YouBet said:

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Texag5324 said:

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Diggity said:

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I do see the upside of "picking a horse" for spending and being a king/queen in some manner, but can't help myself. I need to find the exact most efficient way to extract value for each purchase. It's a sickness, but I've seen worse.

I read blogs about people who are much crazier than me, so that makes me feel better

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The way to extract the most value out of every purchase is to churn cards and always be chasing a new sign up bonus lol. Most of us aren't getting many points from the day to day spending unless you're a super big spender.

Most of my points come from the large sign up bonuses, not my daily spend.

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Valid. And now that we personally don't take out loans for anything Im not sure I really care if my credit score takes a hit for churning. (I'm not sure that it even does; I've just never done it because it seems like work.)

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Ive been churning cards for 10+ years and my credit score has always hovered around 780-800+. Your score takes a small hit when you open up a new card but then goes back up once you have more credit available to you.

jamey said:

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FIL past away about a year ago with 20 cards. What a raging cluster F@&$% he left us to deal with. Lawyer we had to hire to deal with the debt in a legal manner gonna cost a ton. Luckily the house had 100K in equity. After all the cost of keeping up the mortgage, selling the house, lawyers....

We'll be happy if theres 50K left


I've always just kept 1 card. Now theres no way I'd ever be a card collector to chase rewards.

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I wouldn't let the bad financial habits of a FIL prevent you from benefiting from something that many of us do very successfully. It is him and people like him that allow myself and others like me to benefit from these cards.

It only takes one credit card to rack up a life altering amount of debt, and it sounds like you already have that one card. So if you're responsible with it, there no reason to think you can't be responsible with churning. Churning doesn't have to involve a lot of cards. You can literally have one card, and at year end, cancel it to churn into another one, and continue that cycle with just 2 cards (with a caveat), getting near 6 figure bonuses every year.

Caveat being, you can't get bonus for the exact same card more than in 24 months. But you can get say 80k points for a marriott card, and then the next year get 80k points for a different marriott card.

Amex Blue Cash Preferred gives 6% on groceries up to $6k spend and 3% on gas.

WF Active Cash is 2% on everything, no limits. Swap to this for groceries after Amex limit met.

WF Autograph Journey 5% hotel, 4% airline, 3% dining (points).

I bank with WF, so I like having it in one place.

Texag5324 said:

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Diggity said:

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I do see the upside of "picking a horse" for spending and being a king/queen in some manner, but can't help myself. I need to find the exact most efficient way to extract value for each purchase. It's a sickness, but I've seen worse.

I read blogs about people who are much crazier than me, so that makes me feel better

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The way to extract the most value out of every purchase is to churn cards and always be chasing a new sign up bonus lol. Most of us aren't getting many points from the day to day spending unless you're a super big spender.

Most of my points come from the large sign up bonuses, not my daily spend.

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blue star for this...it's all about the sign up bonuses...churning is where you take your points/miles/cashback to a-whole-nother level compared to the 2% of this and that type purchase...

Amex platinum, Citi double cash, capital one venture X

EnronAg said:

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Texag5324 said:

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Diggity said:

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I do see the upside of "picking a horse" for spending and being a king/queen in some manner, but can't help myself. I need to find the exact most efficient way to extract value for each purchase. It's a sickness, but I've seen worse.

I read blogs about people who are much crazier than me, so that makes me feel better

---

The way to extract the most value out of every purchase is to churn cards and always be chasing a new sign up bonus lol. Most of us aren't getting many points from the day to day spending unless you're a super big spender.

Most of my points come from the large sign up bonuses, not my daily spend.

---

blue star for this...it's all about the sign up bonuses...churning is where you take your points/miles/cashback to a-whole-nother level compared to the 2% of this and that type purchase...

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Yea I think a lot of people I know try to optimize their daily spending by putting different spend categories on different cards. In reality they're not getting enough points that way to move the needle. They'd be better off putting that spend towards a new sign up bonus.

Texag5324 said:

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EnronAg said:

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Texag5324 said:

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Diggity said:

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I do see the upside of "picking a horse" for spending and being a king/queen in some manner, but can't help myself. I need to find the exact most efficient way to extract value for each purchase. It's a sickness, but I've seen worse.

