Originally Posted by
awake_at_midnight
...an AA passenger may see more benefit in spending $50k on Merrill+ to get the Admiral's Club benefit. Then switching to a card with a higher point yield. OOPS--This statement about AA does not make sense. If you fly enough to get AA status or travel in AA First Class, it does not make sense to spend $50k to get an Admirals Club membership. You could spend that $50k on a cashback card and earn more value per dollar spent.
If you spend $50,000 you would earn 50,000 points
plus the AAdmirals club membersip. The membership costs $250 to $450 depending on status. If we assume the typical Merrill+ user will have at least Gold status (due to status match), the value is $400 (first year) or 0.8%, but the 50,000 points are worth
at least another $500 or 50,000 BA Miles which can be redeemed for travel on AA.
I only use Merrill+ only for foreign transactions because my account still has no currency fee. The AA status match is no benefit to me. The AAdmirals Club membership would be nice, but there is a hidden cost of forgoing spending on Diners Club which is better for BA miles (although Merill+ did also offer a BA promotion in 2006.) Also, I do not like Merill's refusal to offer customer service by email, and their failure to publish new terms and conditions BEFORE the start of the calendar year.