Oh boy, just wait until @K-in-Boston comes in here and starts talking about earning M&Ms on his f g j d upgrades and z priority passes at gate b from lga to dfw by using a combination of URs and MRs through a common transfer partner to get 1:2 and 1:1.2 value respectively on e=mc2.
@VanderSnoot wrote:
Exactly. What I want to know is how to start building to that level, because obviously no one starts out there, lol.
The strategies get pretty complex and are also very specific to individual preferences and spend. My spend is low (right around the cut off for CSP/CSR, which is why I started with the free CSP) and I don't fly often, so I'm not going to benefit from someone's scheme where they're cycling $20k/month for first class round the world tickets.
It's tough and a lot of work. There are tables and charts out there to find the best value as well as partners like rakuten and skymiles shopping to boost mile/rewards earnings. Personally, I have no interest in flying with partners I've never even heard of just to maximize value to the fullest. I also don't think my wife would appreciate mileage and mattress runs. She'd probably think I was cheating and using them as excuses. 😂 As long as I can offset any AFs, I'll be happy. I just need amex to give me a gold again and I'll be good. A bonvoy would be nice down the line also.
@Brian_Earl_Spilner wrote:Oh boy, just wait until @K-in-Boston comes in here and starts talking about earning M&Ms on his f g j d upgrades and z priority passes at gate b from lga to dfw by using a combination of URs and MRs through a common transfer partner to get 1:2 and 1:1.2 value respectively on e=mc2.
Now ... now ... now ... Brian please slow down, I could not keep up! e=mc2
There could seriously be Business School-level classes in how to figure out the best strategy for your situation. There are people on this board who have mastered it, but that doesn't mean they will be able to transfer their knowledge to you, and your situation is probably different from theirs, anyway.
I am new to this and by no means a guru, but I'll describe my thought process in case any of it is helpful.
For starters, I got an Amex Gold Card before giving this any thought at all. I knew I'd get points and I knew I'd need to figure out what to do with them, but I figured there would be a lot of options, so I could deal with that later. I got a 50k welcome offer and ended up with ~55,000 MR points before I seriously considered what to do with them.
I happen to live in an area with a Delta focus airport (RDU). I am not a jet-setter, but I do travel occasionally, and while I don't necessarily always fly Delta, it's a solid choice for most of my trips. Delta SkyMiles give solid value, so I decided to focus for now on SkyMiles. I transferred my ~55k MR points 1:1 for SkyMiles.
Also, I got a Delta Gold card, and with my spend there plus a 35K welcome offer, I now have about 97k SkyMiles. I just flew Delta to Paris without using SkyMiles, bit of a planning fail for me, but it just means that I will have over 100k for my next trip.
I also decided to get a card that gave me hotel status and airport lounge access. I am in with Amex and not with Chase, so I was looking mainly at Amex options. An obvious one is the Platinum Card, but I didn't think I could use the credits without distorting my spending habits. So, I was down to the Hilton Aspire, and the Marriott Bonvoy cards. It was a close call, but I went with Hilton, because it confers top Hilton status (Diamond), while the Marriott card conveys Gold status. Does it matter? I don't know? Had to pick, so, I picked. I got a 75k point welcome offer I think. I booked hotels for three nights in Europe, and by then, I had enough HH points to pay for the other three nights in Europe with points. I also got free room upgrades both times I stayed in a Hilton-brand hotel (no upgrades at Hampton or Hilton Garden Inn). I still have about 45k HH points. I think I got good value out of the card, but that value is largely due to the welcome offer, so I will probably downgrade the card next year or the year after, to avoid paying the large AF. I do not think this card is worth it aside from the welcome offer, unless you will stay in Hilton hotels frequently with or without it. For me, I think I'd need to distort my habits to justify the card, beyond the welcome offer.
I may drop to the free Hilton card and get the Marriott card next year to milk that welcome offer, we'll see ... I don't have a strong opinion between these two cards/hotel chains.
You probably just need to game out how you might use cards/miles/points/whatever in the next year and consider which of those paths fits your goals or normal patterns and which would require you to make choices you otherwise wouldn't make - for example, despite my discounts, I spent more on Hilton for my trip (when you factor in the AF) than I could have spent at other hotels, so staying at Hilton needs to be desirable or make sense. On the other hand, it can be an excuse to do something you want to do but otherwise couldn't justify, so ... it's really hard to give boilerplate advice. Good luck!
@VanderSnoot wrote:
Over the last 6 months I pursued a cash back strategy. After analyzing my spend, I realized that I should be able to get more value from pursuing travel rewards without significant changes to my spend. With that in mind, I recently acquired the CSP (in addition to the CF and CFU that I already have) as a low cost way to begin exploring travel rewards.
Do the experts here have any tips for figuring out which cards and reward programs maximize their benefits? Any lessons learned or mistakes made when determining your own unique mix of cards and programs?
The problems I'm running into when reading reviews/etc is that the talk focuses on:
- perceived prestige of cards (I don't care).
- insufficient discussion of differentials between cards and programs (eg eventually found the analysis of spend required to make CSR more valuable than CSP without qualitative factors; not a difficult equation to calculate but was difficult to find).
- in general, subjectivity without rigorous comparison to other options.
A great deal has been written on the subject of how to maximize the value of UR's, too much to discuss in such broad terms. (Example: https://thepointsguy.com/guide/redeeming-chase-ultimate-rewards-maximum-value/ ) It would be better to ask more specific and limited questions. There are several extremely helpful blogs on the subject, and @K-in-Boston is here to correct any misinformation.
In general I would say that 'maximizing' the value is a concept that varies from person to person. E.g., I have found that the bloggers -- who no doubt travel a great deal -- find value to be maximized based on dollars, and they usually find the most dollar value in things like international air travel upgrades and the like. Now, for me, in my life, the dollar value of an international flight upgrade is zero, because I (a) I don't travel abroad much, and (b) I would be embarrassed to travel in business class while other folks are in coach.
So I think it is best to frame your question in terms of what travel purchases you yourself would value. For example, for me, in my life, if I were lucky enough to have a CSP, I would want to know how to maximize UR's in obtaining domestic coach flights and middle-class type hotels. Someone else might value cruises or theme parks. Someone else might value luxury vacations. Etc.
Also you should consider whether there are certain airlines or hubs which are preferable to you, how frequently you would like to travel, whether there are certain features you like. Etc.
