Does It Make Sense To Spend Money On Other Cards If You Have The "Chase Trifecta?"

Thanks Lucky for taking the time and putting in the effort for responding to my question in the forms! Very helpful and clarifying. I definitely need the Amex EveryDay card then. HUGE gap - I don't have any Membership rewards earning cards right now.

That only matters if Bill actually cares deeply about only staying at SPG/Marriott hotels, to the point of overpaying for them vs. another cheaper option. I think a straight 2% CASH card is best outside of any bonus spend, as cash is king and I can book airbnb or a cheaper non-chain hotel in most parts of the world vs. trying to shoehorn into a big chain property.....only to see my points value slashed with minimal notice. 🙂

@Bill Klein, Diversifying points is always a plus especially when maximizing point returns.
If you can get the Ink Cash, it'll give you 5UR points for office supplies store, cellphone, internet service and cable bills as well.
Strangely Netflix(internet service?) counts as well.

@ rick b -- I was suggesting earning Starpoints as a way of earning airline miles (via SPG's mileage transfer partners), rather than for hotel stays. Since you can earn up to 1.25 miles per dollar spent, I was suggesting that there might be cases where Bill might prefer 1.25 miles in an SPG partner currency compared to 1.5 miles with an Ultimate Rewards partner.

The value of miles is debatable, I personally would not put 1x spend on either a Chase card for UR or an SPG card for 1.25 Mileage currencies have been devalued left and right, and availability during busy travel seasons when most people can go are often barely there, so I personally would still take 2%+ cashback, and earn miles strictly with signup bonuses or if there's some spending promo going on.

Bill, or anyone else, needs to calculate how much spend they even put on a card that's not bonused. So a typical person let's say has $20k of spend per year that's not in a bonus category, and that's pretty generous already. That's a puny 25K miles they earn via SPG. WHere is that going to get you?

...to add, of course there are some people with monstrous amounts of business expenses, or reimbursed travel expenses, or they get comped stays at SPG hotels. Their math changes, but that's rare. I'm talking about average singles/families who just spend on normal daily expenses. Without heavy Manufactured spending, it's tough to earn any significant amount of miles on a non-bonus category.

I’ve barely used my SPG credit card in the last year (I don’t do many hotel stays at all). It just racks up so slowly for non bonus spend that somehow it just felt easier to put my non bonus spend on my Reserve cc & not even bother taking out my SPG cc. Now that I just downgraded my Preferred to the Unlimited, I really don’t know when I’ll be using my SPG, even tho I have 1:9 SPG to UR. I should may be really force myself to diversify like Ben suggested even if I lose some bonus points. It’s just so hard to give up on ‘easy’ bonus categories!

It depends on how much he spends overall. If it is $20-50k per year, you should really be constantly signing up for cards and then putting your spend toward those bonuses. If he spends more than that, this type of analysis makes sense.

Rick B is right....if you are cheap and you enjoy staying in a $20 airbnb or hostel... a cash back card is a must!

The Chase Trifecta strategy is very good for many but not perfect for all.

Some cannot use up a large amount of points due to inability to get enough vacation time. Others, like Rick B, is like the economy class flyer. He would rather stay at a cheaper hotel than get points at more expensive hotels.

Some of the 5% cash back on quarterly categories cards (Chase Freedom Visa, Discover it, and the no-new-cardholders Citi Dividend Select MasterCard) are useful to some.

Lucky's highly recommended IHG Rewards Select Club MasterCard by Chase is an interesting card that I may get someday. The bonus is like getting one night a year for $49 (the annual fee of the card).

MasterCards are getting less common than Visa, due to Visa's aggressive marketing to banks. Rarely there's a merchangt that only takes Visa or only takes MasterCard.

Thanks, Lucky, for introducing me to the wonderful world of credit cards and credit card sign on bonuses!

rick b, the minimum value of a UR point is 1.5c with the CSR. So, using the freedom unlimited will get you 1.5x = 2.25c which is more than your 2% cash back card. So....yeah, having Chase trifecta works out better than a simple 2% card if you actually travel. In reality, I do transfer points to airlines and get much more value. Everybody has and should have their own strategy. Have fun.

