Agree on the Uber thing. Uber is forever dead to me. Any Uber credit is worthless to me.
I will probably downgrade Platinum after paying my next AF, but that's not until January of next year, so for this year, I'll be milking the statement credits as much as possible. The reason I will downgrade it is that I don't anticipate enough travel to justify it. If that changes, I'll keep it.
It's really a great system of cards for frequent travelers, and also has some other positives, like everything is mostly SP once you're in, CLIs are easier than at some lenders, and there are some unique offerings like BCP with some 6% earning rates. If I could only have cards from one issuer, I'd probably pick Amex, though lack of global acceptance would be a problem.
Something that hasn't been mentioned is the 1.5x multiplier on the Everyday Preferred. This card actually beats the Gold in terms of MR earnings if you're not a big restaurant spender (4.5x groceries, 3x gas) and don't go over $6k per year on groceries — though I can be a minor annoyance to hit 30 transactions in a month. 1.5x unlimited MR points is also decent without having to faff with business cards. I basically only go to restaurants when traveling, but for me that spend doesn't offset the AF on the Gold given that I would never use the dining credits. It's just me and my SO in my household, but if we had kids or a big family I can see the potential of the Gold. I haven't thought about how much over $6k in groceries would make the Gold worth it, but it's significant given that groceries in excess of $6k still earn 1.5x on the EDP.
2 personal cards for me:
- BCP - With 4 adults in the house my grocery bills are high, so I make full use of the 6% up to $6K spend on groceries. When I compared the points on gold, combined with the annual fee, I still make out better with BCP for groceries. I also use it for the occassional public transit (3%) and gas (3%)
- CM - 1.5% on non-category items. I know, there are cards that offer 2%, but when I looked at the companies and the quality of their customer service and web sites, I preferred Amex.
