Premium reward cards - Revision history

Editor: /* Strategy 1: Easy redemptions */

2021-08-12T04:15:47Z

‎Strategy 1: Easy redemptions

Editor: /* Strategy 1: Easy redemptions */

2021-08-12T04:15:21Z

‎Strategy 1: Easy redemptions

Editor: /* Strategy 1: Easy redemptions */

2021-08-12T04:14:21Z

‎Strategy 1: Easy redemptions

Editor: /* Side-by-side comparison */

2021-08-12T03:31:01Z

‎Side-by-side comparison

Editor: /* Strategy 2: Maximum transferable points */

2021-08-12T03:29:43Z

‎Strategy 2: Maximum transferable points

Editor at 21:25, 5 July 2021

2021-07-05T21:25:37Z

Show changes

Editor: /* Side-by-side comparison */

2021-07-01T22:25:03Z

‎Side-by-side comparison

Editor: /* Amex Platinum Business Card */

2021-07-01T22:23:52Z

‎Amex Platinum Business Card

Editor: /* Amex Platinum Card */

2021-07-01T22:21:28Z

‎Amex Platinum Card

Editor: /* Our recommendation: Sign up for all the premium cards (over time) */

2021-07-01T22:08:55Z

‎Our recommendation: Sign up for all the premium cards (over time)

@@ Line 274: / Line 274: @@
 <ul class="bulletlist">
-<li>'''Our normal recommendation is to use the Sapphire Reserve for your travel and restaurant spending'''. Ultimate Reward points are the easiest to use and the Sapphire Reserve card comes with the best travel insurance. If you don't need the lounge access, you might use the Ink Preferred and Freedom Unlimited Combo instead.</li>
+<li>'''Our normal recommendation is to use the Sapphire Reserve for your travel and restaurant spending'''. Ultimate Reward points are the easiest to use and the Sapphire Reserve card comes with the best travel insurance. If you don't need the lounge access and are willing and able to get a business card, you might use the Ink Preferred and Freedom Unlimited Combo instead.</li>
 <li>'''If you don't spend very much and don't value the airport lounge benefit, there are some no-annual-fee options'''. For example, you can earn 4% at restaurants with the {{Card|AltitudeGo|only}} and 3% on travel with the {{Card|Costco|only}}.  </li>

@@ Line 274: / Line 274: @@
 <ul class="bulletlist">
-<li>'''Our normal recommendation is to use the Sapphire Reserve for your travel and restaurant spending'''. Ultimate Reward points are the easiest to use and the Sapphire Reserve card comes with the best travel insurance.</li>
+<li>'''Our normal recommendation is to use the Sapphire Reserve for your travel and restaurant spending'''. Ultimate Reward points are the easiest to use and the Sapphire Reserve card comes with the best travel insurance. If you don't need the lounge access, you might use the Ink Preferred and Freedom Unlimited Combo instead.</li>
 <li>'''If you don't spend very much and don't value the airport lounge benefit, there are some no-annual-fee options'''. For example, you can earn 4% at restaurants with the {{Card|AltitudeGo|only}} and 3% on travel with the {{Card|Costco|only}}.  </li>

@@ Line 276: / Line 276: @@
 <li>'''Our normal recommendation is to use the Sapphire Reserve for your travel and restaurant spending'''. Ultimate Reward points are the easiest to use and the Sapphire Reserve card comes with the best travel insurance.</li>
-<li>'''If you don't spend very much and don't value the airport lounge benefit, there are some no-annual-fee options'''. The most valuable is the Wells Fargo combination, which provides a 3.9% reward rate with no annual fees. If you want a simpler plan, there are several no-annual fee cards, such as the Costco card, which give you a 3% reward rate on both of these categories.</li>
+<li>'''If you don't spend very much and don't value the airport lounge benefit, there are some no-annual-fee options'''. For example, you can earn 4% at restaurants with the {{Card|AltitudeGo|only}} and 3% on travel with the {{Card|Costco|only}}.  </li>
 </ul>

@@ Line 319: / Line 319: @@
 |-
 |Bonus Categories
-|3x Travel
+|5x Airfare through Chase
 x Restaurants
-|5x Airfare, prepaid hotels through Amex travel
+|5x Airfare, prepaid hotels through Amex
 |3x Travel
 x Mobile Wallet
-| 7x Flights and rental cars with Amex travel
+| 7x Flights and rental cars with Amex
 x Restaurants

