Citi Prestige vs. AA Exec: My Analysis

A bazillion blogs have been written about the new offer for 50K TYP after $3K in spending.

It's a much better deal given the lower spend required vs. the 15K spend because the extra 12K spend can be used for 2 Exec Plat cards and earn 100K AA miles with 2K spend left for some other purpose.

I'm churning the AA Exec Plat, and wanted to figure out if I should use one of my 8/65 pulls (assuming you know about this) for this card instead of the AA Exec Plat.

The very interesting feature of the Prestige is using the TYPs for AA flights with a .016 cash redemption. It's interesting because you earn miles on the flight since AA considers it a cash purchase. You also earn TYPs from the purchase, but when you buy an $800 ticket the 800 TYP earned is not meaningful.

What is meaningful is if you assume the $800 pays for 6 cents a mile to somewhere, which is easily achievable, you earn 13K+ redeemable and 13K+ EQM miles.

Ignoring the value of lounge access (which I can since I have other cards which provide it), and the value of EQM miles (which I will since not sure I'll be close to qualifying for Exec Plat), the key variable is the value of AA redeemable miles.

First is the calculation showing AA miles at .02, where the Prestige wins, and then at .03 where the Exec wins. Personally, I always get at least .03 for my premium cabin international travel.

I'm sticking with the Exec Plat for now.

Citi Prestige Sign-up Bonus 
50,000 TYP Sign-up Bonus
$0.016 Cash towards Airfare
$800 Value of TYP Sign-up Bonus

Using the Prestige Sign-up Bonus 
$0.060 Assume cost per mile of an $800 purchased ticked
13,333 AA Redeemable Miles Earned by paying with Sign-up Bonus Points
$0.020 Valuation of an AA Mile
$267 Dollar Value of Redeemable Miles earned from using the Sign-up Bonus
$1,067 Value of TYP Sign-up Bonus PLUS Value of Redeemable Miles earned from using the Sign-up Bonus

Accounting for Annual Fee and Airline Credit 
-$450 Less AF
+$500 Plus Airline credit x 2 Calendar years
$1,117 Total Value of the Prestige Signup Bonus at .02 valuation (After Airline Credit and AF, but ignoring value of Lounge access and EQMs)

AA Exec Valuation at .02 Valuation of an AA miles
50,000 Miles earned after $5K spend
$1,000 AA Exec Sign-up Value

Summary using .02 Valuation of an AA Mile
$1,117 Total Value of the Prestige Signup Bonus (After Airline Credit and AF, but ignoring value of Lounge access & EQM)
$1,000 AA Exec Sign-up Value

Summary using .03 Valuation of an AA Mile
$1,250 Total Value of the Prestige Signup Bonus (After Airline Credit and AF, but ignoring value of Lounge access & EQM)
$1,500 AA Exec Sign-up Value

Dublin Booked

I mentioned in the previous post about getting 3 American Airlines Executive Platinum cards last year, and each came with a 100K miles sign-up bonus.  That really boosted my mileage account!

I read about First Class availability at the Saver level from LAX to Heathrow on one of the blogs, and I booked it for 115K miles round trip.  I didn't want to go to London again and I don't live in LA.  But I wanted to go to Ireland, and getting the long leg booked first, and then adding some shorter legs is a good strategy.

I called AA and was able to add the SFO to LAX and LHR to Dublin (DUB) legs pretty easily.  I even was able to get First Class on the SFO<->LAX legs, and 1 of 2 Business class on the LHR<-> DUB legs.  

Now, "Business Class" intra-Europe just generally means that it's 3 seats across, they block off the middle seat, and give you better food.  So it's not a big deal if I don't get the upgrade on the last leg.

I'm still working out my final plans for what we'll do in Dublin, and Ireland in general.  My current thinking is we'll stay at the Westin in Dublin using my SPG points for the entire week, and take day trips to interesting places including Belfast.

As I always do, I get the Rick Steves book and decide what to do.

He recommended going to the Dingle Peninsula, but that's a 6 hour drive each way, and that's not appealing.  There isn't a viable alternative via train, so the day trip idea seems to be the best idea.

AA Exec Platinum Card: Decision to be Made

It was a busy holiday season, so haven't posted for a while.  Happy New Year to everyone!

My American Airlines Executive Platinum card's annual fee will post in the next 30-45 days.  This was actually the first of 3 Exec Platinums I received last year, but the others I met the minimum spend, received the bonus, and cancelled.  But that's another long, and very happy story.

Now, I need to decide what to do about this remaining card.

