@kdm31091 wrote:If you can make constant use of the transfer partners and are willing to put a lot of spend on CSP, it's still a great card. Having said that, I do think they need to add some extra "bonus" or something to it -- 3x on something, another 2x category, whatever. Just something to help people earn points quicker on day-to-day spending.
The First Friday nerf is really no big deal, as you are talking about an extra 1x one day out of the month on dining spend. Unless you purposely spend a lot extra on dining that day, it's not going to be significant. However, the annual 7% dividend is a slightly bigger deal, as that was something to encourage people to continue to hold on to the card.
With all the changes/nerfs, I wouldn't be surprised if they are planning to overhaul the card sooner or later.
+1 I think doing something like this would really help them out with the card. It now requires more points to redeem with their partner programs than it used to and therefore the amount of spend required to generate the points has continued to climb. The point you make would help take some of the sting out, although I think that should be paired with some added benefits as well to make the card more solid. Both Amex and Citi have been improving their products yet chase has been stagnating which can be dangerous in a competitive marketplace.
Some people consider Hyatt the best use of their UR points now. For those people it almost makes sense to ditch the CSP and get the hyatt card and put their spend on that instead. You get more benefits with hyatt by having the card and you still earn extra spend on restaurants that matches the CSP and you get 2pts per dollar on airline tickets bought from airline and care rentals and 3 pts per dollar on hyatt spend. That taken together with the $20 lower AF and free annual night should really cause people to reconsider the CSP if their primary interest is redeeming for hyatt, which seems like the best redemption value in general. Some short run BA redemption can be lucrative as well, but I haven't had much luck redeeming those when I needed them.
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