Originally Posted by
GrayAnderson
Does anybody have a data point on the $5000 spend/1k TQP incentive not having a limit? Yeah, this actually matters...if I can mostly spend my way back to Select Plus/Select Executive, it affects the calculus both for handling tickets with points vs cash spend and whether the AGR card resides in a sock drawer for the next seven months or becomes a frequently used card for me. In terms of un-bonused spend, AGR points right now compete with...most other cards, really...for not-bonused spend. Heck, I'd have to do some scratch pad math to compare 2 AGR points with 3 Chase points on the dining front. The issue on Amtrak has been needing cash spend to retain status...
...but a lot of programs are moving away from focusing exclusively on with-the-company spend and towards counting CC spend in some manner (e.g. Hyatt's two night credits for each $5000 in CC spend, AA and B6 more-or-less totally integrating CC spend as part of their program), so this wouldn't be shocking.
I got a fifth thousand TQP last month (and might well have gotten one last year through a bug that counted some BofA spend as FNBO spend). I've got far more AGR points than I can plausibly use, so I'm going back to my Flying Blue card for Plastiq (for which a Mastercard is useful), but I'm keeping the Amtrak card in the wallet as my Mastercard until October rolls around (when I'll be working toward the 60 Flying Blue XP with that card).
I don't expect to put enough on the Amtrak card to get Select Plus, except if combined with some possible cash AMTK travel later this year (though if that travel won't get me Select Plus, I may finally start burning AGR points).
At this point, we have AMTK/B6/AA allowing unbounded elite credit from a single credit card, and UA/DL counting award travel (the miles redeemed for which are likely mostly received from credit card spend: claims about the provenance of overall mile balances notwithstanding) equivalently to cash for elite credit, on top of the hotel programs largely doing both... I don't think this genie is going back in the bottle for decades as a lasting scar from the pandemic era.