topic Re: UR or cash back? in Credit Cards

UR or cash back?

Anonymous — Sat, 11 Apr 2015 14:20:31 GMT

So I have recently been approved for the freedom and csp but haven't had them long enough to quite get a grasp of the rewards program to know the value of the points but I want to make sure I'm maximizing the value I get even while I'm learning. My question is does the 5% cash back on restaurants this quarter translate into 5x points on restaurants or is there some sort of conversion when transferring to ur points with the csp that devalues them? Also is one ur point worth more than 1 cent on average? Thanks

Re: UR or cash back?

WillTeasle — Sat, 11 Apr 2015 14:27:40 GMT

The transfer between Freedom and CSP is 1:1. In nearly all cases, redeeming points for travel is more beneficial than cash back. Personally, if I can't get near 2 cents per point on redemption I pay cash (more accurately, charge to a card to earn more rewards). If you can get a redemption rate of 2ccp, the restaurant bonus category this quarter is worth closer to 10% back!

You'd have to run some simulations to see how you can benefit from the rewards. You'll have to check your preferred hotels, airlines, destinations, etc to see how far those points can get you.

Re: UR or cash back?

Anonymous — Sat, 11 Apr 2015 16:02:54 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
So I have recently been approved for the freedom and csp but haven't had them long enough to quite get a grasp of the rewards program to know the value of the points but I want to make sure I'm maximizing the value I get even while I'm learning. My question is does the 5% cash back on restaurants this quarter translate into 5x points on restaurants or is there some sort of conversion when transferring to ur points with the csp that devalues them? Also is one ur point worth more than 1 cent on average? Thanks

Above post is correct: Freedom and CSP points accumulate in the same UR account, no devaluation there. You can pool them. Pool them into your CSP account to get max value, see below.

How much value can you get when you redeem your UR points through CSP?

Cash - 1 cent per point

Travel - 1.25 cents per point when buying tickets through chase

Transferring to partners - varies depending on your needs:

Hyatt - usually I can get 2 cents or more

BA - usually I can get ~2.5 cents on short haul (below 650 mile) flights inside the US (book on BA website, but you will fly in an American Airlines or US Airways plane).

United - never used, but you can usually get more than 2 cents per point on coach flights, much more on business and first class flights.

Southwest - fixed 1.43 cents per point, will be changing soon (will no longer be fixed).

Singapore Airlines, Korean Air - have some routes where points can be worth a lot (for example Korean Air miles can be used to book flights from the US to Hawaii at a very good rate)

Most other transfer partners - below 1 cent per point, except in certain situations. Usually not recommended but can make sense depending on the situation.

As you can see, although booking to travel through Chase is hassle free, it is a poor value (although certainly better than cash). I would say you should consider 2 cents per point the baseline redemption if you travel at all. You can get that rate at Hyatt hotels, with no blackout dates. For airlines (except southwest) you can usually get much better value if you fly business or 1st class, but most people don't for obvious reasons (to save their miles). Airlines (except southwest) have award space availability - this means that although there might be 300 seats on the plane, only a 5 or so can be booked with miles. This means that to redeem for airlines you need to plan a little in advance.

Re: UR or cash back?

Imperfectfuture — Sat, 11 Apr 2015 16:41:18 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
So I have recently been approved for the freedom and csp but haven't had them long enough to quite get a grasp of the rewards program to know the value of the points but I want to make sure I'm maximizing the value I get even while I'm learning. My question is does the 5% cash back on restaurants this quarter translate into 5x points on restaurants or is there some sort of conversion when transferring to ur points with the csp that devalues them? Also is one ur point worth more than 1 cent on average? Thanks
Above post is correct: Freedom and CSP points accumulate in the same UR account, no devaluation there. You can pool them. Pool them into your CSP account to get max value, see below.

How much value can you get when you redeem your UR points through CSP?
Cash - 1 cent per point
Travel - 1.25 cents per point when buying tickets through chase

Transferring to partners - varies depending on your needs:
Hyatt - usually I can get 2 cents or more
BA - usually I can get ~2.5 cents on short haul (below 650 mile) flights inside the US (book on BA website, but you will fly in an American Airlines or US Airways plane).
United - never used, but you can usually get more than 2 cents per point on coach flights, much more on business and first class flights.
Southwest - fixed 1.43 cents per point, will be changing soon (will no longer be fixed).
Singapore Airlines, Korean Air - have some routes where points can be worth a lot (for example Korean Air miles can be used to book flights from the US to Hawaii at a very good rate)

Most other transfer partners - below 1 cent per point, except in certain situations. Usually not recommended but can make sense depending on the situation.