I read blogs about people who are much crazier than me, so that makes me feel better

---

The way to extract the most value out of every purchase is to churn cards and always be chasing a new sign up bonus lol. Most of us aren't getting many points from the day to day spending unless you're a super big spender.

Most of my points come from the large sign up bonuses, not my daily spend.

---

blue star for this...it's all about the sign up bonuses...churning is where you take your points/miles/cashback to a-whole-nother level compared to the 2% of this and that type purchase...

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Yea I think a lot of people I know try to optimize their daily spending by putting different spend categories on different cards. In reality they're not getting enough points that way to move the needle. They'd be better off putting that spend towards a new sign up bonus.

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I would want to see their math to justify this in the first place which I doubt many are doing. You are diluting your total spend across multiple cards and while that maxes point return on any one card does it really gain you anything vs if you had just gone all-in on 1-2 cards?

You would have to spend a **** ton to get a good enough ROI on each card in order to make it worth it.

1) It's not that hard to divvy up usage between your gas card, your grocery card, your restaurant card and your "everything else" card. The mental load on doing this depends on the person.

2) As the previous poster said though - the real money comes in the signup bonuses.


I'll use this thread to once again make people aware these same bonuses exist for brokerage accounts. If you have a large chunk of change sitting at ETrade in basic index funds (read: you aren't really actively trading), then a Schwab or a SOFI would be happy to hold those same brokerage positions for you for a year or so and give you a % for it.

Rinse, repeat every year.

Thinking about this further it seems like divvying up spend across multiple cards to max points based on category might really only make sense if you are just focused on cash back. If you are not focused on cash back, then you might be wasting time on certain cards if you have a preferred airline or hotel chain (as an example) you like to use since all of these cards have partnerships with different brands.

definitely a better ROI chasing SUB's, but there's a limit to how much of that you can with the larger card issuers.

As far as using several cards and picking the best spend, the math is fairly clear. Reaching into my wallet (real or digital) and choosing the card that gets me the best return doesn't take much effort.

• Amazon and Target default to their branded cards for 5% cash
• Restaurants/Bars go to CSR for 3% points (I've had good luck with their "points boost" properties but can also get good value on direct transfer)
• Travel goes to whichever gets the best ROI
• everything else goes to RH Gold for 3% cash.

Diggity said:

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definitely a better ROI chasing SUB's, but there's a limit to how much of that you can with the larger card issuers.

As far as using several cards and picking the best spend, the math is fairly clear. Reaching into my wallet (real or digital) and choosing the card that gets me the best return doesn't take much effort.

• Amazon and Target default to their branded cards for 5% cash
• Restaurants/Bars go to CSR for 3% points (I've had good luck with their "points boost" properties but can also get good value on direct transfer)
• Travel goes to whichever gets the best ROI
• everything else goes to RH Gold for 3% cash.

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So you carry all those cards? Looks like 5.

I carry 2 on me (in my phone case). One for all my purchases (united club), and one for backup in case I misplace my main one (amex marriott). Maybe once a year, I swap these and make marriott my main... Just depends on my point balance between the two and which I want to pad some.

I have a debit card in my truck, and could conceivably have a few more in there, but inevitably, it would be a pain cause I'd be at the checkout and realize that the card I need to maximize return is in my truck. No thank you.


So it all goes on one card. I got 131k points on my united club card last year, without a sign up bonus. 38k was a targeting spend bonuses. (pack more miles promo or similar) Another 18k was +1 miles on dining and travel, set by chase.

So I actually only spent $76k (finished our basement last year) but netted 132k points without having to think about anything and just use one card. Booking an award flight, it's discounted 15-20%+ as a card member, so that's ~165,000+ worth of award flights I could potentially get (~$1650) for $76k of spend, or about 2.2% return.

Hard to justify chasing another fraction of a 1%.

I also got my $695 fee down to about $300 by club fee savings, rideshare credits, and instacart credits. Add in free bags, and the fee is about a wash.

it's really only 2 from that list.

Target is through the app or website. Amazon obviously website.

Travel purchases are done at home, so don't need those typically.

I do keep the Amex Platinum in my wallet, as I need it occasionally for the perks, but rarely spend much on that one. Also have a debit card that I never use, but there's room for 6 cards, so why not?

Everyone has their own strategy. I just prefer flexibility over being tied to one earning stream.

