CSP or MR to pair with Arrival+?

[Anonymous]

Debating which of the Sapphire Preferrred or Marriott Rewards Premier to pair with my current daily Barclaycard. I currently have about 80K Marriott points on my membership.

[nachoslibres]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Debating which of the Sapphire Preferrred or Marriott Rewards Premier to pair with my current daily Barclaycard. I currently have about 80K Marriott points on my membership.

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Depends on what you want to do with your points.

The CSP is going to give you more bang for your buck - just because there are many travel partners and you aren't tied to a single hotel.  Chase UR points are currently valued around $0.02/UR - so on average if you do UR point transfers you are looking at 4% value on your travel and dining purchases and 2% value on your non-bonused spending categories with this card.

The Marriott card is better suited if you are strictly staying at Marriott properties and don't ever intend to use your points for airfare or other hotel brands.  Marriott points are currently valued around $0.01/point, so Marriott stays are earning you 5% value, airline, rental, and restaurants at 2% value, and everything else at 1%.  Other benefits of this card is an annual 15-night stay credit which puts you at Silver automatically (which gives you an extra 2 points per dollar spend at Marriott properties if you didn't already ahve silver status or above) and that's 15 less nights you need to get gold or platinum.

While the CSP is going to need some spend on it to justify the AF, the Marriott doesn't, as the annual free night itself pays for the card.  The only spend I put on my Marriott card is Marriott spend, and my whole reason for wanting it was to maximize my Marriott spend and the 15 night credit so that I can hit gold a lot easier.  The annual free night means I basically get those benefits for free.

As for the Arrival+, I'd recommend ditching it for the Citi Double Cash unless you are putting a lot of spend on that card.  You would need to to spend almost $81,000 annually on the Arrival+ for the 2.11% return rate minus the $89 AF to beat out the 2% return rate of the Double Cash.  Plus, the Double Cash allows you to cash out every month - unlike the Arrival+ where it has to be redeemed against travel that has a minimum balance of $100.

[Anonymous]

The Arrival+ sucks. Time to find another daily driver to put all your spend on. If you're a high spender, CSR makes sense bc it magnifies all the benefits of the CSP as given above.

[Anonymous]

I have $700 worth of travel money on it but maybe I will look into getting the Citi DC and pairing that with CSP or MR.

[driftless]

If you are considering the CSP/CSR I would pair it with either Freedom or FU and have a third card be back-up or emergency. I would concentrate my spend on the card(s) that are tied into the airline or airport or hotel chain that I use the most.

[Anonymous]

True that could be a possibility.

I'm just weighing whether the CSP or MR to pair with a daily. I usually stay at Marriott but I don't go away to often. I have 80K points and would get another 80k if I got the card or 50K with the CSP if I'm correct.

[Anonymous]

By all means, use up the rewards you already have. But think about it...$700 in rewards means you've put $35k on the card. You would've gotten the same amount of rewards (assuming you PIF) with the Double Cash and the redemption isn't travel limited OR with a minimum of $100. If you do travel a good amount, definitely start putting your spend through a Chase or AmEx travel card

[lhcole77]

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@Anonymous wrote:
True that could be a possibility.

I'm just weighing whether the CSP or MR to pair with a daily. I usually stay at Marriott but I don't go away to often. I have 80K points and would get another 80k if I got the card or 50K with the CSP if I'm correct.

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I would take a look at Marriiott redemption chart. I got this card last spring for the bonus and because I wanted to see what staying at hotels was like again when traveling. I prefer Airbnb so I am not keeping this card past the one year mark.

Here is the chart:

http://www.marriott.com/rewards/pointsGridPopUp.mi?awardType=Standard

Take a look and see if your style of hotel fits in with what is needed to redeem rewards.

Though I don't have the CSP if I had to choose between that and the Mariott, I'd go with CSP.

[Anonymous]

I think I am leaning towards the CSP as I do like staying at All inclusive s as well which aren't Marriotts. I like the flexibility of the CSP.

I'm leaning towards the Citi DC and CSP and using my travel on the Arrival then dumping it.