New to the card game...
 

Hi all, I am new to using credit cards to get points and I am kicking myself for using a plain ole credit card all these years. I currently have SWA Visa, Chase Freedom, and Chase Sapphire Preferred and am looking to add more in the future. First up is the Arrival Plus card, but here is where my knowledge is lacking and I could use some sage advice.

As I understand it, CSP gives me 2x points on Travel and Dining and Arrival Plus is 2x on all spending. I realize that UR points are not equal to those I would earn with the Arrival card although the math is still fuzzy to me. Still trying to understand that aspect of the card game.

My question is this...Should I continue to use my CSP for travel and dining and then put all other spending on the Arrival plus since it is 2x points on everything?? Or are UR points so much more desirable that once I earn my Arrival plus bonus I should go back to putting all my spend on CSP and Freedom bonuses?

Thanks!

There's no doubt that UR points are much more valuable than Arrival points. But the flexibility of Arrival points is what makes it attractive to people. Personally I like using a combo of both. IE- what we just did on a trip to Banff Canada. Pay 25k round trip for 1 using United miles transferred from UR, and pay the ~$75 taxes using the Barclaycard Arrival points.

At the moment I use CSP for Travel and Dining and Arrival or SPG Amex on everything else, besides Office Supply/Gas (Ink), and Entertainment (TYP).

A really easy way to understand why UR points are more valuable... A round trip flight from let's say, JFK to LAX would cost 25k United Miles, but would cost way more than $250, which is what you would get if you used Barclay points.

There is no answer to this question that applies to everyone equally. One of the most important pieces of this game is to determine the average value of each point to YOU personally. In the beginning, this is very difficult, because until you have started traveling and booking on awards, it's hard to guesstimate what the value will be. The reason you could find UR points more valuable than Arrival points is that you can transfer your UR points to airline partners.

For example, say you spend $12,500 on Travel and Dining @ 2x on the CSP. This earns you 25K UR points. You could transfer these to United Airlines and book a domestic flight. Value on that flight is completely dependent on the route, time of year, etc. If you price out that flight, and it's $300 cash, then you're getting $300 value out of 25K miles, or 1.2 cents per mile. On your original spend, you're getting 1.2 x 2 = 2.4% on your $12,500. Now, if your flight prices out to $550, you're getting 2.2 cents per mile, so you're getting 2.2 x 2 = 4.4%.

I assign UR points a value of 2.5 cents per point, because that is the actual average of the value I've received from my redemptions over the past 22 months. The good thing with the Barclay card is that it is a fixed, finite value that you can always count on. UR points have more upside, but have more hoops to jump through.

In general, I think most people would advise allotting spend in this order:

1. ALWAYS be sure to hit the minimum spend on new card bonuses
2. If your card offers anything greater than 2x, make sure to put the appropriate spend onto that card
3. For all 2x transactions, put the appropriate spend onto the card with either: 1) The highest point value to YOU or 2) The program you're specifically trying to build a higher point balance in (for an upcoming trip, etc)

Hope this helps.

If you are in fact a teacher, you'll likely be booking around school schedules. If you're not willing to be flexible on destination and book either at the last minute or 10-11 months in advance, your best bet may be to simply collect signup bonuses and then cashback or points in a program like Arrival card. The first step for everyone deciding what program to concentrate on is to spend a few hours doing dummy bookings. Award charts mean nothing if there are no seats available or massive surcharges will be levied. Click through until you see the cost in miles and the taxes & fees. If you share your 'home' airport and the trip(s) you want to take, you will get better and more specific advise.

Can't remember where I saw it, but one of the travel blogs did a great post on using the Barclay Arrival vs. booking with points. The added benefit to using the Arrival card is also that you're accumulating frequent flier miles or reward programs points for hotels. However, I think with all of this, you have to look at what your ultimate goal is. The variable points programs are fantastic if you're indecisive, but you also have to be an opportunist. I signed up for the Amex Business Platinum knowing nothing about the program other than I'd be earning 170,000 points after 3 months of aggressive spending.

Do your research, figure out what points are worth, know your goals, and go from there. This game is a lot more fun when you get there with your own research...

I'll provide a counterpoint to this. My wife is a teacher and we find miles work great for working around her schedule. Yes, she's less flexible and we have to travel at more peak times BUT she knows exactly when she'll be off up to two years in advance. That allows us to stalk for frequent flyer tickets right when they are released (often 300-335 days before a travel date). Every trip we've had to cancel has been because my corporate job just doesn't allow me to plan that far out. My boss would laugh if I wanted him to commit to me having a week off nearly a year in advance.

I agree with all the sentiments though, a balanced approach that takes into consideration your own needs is the best bet. Our strategy has been to have enough miles/UR points to take care of our airfare and to then bank the rest to Barclays to take care of all the misc. travel expenses that add up. We cycle in hotel cards/points only when we have a specific high value redemption in mind (hotel points are notoriously difficult to value for us given wide fluctuations in hotel costs depending on location, season and even brand).

I actually see nothing wrong with this plan (probably because that's what I do when I'm not aiming for anything in particular). At least do that until you do more looking into things to figure out where you'll get the best reward return for each dollar you spend. The dummy reservations is a good suggestion so that you can get a feel for which airline would work best in your situation (location, where you want to travel, reward availability, etc.). Please allow yourself lots of time to study this, there is no rush.

I will say that the SWA Visa and CSP are redundant since the CSP does everything the SWA does for you (2UR for travel w CSP = 2RR SWA), unless you like the almost but not quite even trade off of anniversary RR pts for an AF. I'm not saying you necessarily should close it, since there's a lot of things to consider there - credit score, if there's another Chase card you'd like instead, stuff like that. If you do close it though, make sure to transfer your credit limit to one of your other Chase cards before doing so.