@Anonymous wrote:
You guys are still missing the point. The Sapphire/Ink Cash/Freedom/Amex Platinum/Amex Blue Business Plus have virtually no overlapping categories so you can get solid setups in both and get the lion's share of points from both programs. Arguably if you want to go through the hassle of the Sears MasterCard's 11x offers then the Prestige/Sears MC could be added as a third system where you'd still get the lion's share of points from all 3 not to mention all the SUBs etc. The only reason not to go through that is cuz it may be too much for an individual to want to maintain or keep up with, which is fine, but to just assert that you won't be earning enough points in any one program cuz you're spreading your spend too much I think is presumptuous.
Besides keep in mind if you utilize the Centurion lounge then you don't even have to earn MR for the Amex system to give you positive value, and with Citi if you use the 4th free night twice you also don't need to earn anything in there for it to be lucrative. But of course the points are gravy at that point. So why not have a chase setup and MR/TY as ancillary?
For me at least, the problem with spreading across more than one system is earning enough points to redeem in a reasonable period of time. Looking back at my last 5 mile redemptions, my average is 300,000 miles per redemption, and I can accrue about that amount each year across all earning sources (flights + card spend + other random bonuses). Dividing that number across multiple programs pushes the time between redemptions out even further, and, in the case of Delta/MR, it's even worse because their valuations are worse than United's. I'm often finding what I could book for 300,000 miles on United requires 2-4x that amount on Delta.
My flight travel pattern has shifted in the last year to be heavily toward Delta instead of United, and this has caused a major headache for me. I'm accruing Delta miles regardless of what I do with my other point spend, but if I go all-in on MR/Delta, I'm still now looking at a redemption every 3ish years with their valuation. If I go all-in with UR (except flights, obviously) I'm pushed from every year to every 2-3 years as well, but I'm also accruing Delta in the background where I can also redeem those every 6-10 years. Either way, the days of once a year are gone unless my travel swings back to United at some point in the future.
Playing both programs to optimize reward points per dollar just makes this problem worse. I just don't have the personal spend numbers to play the optimized category spend reward game and still get something I can use in a reasonable timeframe. Maybe when I retire and start using my planned $100,000/year travel budget I can, but not today. In the meantime, my best option is to let the Delta miles accrue in the background and push everything else toward UR to minimize my redemption intervals.
Lounge access is another matter (though the value is with SkyClub, not Centurion), and the only reason I have a Platinum card today.
