|
New primary card?
There HAS to be an existing thread but I can't find it for some reason. In any case, I've had a SPG Amex since 2004 as my primary card. With the merger and program merger announcement yesterday, my understanding is that the SPG Amex will no longer give the best bang for the buck it had previously. What should I make my new primary card?
The only other cards I have are: 1. PenFed cash rewards Visa (gives 5% cash back on gas, but I really just have it because at the time it was one of the few chip and pin cards available plus no foreign transaction or annual fees) 2. BofA MC that sits in a drawer...used to be the University of ILlinois affinity card that I got in college 3. Chase Sapphire REserve - this is the card that my husband and I share I'd like something with travel rewards of some sort, but am open to ideas. Suggestions? Thanks! |
I am kind of in the same boat. Currently have the Chase Freedom, CSP, and SPG AmEx. Currently put any spending in the bonus categories on the Chase cards and all other spending on the SPG AmEx (where accepted). Thinking about replacing the SPG with the Hilton Ascend Card. My spending last year would have earned me about 64,000 MR points (under the new 2X scheme) or 140,000 HH points. Any thoughts?
|
For most churners the primary card is the one that needs the minimum spend hit next; at least it is for me. Other than that it seems to me that I value UR points higher than others so it would be whatever card has the spend bonus category for whatever I am buying at the time
|
Good distinction: I am not much of a churner. I'm looking for a card that provides the highest-value rewards for everyday spending at the lowest annual fee. For a long time for me, that was the SPG Amex (especially when its annual fee was only $40 or so). It got me many a free night at nice hotels around the world.
|
Originally Posted by gfunkdave
(Post 29652258)
Good distinction: I am not much of a churner. I'm looking for a card that provides the highest-value rewards for everyday spending at the lowest annual fee. For a long time for me, that was the SPG Amex (especially when its annual fee was only $40 or so). It got me many a free night at nice hotels around the world.
It's not clear whether another card for a different hotel program will get you a free night at nice hotels around the world any faster. Hilton cards earn points faster but you often need more points at Hilton for free nights than at Marriott. A WyndhamRewards card might get you free nights faster (since all hotels in their program are 15k points a night), but they have comparatively few nice hotels. Etc. |
You should really consider just a simple, no-fee, cash back card. For most who don't work the system pretty hard, that's the best, most flexible, and easiest answer.
|
Originally Posted by gfunkdave
(Post 29650741)
There HAS to be an existing thread but I can't find it for some reason. In any case, I've had a SPG Amex since 2004 as my primary card. With the merger and program merger announcement yesterday, my understanding is that the SPG Amex will no longer give the best bang for the buck it had previously. What should I make my new primary card?
The only other cards I have are: 1. PenFed cash rewards Visa (gives 5% cash back on gas, but I really just have it because at the time it was one of the few chip and pin cards available plus no foreign transaction or annual fees) 2. BofA MC that sits in a drawer...used to be the University of ILlinois affinity card that I got in college 3. Chase Sapphire REserve - this is the card that my husband and I share I'd like something with travel rewards of some sort, but am open to ideas. Suggestions? Thanks! |
I may have to rethink this one as well. My current primary cards are the PRG, SPG and Marriott Biz.
|
Originally Posted by sdsearch
(Post 29652663)
Well, a Marriott/SPG post-merger card will still get you many a free night a nice hotels around the world, just somewhat slower than the current SPG card perhaps. But it may be a Chase card (that is coming soon but not yet in existence today) that may make more sense than an Amex card, given the Amex will only have business and high-end (costly few not that great benefits) cards in the new program, Chase will get the "normal" cards.