3 Cards all geared around travel points - which I do 5~10 flight trips a year and ~30 nights in hotels between vacations and driving travel and the occasional work trip.

• Marriott Bonvoy: 1 free stay/night; 15 status nights; $5k spend = +1 status night; bonus points on groceries/gas [about 20 years old]
• Marriott Business Amex: 1 free stay/night; 15 status nights; hotel lounge access (mainly for overseas); 7% discount on booking rooms [about 5 years old]
• Delta Reserve Amex: 1 bogo companion ticket (US/Caribbean/Hawaii); airport lounge access; free checked bags; uber credit $10/month; dining credit $20/month; $200 travel credit [about 4 years old]
Fees: $95+$125+$650+$125 (Delta AU card)

Marriott: Between stays, the 30 default status nights, and credit spend we keep Titanium status every year, which increases points earned on hotel stays, and while status doesn't mean much in the US when we go international it's had noticeable perks and we've used points for 2 week stays internationally at hotels the last 4 years; Costa Rica, Cancun, Sydney, Japan (this summer) with another Sydney on the horizon next year.

Delta: Wife and I take one bogo First Class vacation flight a year, for about what 2 normal tickets in the back would cost; between the minor uber and dining credits and the travel credit and the baggage fees and the money 'saved' on not having to pay for airport meals the two cards get back their value pretty easily. The mile generation is slower with this card, but I'm usually a solo flyer except the 1 or 2 vacations a year we're able to build up enough to fly my wife and son for free each year.

This combo has worked pretty well for us the last few years.

Points are cool or whatever, but the places where you can redeem keep devaluing the points to the point that you've got to spend a ton to get a free anything - free night, free flight etc.

I don't do this but I think the signup bonuses are the only way to get meaningful rewards.

I have the Amex for the other freebies. I get more value from it than the annual fee between airlines, lounge (which is always crowded AF), LULU, Resy, digital entertainment credit, uber, etc.

Even my 2% cash back card. Better than zero but not substantial.

Diggity said:

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it's really only 2 from that list.

Target is through the app or website. Amazon obviously website.

Travel purchases are done at home, so don't need those typically.

I do keep the Amex Platinum in my wallet, as I need it occasionally for the perks, but rarely spend much on that one. Also have a debit card that I never use, but there's room for 6 cards, so why not?

Everyone has their own strategy. I just prefer flexibility over being tied to one earning stream.

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Question then...you are now paying close to $1k for a card that you rarely use. Why not downgrade it since you wouldn't be able to break even on that fee?

It's really easy to recoup the Amex fees. You just have to make an effort to.

Agreed.

I was ready to drop 1 (or both) but ended up canceling my CSR and signing up my wife to take advantage of the SUB. Probably would have ditched it otherwise.

I ran the numbers and found I came out ahead with the Amex Platinum perks so I'm rolling with it for now. Just not a card that has great spend categories.

I'll reassess both next year.

$30,000 Millionaire said:

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It's really easy to recoup the Amex fees. You just have to make an effort to.

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But if you have to do that, there's a good chance you're spending money on things you wouldn't have bought to begin with. $300 per year at lululemon is great if you already spend $300 per year at lululemon. Some credits like Resy are easy to spend organically. Others can be much harder.

Proposition Joe said:

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1) It's not that hard to divvy up usage between your gas card, your grocery card, your restaurant card and your "everything else" card. The mental load on doing this depends on the person.

2) As the previous poster said though - the real money comes in the signup bonuses.


I'll use this thread to once again make people aware these same bonuses exist for brokerage accounts. If you have a large chunk of change sitting at ETrade in basic index funds (read: you aren't really actively trading), then a Schwab or a SOFI would be happy to hold those same brokerage positions for you for a year or so and give you a % for it.

Rinse, repeat every year.

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Same with checking accounts. Divert your direct deposit for a couple of months and collect a few hundred bucks. Rinse and repeat.

As for what's in my wallet right now…

Robinhood Gold - everyday card
CSR (x2): - one is earning a SUB and the other is on the way out when the AF lands
Amex Platinum - Signed up for the SUB. Will downgrade or cancel
Amex Bus Gold - also a churn. On the way out
Hilton Aspire - holding through next summer for free nights, status and hotel credits. Too pricey to justify holding indefinitely, but it's actually a really good card

Took this advice a month ago to get Schwab to match ETrade offer.

