@wingennis
If you lived where I do, putting a couple of months of apartment rent on virtually any card, would satsify the minimum spend! Even with this "opportunity," I'd still struggle to satisfy too many new cards -- one per year would be the absolute maximum, and then, the bennys would have to be sufficient to not only cover the incremental annual fee but also the 2.2% premium charged to put the rent on the card.
So, I'm with you.
$400 for my Altitude Reserve makes sense -- I get nearly all of it back. $250 for the Gold Amex is also wash. $450 for the Amex Bonvoy Brilliant plus $95 for the Business Cards work out because I frequently stay at Marriotts and again, get virtually all of it back without difficulty. The $195 and $95 I pay to Barclays for AA Mastercards are recouped in direct travel benefits with American Airlines and the companion tickets. So, of the total of around $1,600 a year I pay in card fees, I believe I currently recover all of them plus bank frequent traveller points to spend later. Any new fees added to this mix would be problematic.
Once again, YMMV -- if you are not already invested in a walletful of cards with fees and don't have coverage of your travel needs and benefits, the Venture X would for certain be a strong contender and worth a good look.