As you can see, although booking to travel through Chase is hassle free, it is a poor value (although certainly better than cash). I would say you should consider 2 cents per point the baseline redemption if you travel at all. You can get that rate at Hyatt hotels, with no blackout dates. For airlines (except southwest) you can usually get much better value if you fly business or 1st class, but most people don't for obvious reasons (to save their miles). Airlines (except southwest) have award space availability - this means that although there might be 300 seats on the plane, only a 5 or so can be booked with miles. This means that to redeem for airlines you need to plan a little in advance.

Nice break down. I do usually book from two to six months in advance, usually domestic only. Is that enough time, or do you need more?

Re: UR or cash back?

Anonymous — Sat, 11 Apr 2015 17:05:58 GMT

Awesome thanks for the info...I guess I'll use the freedom for now and then play around with the options once I get some points...the required spend for the csp bonus ($4k) is killing me right now because I always try to get the required spend done in categories that I would be using the card anyways but I really only got the csp for restaurants and travel and now I'll be using the freedom until July and don't have any travel plans

Re: UR or cash back?

Anonymous — Sat, 11 Apr 2015 17:14:53 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Awesome thanks for the info...I guess I'll use the freedom for now and then play around with the options once I get some points...the required spend for the csp bonus ($4k) is killing me right now because I always try to get the required spend done in categories that I would be using the card anyways but I really only got the csp for restaurants and travel and now I'll be using the freedom until July and don't have any travel plans

If meeting the $4K is tough, and it will make a difference, it makes no sense to use the Freedom at restaurants. You can get at most 7500 UR from that category, the CSP would give you 3000 UR on that spend, + 40K if you meet the goal.

Re: UR or cash back?

Anonymous — Sat, 11 Apr 2015 17:22:47 GMT

No I can easily meet the spend I just meant this will be the first time I've had to use a card in categories other than the ones I got it for to meet the spend...I'll just have to take some points away from my arrival plus, 8000 vs 44000 is a pretty easy decision

Re: UR or cash back?

Anonymous — Sat, 11 Apr 2015 17:28:21 GMT

@Imperfectfuture wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
So I have recently been approved for the freedom and csp but haven't had them long enough to quite get a grasp of the rewards program to know the value of the points but I want to make sure I'm maximizing the value I get even while I'm learning. My question is does the 5% cash back on restaurants this quarter translate into 5x points on restaurants or is there some sort of conversion when transferring to ur points with the csp that devalues them? Also is one ur point worth more than 1 cent on average? Thanks
Above post is correct: Freedom and CSP points accumulate in the same UR account, no devaluation there. You can pool them. Pool them into your CSP account to get max value, see below.

How much value can you get when you redeem your UR points through CSP?
Cash - 1 cent per point
Travel - 1.25 cents per point when buying tickets through chase

Transferring to partners - varies depending on your needs:
Hyatt - usually I can get 2 cents or more
BA - usually I can get ~2.5 cents on short haul (below 650 mile) flights inside the US (book on BA website, but you will fly in an American Airlines or US Airways plane).
United - never used, but you can usually get more than 2 cents per point on coach flights, much more on business and first class flights.
Southwest - fixed 1.43 cents per point, will be changing soon (will no longer be fixed).
Singapore Airlines, Korean Air - have some routes where points can be worth a lot (for example Korean Air miles can be used to book flights from the US to Hawaii at a very good rate)

Most other transfer partners - below 1 cent per point, except in certain situations. Usually not recommended but can make sense depending on the situation.

As you can see, although booking to travel through Chase is hassle free, it is a poor value (although certainly better than cash). I would say you should consider 2 cents per point the baseline redemption if you travel at all. You can get that rate at Hyatt hotels, with no blackout dates. For airlines (except southwest) you can usually get much better value if you fly business or 1st class, but most people don't for obvious reasons (to save their miles). Airlines (except southwest) have award space availability - this means that although there might be 300 seats on the plane, only a 5 or so can be booked with miles. This means that to redeem for airlines you need to plan a little in advance.
Nice break down. I do usually book from two to six months in advance, usually domestic only. Is that enough time, or do you need more?

