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Best Airline Rewards Credit Cards

Well, here we are in month 6ish of quarantine, and I must say, I don't think I'm getting maximum value with the Chase Sapphire Reserve's points back on travel and the "free" Lyft pink...

I'll probably weather the storm at this point, but given that it covers travel and restaurants, what are people using for groceries and gas? My wife is looking to get a new card, and it doesn't seem to make sense to double up on CSR. About 1/3 of my groceries are ordered via Amazon, so we get %5 Amazon credit on that (which is essentially a wash, at best, since you have to shop from Whole Foods).

We recently canceled our CSR due to lack of upcoming travel plans, and replaced it with an AmEx Blue Cash Preferred card ($95 fee, $300 bonus, 6% groceries up to $6k/year, as well as 6% on streaming and 3% gas and transit) plus an Alliant Visa Signature card (2.5% cash back all purchases up to $10k/month, $99 fee waived first year). Still have my Chase Freedom for rotating 5% categories and a Wells Fargo AmEx Propel (0 fee, $200 bonus, 3% travel and restaurants).
 
That Alliant looks interesting, been looking for a good 2.5% cash back for other purchases.
 
CSR been getting special promo on groceries for a couple months now. Like 5pts/dollar up to $1500. And Freedom has amazon and whole foods for quarterly bonus right now.
 
If you cancel the CSR, can you get it back without waiting the two years? I assume they might change their policies with COVID.
 
Right now you can't get the bonus if you've received the bonus in last 48 months. So you can get the card again, but not bonus in the situation you asked about.
 
Right now you can't get the bonus if you've received the bonus in last 48 months. So you can get the card again, but not bonus in the situation you asked about.

I think this also applies to upgrading from the Preferred to the Reserve. Maybe it was 24 months instead of 48, I can't remember. I just know when I tried to do that last year, they told me I wouldn't receive the Reserve sign up bonus because I opened my Preferred card within xx amount of months.

I switched to the AMEX Gold after receiving that news.
 
Definitely not all cards, you can still crush as many CIPs as you want.
 
Well business cards are definitely different. But I think you have to be under 5/24 to get approved, they just don't count towards 5/24. So as long as you're not getting many personal cards, crush away.
 
Went to go buy a pinball machine, which makes you check out via paypal (but then you can put it on your card from paypal). Saw an ad for Paypal credit and you can buy it interest free for 6 months, so I'm like OK sign me up. Approved for $8,200 limit. Pinball machine came out to be $8,206 w/ tax. Asked for credit limit increase of $100. Nope. After about 30 minutes got them to apply a $10 credit to my account, said it would hit in 1-2 days. Saw it hit just now. Tried again, didn't go through.

Saw the pinball vendor had a promo code, so talked to him a bit and got a $10 promo code. Went through. But somehow completely skipped the part where you're supposed to select your method of payment and just straight up processed it from paypal through my bank account. Overdraft city. Says my backup payment method would be the Amex Gold. Supposed to have no limit. Let's see.
 
Well business cards are definitely different. But I think you have to be under 5/24 to get approved, they just don't count towards 5/24. So as long as you're not getting many personal cards, crush away.

I had a long term plan to not get too many cards, wanted to make sure I had the Southwest stacking available to me to get the companion pass this year and next year. Whoops.

Random aside, anyone with an Amex Plat should consider calling in to retention. A coworker said she called in to cancel and got a retention offer of 30k points + a waived AMF for this year. Pretty sure they're targeted based on tenure and spend, but can't hurt to try.
 
I had a long term plan to not get too many cards, wanted to make sure I had the Southwest stacking available to me to get the companion pass this year and next year. Whoops.

Random aside, anyone with an Amex Plat should consider calling in to retention. A coworker said she called in to cancel and got a retention offer of 30k points + a waived AMF for this year. Pretty sure they're targeted based on tenure and spend, but can't hurt to try.

Hm I have a gold, wonder if they'd do the same
 
I had a long term plan to not get too many cards, wanted to make sure I had the Southwest stacking available to me to get the companion pass this year and next year. Whoops.

Random aside, anyone with an Amex Plat should consider calling in to retention. A coworker said she called in to cancel and got a retention offer of 30k points + a waived AMF for this year. Pretty sure they're targeted based on tenure and spend, but can't hurt to try.

Hm I have a gold, wonder if they'd do the same

Called today with my $250.00 Gold Card annual fee due tomorrow. They offered $150.00 statement credit towards the annual fee OR 20,000 AMEX points. I always use my points for travel at a minimum of 1/1 ratio, so I took the points, worth a minimum of $200.00 once exchanged.

Pretty happy with that
 
Called today with my $250.00 Gold Card annual fee due tomorrow. They offered $150.00 statement credit towards the annual fee OR 20,000 AMEX points. I always use my points for travel at a minimum of 1/1 ratio, so I took the points, worth a minimum of $200.00 once exchanged.

Pretty happy with that

The 99.00 annual fee for my Citi American Airlines Platinum select card hit back in June. I called today just to see if they would do anything about it since I haven’t been able to travel this year. Citi offered a 99.00 statement credit if I spend 99.00 on the card next month to offset the annual fee. No brainer, accepted that offer as well.
 
Chase Southwest Card with 50k bonus with a $3k spend in three months and another 30k if you spend $10k in the first 9 months

annual fee not waived in the first year
 
Called today with my $250.00 Gold Card annual fee due tomorrow. They offered $150.00 statement credit towards the annual fee OR 20,000 AMEX points. I always use my points for travel at a minimum of 1/1 ratio, so I took the points, worth a minimum of $200.00 once exchanged.

Pretty happy with that

What do you uses your points on? I'm starting to sour on my amex points because it seems like all the high dollar redemptions where you get like 2c a point are like first class trans contintental flights I'd never be buying anyways. I did transfer a bunch to british airways at one point for a promotion which seemed okay'ish. And I'll eventually do a Hawaii trip that I think I can get decent value on.

AMEX platinum has a 10x point offer for Groceries and Gas promotion right now for the next 6 months.
 
What do you uses your points on? I'm starting to sour on my amex points because it seems like all the high dollar redemptions where you get like 2c a point are like first class trans contintental flights I'd never be buying anyways. I did transfer a bunch to british airways at one point for a promotion which seemed okay'ish. And I'll eventually do a Hawaii trip that I think I can get decent value on.

AMEX platinum has a 10x point offer for Groceries and Gas promotion right now for the next 6 months.

Haven't even had the chance to cash any in yet, tbh
 
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