Originally Posted by itzperch
It really seems to be the case that you must charge a gross amount every year on your membership rewards card to justify the annual fee of an AmEx card.
Depends what you think is a "gross amount". The are two reasons I consider this card to be worth it:
1) It's a charge card - I can put a lot more on this card than on my other three Amex credit cards combined (or my Citi MC, for that matter).
2) If you play the promotions right, it's the best card out there for Hilton. I think there have been several promotions this year for 2X points (and three points for alway-double spending). Seems like whenever someone would post such a promotion, say for the green MR card, a little tinkering with the URL would get the same promotion on the the gold card, and vice versa. With such a bonus, for HH you're getting 4/6 HH points per CC$.
The only time I use this card is when I'm signed up for a promotion. Even with such limited use, given the above transfers, for me it's well worth the annual fee.