I've really enjoyed the Admiral's Club membership.  But I do have options.  For example, yesterday I flew out of SJC, and used the "Club at SJC" which is a Priority Pass club.  I get access to these clubs with my Amex Platinum.  It has a much better selection of snacks than an AA or UA club, and has free alcohol.  It's still not as good as an international lounge which typically has a very nice selection of hot food, and you can really eat a meal there.  But now, the Club at SJC is the only club at the airport.

The Priority Pass Select that I received with the Amex Platinum card does not allow access to the United Clubs, but the non-Select does.  From what I read on the Priority Pass web site, the membership offered by "financial institutions" is the "Select" version, and does not allow access to the United Clubs.  But if you purchase a membership directly, you would get the non-Select version, and would have access.  This is moot, because I don't fly UA.

The Amex Platinum also gives me access to the Centurion Lounges, which are apparently very nice, and equivalent to the nicest international lounges.  Unfortunately, there are just a few of them.

When I travel internationally, my Exec Platinum status on AA gets me into really nice British Airways clubs, and all of the other OneWorld clubs.  So the only time I really use the Admiral's Club is when I'm in a US Airport that does not have a Priority Pass Club.

Since I originate from SFO or SJC, I have SJC covered.  SFO does have a Centurion Lounge, but it's in the United Terminal, and I'd have to go through security to get there, and through security again to get back to my AA gate.  With TSA Precheck, it's not that big a deal, but still...

So SFO and other US airports without a Priority Pass or Centurion Lounge are the problem.

The default strategy is simply to pay the $450, but I'm not a default type of guy.

Here's some options I'm considering:
1. Signing up for another Exec Platinum card, getting the 50K signup bonus and paying the $450 annual fee.  The advantage of the Exec Plat card is that if you spend $40K on it you get 10K EQM.  That's EQM not just regular miles, and that's a unique feature.
2. Signing up for a regular AA card, getting the 50K signup bonus and "using" that bonus to buy an Admiral's club membership.  It probably will end up costing me 55K miles, because I don't think the Exec Plat card counts as really having a membership, so I won't get the "Renewal" price, but will have to the pay the new member price.  The other big advantage for me of this card is that you get a 10% mileage redemption credit.  Since I've been flying about 2X per year on miles, this is very useful.  There is a 10K credit limit, but 10K is nice.  It also comes with 2 Admiral's Club passes, so I would definitely use up those 2 passes before spending the miles on the membership, thus extending the effective period of my membership.
3. Suffer without an Admiral's Club membership.  I haven't always had a membership, so this is a viable alternative, and it really depends on how much travel I end up doing for work.

I have some time, but I will need to make a decision in the next 30 days or so.

Freedom!

I've been eyeing the Chase Freedom credit card for some time, and saw that they had a limited time offer for a $200 sign-up bonus, which is really a 20,000 UR bonus if you have an UR-earning card. As you will read, now I'm down to one UR-earning card: an Ink Plus.  However, as long as you have one UR-earning card, your "Cash Back" cards can transfer their "Cash" on a 1-for-1 basis to an UR-earning card as Ultimate Rewards.  I certainly value an UR point at more than 1 cent, and I use 2 cents as my metric.  That's a long story for another post.

As I wrote in my previous post, I just downgraded my Sapphire Preferred (UR-earning) to a plain old Sapphire (not UR-earning), because I didn't want to pay the $125 annual fee (yours might be $95- it varies depending on the sign-up bonus).

I was in a no-annual fee mood, having just signed up for the whopping $450 Amex Platinum (again see my previous post for my logic).

The reason I signed up for the Freedom is the 5X on Grocery Stores and Restaurants in Q2 and Q3, respectively.  I really can leverage those.  The Sapphires (both Preferred and regular) earn 2X, on Restaurants, so that 5X is pretty attractive.  I don't have a card that earns a bonus on Grocery Stores.  I know there is an Amex card that does, but I just haven't seen enough value to do it given it has anannual fee.

I signed up online, and received the "we'll let you know" page, so I called the reconsideration line and used my standard "I don't need any more credit, and I'm willing to close another card to get the the new card because it has terrific spending categories".  I had two Ink Plus cards, one for each rental property.  I don't really need two and had only been using one.  So closed one of the Inks, and effectively moved the credit line from the Ink Plus to the Freedom.  This is my standard play with Chase- they don't like to give more credit, but they are fine with giving out new cards every quarter or so.

20K UR points for only $500 spend- that's a good value!

