Originally Posted by
SpaethCo
...
Venture X - default spend (services/consumables like grocery) This offers extended warranty, return protection, purchase protection, etc if Amex isn’t accepted, but preserves a 2x floor on most spend.
Amex Platinum - physical goods that can break, get lost, or be stolen.
The Venture X has become a nice single card replacement for my Chase setup. I book all my flights direct so the Platinum always made more sense there. The Venture X is super easy for “utility” hotel bookings where I don’t care about status or points (ie, 1 night at an airport hotel), so the annual fee effectively cancels out for me. With Chase you still need at least 2 cards (CFU + CSP/CSR) to get your base 1.5x on spend and then try and fight back value on redemption to get it above 2%. Even there you really can’t come out ahead on portal redemptions because you don’t get points on bookings, so 1.5x becomes 1.35x (1.5 * 90%), the Venture X earns 33% more points per dollar on general spend than the CFU, and you still have more annual fee left over to try and justify.
Though I'd been thinking that it would be easier to just stick with what I have, putting it like this makes me wonder what I would have to lose, other than diluting out reward program points into a third pool, by closing my CSR and going to the Venture X. I'd lose DoorDash and the 3x travel/dining multiplier in exchange for 2x on everything as you mentioned, but the effective $250 AF on the CSR after its travel credit then gets compared to an effective -$5 AF for the Venture X after its hotel credit and anniversary bonus. Same/similar Visa Infinite benefits to both.