For domestic, 2 months is fine for the majority of flights and 6 months is fine for essentially all. Obviously you will want to book flights on miles for BA and United when the cash price is highest. By definition, cash price is highest when demand is highest - around the holidays, spring break time for colleges etc.

Re: UR or cash back?

Imperfectfuture — Sat, 11 Apr 2015 17:30:29 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Imperfectfuture wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
So I have recently been approved for the freedom and csp but haven't had them long enough to quite get a grasp of the rewards program to know the value of the points but I want to make sure I'm maximizing the value I get even while I'm learning. My question is does the 5% cash back on restaurants this quarter translate into 5x points on restaurants or is there some sort of conversion when transferring to ur points with the csp that devalues them? Also is one ur point worth more than 1 cent on average? Thanks
Above post is correct: Freedom and CSP points accumulate in the same UR account, no devaluation there. You can pool them. Pool them into your CSP account to get max value, see below.

How much value can you get when you redeem your UR points through CSP?
Cash - 1 cent per point
Travel - 1.25 cents per point when buying tickets through chase

Transferring to partners - varies depending on your needs:
Hyatt - usually I can get 2 cents or more
BA - usually I can get ~2.5 cents on short haul (below 650 mile) flights inside the US (book on BA website, but you will fly in an American Airlines or US Airways plane).
United - never used, but you can usually get more than 2 cents per point on coach flights, much more on business and first class flights.
Southwest - fixed 1.43 cents per point, will be changing soon (will no longer be fixed).
Singapore Airlines, Korean Air - have some routes where points can be worth a lot (for example Korean Air miles can be used to book flights from the US to Hawaii at a very good rate)

Most other transfer partners - below 1 cent per point, except in certain situations. Usually not recommended but can make sense depending on the situation.

As you can see, although booking to travel through Chase is hassle free, it is a poor value (although certainly better than cash). I would say you should consider 2 cents per point the baseline redemption if you travel at all. You can get that rate at Hyatt hotels, with no blackout dates. For airlines (except southwest) you can usually get much better value if you fly business or 1st class, but most people don't for obvious reasons (to save their miles). Airlines (except southwest) have award space availability - this means that although there might be 300 seats on the plane, only a 5 or so can be booked with miles. This means that to redeem for airlines you need to plan a little in advance.
Nice break down. I do usually book from two to six months in advance, usually domestic only. Is that enough time, or do you need more?
For domestic, 2 months is fine for the majority of flights and 6 months is fine for essentially all. Obviously you will want to book flights on miles for BA and United when the cash price is highest. By definition, cash price is highest when demand is highest - around the holidays, spring break time for colleges etc.

El perfecto (just what I had in mind).

Re: UR or cash back?

Anonymous — Sat, 11 Apr 2015 17:37:44 GMT

@Imperfectfuture wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@Imperfectfuture wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
So I have recently been approved for the freedom and csp but haven't had them long enough to quite get a grasp of the rewards program to know the value of the points but I want to make sure I'm maximizing the value I get even while I'm learning. My question is does the 5% cash back on restaurants this quarter translate into 5x points on restaurants or is there some sort of conversion when transferring to ur points with the csp that devalues them? Also is one ur point worth more than 1 cent on average? Thanks
Above post is correct: Freedom and CSP points accumulate in the same UR account, no devaluation there. You can pool them. Pool them into your CSP account to get max value, see below.

How much value can you get when you redeem your UR points through CSP?
Cash - 1 cent per point
Travel - 1.25 cents per point when buying tickets through chase

Transferring to partners - varies depending on your needs:
Hyatt - usually I can get 2 cents or more
BA - usually I can get ~2.5 cents on short haul (below 650 mile) flights inside the US (book on BA website, but you will fly in an American Airlines or US Airways plane).
United - never used, but you can usually get more than 2 cents per point on coach flights, much more on business and first class flights.
Southwest - fixed 1.43 cents per point, will be changing soon (will no longer be fixed).
Singapore Airlines, Korean Air - have some routes where points can be worth a lot (for example Korean Air miles can be used to book flights from the US to Hawaii at a very good rate)

Most other transfer partners - below 1 cent per point, except in certain situations. Usually not recommended but can make sense depending on the situation.