Nit: As you've read, I do open and close credit cards, and it's annoying to have to remove the card from my home page, but it still is in my account somewhere.  But Barclays is the worst- I can't remove a closed card from my home page.  I wonder what my home page will look like in a few years. ;-)

New Credit Cards

It had been a few months (seemed like forever!) since I received a new card.

Barclays is losing the US Air card as part of the American Airlines merger with US Air, and they appear to want more cardholders before that happens.  The existing US Air cards will become AA cards, but once the merger goes through next year, Barclays won't be able to issue new cards.

Barclays just raised the bonus on the card to 50K (from 40K).  This is an unusual card because the minimum spend is $1, but the $89 fee is not waived the first year.  Most other cards waive the fee the first year, but have varying minimum spends.  The cost per point is about 2 tenths of a cent, and always get at least 2 cents value per mile, so this was a no brainer.

I already had a US Air card, and I still received instant approval online.

I've been wanting to get the American Express Platinum card to get the 100K Membership rewards bonus for some time.  But the $450 fee is not waived the first year, and I just couldn't make the math work.  Amex used to provide access to the AA Admiral's Club, but they lost that deal earlier this year.  Now, they are building their own "Centurion Lounges", which I've read great reports about.  They are closer to international lounges because they have free food and alcohol, whereas US domestic lounges have very limited free food- usually pretzels, carrots, etc.

I used the script found in this Doctor of Credit Blog post, and after 20 minutes on the phone, I was approved.

I already have 4 Amex cards, which I used on Small Business Saturday.  Amex has a limit of 4 credit cards per person, but the Platinum is a charge card.  The difference is that you can run a balance on a credit card and get charged interest, but a charge card is supposed to be paid off every month.  Since I pay off all of my credit (and charge) cards every month, the difference is not material to me.  But it is to Amex, so now I have 5 Amex cards!

The card also provides a $200 airline credit each year, which can be used for gift cards on AA.  This is per calendar year, so getting it now allows me to get the $200 credit twice for a single annual fee.  So if I decide not to renew the card, it cost me $50 for 100K Membership Rewards points.

That's a good value!!

Small Business Saturday Post-Mortem

Took my wife along, so we could get the $10 back on $10 on her cards too- so we had 9 total cards including my Serve.

First stop was my local wine store, where I spent about $130, so received $130 worth of wine for $40.  (not that I need any more wine!)  However, they did initially object due to the service charges from Amex, but I'm a "good customer", and they did it anyway.  That's the first time I've heard that complaint- didn't hear that last year, or later this year.

Second stop was a nice local restaurant, where the manager split the $100 gift card across my 9 cards- $11.11 on 8 cards and $11.12 on one of them.  Since it's a restaurant, the POS terminal gave him the option to "split the check", but probably first time he split it across 10 "people".

Third stop was another local restaurant, where I decided to only buy a $50 gift card, and use only 5 of my cards.  This was not smooth, as they charged the cards, then voided, then charged the cards again.  The problems were unique to their POS, and I assume I'll get the $10 credits in the end.

Last stop was a local wine bar, where the wife and I had some wine and snacks.  I was surprised not to see the confirmation emails right after we charged the bill to the 4 remaining cards.

The wine bar was listed on the Small Business Saturday map, but was listed in their previous location.  I'm sure I'll have to call Amex and probably only 50/50 chance of getting the credit.

Total savings was $230 (and could be as high as $270).  Score!

Update: I never did get the credits for the Wine Bar, so I've done 3 online chats, and hopefully, the third will get me that last $40 credit.  Just for the record, the first 2 claimed they would process the credit, so no on objected, they just didn't do it.

Lowe's Gift Cards- incredible discount

Just got back from Staples.  They are selling $50 Lowe's gift cards for $40.  I combined this with an Amex Offer for $20 off on $100.

I bought 10 $50 gift cards, and the register rang them each up as $40, so a total of $400.

I used the multiple tab technique I mentioned earlier to get the Amex Offer added to my 4 Amex cards.

The cashier was able to put $100 on each Amex card (after a little help from the manager).

I immediately received the email from Amex saying I had activated the offer.

Summary is: $500 in Lowe's gift cards for $320!!

That's a good value!

P.S. In case you didn't catch the technique earlier, I simply open 4 tabs with my Amex Account page open.  I open the Offers for You section for the 4 different Amex cards in a separate tab.  Then I click the "Save Offer" button in each tab.  This process is necessary because usually if you Save the offer on one card, it disappears from the others.  But with the multiple tab technique, you can get it on all of your cards.