brp

Well, the link also says that these numbers are for the general public, and will vary in each case- so it's not a set percentage. Someone who has an exemplary payment history- like never a late payment...ever, would likely have that weight more heavily than shown with "new" and "length" weighted less.

Still, it does paint the "get the card, cancel it and get it again" in an unfavorable light.

Cheers.

lionstrust

Why is diners mc better than amex-the only bonus i see is transferring miles to ba who make it very very hard to use them-i like transferring both amex and diners to aa

Luvmypt

I had 20,000 miles deposited into my account this morning from the CitiBank 20,000 mile offer. I applied for the card the end of May so it's taken about 7 weeks for the miles to show up.

Don

jackp

SINCE POSTING THE ORIGINAL THREAD I have received the $50 credit for the annual fee and continue to use the card. I intend to use it until I reach 180K mileage and then switch to Diners/Mastercard. If Citibank wants to give it to me free next year, I will probably use it to replenish my AAdvantage acccount with what I use this year. If I ever use or switch my diners club miles I'll probably use AAdvantage card as long as they give it to me free.

elimuli

I spend about 200,000+ yearly.
I called a few years back to cancel thinking that they would waive the fee, and they canceled me not even asking me to stay.
I don’t even try to call anymore; it’s not worth the hassle even though they raised the fee on me to $100 a year.
Eli

jackp

Can someone explain to me why ANYONE would pay $100 annual fee fpr an ordinary AAdvantage MC?

bradsjm

I signed up for an AAdvantage card when they had an offer of free membership for the first year and 12,500 miles. I got the miles but they also charged me $85 membership which I am still fighting them over as they are refusing to credit it even though I have the T&C from the website that shows $0 for the first year.

I'm definitely planning to cancel it one way or another given the treatment so far but I plan to get my $85 back first!

LGA

My whole point was that it doesn't seem to have that much of an effect. I play these credit card bonus games with substantial regularity (or irregularity! ), and I just found out my (otherwise stellar credit / on-time payments) score is over 750.

brp

Given that the highest possible score is 850, I would say that your credit card games are having an affect. Mine used to be around 810, and dropped to about 790 after I cancelled some cards. Now, 750 or above is great, and won't make a substantial difference, but, if other things happen, the combined affect could be less than desirable.

Cheers.

JDiver

What kind of AMEX card do you have that you can transfer American Express Rewards points to American Airlines? Or, what transfers do you use to do that? The best transfer path (using Randy P's mileage converter on www.webflyer.com) I see only renders 33,333 miles per 100,000 points, a very big devaluation, indeed.

Diners/MasterCard allows transfers to more airlines, and provides primary coverage "CDW" auto insurance, for two...

Stefan Daystrom

My guess is that confusion is that the OP was talking about generic AMEX cards (ie, Membership Rewards), while lionstrust presumably was referring to the Starwood AMEX (but didn't explain that).

The Starwood AMEX is the ONLY kind of AMEX which lets you earn 1 AA mile per dollar (1.25 AA miles per dollar if you transfer 20k at a time in which case you get a 5k bonus).

You can't convert a MR AMEX into a Starwood AMEX, they're totally separate beasts.

I prefer Diners/MC myself, but for people who don't care abou the primary collision coverage and (now) lower acceptance but want the lowest annual fee that's possible, the $30 annual fee (first year free) of the Starwood AMEX makes it the main competition IMHO to Diners/MC (in terms of cards that let you transfer to a variety of airlines).

ProTexana

I did a search and this thread subject line seemed most appropriate. Today, I called to cancel my AA Citi. The rep said "thanks for being a customer, blah blah blah...I can offer you 2 things:"

1) Free companion ticket within 48 states if first ticket is $299

--I rejected it

2) 3000 bonus AA miles

--I rejected it and said "is there anything you can do about the annual fee?"

Rep said "no but we can offer you 5000 bonus miles instead of 3000"

I took the 5000 and will be paying the $60 annual fee again. Was I a sucker? I thought "well, that is 1.2 cents per mile for those 5000 miles" and took it.

What do you all think? Would you have taken the offer? Should I have tried to push for more?

Kneel

1.2 cpm is OK, but not great.

Since I've gotten the Starwood AMEX, I've cancelled my AA card. The *wood is $30 a year and gives 25,000 miles for 20,000 points. However, so far I've redeemed points for free rooms, which has been an even better use than free trips / upgrades.

There are some cash back crds coming out that are also interesting... $50 credit after first purchase, no annual fees, and 5% back on gas / food / drug / hardware purchases. Max cash back is $300.

brp

^^^. Couldn't agree more as I do exactly the same thing. I can get far more value in hotel rooms than miles.

The only thing I did differently was the get a Citi Bronze card (no fee, 1mile/$2) for places that don't take Amex.

Cheers.

esofina

I called to cancel and told them it the reason was based on the 3% currency transaction fee. They offered me 6000 miles or a 1 year elimination of the 3% fee to keep it. I took the miles.