355F1

sdsearch

If you travel routinely to the Anaheim area, there's a DT "resort" there that's priced no more than most Hilton properties in that general area, and all you need thus are two nights there to just get over the $250 level, and most of your two nights are credited.

So it depends where you stay as to how easy it may be to use up this credit.

But OTOH isn't the $10/month "dining" credit just as "depends on" as that Hilton resort credit? How many people are going to be able to reliably get that credit each of the 12 months of the year without overspending? (And for someone like me who mostly dines at Rewards Network participating restaurants that give me 10 miles per dine not counting what I get from the credit card, I'll lose that by going through GrubHub, since RN gives miles only when they "intercept" payments made at the restaurant register, while GrubHub handles the payments for order placed through GrubHub. So I have to factor that in. But anyone who doesn't use RN dining programs much doesn't have to factor that in.)

And some people get so much from Amex Offers each year that it's Amex Offers that already turn the PRG into a "net negative" annual fee card for them. But I find fairly few Amex Offers that work for me.

Meanwhile, DoC reached out to an Amex source who told them that the annual fee on the "renamed" PRG->Gold will not be increased on this card when these new benefits arrive. (I view that as much more than just a random rumor, but of course not quite an official Amex company statement.)

RedSun

AmEx offers from PRG is about average. I tend to get more from BCE and ED CCs, along with some travel offers from Plat. The BGR has some nice promotions too. The worst CCs for offers are Hilton NAF and SPG cards.

jamesinclair

I was thinking of dumping my PRG and getting the new Savor instead.

Why? I find the PRG to be a pain to use. The airline thing requires jumping through hoops, and redemption isnt that great either. Savor is doing a 4x dining with simple cash back.

However, these changes might keep me on board for another year. The 4x would match Savor, and I would probably get about $50 back from the $10 food thing. I hate how they make you jump through hoops to get the value, but whatever.

If the Prestige doesnt get an improvement next month, then thats the one I think Ill end up dumping

mia

If you are not receiving more than $0.01/point redemption value, Membership Rewards is not the program for you.

jamesinclair

Savor is 4% cash back for dining. How common is it to get that kind of value from MR?

By "jumping through hoops" I mean that most partners are international and theres usually some delay in processing the transfer and then another delay in using the intl partner to book a US flight.

javabytes

mia

American Express has three domestic airline partners, plus one in Canada and one in Mexico. Chase has three domestic partners. Citi has one. I don't see this as a big point of differentiation.

2/3 of Membership Rewards partners provide real time (instant) transfers.

RedSun

We need to place a big "caution" mark on the point values. A fair comparison is on booking basic economy fares. The point value on booking high class seats are hugely over-valued. Often time you can get 10 cpp on first class or suite. Some of the seats cost more than $10,000. No comparison.

So when you say you get 5 cpp on air fare, I'd like to know what air fare...

conde

A better metric for points valuation on premium cabins is the lower of the fare cost or cost to buy miles. I believe AMEX Membership Rewards can be bought at ~$0.025 per mile. Often airline FF program miles can be bought at ~$0.017-$0.021 per mile. If redeeming for economy class, often the fare price comes out to less, hence a lower redemption value. Because of the ability to buy miles for lower cost than a purchased fare on premium cabin travel, redemption value rarely approaches $0.05- $0.10 per mile.

RedSun

Not true.

Often times, airlines have some premium cabin seats still empty close to travel dates. Then they open them up for reward redemption. You may be lucky to use 75,000 points to book a $10,000 seat.... There are storied like this....

jamesinclair

Agreed.

Spending 480k points (2 people, round trip) on a single trip doesnt sound like a good value to me. "The cash fare would have been $30,000!". Ok, but for $30,000 I could fly around the world a dozen times and back again.

Its like buying a diamond on sale. Great, you paid $10,000 for something you're told is valued at $25,000, what a deal! Well, that shiny rock is useless and $10k could have bought you a year of delicious meals.

conde

I wasn't denying that scenarios like that exist. I booked CX First Class LAX to SE Asia several times on AA miles (pre 2016 before the devaluation). RT on AA miles for that was 135,000 miles. Fares charged for those often were $12,000-$15,000. I never valued point redemption as ~10 cpp.

To me, point valuation is a guideline I use to see whether a point redemption is sensible. If I can pay cash for points in advance anticipating situations or later when I see an opportunity, the cost to buy points is how I value the points for premium cabin travel. If I'm not getting good value, with points for air or otherwise for hotel stays, I pay cash. If you choose to value points differently, that is up to you.

javabytes

RedSun

Yes, for reward booking, it is really YMMV. It is just hard to blindly compare them. I have AmEx MR, Chase UR and a little Citi TYP. Then we get all the tools in the box....