Of course I don’t know what your personal and/or financial situation is but you’re not precluded from “cashing in” at all. You, like everyone else, are permitted to have multiple versions of the AMEX Platinum card (each of whom have a mininum 60,000 point bonus). You can acquire a personal and the business version of the Gold Card, as well as both the personal and business versions of the there Delta co-branded cards, as well as the Green Card.

Whether you choose to keep all, some or none of them past the first year of course is up to you (and AMEX to a certain extent ), but you could end up with over 500,000 MR points within a year.

Just a thought.

To come behind her and completely mock her research is…well just infantile. Sure, almost everyone who reads these blogs and is involved in the points and miles game knows that the CSR travel credit is far more flexible than the Platinum card.

However, not everyone who travels flies in business class where you don’t have to worry about seat selection or baggage fees. There are a lot of us who are not specifically loyal to just one airline.

We have Delta, American and United co-branded cards, all of whom have free baggage but not free seat selection. We also will fly Spirit or Frontier to save a lot of dough to certain destinations. As everyone knows, passengers almost have to bring their own fuel on these budget carriers. Hence, the AMEX airline credit is quite useful in these situations.

To be truthful, the revamp of the AMEX Green Card should have a lot of people taking a second look at the CSR anyway. The CSR’s annual fee of $550 maybe offset with the $300 travel credit, but the Green Card’s fee of $150 is still $100 cheaper for essentially the same benefits, unless the Priority Pass lounges are of great importance. And if they are, you should go right back to considering the Platinum instead of the CSR. Funny how that works, isn’t it?

Personally, I save $1100 a ticket for 3 tickets ($3300 total) by booking an open jaw business itinerary to Europe in business class on the airline I wanted with the dates/connections I preferred through the IAP versus what the airline’s website was selling the EXACT same seats! If I didn’t have the Platinum card (or know about the IAP) I would have either paid over $3000 more for the flights I preferred or settled for sub-optimal connections, routing and/or carrier choices. BTW the IAP on my preferred routing/airline was STILL $200-$250 a ticket cheaper than the lowest price I could find anywhere searching over a month.

Well worth mentioning IMHO.

I have both the Amex Platinum and Chase Sapphire Reserve (along with 5-6 others). IMHO, they both provide value well beyond the $550 annual fee. I understand if some people can’t afford that or don’t travel enough to get the benefits but I do.

Yep, it’s a good reminder to always do an analysis of each card’s benefits to see what it’s worth to you personally based on your travel and spending habits. For those who make use of the Amex Platinum’s credits, like the $200 airline fee credit and $200 in Uber Cash, it makes a huge dent in the card’s annual fee.

The Amex Platinum reminds me of all the large stuffed animals you see at carnival booths. If you are one of the miniscule few who can toss a small ring over the coke bottle and take home one of the large (stuffed) animals, good for you. But most folks will find it a frustrating waste of time and money.

The Chase Sapphire Reserve, on the other hand, offers high-quality benefits that are far easier to use. The CSR doesn’t involve stupid games (like with the Amex annual airline fee credit) that lead to breakage (unclaimed benefits). It’s as if the CSR offers (for example) 5 high-quality benefits; while the Amex Platinum offers 15 benefits, of which 12 are minimally useful/usable.

Hi Paul!

Woohoo! Glad you were able to find a lounge.

I was stuck for ~3 hours flying out of terminal 5 at JFK one time, with no access to a lounge, and boy was it unpleasant!