@Anonymous wrote:
I’m a 23 year old grad student who is thinking of getting a new card and this one interests me. I currently fly domestically around 1-3 times a year, and internationally maybe once every 2 years or so. I also take weekend trips domestically on occasion, by car. I spend around 4-600/month on dining and groceries combined.
I currently have the 50k for 1k spend offer, and it’s tempting me to apply for the card. Does the card make sense for someone who doesn’t frequently travel internationally? From what I’ve been told, international travel is where MR points really shine.
Welcome to the forums! Sounds like Gold would likely be a good fit for you. While international business/first travel is where the point value really shines, it's not like you're going to get poor value from MRs using them on domestic airfare, even in coach. Is there a specific airline or alliance that you normally travel on?
Let's split the difference on your spend to $500 a month. Just with dining and groceries alone, you'd get 24,000 points a year. Transfer that to Delta and worst case it's worth $288 in travel, plus you can get two $50 eGift cards from Delta and a couple of others to trigger the airline credit. That alone is likely enough to pay for your international flight every other year, especially combined with other spending. You'd also get 3x points on your airfare purchased through the airlines or through Amex Travel. Certainly worth a shot for at least the first year!
@K-in-Boston wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
I’m a 23 year old grad student who is thinking of getting a new card and this one interests me. I currently fly domestically around 1-3 times a year, and internationally maybe once every 2 years or so. I also take weekend trips domestically on occasion, by car. I spend around 4-600/month on dining and groceries combined.
I currently have the 50k for 1k spend offer, and it’s tempting me to apply for the card. Does the card make sense for someone who doesn’t frequently travel internationally? From what I’ve been told, international travel is where MR points really shine.Welcome to the forums! Sounds like Gold would likely be a good fit for you. While international business/first travel is where the point value really shines, it's not like you're going to get poor value from MRs using them on domestic airfare, even in coach. Is there a specific airline or alliance that you normally travel on?
Let's split the difference on your spend to $500 a month. Just with dining and groceries alone, you'd get 24,000 points a year. Transfer that to Delta and worst case it's worth $288 in travel, plus you can get two $50 eGift cards from Delta and a couple of others to trigger the airline credit. That alone is likely enough to pay for your international flight every other year, especially combined with other spending. You'd also get 3x points on your airfare purchased through the airlines or through Amex Travel. Certainly worth a shot for at least the first year!
At least for the first year? Then what? Im genuinely curious about what you mean. Are saying to cancel it or ? My understanding is you dont want to cancel a card as it could affect credit, although since this is a charge card maybe its different? Thanks for the info
@K-in-Boston wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
I’m a 23 year old grad student who is thinking of getting a new card and this one interests me. I currently fly domestically around 1-3 times a year, and internationally maybe once every 2 years or so. I also take weekend trips domestically on occasion, by car. I spend around 4-600/month on dining and groceries combined.
I currently have the 50k for 1k spend offer, and it’s tempting me to apply for the card. Does the card make sense for someone who doesn’t frequently travel internationally? From what I’ve been told, international travel is where MR points really shine.Welcome to the forums! Sounds like Gold would likely be a good fit for you. While international business/first travel is where the point value really shines, it's not like you're going to get poor value from MRs using them on domestic airfare, even in coach. Is there a specific airline or alliance that you normally travel on?
Let's split the difference on your spend to $500 a month. Just with dining and groceries alone, you'd get 24,000 points a year. Transfer that to Delta and worst case it's worth $288 in travel, plus you can get two $50 eGift cards from Delta and a couple of others to trigger the airline credit. That alone is likely enough to pay for your international flight every other year, especially combined with other spending. You'd also get 3x points on your airfare purchased through the airlines or through Amex Travel. Certainly worth a shot for at least the first year!
I think the Delta value can be less than that. I believe Amex charges a fee for transferring points into US based airlines like Delta so that lowers the .012 value per point a bit more.
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@drave199 wrote:
@K-in-Boston wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
I’m a 23 year old grad student who is thinking of getting a new card and this one interests me. I currently fly domestically around 1-3 times a year, and internationally maybe once every 2 years or so. I also take weekend trips domestically on occasion, by car. I spend around 4-600/month on dining and groceries combined.
I currently have the 50k for 1k spend offer, and it’s tempting me to apply for the card. Does the card make sense for someone who doesn’t frequently travel internationally? From what I’ve been told, international travel is where MR points really shine.Welcome to the forums! Sounds like Gold would likely be a good fit for you. While international business/first travel is where the point value really shines, it's not like you're going to get poor value from MRs using them on domestic airfare, even in coach. Is there a specific airline or alliance that you normally travel on?
Let's split the difference on your spend to $500 a month. Just with dining and groceries alone, you'd get 24,000 points a year. Transfer that to Delta and worst case it's worth $288 in travel, plus you can get two $50 eGift cards from Delta and a couple of others to trigger the airline credit. That alone is likely enough to pay for your international flight every other year, especially combined with other spending. You'd also get 3x points on your airfare purchased through the airlines or through Amex Travel. Certainly worth a shot for at least the first year!
At least for the first year? Then what? Im genuinely curious about what you mean. Are saying to cancel it or ? My understanding is you dont want to cancel a card as it could affect credit, although since this is a charge card maybe its different? Thanks for the info
credit cards stay on credit report for 7 years from closure date so credit score wouldn't necessarily take a hit just by closing a credit card. Some lenders if they see a repeat pattern of people apping for cards then closing them after a year will factor that in when deciding if they want to approve you for cards in the future, so it is good to have some cards you keep long term to have a more balanced approach but never pay an AF if the card does not hold enough value.
OP whether or not the card makes sense depends on if you can actually use the points. It doesn't matter what value anybody else tells you if you don't fly on the airlines or partners of the airlines that Amex MRs transfers to then the card does not make sense. The first thing you need to do is research the different ways the points can be used and see if any of those are useful redemptions to you. Getting the card and points first and then trying to figure out how to use them is a poor way of picking credit cards. You don't need to know your exact redemption strategy but you should determine that there are at least a handful of options that you would be interested in within the next 1 or 2 years. If so then given your spend the card may make sense. Obviously international redemptions in business or first class will have a much higher return on value per point than on economy tickets, but in some cases you can get at least some value back on economy tickets as well when you can't find flights on sale etc.