Great advice and def need to think about brokerage as just holding your paper and you not like you need to stay with someone just because have always traded with them.

Jeeper79 said:

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$30,000 Millionaire said:

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It's really easy to recoup the Amex fees. You just have to make an effort to.

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But if you have to do that, there's a good chance you're spending money on things you wouldn't have bought to begin with. $300 per year at lululemon is great if you already spend $300 per year at lululemon. Some credits like Resy are easy to spend organically. Others can be much harder.

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Agreed. And I'm not trying to argue over this or anything with other user and saying it's not possible, but if the card is "rarely used" then I honestly do not see how it's remotely worth it. There is a minimum level of spend + applicable coupons that you would have used anyway to make this make sense. Otherwise, you can't even break even on it.

Maybe our definitions of "rarely used" are different though. I have a SWA RR card with no fee that has one monthly charge on it. That's all it gets used for and the only reason it has that is because it's a residual charge my wife did a long time ago that I've just never switched over. That is "rarely used" to me.

YouBet said:

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Jeeper79 said:

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$30,000 Millionaire said:

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It's really easy to recoup the Amex fees. You just have to make an effort to.

---

But if you have to do that, there's a good chance you're spending money on things you wouldn't have bought to begin with. $300 per year at lululemon is great if you already spend $300 per year at lululemon. Some credits like Resy are easy to spend organically. Others can be much harder.

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Agreed. And I'm not trying to argue over this or anything with other user and saying it's not possible, but if the card is "rarely used" then I honestly do not see how it's remotely worth it. There is a minimum level of spend + applicable coupons that you would have used anyway to make this make sense. Otherwise, you can't even break even on it.

Maybe our definitions of "rarely used" are different though. I have a SWA RR card with no fee that has one monthly charge on it. That's all it gets used for and the only reason it has that is because it's a residual charge my wife did a long time ago that I've just never switched over. That is "rarely used" to me.

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The Amex Platinum is worth it if you travel a lot like once a month, and use the lounge everytime you fly. I consume a lot (liquor + food) in the lounge and the Amex platinum is worth it for me just for the lounge access alone. That's not even counting all the credits: streaming, Resy, Lulu lemon, Walmart +, airline credit, hotel credit etc.

It's easy to come out ahead with the platinum even if you don't use it as a daily card. I hardly ever use the card to make purchases but I use the credits and perks all the time.

YouBet said:

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Jeeper79 said:

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$30,000 Millionaire said:

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It's really easy to recoup the Amex fees. You just have to make an effort to.

---

But if you have to do that, there's a good chance you're spending money on things you wouldn't have bought to begin with. $300 per year at lululemon is great if you already spend $300 per year at lululemon. Some credits like Resy are easy to spend organically. Others can be much harder.

---

Agreed. And I'm not trying to argue over this or anything with other user and saying it's not possible, but if the card is "rarely used" then I honestly do not see how it's remotely worth it. There is a minimum level of spend + applicable coupons that you would have used anyway to make this make sense. Otherwise, you can't even break even on it.

Maybe our definitions of "rarely used" are different though. I have a SWA RR card with no fee that has one monthly charge on it. That's all it gets used for and the only reason it has that is because it's a residual charge my wife did a long time ago that I've just never switched over. That is "rarely used" to me.

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Pulling out a card a few times on larger purchases to hit a threshold isn't a major task.

Again, it all comes down to what kind of mental load you are comfortable with -- some can handle (and even enjoy) it, others don't want to bother.

Sounds like you don't want to bother and you're trying to convince yourself that you're smart for doing so -- but that doesn't mean that applies to everyone.

I do mainly cashback, but I acknowledge that it's because I don't have the energy to maximize the benefits.

Proposition Joe said:

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YouBet said:

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Jeeper79 said:

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$30,000 Millionaire said:

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It's really easy to recoup the Amex fees. You just have to make an effort to.

---

But if you have to do that, there's a good chance you're spending money on things you wouldn't have bought to begin with. $300 per year at lululemon is great if you already spend $300 per year at lululemon. Some credits like Resy are easy to spend organically. Others can be much harder.

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Agreed. And I'm not trying to argue over this or anything with other user and saying it's not possible, but if the card is "rarely used" then I honestly do not see how it's remotely worth it. There is a minimum level of spend + applicable coupons that you would have used anyway to make this make sense. Otherwise, you can't even break even on it.

