bgriff

If this proves to be a permanent and widespread change, it certainly makes the PRG more attractive (especially relative to its main competitor the CSP/CSR family), but for those who already had the CSR/CSP, PRG, or other common bonus cards and used the SPG Amex for non-bonus spend, it doesn't change much.

Personally if Amex is improving its portfolio, I wish the Everyday Preferred would add a restaurant bonus category. I would have no problem hitting 30 transactions a month between frequent lunches out, coffee shop purchases, etc., but I don't necessarily reliably have 30 transactions a month to put on an EP once you exclude dining.

nologic

Unless you want to micro manage what card you use for different types of spends, is there any other card that gives 1.5x points convertible into 1.5 miles/$ spend on everyday purchases?

For example, I can pay my rent with a credit card, and taxes...that costs about 2%, but I seek to redeem on business and first class international travel at 4-6+ cents per dollar.

SPG offered 1.25 miles/$ with the 25% transfer bonus. But that's now gone,

At a flat 1.5x to MR, which has a large number of airline partners, is there any card that approaches this benefit?

nologic

Wait, why wouldn't you put everyday lunches on your PRG card and easily get to 1.5x on all your monthly purchases, no matter what?

christianj

I think bgriff was referring to IF the Gold card gives the bonus on dining then he/she would have a hard time hitting the 30 transactions on the EDP card since that is what he/she uses right now for lunches to get over the 30 transactions on the EDP ..... which then kicks in the bonus to get 1.5 MR points on all EVERYDAY purchases.

I'm not sure why you are saying "no matter what" as the 1.5 only applies to your account when you exceed the 30 transactions.

ckelly14

No, I don't get usually get value transferring to American anymore, except for occasional splurge travel with my wife on business class. Recently, I booked two one way tickets to SJU from CSH for 25K each when they were valued at $980. However, these are hard to find unless you want to connect the next day or have more than one connection. One way back, I used cash to purchase business class on Delta for $400. So, I probably value the tickets at $400/25000, not $980/25000.

The more I mess around with this, the more I'm convinced that I should just buy the CFU and get a minimum of $2.25 on the portal.

ckelly14

So, you only get 1.5 on the transactions exceeding 30, or once you get to 30 you get the bonus on ALL the transactions that month?

nologic

If he's willing to put his lunch charges on the Crafts, that's 20 or so charges right there. Most people can come up w 10 more charges per month .my understanding is that once you hit 30 charges, you get 1.5x on all your charges that month...thats what I meant by "no matter what."

​​​​​​​This seems like the best card/program available by 50 percent.

christianj

AGAIN he was stating that IF the Gold card gave the reported 4 points for dining that he would likely have a hard time hitting the 30 transactions on the EDP since he uses that card for small lunch purchases...which put him over the 30 transactions required to get the bonus.

On everyday purchases you can also go the route of the Chase Freedom Unlimited which gives you 1.5 if used with a CSR or CS card and you do NOT have to have 30 transactions a month to get the 1.5 points.

You do get the 50% bonus on ALL charges for the month if you achieve the 30 charges on the card in a billing cycle.

bgriff

If you want only one card, then the Everyday Preferred card is a good option -- it gets 1.5 MR points per dollar on all spend (plus further bonuses on grocery stores and gas stations) as long as you have 30 transactions on that card per month. And hitting that number of transactions per month should be easy enough if you use only one card for everything.

Personally I don't have an Everyday Preferred card because I also have & am happy with a Chase Sapphire Reserve card which earns 3x points on dining. So if I got the Everyday Preferred card, I wouldn't move my dining spend to it because that would be a downgrade in earnings. And without the 30 transactions a month, which I wouldn't necessarily have without dining spend, the EP is not attractive for other types of spend, so I can't justify getting it. But if the EP had a bonus on dining (say similar to what it gives on grocery stores), then it would both be attractive for dining by itself, and the transaction volume that dining creates would also ensure it was an attractive card for non-bonus spend.

That said, I would strongly recommend you consider being open to using a mix of 2 or 3 cards, because there are some great opportunities to quickly earn much more than 1.5 miles per dollar out there if you can keep a couple of cards straight.

christianj

I think most would agree !00% but to make sure I get to the 30 transactions a month on the EDP I use the card every morning for my coffee at Starbucks. In the grand scheme of things, I can deal with loosing the 85 additional bonus points I would get using the CSR for those charges vs using the EDP. ($2.82 x 20 days x 1.5 points difference = 85 points) I would never put a larger dining charge on the EDP over the CSR but I have been known to put it on my Hilton Honors Ascend card until I achieve the $15k spend for a free night.

bgriff

Obviously there are also other things one could do to boost the transaction count on the EP, like as an Amazon Prime member making lots of orders for individual items rather than grouping them. In NYC there's a grocery delivery service called FreshDirect and I've noticed that when you change an order you've already submitted (which you can do unlimited times until a certain time deadline before your delivery), they submit the changes as a new charge. I guess you could make multiple separate transactions at stores with self-checkout kiosks. Etc. So if you really wanted to, you can find ways to force the EP to 30 transactions a month. I just haven't decided -- thus far anyway -- that it's worth the hassle for me.

Especially when the CFU can achieve similar results (other than lacking the bonuses on grocery stores and gas stations) without the extra hassle. But, I probably need to bite the bullet on getting either the EP or the CFU soon -- personally I use the Delta Platinum Amex for $25K of non-bonus spend in order to hit the threshold bonus on that card, but I had a few big charges this year and ended up hitting the $25K sooner than I had expected. So with that done I suddenly found myself without an obvious non-bonus card with the SPG Amex now useless.

Part of my dithering on finding a replacement solution has been, as I mentioned somewhere far upthread, that unlike many, I actually liked to use SPG points for hotels, and rarely for airline transfers. And other than Chase UR->Hyatt, there really aren't any attractive ways to earn hotel stays on credit card spend these days. (And even Chase UR->Hyatt is arguably less attractive than other uses of Chase UR points.)

christianj

Like you, I like to use a lot of my credit card points for hotel stays as well and that was the main reason I like the SPG AMEX so much. I do not know if this would work for you but it is worth checking out:

Radisson Rewards US Bank card - IMHO a good alternative for everyday spend if you travel outside of the US as most of their properties in the US are not that great. Decent earning for everyday spend at 5 points per $1 so top redemptions require $15k in spend. Added benefits of up to 3 free nights (for each $10K spend per calendar year) and 40k annual renewal bonus. (Free nights for $10k spend are only good in the US!!!) https://www.radissonrewardsvisa.com/...PremierCard.do

abk

I received this yesterday. Looks like they are realizing that they have lost some major spend. I would do this but 60 days is to tight a window but for 90 I would be all in.

KParks

That looks like a solid offer though. I haven't seen it yet unfortunately (also never got an upgrade points offer to move to luxury).

I did however get the offer for bonus points on restaurants and groceries through 10/31.

ckelly14

Agree, I'm exactly in your shoes and haven't completely given up on SPG/Marriott. I have 2 SPG business cards that I will continue to use for gas, cellular bill and shipping, as well as some restaurants. I booked 2 properties post-merger: Courtyard NOLA for 25K points (best rate $235) and San Juan Marriott resort for 35K points (best rate $408) for a return of 0.94 cpp and 1.16 cpp respectfully. If I can continue to stay at Starwood and get a value of around $0.04/dollar spent, I'm good.