As you can see, although booking to travel through Chase is hassle free, it is a poor value (although certainly better than cash). I would say you should consider 2 cents per point the baseline redemption if you travel at all. You can get that rate at Hyatt hotels, with no blackout dates. For airlines (except southwest) you can usually get much better value if you fly business or 1st class, but most people don't for obvious reasons (to save their miles). Airlines (except southwest) have award space availability - this means that although there might be 300 seats on the plane, only a 5 or so can be booked with miles. This means that to redeem for airlines you need to plan a little in advance.
Nice break down. I do usually book from two to six months in advance, usually domestic only. Is that enough time, or do you need more?
For domestic, 2 months is fine for the majority of flights and 6 months is fine for essentially all. Obviously you will want to book flights on miles for BA and United when the cash price is highest. By definition, cash price is highest when demand is highest - around the holidays, spring break time for colleges etc.
El perfecto (just what I had in mind).

Why? I'm new to points redemption. I'll have a bunch of URs after I meet my CSP, but I don't get why you want to book then.

Re: UR or cash back?

Anonymous — Sat, 11 Apr 2015 17:49:53 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Imperfectfuture wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@Imperfectfuture wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
So I have recently been approved for the freedom and csp but haven't had them long enough to quite get a grasp of the rewards program to know the value of the points but I want to make sure I'm maximizing the value I get even while I'm learning. My question is does the 5% cash back on restaurants this quarter translate into 5x points on restaurants or is there some sort of conversion when transferring to ur points with the csp that devalues them? Also is one ur point worth more than 1 cent on average? Thanks
Above post is correct: Freedom and CSP points accumulate in the same UR account, no devaluation there. You can pool them. Pool them into your CSP account to get max value, see below.

How much value can you get when you redeem your UR points through CSP?
Cash - 1 cent per point
Travel - 1.25 cents per point when buying tickets through chase

Transferring to partners - varies depending on your needs:
Hyatt - usually I can get 2 cents or more
BA - usually I can get ~2.5 cents on short haul (below 650 mile) flights inside the US (book on BA website, but you will fly in an American Airlines or US Airways plane).
United - never used, but you can usually get more than 2 cents per point on coach flights, much more on business and first class flights.
Southwest - fixed 1.43 cents per point, will be changing soon (will no longer be fixed).
Singapore Airlines, Korean Air - have some routes where points can be worth a lot (for example Korean Air miles can be used to book flights from the US to Hawaii at a very good rate)

Most other transfer partners - below 1 cent per point, except in certain situations. Usually not recommended but can make sense depending on the situation.

As you can see, although booking to travel through Chase is hassle free, it is a poor value (although certainly better than cash). I would say you should consider 2 cents per point the baseline redemption if you travel at all. You can get that rate at Hyatt hotels, with no blackout dates. For airlines (except southwest) you can usually get much better value if you fly business or 1st class, but most people don't for obvious reasons (to save their miles). Airlines (except southwest) have award space availability - this means that although there might be 300 seats on the plane, only a 5 or so can be booked with miles. This means that to redeem for airlines you need to plan a little in advance.
Nice break down. I do usually book from two to six months in advance, usually domestic only. Is that enough time, or do you need more?
For domestic, 2 months is fine for the majority of flights and 6 months is fine for essentially all. Obviously you will want to book flights on miles for BA and United when the cash price is highest. By definition, cash price is highest when demand is highest - around the holidays, spring break time for colleges etc.
El perfecto (just what I had in mind).
Why? I'm new to points redemption. I'll have a bunch of URs after I meet my CSP, but I don't get why you want to book then.

IF you wanted to travel then, then you would get the best redemption value. Now if you don't want to travel then, then of course no need to, you just end up getting less "value" (but getting the travel you want!)

Re: UR or cash back?

Anonymous — Sat, 11 Apr 2015 17:57:48 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Imperfectfuture wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@Imperfectfuture wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
So I have recently been approved for the freedom and csp but haven't had them long enough to quite get a grasp of the rewards program to know the value of the points but I want to make sure I'm maximizing the value I get even while I'm learning. My question is does the 5% cash back on restaurants this quarter translate into 5x points on restaurants or is there some sort of conversion when transferring to ur points with the csp that devalues them? Also is one ur point worth more than 1 cent on average? Thanks
Above post is correct: Freedom and CSP points accumulate in the same UR account, no devaluation there. You can pool them. Pool them into your CSP account to get max value, see below.