Maybe our definitions of "rarely used" are different though. I have a SWA RR card with no fee that has one monthly charge on it. That's all it gets used for and the only reason it has that is because it's a residual charge my wife did a long time ago that I've just never switched over. That is "rarely used" to me.

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Pulling out a card a few times on larger purchases to hit a threshold isn't a major task.

Again, it all comes down to what kind of mental load you are comfortable with -- some can handle (and even enjoy) it, others don't want to bother.

Sounds like you don't want to bother and you're trying to convince yourself that you're smart for doing so -- but that doesn't mean that applies to everyone.

I do mainly cashback, but I acknowledge that it's because I don't have the energy to maximize the benefits.

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I don't want to bother with it but I'm also not trying to convince myself that I'm smart about it. I could certainly be wrong here and probably am!

I'm only pushing back because I've run the analysis on AMEX Platinum and CSR, and I couldn't make them make sense anymore.

I guess what's throwing me off is the card being "rarely used". I'm hung up on that because my definition of "rarely used" means the math doesn't work for either of those cards. I guess if you are using it for very large purchases a few times per year it could make sense.

Texag5324 said:

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YouBet said:

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Jeeper79 said:

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$30,000 Millionaire said:

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It's really easy to recoup the Amex fees. You just have to make an effort to.

---

But if you have to do that, there's a good chance you're spending money on things you wouldn't have bought to begin with. $300 per year at lululemon is great if you already spend $300 per year at lululemon. Some credits like Resy are easy to spend organically. Others can be much harder.

---

Agreed. And I'm not trying to argue over this or anything with other user and saying it's not possible, but if the card is "rarely used" then I honestly do not see how it's remotely worth it. There is a minimum level of spend + applicable coupons that you would have used anyway to make this make sense. Otherwise, you can't even break even on it.

Maybe our definitions of "rarely used" are different though. I have a SWA RR card with no fee that has one monthly charge on it. That's all it gets used for and the only reason it has that is because it's a residual charge my wife did a long time ago that I've just never switched over. That is "rarely used" to me.

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The Amex Platinum is worth it if you travel a lot like once a month, and use the lounge everytime you fly. I consume a lot (liquor + food) in the lounge and the Amex platinum is worth it for me just for the lounge access alone. That's not even counting all the credits: streaming, Resy, Lulu lemon, Walmart +, airline credit, hotel credit etc.

It's easy to come out ahead with the platinum even if you don't use it as a daily card. I hardly ever use the card to make purchases but I use the credits and perks all the time.

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If you personally value the lounge access and can put a dollar amount on it if you were to buy it yourself, then yes that can absolutely work.

We can use Priority Pass as an example, though. I know tons of people that have it and use it through a credit card, but literally nobody I know pays for it outright. So if they were being honest with themselves, the can't say they're "saving" anything.

So there's value in lounge access, but quantifying it will be different for every person, and the more you fly, the more it becomes worth the flat rate.

Jeeper79 said:

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Texag5324 said:

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YouBet said:

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Jeeper79 said:

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$30,000 Millionaire said:

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It's really easy to recoup the Amex fees. You just have to make an effort to.

---

But if you have to do that, there's a good chance you're spending money on things you wouldn't have bought to begin with. $300 per year at lululemon is great if you already spend $300 per year at lululemon. Some credits like Resy are easy to spend organically. Others can be much harder.

---

Agreed. And I'm not trying to argue over this or anything with other user and saying it's not possible, but if the card is "rarely used" then I honestly do not see how it's remotely worth it. There is a minimum level of spend + applicable coupons that you would have used anyway to make this make sense. Otherwise, you can't even break even on it.

Maybe our definitions of "rarely used" are different though. I have a SWA RR card with no fee that has one monthly charge on it. That's all it gets used for and the only reason it has that is because it's a residual charge my wife did a long time ago that I've just never switched over. That is "rarely used" to me.

---

The Amex Platinum is worth it if you travel a lot like once a month, and use the lounge everytime you fly. I consume a lot (liquor + food) in the lounge and the Amex platinum is worth it for me just for the lounge access alone. That's not even counting all the credits: streaming, Resy, Lulu lemon, Walmart +, airline credit, hotel credit etc.