It's not clear whether another card for a different hotel program will get you a free night at nice hotels around the world any faster. Hilton cards earn points faster but you often need more points at Hilton for free nights than at Marriott. A WyndhamRewards card might get you free nights faster (since all hotels in their program are 15k points a night), but they have comparatively few nice hotels. Etc. |
If you are focussed on hotel benefits, I think the Citi Double Cash card with no annual fee is a good bet. $15K spend on the Citi card would get you $300, which is usually good for a night stay in a decent MR/SPG/HH hotel in NYC. $15K spend on a SPG or MR card after the upcoming deval likely won't get you a night,
May be premature to predict the level of devaluation, but we were already on the bubble where the SPG point accrual made more sense than 2% cash back. I think the tipping point is upon us. |
I'm in the same boat, but I was using SPG points to convert to airline miles, not for hotel redemptions. My current card lineup consists of 2 BofA AS cards (which I have purely for the companion certs), a BofA Premium Rewards card (which I just got last week), a Chase BA card (also only for the companion cert), a Chase SR and the aforementioned Amex SPG. I tend to shift spend around based on what I've maxed out or earned (for example, once I've earned the companion cert, I shift over to the Amex SPG).
I like having an Amex in the mix because I've gotten some good deals with their merchant promos, but I'm not sure there's another Amex that suits my needs... |
I like the Amex Everyday Preferred card. A lot of credit cards out there have dining and travel as bonus categories. Amex Everyday Preferred has groceries and gas as bonus categories, so it complements nicely as an additional card. If you charge 30x or more in a month, you get 4.5 Amex MR points per dollar spend on groceries, 3 points on Gas and 1.5 point on anything else. Note that this card does have foreign transaction fee.
|
The chase reserve card has been my go to since it came out. Dumped SPG awhile ago; no way is it worthwhile with the upcoming 33% point devaluation.
|
Originally Posted by Travel22
(Post 29653740)
What sort of new Chase card are you hinting at? Are you talking about a new Marriott card?
|
For anyone who has CSR, Chase Freedom Unlimited is a good place to start. 1.5x everywhere, and points can be moved to CSR freely. That's equivalent to 2.25% cash back via the UR portal and can be significantly more via transfer partners. With Hyatt as a UR transfer option, it's arguably also the best hotel card out there for unbonused spend.
|
I’m in the same boat.
I currently have: CSR for 3x travel and dining SPG for all other non bonus spend + SPG spend CFU for places that don’t take Amex I’m not sure if I just stop using the SPG card and switch to the CFU for everything else. I do use the SPG points for high value redemption stays currently (e.g. recently booked at the St Regis NYC at 8.4cpp). The devaluation changes the math because I also transfer UR to airlines for business award tickets (SQ, UA). My last redemption on SQ was around 10cpp, and UA at around 7cpp. I know someone suggested the BPP but I’m hesitant to use a business card for personal expenses. Especially because I have a legitimate company with a bunch of Amex cards. Don’t really want to rock that boat for 2MR vs 1.5UR. I don’t get any real value out of pure cash back cards... Hmmm... |
You could just use your Chase cards more and try Hyatt hotels . . .
|
I am switching to the BofA Premium Rewards card (with Platinum Honors booster). 2.6% back base and 3.5% on travel/dining. For points, I'll just use the Blue for Business Plus for 2x MR on all purchases. Until then, I'll get as many SPG points as I can before they're devalued to hell.
|
Originally Posted by WrightHI
(Post 29658211)
For anyone who has CSR, Chase Freedom Unlimited is a good place to start. 1.5x everywhere, and points can be moved to CSR freely. That's equivalent to 2.25% cash back via the UR portal and can be significantly more via transfer partners. With Hyatt as a UR transfer option, it's arguably also the best hotel card out there for unbonused spend.
|
Originally Posted by zorbachs
(Post 29659661)
I am switching to the BofA Premium Rewards card (with Platinum Honors booster). 2.6% back base and 3.5% on travel/dining. For points, I'll just use the Blue for Business Plus for 2x MR on all purchases. Until then, I'll get as many SPG points as I can before they're devalued to hell.
|
Originally Posted by yugi
(Post 29660060)
Altitude Reserve is 4.5% for everything in-person for $75 effective AF.
|
Originally Posted by zorbachs
(Post 29660109)
I have no banking relationship with US Bank nor are there any branches in my state. Otherwise, it looks good. I have all my assets at Bank of America/Merrill but the Altitude makes sense for US Bank customers
|
Originally Posted by yugi
(Post 29660060)
Altitude Reserve is 4.5% for everything in-person for $75 effective AF.
|
Chase is running a special 3UR per $ on the CFU: Application Link. This is a really good deal if you like UR. If you pair it with a CSR this is a minimum 4.5% to use against travel. |
hi everyone, tagging along here. I have been happily using the AmEx SPG card as my everyday card for the past 4-5 years. I spend around $35k-$40k annually which gets us SPG Gold and we have been treated very well at all of the properties. We also really like the SPG properties.