@@ Line 281: / Line 281: @@
 ==== Strategy 2: Maximum transferable points ====
 <ul class="bulletlist">
-<li>'''If you already have an Amex Platinum card for other reasons, you should use it for your airfare purchases instead'''. Membership Reward points are a little more valuable than ThankYou points and you'll get free travel insurance benefits. We would never recommend getting the Amex Platinum card primarily to bump up the rewards on your airfare spending, but if you already have the card anyway you might as well use it. And if you are cycling through different versions of the Platinum card, there is a good chance you'll have one to use.</li>
+<li>'''If you already have an Amex Platinum card for other reasons, you might want to use it for your airfare purchases instead'''. You can earn the same 5x points from a variety of Chase cards, but you'll need to buy your tickets through Chase, instead of directly with the airline.  We would never recommend getting the Amex Platinum card primarily to bump up the rewards on your airfare spending, but if you already have the card anyway, you'd rather buy your tickets directly from the airline, and you are booking a round-trip, you might as well use it. And if you are cycling through different versions of the Platinum card, there is a good chance you'll have one to use.</li>
-<li>'''An Amex-only option isn't usually worth it'''. You'll need the Amex Green card, with a $150 annual fee, to earn rewards on a wider variety of travel purchases and on restaurants. Assuming you can get it, the Sapphire Preserve is a better option for around the same effective cost and the Citi Premier is cheaper and also provides bonus points on groceries and gas. Plus both cards can be used with businesses that don't take Amex.</li>
+<li>'''An Amex-only option isn't usually worth it'''. You'll need the Amex Green card, with a $150 annual fee, to earn rewards on a wider variety of travel purchases and on restaurants. Assuming you can get it, the Sapphire Reserve is a better option for around the same effective cost and the Citi Premier is cheaper and also provides bonus points on groceries and gas. Plus both cards can be used with businesses that don't take Amex.</li>
 If you are planning on spending $25,000 at grocery stores, you can use the Amex Gold card to boost your restaurant spending up to 4x MR points, without needing to absorb even more in annual fees.

@@ Line 482: / Line 482: @@
 |Other credits
 |$60 DoorDash credit in 2020 and 2021
-|$15/month ($35 in December) for Uber rides or Uber eats. 2x $50 credits at Saks.
+|Many other credits
+|
+|
@@ Line 515: / Line 515: @@
 |Base Fee
 |$550
-|$550
+|$695
 |$495, $350 for Citigold
 |$400

@@ Line 231: / Line 231: @@
 {{Card|PlatinumBiz|guide}}
-The business card costs $50 more, provides all the valuable unique benefits of the personal card, except for the Uber and Saks credit. And it gets a few interesting extra benefits, that are not available from the personal card:
+The business card costs $50 more, provides all the valuable core benefits of the personal card, but not most of the extra credits (You do get the airline incidental, CLEAR, and TSA credits). On the other hand, you do get a few interesting extra benefits that are not available from the personal card:
 <ul class="bulletlist">
@@ Line 241: / Line 241: @@
 </ul>
-The annual fee is $595, which is $50 more than the fee for the personal card. In addition, you don’t get the $200 Uber and the $100 Saks credit. If you would get full value from these credits, the business card will wind up being about a wash. If you get little value from them, the business card will wind up being a better deal.
+The annual fee is $595, which is $100 less than fee for the personal card. If you would get a lot of value from the personal card's extra credits, the business card will wind up being a lot more expensive. If you get little value from them, the business card will wind up being a better deal.
 You need to have some sort of business to be entitled to get this card. It can be a part-time gig and you don’t need a special Tax ID number. Amex requires that the business revenue is at least $1,000 per year, but many people believe that is a projection of revenue over the following year and not a summary of revenue over the previous year. {{Link|business cards}}.

