionals" so any time we can grab take-out it is preferred to cooking). Saks credits are also easily utilized as we can always find
something neat that we need in their Home Goods section. Airline Fee credit was looking like a loss last year but it was a no-brainer dumping it into UA's TravelBank when that opened up in December-ish timeframe. I actually probably made money on the two cards with how generous Offers were in the past year, but I recognize 2020 is hardly the norm.
I hadn't considered gifting the Entertainment Credit... I know at least someone in my extended family could make great use out of Audible.
While I think that the potential for extraordinary value exists in the FHR credit, this hinges almost completely upon snagging a generous upgrade at check in. Having said that, for me, a luxury hotel is not ordinarily where I would spend my money while travelling. If I had a choice between a $200/night Marriot and a $500/night FHR, I am booking at the Marriot and putting that extra $300 towards dinner and drinks somewhere outside of the hotel. I appreciate that there are plenty of folks who book FHR stays before this new benefit, but I am not one of them. Having said that, I am not altogether displeased with the benefit, as it essentially subsidizes one FHR stay per year provided that I can land a reservation at or near the $500 mark. My math there is that $200 FHR credit + $100 Property Credit + $X value of breakfast +$Y value of potential upgrade can be subtracted from the sticker price of whatever stay I have booked. I suppose if I can justify/stomach it for one night then two nights isn't exactly a stretch... but I don't think I am chomping at the bit go back up to two Platinums. I am admittedly a complete newbie to FHR so perhaps in practice I will enjoy this more than expected? Edit: in poking around Vegas at your suggestion I see that there are plenty of decent options under the $200 mark so it seems that this will be market dependent.
Ultimately, so far as two Platinums are concerned, I think I might have a hard time selling my fiancee on ~$1400 in annual fees though!
Maybe if she opened up a Platinum herself we could make sense of it to circumvent the 2023 change to the Centurion Lounge Guest Access (but grabbing a MS Platinum and a free AU is the play there if Guest Access is
that much of a concern... that's another can of worms). I think I am pretty comfortable moving down to one Platinum for a good long while now. Who knows, one day I just might outlast the "lifetime" language and get another SUB offer to re-open my account? A guy can dream...