I have seen that the Chase cards seem to get good praise in most of the "best reward card" lists I see. I also came across the AmEx Blue Business Plus which gives 2 AMEX points per dollar spent. I'm just not sure which rewards program gives the most flexibility. I am also not opposed to using up to 2 cards to maximize the benefits, but would opt for just a single card for simplicity if possible. A card with good protections (price protection, warranty doubling, return protection) is a huge plus. I really like those sorts of programs. Going to try and figure this out and some of the churning stuff goes over my head pretty quick. |
There's an entire thread about this over in the Starwood forum
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/star...valuation.html |
Originally Posted by gfunkdave
(Post 29650741)
There HAS to be an existing thread but I can't find it for some reason. In any case, I've had a SPG Amex since 2004 as my primary card. With the merger and program merger announcement yesterday, my understanding is that the SPG Amex will no longer give the best bang for the buck it had previously. What should I make my new primary card?
I'd like something with travel rewards of some sort, but am open to ideas. Suggestions? Thanks! Obviously, category spending goes elsewhere! |
Originally Posted by Totoro
(Post 29701257)
Obviously, category spending goes elsewhere! |
Originally Posted by heckofagator
(Post 29710710)
What's an example of this and when/where would you do something like this? Sorry, I'm coming from using 1 card from everything so not aware of all of the tricks.
Someone has a Chase Freedom card with rotating quarterly 5x categories (for the first $1500 of spend in that category that quarter). They also have a Citi Premier card which gives 3x on "the boardest definition of travel" including gas and parking, and 2x on "entertainment" including restaurants. Their "everything else" card is an Amex Business Blue Plus card which earns 2x on everything for the first $50k spend a year. They don't spend more than $50k a year with credit cards anyway, so that $50k limit isn't an issue in this example. During the current quarter: They would be using Chase Freedom at least for groceries to earn 5x. They'd use the Citi Premier at least for hotel stays, gas, parking, airplane tickets, trains, etc, which all fall under the Premier's "travel" category. They'd probably use the Amex Blue Business Plus for everything else for simplicity, or they could choose to use Citi Premier for restaurants and movie tickets if they valued their Citi Thank You Points more than their American Express Membership Rewards points. But last quarter, when Chase Freedom had 5x on gas: They would have used Chase Freedom rather than Citi Premier for gas. Everything else would have worked the same as this quarter. The above is an example showing both rotating categories and fixed categories. Depending on your preference, you may have cards that have both or only one kind of category. (Fixed categories are way more common than rotating categories, but 5x earning is only common on rotating categories.) (I simplified Chase Freedom rotating categories above. There's actually more than one category typically each quarter, but some of them are harder to explain, so for the purpose of the above example I just chose the most "obvious" category. For example, in last quarter they also had telephone and internet utliities, and this quarter they also have PayPal, and both quarters they also had Chase Pay, but that only works if someone wants to use their phone to pay at stores, which not all people do.) |
Originally Posted by heckofagator
(Post 29710710)
What's an example of this and when/where would you do something like this? Sorry, I'm coming from using 1 card from everything so not aware of all of the tricks.
I offered my opinion that Chase Freedom Unlimited and AMEX Blue for Business Plus will displace SPG AMEX as the best rewards credit cards for non-category spending. |
| All times are GMT -6. The time now is 2:29 pm. |
This site is owned, operated, and maintained by MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. Copyright © 2026 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Designated trademarks are the property of their respective owners.