It's easy to come out ahead with the platinum even if you don't use it as a daily card. I hardly ever use the card to make purchases but I use the credits and perks all the time.

---

We can use Priority Pass as an example, though. I know tons of people that have it and use it through a credit card, but literally nobody I know pays for it outright. So if they were being honest with themselves, the can't say they're "saving" anything.

.

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Pretty simple; if you didn't use priority pass access, you'd be buying food/drinks. How is this not saving?
It's not that you'd pay to get in the lounge, it's that you pay for food elsewhere.

For a family of 4, I know I am getting value out of united club. But you're right, I would not pay the $50 ea to get in if we didn't have it. But I'd drop $75 in crap food and sodas, or $150 in decent food and beers.

62strat said:

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Jeeper79 said:

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Texag5324 said:

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YouBet said:

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Jeeper79 said:

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$30,000 Millionaire said:

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It's really easy to recoup the Amex fees. You just have to make an effort to.

---

But if you have to do that, there's a good chance you're spending money on things you wouldn't have bought to begin with. $300 per year at lululemon is great if you already spend $300 per year at lululemon. Some credits like Resy are easy to spend organically. Others can be much harder.

---

Agreed. And I'm not trying to argue over this or anything with other user and saying it's not possible, but if the card is "rarely used" then I honestly do not see how it's remotely worth it. There is a minimum level of spend + applicable coupons that you would have used anyway to make this make sense. Otherwise, you can't even break even on it.

Maybe our definitions of "rarely used" are different though. I have a SWA RR card with no fee that has one monthly charge on it. That's all it gets used for and the only reason it has that is because it's a residual charge my wife did a long time ago that I've just never switched over. That is "rarely used" to me.

---

The Amex Platinum is worth it if you travel a lot like once a month, and use the lounge everytime you fly. I consume a lot (liquor + food) in the lounge and the Amex platinum is worth it for me just for the lounge access alone. That's not even counting all the credits: streaming, Resy, Lulu lemon, Walmart +, airline credit, hotel credit etc.

It's easy to come out ahead with the platinum even if you don't use it as a daily card. I hardly ever use the card to make purchases but I use the credits and perks all the time.

---

We can use Priority Pass as an example, though. I know tons of people that have it and use it through a credit card, but literally nobody I know pays for it outright. So if they were being honest with themselves, the can't say they're "saving" anything.

.

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Pretty simple; if you didn't use priority pass access, you'd be buying food/drinks. How is this not saving?
It's not that you'd pay to get in the lounge, it's that you pay for food elsewhere.

For a family of 4, I know I am getting value out of united club. But you're right, I would not pay the $50 ea to get in if we didn't have it. But I'd drop $75 in crap food and sodas, or $150 in decent food and beers.

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As long as you were going to eat at the airport anyway, then that's a fair comparison. Sometimes it's mandatory such as on a layover. Other times, it's a choice between eating before arriving or spending double when you get there.

Unfortunately for me, I won't be able to easily leverage my lounge access on any of the 3 itineraries my family of 4 will be flying between now and August. Either I'm flying out too early or returning through an airport without a convenient lounge.

Jeeper79 said:

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62strat said:

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Jeeper79 said:

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Texag5324 said:

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YouBet said:

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Jeeper79 said:

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$30,000 Millionaire said:

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It's really easy to recoup the Amex fees. You just have to make an effort to.

---

But if you have to do that, there's a good chance you're spending money on things you wouldn't have bought to begin with. $300 per year at lululemon is great if you already spend $300 per year at lululemon. Some credits like Resy are easy to spend organically. Others can be much harder.

---

Agreed. And I'm not trying to argue over this or anything with other user and saying it's not possible, but if the card is "rarely used" then I honestly do not see how it's remotely worth it. There is a minimum level of spend + applicable coupons that you would have used anyway to make this make sense. Otherwise, you can't even break even on it.

Maybe our definitions of "rarely used" are different though. I have a SWA RR card with no fee that has one monthly charge on it. That's all it gets used for and the only reason it has that is because it's a residual charge my wife did a long time ago that I've just never switched over. That is "rarely used" to me.

---

The Amex Platinum is worth it if you travel a lot like once a month, and use the lounge everytime you fly. I consume a lot (liquor + food) in the lounge and the Amex platinum is worth it for me just for the lounge access alone. That's not even counting all the credits: streaming, Resy, Lulu lemon, Walmart +, airline credit, hotel credit etc.

