paultopia

I'm about to hit my first Amex platinum renewal---I basically got it last year when I was staring down the gun of a many-hour layover in LHR with no status and decided, WTH, let's try the centurion lounges. Trying to decide if I should keep it---would love any advice!

My situation: I live in Chicago, and do a lot of short (domestic) work travel and a little personal travel (a couple trips to CA a year, between 0-2 international trips a year). I currently have the Amex platinum with something like 140k MR points and the CSR with a similar number of UR points.

At the beginning of this year, I took stock of my impending travel and decided that it makes sense to go all in on United. They dominate ORD, and there isn't even a centurion lounge in Chicago (and I value lounges). So I grabbed a third high-fee credit card, LOL, namely the United club card, and promptly earned the SUB on that, so now I have 100k United miles as well.

My reasoning for maybe letting the Amex platinum go is that this year if I make sure I don't set foot on any other airline, and taking into account that united counts award travel using their own mileage program toward earning status, I can easily get United silver status (probably by mid year), will likely make United gold status, and depending on how possible international trips go I might even make it all the way to United platinum status though that's a stretch.

All those United miles will help with that, and so will the chase UR points as they have a United transfer partner. But this leaves me without a good redemption option for all those MR points I have sitting around.

Right now I'm getting about half of a little more the annual fee of the platinum back in what I consider real benefits, ie, stuff I'd use anyway:

- I'm maxing out the equinox benefit, and I'd get that even if I didn't use the card

- I'm actually benefiting significantly from the no-fee venmo transfers (I refuse to trust venmo with my bank account information) to do things like send money to my mom

- I'm sort of vaguely forcing use of some of the other benefits, like I find some random thing to buy from Saks every six months, have signed up for Walmart+ but don't really use it, etc. I guess the Uber thing, though I usually use it on Uber eats and probably spend more on their fees than I save with the monthly credit

- the airline credit went mostly to United travel bank last year, I guess I could do that again this year, I guess. Though given how many United miles I have, god only knows when I'll actually use travel bank funds.

- because there's no centurion lounge in ohare, and I use a lot of United lounges now, I very rarely use Amex lounge access---pretty much only if I'm in an airport with a much nicer centurion lounge (like SFO)

- I hate the hotel benefit. The hotels that are eligible for it tend to be much more expensive than I'd usually book for myself, so I basically lose money trying to use it.

so I guess my options are:

1) keep everything as is, decide I'm getting enough value from the platinum, try to get a retention offer, and maybe try to use the MR points on a star alliance partner booked flight toward the end of the year after I've already gotten as far in United status as possible?

2) double down aggressively and get a Schwab account and the Schwab platinum too (?!!? Can you get the signup bonus on that one even if you've already gotten the vanilla platinum bonus) in order to have a semi-decent outlet for converting all those MR points into money, do that, and then maybe keep the Schwab one but not the vanilla

3) downgrade and/or get a different Amex to keep the MR points, let the platinum go

What would you do in my situation?

notquiteaff

1. use the travel credits to feed the Travel Bank while it’s possible. What are you waiting for?

2. ask for a retention offer when the AF posts.

paultopia

heh good point, I just did $100 to make sure it still works...

Kacee

IMO the key benefits of this card are the lounge access (including in particular DL SkyClub), 5x points on airline tix, and FHR. If you're not using any of those, not clear to me why you would keep it.

CaptJOB

Travel bank is easy. Honestly if you actually use the Equinox benefit that already gets us to $500 off the fee right there. So that's better than most.

I like the purchase protection on the Platinum as AmEx is very easy to deal with. Lost a $100 piece of gear and they pretty much reimbursed me no questions asked so I could replace it.

However:
Sounds like you probably aren't the sort to maximize transfer partners? Super flexible looking for saver award space? If so those MRs are worth 1cpp on air travel. So $195 net fee for a card that earns 5 cpp on air travel when you'll probably want to use your Club card anyhow? The 1.1 cent for Schwab without pretty high spend has never seemed that appealing to me so either downgrade to a Gold and see how you like it or use up those MRs and close out. That's where I'd be in your shoes.

paultopia

Thanks everyone---this is helpful. After thinking this over more, I'm starting to come to the conclusion that the best use of the MR points is on FHR hotels, especially if (as customer service just told me) you can pay with MR points for a FHR hotel and still get the $200 credit. If I can do that every year, or even just get some use of the FHR benefit that isn't too egregious, I guess I net out positive on the card and will keep it. Seems like worth keeping for another year as an experiment along those lines.

asar

Nah, the best use for Membership Reward points is for booking international travel on a foreign airline! Some examples of good redemptions I've had with Amex points:
- Biz Emirates ticket on a third freedom route that had low fees
- Upgrading premium economy Alitalia tickets to biz (back in the day)
- Aeromexico redemptions when they have a sale

So basically, if for one of your international holidays United doesn't have direct flights, or the award price is ludicrous, you will have some options open.

I focus my travel on United and use a United credit card for most spending, but keep airline spending on the Amex Plat and then very occasionally use points for this sort of thing.

Kacee

I use most of my MR points for SQ or DL transfers. You can also transfer to Aeroplan, which is probably the best option these days for *A redemption, as well as AF and VS, both of which have decent TATL availability.
Putting spend on a UA card is not a great strategy. There are better options in pretty much every spend category (including various Chase cards that allow transfers to UA at 1:1). And MP is just a shadow of what it used to be.

Dr Jabadski

Not sure what you mean by “when I'll actually use travel bank funds”, the implication is that you purchase UA tickets with MR points and/or UA miles or OPM (other people’s money, like an employer). Regardless, 140K MR and 100K UA are not sufficient to buy more than a small handful of tickets (if one is paying for those tickets themselves). I agree with the others here who have suggested UA TB as an easy and efficient way to obtain the AmEx Airline Fee credit for one who travels (and buys tickets) often on UA.

Agreed although I’ll add that booking an expensive domestic flight on one’s chosen airline with the 35% rebate and prudent (airline) transfers are also worthy.

Except for UA purchases on a UA Club card which earn 4X.

Be aware that there are many here who have benefitted from multiple AmEx targeted NLL (mostly biz) offers which tend to occur after opening and using a first AmEx biz card, no annual fee Blue Biz Plus being a good example. If lounge access is one of your goals, these NLL offers are an excellent way to achieve that goal.

Kacee

Only if you've made a conscious decision to lock yourself into UA as opposed to getting 5x convertible points on Platinum.

OP already says he put his ticket on the Plat, so it's presumably non-UA spend going on the UA card. Not a great return on spend there.

time_stamp

As a fellow United captive (from Houston) I keep both the Club Card and the Platinum. Neither sees a ton of spend, but the Club Card does frequently have spend bonuses that make it worthwhile. Amex does have some good Star Alliance partners (like ANA, Singapore) where you'll still get United Club access so you've got some synergy between the two systems. I'll take 4x United over 5x MR just because United points are harder to come by (I've got Amex Gold too so I get a lot of MR) plus I use the bag benefit. But I'll take 2 MR (BBP) over 1.5 MR (Unlimited), so Chase doesn't really get any spend that isn't bonus. Amex Platinum always seems to pay for itself with some or other offer during the year.

mia

Membership Rewards (USA) do not transfer to TK.