Everyone is different but I'm quite the opposite of the OP. I don't see the value in CSR and would cringe if I lost my Gold card.
The OP mentions that they are concerned about the AA giftcards, so I have to assume that they are a AA flyer since Delta/SWA still work. There's even a united workaround if you search FT enough. Quite possibly the easiest of them all once you find it. With AA upfaring still crediting I don't really see the AA GC issue as a huge blow anymore. If you will buy one business class ticket in a year, you have a very viable option to use your credit on AA. I have Plat Pro Status with American and I still manage ways to use the credit without much effort.
I don't see the value of UR anymore unless you love to fly SWA, stay in Hyatts or redeem your points for domestic flights given the 1.5CPP safety net. I despise SWA but I did just redeem 20K in points to fly them to a "Travel hacking" conference in August. They were a quarter of the price of AA/Delta. If it hadnt been for that I still would be sitting on 80K UR points not sure what I'm going to do with them. I still have 60,000 left that I need to burn before we close the CSR. Hopefully ANA F through VS lasts for another 60 days and I can use the UR up for that. I don't think CSR is worth the net $150 AF anymore with the loss of Korean, they don't have any other (unique ) viable partners to achieve the 2CPP they are valued at except Hyatt.
For those that aren't obtaining 2CPP through MR easily. Maybe you should consider a different currency or even cash back. Theres just too many options ways to get 2CPP out of MR. Yes most of it is in J/F cabins but it doesn't need to be longhaul to asia. So many sweet spots that people either overlook or don't know about and aren't listed on awardhacker. You may have to save your points for some extra couple months to get to 80,000 -100,000 points but it really should be easy to get 2CPP.
Chase UR is a good currency if your plan is to redeem points for domestic flights as the portal 1.5CPP is a really good safety net given it is quite hard to get a good CPP out of domestic flight redemptions without some sort of sale. I can see the advantage of UR for those which will redeem that way.
@Anonymous wrote:I'm also debating if Should cancel my Gold Amex. Currently spending 1.4-1.8K a month on restaurants with net AF of 30-80$ (not always using GrubHub monthly 10$).Most credit card review sites mention MR points are worth 2.0 cpp but im having difficulty even finding 1.25 cpp.
for example, MR to Hilton gives only 0.8 cpp. maybe 1.0 with their occasional transfer bonus
hotels are never good value with MR , you want to look at airline partners for best value. For example the flight I am looking for on ANA JFK-BKK in J is about 5,000 USD using points its 95k MR so a bit better than 5 cpp so it is possible. The more extreme example is what I redeemed for next year. Where I am flying to tokyo in F using VS miles where i am getting closer to 17 cpp. It is possible but you have to look and be very flexible the high CPP values are only if you are willing to fly J or higher. If you are just in regular economy its harder to find 1.5 cpp or higher its possible but with surcharges much more difficult .
@Shadowfactor wrote:Everyone is different but I'm quite the opposite of the OP. I don't see the value in CSR and would cringe if I lost my Gold card.
The OP mentions that they are concerned about the AA giftcards, so I have to assume that they are a AA flyer since Delta/SWA still work. There's even a united workaround if you search FT enough. Quite possibly the easiest of them all once you find it. With AA upfaring still crediting I don't really see the AA GC issue as a huge blow anymore. If you will buy one business class ticket in a year, you have a very viable option to use your credit on AA. I have Plat Pro Status with American and I still manage ways to use the credit without much effort.
I don't see the value of UR anymore unless you love to fly SWA, stay in Hyatts or redeem your points for domestic flights given the 1.5CPP safety net. I despise SWA but I did just redeem 20K in points to fly them to a "Travel hacking" conference in August. They were a quarter of the price of AA/Delta. If it hadnt been for that I still would be sitting on 80K UR points not sure what I'm going to do with them. I still have 60,000 left that I need to burn before we close the CSR. Hopefully ANA F through VS lasts for another 60 days and I can use the UR up for that. I don't think CSR is worth the net $150 AF anymore with the loss of Korean, they don't have any other (unique ) viable partners to achieve the 2CPP they are valued at except Hyatt.
For those that aren't obtaining 2CPP through MR easily. Maybe you should consider a different currency or even cash back. Theres just too many options ways to get 2CPP out of MR. Yes most of it is in J/F cabins but it doesn't need to be longhaul to asia. So many sweet spots that people either overlook or don't know about and aren't listed on awardhacker. You may have to save your points for some extra couple months to get to 80,000 -100,000 points but it really should be easy to get 2CPP.
Chase UR is a good currency if your plan is to redeem points for domestic flights as the portal 1.5CPP is a really good safety net given it is quite hard to get a good CPP out of domestic flight redemptions without some sort of sale. I can see the advantage of UR for those which will redeem that way.
I agree with a lot that you have said here , I am basically using UR for hyatts these days, I still have my chase UR cards because there is a lot of non AF cards they have that are pretty good for UR accrual. Most on the ink side but still there are some nice options. I will usually use AA or MR for flights. As i have noted before if you are not using MR, UR , or TYP for more than 2 cpp then those types of cards are probably not for you , there are a plethora of cash back cards out there for you.