Originally Posted by gregorygrady
I was scratching my head about this category as well. All the complaints I've heard about DC lately and they win first place. And even worse is the Mariott Visa got second place. I hear the Mariott CC is one of the worst out there (with the exception of charging actual Mariott stays to it). The SPG Amex is far superior to either of the above cards IMHO and the HH Amex is not far behind that.
^ Totally agree. I do not understand for the life of me why Diner's Club remains in the top five. A yield of less than 1 FF mile per dollar, plus a high annual fee. The only value that DC has really delivered in the past few years is for people who tend to trash rental cars.
And you could kind of argue that the primary-insurance feature is outside the scope of the Freddies and Club Rewards.
Marriott moving into #2...while I don't agree (like you, I'd go SPG-HH as my 1-2), I think they've made a unique offering and are rightfully the top Visa/MC product out there for people who use Marriott on a semi-frequent basis. It's the annual recurring benefits that make this card valuable: the free night certificate plus the crediting of 15 room-nights to your account. This is better than the standard "you're Silver as long as you hold the card" rule in that it brings Gold status down to 35 "real" room-nights, which is more in line with other programs' comparable levels.
For someone with no use for Marriott, I would guess that either the US Airways card with no fee, 1.5 miles/$, and a quasi-elite status (you can use F check-in, I think) or the United card that earns up to 10k or 15k(?) EQM's per year would be tops for an MC/Visa.