It's easy to come out ahead with the platinum even if you don't use it as a daily card. I hardly ever use the card to make purchases but I use the credits and perks all the time.

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We can use Priority Pass as an example, though. I know tons of people that have it and use it through a credit card, but literally nobody I know pays for it outright. So if they were being honest with themselves, the can't say they're "saving" anything.

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Pretty simple; if you didn't use priority pass access, you'd be buying food/drinks. How is this not saving?
It's not that you'd pay to get in the lounge, it's that you pay for food elsewhere.

For a family of 4, I know I am getting value out of united club. But you're right, I would not pay the $50 ea to get in if we didn't have it. But I'd drop $75 in crap food and sodas, or $150 in decent food and beers.

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As long as you were going to eat at the airport anyway, then that's a fair comparison. Sometimes it's mandatory such as on a layover. Other times, it's a choice between eating before arriving or spending double when you get there.

Unfortunately for me, I won't be able to easily leverage my lounge access on any of the 3 itineraries my family of 4 will be flying between now and August. Either I'm flying out too early or returning through an airport without a convenient lounge.

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so you just drink your 3 beers at home before the airport too.. or?? lol

Anyway, yeh with kids, certainly with any flight leaving before maybe 11 am which is most of them, we ain't eating at home. We've usually cleaned out whatever fresh food we had, and I like having an empty dishwasher/sink when we leave for a week.

We've landed at home airport after a week trip, and know that we have no food in the house, so we went to the club before getting our bags and going home.


At the end of the day, I can usually get my club card fee down to just a few hundred bucks after some car rental/ride share/instacart credits and no bag fees, and at that price point, with at least one family trip a year, it's a no brainer.

And let's not discount the value in having comfortable seats with lots of space, power for devices, and in many clubs now, games like pool or shuffleboard to make the time go quickly. Let alone just getting away from the general public.

Jeeper79 said:

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Texag5324 said:

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YouBet said:

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Jeeper79 said:

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$30,000 Millionaire said:

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It's really easy to recoup the Amex fees. You just have to make an effort to.

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But if you have to do that, there's a good chance you're spending money on things you wouldn't have bought to begin with. $300 per year at lululemon is great if you already spend $300 per year at lululemon. Some credits like Resy are easy to spend organically. Others can be much harder.

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Agreed. And I'm not trying to argue over this or anything with other user and saying it's not possible, but if the card is "rarely used" then I honestly do not see how it's remotely worth it. There is a minimum level of spend + applicable coupons that you would have used anyway to make this make sense. Otherwise, you can't even break even on it.

Maybe our definitions of "rarely used" are different though. I have a SWA RR card with no fee that has one monthly charge on it. That's all it gets used for and the only reason it has that is because it's a residual charge my wife did a long time ago that I've just never switched over. That is "rarely used" to me.

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The Amex Platinum is worth it if you travel a lot like once a month, and use the lounge everytime you fly. I consume a lot (liquor + food) in the lounge and the Amex platinum is worth it for me just for the lounge access alone. That's not even counting all the credits: streaming, Resy, Lulu lemon, Walmart +, airline credit, hotel credit etc.

It's easy to come out ahead with the platinum even if you don't use it as a daily card. I hardly ever use the card to make purchases but I use the credits and perks all the time.

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If you personally value the lounge access and can put a dollar amount on it if you were to buy it yourself, then yes that can absolutely work.

We can use Priority Pass as an example, though. I know tons of people that have it and use it through a credit card, but literally nobody I know pays for it outright. So if they were being honest with themselves, the can't say they're "saving" anything.

So there's value in lounge access, but quantifying it will be different for every person, and the more you fly, the more it becomes worth the flat rate.

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Yeah, my family uses Priority Pass and Centurion lounges pretty frequently. The food and drink our family of five consumes prolly pays for the annual fee alone.

YouBet said:

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Proposition Joe said:

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YouBet said:

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Jeeper79 said:

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$30,000 Millionaire said:

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It's really easy to recoup the Amex fees. You just have to make an effort to.

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But if you have to do that, there's a good chance you're spending money on things you wouldn't have bought to begin with. $300 per year at lululemon is great if you already spend $300 per year at lululemon. Some credits like Resy are easy to spend organically. Others can be much harder.