How much value can you get when you redeem your UR points through CSP?
Cash - 1 cent per point
Travel - 1.25 cents per point when buying tickets through chase

Transferring to partners - varies depending on your needs:
Hyatt - usually I can get 2 cents or more
BA - usually I can get ~2.5 cents on short haul (below 650 mile) flights inside the US (book on BA website, but you will fly in an American Airlines or US Airways plane).
United - never used, but you can usually get more than 2 cents per point on coach flights, much more on business and first class flights.
Southwest - fixed 1.43 cents per point, will be changing soon (will no longer be fixed).
Singapore Airlines, Korean Air - have some routes where points can be worth a lot (for example Korean Air miles can be used to book flights from the US to Hawaii at a very good rate)

Most other transfer partners - below 1 cent per point, except in certain situations. Usually not recommended but can make sense depending on the situation.

As you can see, although booking to travel through Chase is hassle free, it is a poor value (although certainly better than cash). I would say you should consider 2 cents per point the baseline redemption if you travel at all. You can get that rate at Hyatt hotels, with no blackout dates. For airlines (except southwest) you can usually get much better value if you fly business or 1st class, but most people don't for obvious reasons (to save their miles). Airlines (except southwest) have award space availability - this means that although there might be 300 seats on the plane, only a 5 or so can be booked with miles. This means that to redeem for airlines you need to plan a little in advance.
Nice break down. I do usually book from two to six months in advance, usually domestic only. Is that enough time, or do you need more?
For domestic, 2 months is fine for the majority of flights and 6 months is fine for essentially all. Obviously you will want to book flights on miles for BA and United when the cash price is highest. By definition, cash price is highest when demand is highest - around the holidays, spring break time for colleges etc.
El perfecto (just what I had in mind).
Why? I'm new to points redemption. I'll have a bunch of URs after I meet my CSP, but I don't get why you want to book then.

Think about it this way. You want to travel from Chicago to Boston twice next year: once over Christmas and once on April 3rd and you only have 9000 UR points to transfer to British Airways. Now those 9000 UR points (converted to 9000 BA miles) could get you to Boston round trip either over Christmas or in April. However, you need to pay cash for one of the two tickets. It makes more sense to pay cash for the April ticket (which would be under $200 most likely) and pay with miles for the Christmas ticket, which would likely cost $300 or more.

Of course none of this applies if

1) You have UR points to burn and don't want to pay cash ever

2) You don't want to travel over the holidays.

Re: UR or cash back?

Anonymous — Sat, 11 Apr 2015 18:19:31 GMT

Where is mongs when you need him!

Re: UR or cash back?

mongstradamus — Sat, 11 Apr 2015 18:26:28 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Where is mongs when you need him!

No need to regurgitate what already has been said if you plan to use UR points for travel its best value. If you want to use it as an cash back tool then there is no reason to have CSP, downgrade it to CS or something when AF comes around.

If i were to want to use my ur points optimally. Short haul flights on American Airlines via BA avios is very good for domestic flights. Transferring to Hyatt is also another good option for hotel stay especially if you want to stay at one of those park hyatt hotels. I also would look at transferring to United for international flights. I am presently trying to decide between ANA or Asiana to far east using UAL as partner. Those are an number of ways you could use UR optimally.

Re: UR or cash back?

Anonymous — Sat, 11 Apr 2015 18:28:27 GMT

What about BKK.

Re: UR or cash back?

mongstradamus — Sat, 11 Apr 2015 18:31:29 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
What about BKK.

ANA and asiana both fly to BKK , i chose united as an partner compared to Korean Air because i could fly to BKK for less than 50 USD in surcharges compared to Korean Air that would be an few hundred dollars. I have heard some good things about asiana so i may give their business product an try. The only reason i would pick Korean over Asiana is if i wanted to fly first class on korean.

Re: UR or cash back?

Anonymous — Sat, 11 Apr 2015 18:31:39 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@Imperfectfuture wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@Imperfectfuture wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
So I have recently been approved for the freedom and csp but haven't had them long enough to quite get a grasp of the rewards program to know the value of the points but I want to make sure I'm maximizing the value I get even while I'm learning. My question is does the 5% cash back on restaurants this quarter translate into 5x points on restaurants or is there some sort of conversion when transferring to ur points with the csp that devalues them? Also is one ur point worth more than 1 cent on average? Thanks
Above post is correct: Freedom and CSP points accumulate in the same UR account, no devaluation there. You can pool them. Pool them into your CSP account to get max value, see below.