@@ Line 177: / Line 177: @@
 {{Card|platinumcard|guide}}
-Unfortunately, it isn't straightforward to determine whether the unique benefits of the Amex Platinum card are worth paying its $550 annual fee (beyond the initial year). It has several different benefits, rather than a main signature feature. Furthermore, some people will struggle to take full advantage of its different credits, while other people will be able to use them to almost completely offset the annual fee.
+Unfortunately, it isn't straightforward to determine whether the unique benefits of the Amex Platinum card are worth paying its $695 annual fee (beyond the initial year). It has many different benefits, rather than a main signature feature. Furthermore, some people will struggle to take full advantage of its different credits, while other people will be able to use them to almost completely offset the annual fee.
 Regardless of the exact value you place on the card, you have the option of getting a new version each year. That way, you are always receiving a fresh signup bonus (and a double-dose of the airline incidental credit). It may be quite a few years before you have to make the final decision about whether to hold onto an Amex Platinum Card beyond its initial year.
@@ Line 196: / Line 196: @@
 <li>'''Along with the Citi Prestige card, the Platinum card earns the highest reward rate on airfare'''. You’ll earn a whopping 5x Membership Rewards points on your airfare purchases. For every $1,000 that you spend, you’ll earn approximately $40 in extra rewards by using the Platinum card, instead of using a card like the Sapphire Reserve. Unlike the Citi Prestige, the Platinum card offers some of the same free travel insurance benefits that are currently available from the Sapphire Reserve card.  The Platinum card's 5x reward rate on hotels may sound good at first, but isn’t worth much, because of the drawbacks associated with needing to purchase pre-paid rates on a 3<sup>rd</sup> party booking site.)</li>
-<li>'''Amex's “Fine Hotels & Resorts” is a valuable program, but you can get similar benefits elsewhere'''. If you stay in luxury hotels, you can get great benefits with the Platinum card’s highly-touted Fine Hotel and Resorts program. But to be fair, many of the hotels in the program participate in similar programs run by the other credit card programs or luxury travel agents. On the other hand, Amex’s Fine Hotel & Resorts more frequently provides 3<sup>rd</sup> and 4<sup>th</sup> night free offers. While the potential upside can be high, you might not get any real value from this in any given year, especially if you don’t often pay for the most expensive hotels and resorts. {{Link|luxury hotels}}.</li>
+<li>'''Amex's “Fine Hotels & Resorts” is a valuable program, but you can get similar benefits elsewhere'''. If you stay in luxury hotels, you can get great benefits with the Platinum card’s highly-touted Fine Hotel and Resorts program, especially with the new $200 per year credit. But to be fair, many of the hotels in the program participate in similar programs run by the other credit card programs or luxury travel agents. On the other hand, Amex’s Fine Hotel & Resorts more frequently provides 3<sup>rd</sup> and 4<sup>th</sup> night free offers. While the potential upside can be high, you might not get any real value from this in any given year, especially if you don’t often pay for the most expensive hotels and resorts. {{Link|luxury hotels}}.</li>
 </ul>
-The annual fee for most versions of the Platinum card is $550. Like the other high-end cards, it comes with some credits that can offset that fee, but unlike the Citi Prestige, Altitude Reserve, and Sapphire Reserve cards, it isn’t easy to get full value from these credits.
+The annual fee for most versions of the Platinum card is $695. Like the other high-end cards, it comes with some credits that can offset that fee, but unlike the Citi Prestige, Altitude Reserve, and Sapphire Reserve cards, it isn’t easy to get full value from these credits.
 <ul class="bulletlist">
 <li>'''You get a $200 "airline incidental" credit, but it hard to take full advantage of it'''. The travel credit on the Amex card is MUCH less useful than the travel credit you get from from the Sapphire Reserve, Citi Prestige, and Altitude Reserve cards.</li>
@@ Line 211: / Line 207: @@
 On the other hand, if you are willing to work harder and bend the rules, there are some “tricks” that allows you to receive the "full amount" of incidental airline credit. Small denomination gift card purchases no longer work, but there are a few things that still might. {{Link|incidental credits}}.
 </ul>
-Depending on how fully you can use the Uber, Saks, and Airline Incidental credits, the effective annual fee of the Platinum card ranges from $50 to $550 (after the initial year). If you don’t frequently use Uber and don’t want to play games with the airline incidental credit, you might bear nearly the full brunt of the $550 annual fee. On the other hand, if you can take full advantage of the credits, you aren't paying much for the Platinum card's other benefits.
+Depending on how fully you can use the Airline Incidental, Hotel, Digital Entertainment, CLEAR, Saks, and Equinox Credits, the effective annual fee of the Platinum card ranges from -$720 to $695 (after the initial year). If you won't get much value, you might bear nearly the full brunt of the $695 annual fee. On the other hand, if you can take full advantage of the credits, you'll get more back than the annual fee, before counting the other benefits like enhanced lounge access.
 ==== Amex Platinum Business Card ====

@@ Line 53: / Line 53: @@
 |-
 |'''{{Card|PlatinumCard|short}}''' (multiple versions)||50-100,000||$200-1,700
-|$200 x2 airline incidental (one airline), $200 Uber (spread out on a monthly basis), $50 x3 Saks
+|A large number of sometimes hard to use credits
 |-
 |'''{{Card|PlatinumBiz|short}}''' ||75-125,000||$500-2,000
-|A large number of sometimes hard to use credits
+|$200 x2 airline incidental (one airline), $100 x3 Dell, $179 x2 CLEAR
 |-
 |'''{{Card|SapphireReserve|short}}''' ||50,000||$650