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Agreed. And I'm not trying to argue over this or anything with other user and saying it's not possible, but if the card is "rarely used" then I honestly do not see how it's remotely worth it. There is a minimum level of spend + applicable coupons that you would have used anyway to make this make sense. Otherwise, you can't even break even on it.

Maybe our definitions of "rarely used" are different though. I have a SWA RR card with no fee that has one monthly charge on it. That's all it gets used for and the only reason it has that is because it's a residual charge my wife did a long time ago that I've just never switched over. That is "rarely used" to me.

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Pulling out a card a few times on larger purchases to hit a threshold isn't a major task.

Again, it all comes down to what kind of mental load you are comfortable with -- some can handle (and even enjoy) it, others don't want to bother.

Sounds like you don't want to bother and you're trying to convince yourself that you're smart for doing so -- but that doesn't mean that applies to everyone.

I do mainly cashback, but I acknowledge that it's because I don't have the energy to maximize the benefits.

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I don't want to bother with it but I'm also not trying to convince myself that I'm smart about it. I could certainly be wrong here and probably am!

I'm only pushing back because I've run the analysis on AMEX Platinum and CSR, and I couldn't make them make sense anymore.

I guess what's throwing me off is the card being "rarely used". I'm hung up on that because my definition of "rarely used" means the math doesn't work for either of those cards. I guess if you are using it for very large purchases a few times per year it could make sense.

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I think what the commenter meant was that they rarely charge anything on the card because it's only 1x points on purchases outside of flights (5x on flights). So doesn't make sense to charge anything on there. The perks and benefits are used regularly however.

I know this has been discussed before... but we regularly use the United CLub when flying out of IAH. How does the Centurion club there compare?

Jeeper79 said:

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Texag5324 said:

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YouBet said:

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Jeeper79 said:

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$30,000 Millionaire said:

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It's really easy to recoup the Amex fees. You just have to make an effort to.

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But if you have to do that, there's a good chance you're spending money on things you wouldn't have bought to begin with. $300 per year at lululemon is great if you already spend $300 per year at lululemon. Some credits like Resy are easy to spend organically. Others can be much harder.

---

Agreed. And I'm not trying to argue over this or anything with other user and saying it's not possible, but if the card is "rarely used" then I honestly do not see how it's remotely worth it. There is a minimum level of spend + applicable coupons that you would have used anyway to make this make sense. Otherwise, you can't even break even on it.

Maybe our definitions of "rarely used" are different though. I have a SWA RR card with no fee that has one monthly charge on it. That's all it gets used for and the only reason it has that is because it's a residual charge my wife did a long time ago that I've just never switched over. That is "rarely used" to me.

---

The Amex Platinum is worth it if you travel a lot like once a month, and use the lounge everytime you fly. I consume a lot (liquor + food) in the lounge and the Amex platinum is worth it for me just for the lounge access alone. That's not even counting all the credits: streaming, Resy, Lulu lemon, Walmart +, airline credit, hotel credit etc.

It's easy to come out ahead with the platinum even if you don't use it as a daily card. I hardly ever use the card to make purchases but I use the credits and perks all the time.

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If you personally value the lounge access and can put a dollar amount on it if you were to buy it yourself, then yes that can absolutely work.

We can use Priority Pass as an example, though. I know tons of people that have it and use it through a credit card, but literally nobody I know pays for it outright. So if they were being honest with themselves, the can't say they're "saving" anything.

So there's value in lounge access, but quantifying it will be different for every person, and the more you fly, the more it becomes worth the flat rate.

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Yea if I didn't go to the lounge before every flight, I'd probably pay $100+ for a meal at the airport including drinks and tip. The lounge probably saves me $200-$250 everytime I fly including the return trip as well. That amount increases when my girlfriend or family travels with me.

MAS444 said:

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I know this has been discussed before... but we regularly use the United CLub when flying out of IAH. How does the Centurion club there compare?

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The centurion lounge is way better with better food and drink selection. There can be long waits occasionally, but that's true for other lounges as well.

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The food and drink our family of five consumes prolly pays for the annual fee alone.

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I'm chuckling at this as I picture my 10/11 yr boys making their third trip to the buffet, and I'm usually chugging my 4th drink as wife is trying to corral us to get out and get to the gate 10 minutes before our boarding ends!