How much value can you get when you redeem your UR points through CSP?
Cash - 1 cent per point
Travel - 1.25 cents per point when buying tickets through chase

Transferring to partners - varies depending on your needs:
Hyatt - usually I can get 2 cents or more
BA - usually I can get ~2.5 cents on short haul (below 650 mile) flights inside the US (book on BA website, but you will fly in an American Airlines or US Airways plane).
United - never used, but you can usually get more than 2 cents per point on coach flights, much more on business and first class flights.
Southwest - fixed 1.43 cents per point, will be changing soon (will no longer be fixed).
Singapore Airlines, Korean Air - have some routes where points can be worth a lot (for example Korean Air miles can be used to book flights from the US to Hawaii at a very good rate)

Most other transfer partners - below 1 cent per point, except in certain situations. Usually not recommended but can make sense depending on the situation.

As you can see, although booking to travel through Chase is hassle free, it is a poor value (although certainly better than cash). I would say you should consider 2 cents per point the baseline redemption if you travel at all. You can get that rate at Hyatt hotels, with no blackout dates. For airlines (except southwest) you can usually get much better value if you fly business or 1st class, but most people don't for obvious reasons (to save their miles). Airlines (except southwest) have award space availability - this means that although there might be 300 seats on the plane, only a 5 or so can be booked with miles. This means that to redeem for airlines you need to plan a little in advance.
Nice break down. I do usually book from two to six months in advance, usually domestic only. Is that enough time, or do you need more?
For domestic, 2 months is fine for the majority of flights and 6 months is fine for essentially all. Obviously you will want to book flights on miles for BA and United when the cash price is highest. By definition, cash price is highest when demand is highest - around the holidays, spring break time for colleges etc.
El perfecto (just what I had in mind).
Why? I'm new to points redemption. I'll have a bunch of URs after I meet my CSP, but I don't get why you want to book then.
Think about it this way. You want to travel from Chicago to Boston twice next year: once over Christmas and once on April 3rd and you only have 9000 UR points to transfer to British Airways. Now those 9000 UR points (converted to 9000 BA miles) could get you to Boston round trip either over Christmas or in April. However, you need to pay cash for one of the two tickets. It makes more sense to pay cash for the April ticket (which would be under $200 most likely) and pay with miles for the Christmas ticket, which would likely cost $300 or more.

Of course none of this applies if
1) You have UR points to burn and don't want to pay cash ever
2) You don't want to travel over the holidays.

I get it now. Thanks

Re: UR or cash back?

nhl1508 — Sat, 11 Apr 2015 18:45:42 GMT

I also agree tht CSP is great for Hyatt British United and somewhat southwest. Even southwest points has redemption value of 1.4 per point, normally you dont hav to pay for tax and fee when using points (except Security fee for $5.6 per flight), so the real redemption value is actualy about 1.6 1.7c per point. The best thing about Southwest is the numbers of points needed is based on the ticket price, so availability is really good (no black out). Also when you book southwest by points you can change, cancel, do whatever you want with your booking (as long as you book 2 one ways instead of aroundtrip). It is great for speculative bookings and for exchange when ticket prices go down. I have a companion pass, so southwest is a no brainer. But for others, southwest transfer is probably the easiest to use out there compared to other partners (straight forward revenue based redemption).

I do love my transfer to british to get 2 round trip tickets to honolulu from the west coast for 50000 UR points or 3 days at a hyatt in waikiki over 4th of July for 36000 points when cash rate is about $900 though. I never used United transfer before coz I have pretty good amount of American airlines miles.

Re: UR or cash back?

Anonymous — Sat, 11 Apr 2015 18:49:07 GMT

I feel like the Ink Plus is a better earner if you can explore this option. Especially if they sell the GC of your choice at office supply stores. I dont mean V/MC GC either.

Re: UR or cash back?

mongstradamus — Sat, 11 Apr 2015 18:55:10 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I feel like the Ink Plus is a better earner if you can explore this option. Especially if they sell the GC of your choice at office supply stores. I dont mean V/MC GC either.

For me i am thinking of keeping my CSP instead of Ink Plus because i like the feel of the CSP. Ink plus is an plain vanilla plastic card. I have yet to make that decision yet though. Ink plus i am only really using for gas and internet/tv