Trifecta? Sounds like a villain that the mutant ninja hero turtles would fight.

"5x points in rotating quarterly categories" - wtf is this supposed to mean?

Question for the group - way over 5/24. Have reserve and freedom. If I have the Hyatt card could I call to have it changed to the freedom unlimited and since it’s not subjected to 5/24 apply again for it later.

@rickb - that puny 25k you would get from SPG would put you up at the Sheraton on the park in Sydney for 2 nights. Which routinely goes for 400 a night. I know because I’m going and looking at hotel rooms. Booked J on chase points...I know I know use cash back. And just FYI I travel for personal not business. Cash back cards have a place, I have yet to find a place for them though.

For me my 2% cashback card (Fidelity) is important for diversity. I have enough points that I don't need more at the moment. The ones I have are just depreciating as I can't use them quickly enough due to lack of vacation time or paid travel (must maintain status!), which then replaces the ones in the kitty. Once you blow past your point target just take the cash.

@Shawn No, you cannot PC a Hyatt Card to a freedom Unlimited. Only CSR/CSP/CP can PC to a Freedom Card.

As for the original topic, diversify is key. since having 300k UR points, i couldnt find anything for a flight from Taiwan to Japan. UA wanted a ton of mileage for such a short trip, cash value was $500 RT. If i had another currency, id probably be fine.

SPG is a great card for the 1x. I prefer SPG card over Freedom Unlimited is because its super easy to earn UR, but hard to earn SPG. They also go to Marriott, 100k SPG to 300k Marriott. redeem for Flights a hotel is a pretty slick idea for a cheap vacation.

@Kyle, you have to factor in the additional cost of the annual fee of owning a credit card, which varies based on personal viewpoint - for the average Joe, this precludes even Rick B’s generous $20k spend a year example.

FWIW, no hate to the blogosphere business model, but it’s a hell of a lot easier travelling luxuriously with cash than miles.

This is something I've always wondered about. While I don't have the CSR yet but do have CFU & CF and am willing to stick with the trifecta especially now after reading this. For now just waiting to see if the CSR comes up with another good sign up bonus like the 100k it had before.

“FWIW, no hate to the blogosphere business model, but it’s a hell of a lot easier travelling luxuriously with cash than miles.“

If you’re rich.

I’m late to this game. We are high earning but somewhat cost conscious couple
We would never buy a $4500 plane ticket

But we’ve had Chase Sapphire for 1 year.
one year of chase spending gave us 270,000 miles which was more than enough for European Biz Class Flight (MSP-BUD-VIE-JFK)

$9k worth of tickets for spending we already do?

Using Luckys tricks I also bought Avianca miles which I converted to 2 RT tix LAX to SYD in First Class! I think I spent $4500 or so for tix worth 3-4x that
And got 13500 Chase Miles

Sure. Could have just paid $29k and bought the tix in cash
So much more fun getting the flights the way I did, despite the time involved (which I found to be fun)

‘We would never buy a $4500 plane ticket

But we’ve had Chase Sapphire for 1 year.
one year of chase spending gave us 270,000 miles which was more than enough for European Biz Class Flight (MSP-BUD-VIE-JFK)’.

The question here is on unbonused spend. If you had $270,000 to spend where there were no bonuses would you rather have 270k miles or $5,400? Scale to whatever number you spend. That is the question. It mixing it up if you have 3x bonuses on other spend. For many that are not rich they would rather have the cash.

I feel like there’s multiple scenarios for the “trifecta”. Reserve, freedom and SPG. Reserve, freedom, Hyatt card. Although the ultimate trifecta is reserve, freedom/or unlimited and whatever card you’re hitting the sign up bonus on.

Shouldn’t these be called the Chase Triplets rather than Trifecta? They’re all related, have the same DNA, with slight differences which aren’t obvious to the naked eye.