Originally Posted by
awake
Instead of AMEX Platinum, consider the Citi Platinum AMEX. It is $99 per year. Offers 3+ pts per $ for the first 24 months. It also provides a priority pass membership. Priority pass will get you into all DL lounges and some CO/NW/UA lounges, but very very few AA lounges. However it is $24 per visit and per guest. If you visit alone you would get 14 visits for the price of an AMEX platinum:
( Citi Platinum AMEX $99 + $24 x 14 visits ~ $450 AMEX Platinum )
A day pass to Delta is just $25.
...but I don't think the Citi Platinum American Express fits into a two card solution unless gj83 chooses to give up on airline miles entirely in favor of Thank You points.
I like flexibility b/c I flirt with Delta, United, and US Air. I accumulate miles on Delta and United and would like a bank of points that I can either use to push me over the edge in one program or another or to get a hotel on the trip. I want to stick to as few cards as possible or have flexibility with transfers/redemptions because my spend overall is low compared to many FTers and I accumulate a lot of points in actual programs from my travels. I've never been able to amass enough TYPs to actually get a plane ticket. I have mainly used them for gift cards, but with the last devaluation AMEX's Membership rewards is better for that. Amex, however, does not have Amazon gift cards and that is usually what I would get with my TY points.
I travel every week for work so I could easily need more than 18 lounge visits between everyone not United/US air.