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Answers (8)

Amex rewards to europe

Amex rewards to europe

  1. nevcat New Member

    Lucky-

    I have been going through about 2-3 cc’s a year for ~5 years, reaching the minimum spend, using the sign up bonus points for travel, and then canceling the card before the annual fee kicks in. I only used to value those points at $0.1 until recently when discovered your site and realized I could be doing much more with my points.

    So I have a specific question and a couple general questions:

    (1) What is the best use of amex reward points to book a flight from JAX to ZRH in February?

    (2) In your experience do you see any downsides for applying for ~2-3 cc’s a year, reaching minimum spend to get the sign up bonus, using the points, and then canceling the card before the annual fee kicks in?

    (3) I typically take ~2-3 international trips a year, ~3 domestics (within the limits of what my cubicle job will allow) and generally only use the points for flights as my trips usually involve camping/hiking/snowboarding/surfing. Any suggestions on cc’s I should focus on, and how many per year I should be applying for?

    Thanks!

    Mike

  2. markreinoso New Member

    Ive been there and done that for sure…..I used to value them at the same rate. Then I discovered AVIOS and using it for short haul, its been great.

    I still cringe when I think of the time I bought 6k worth of tickets from phx to Paris, and used 238000 points to take off $2380 of my 6k bill. UGH

    you can go economy pretty easily to anywhere in europe for 50k RT points…its harder, when you have to buy 6 tickets like me for my family

  3. markreinoso New Member

    I would make sure you have your PRG AMEX or the CSP…those are the cards I would use the most.

  4. Anonymous Guest

    [USER=1006]@nevcat[/USER] — Welcome! We’ve all been there, so nothing to be ashamed about!

    To answer your questions briefly:

    1) Hands-down, transferring to Air Canada Aeroplan. It’s just 90,000 roundtrip for business class. [URL]http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2015/09/28/deciding-which-miles-to-use/[/URL]

    2) Not really, but if the card has good value you can certainly keep it open longer. Anything without an annual fee should really be kept indefinitely, in my opinion, and many of the annual fees are justified.

    3) That’s a lot to unpack, but definitely look at cards with generous sign-up bonuses, or cards with lucrative bonus categories. Keep reading the blog and you’ll find lots of ideas!

    Most importantly though, it’s okay to start slow. This is fun, and really exciting, but doing this at a sustainable pace is critical.

  5. nevcat New Member

    Thanks for the advice [USER=7]@Tiffany[/USER] and [USER=876]@markreinoso[/USER]! I just got the PRG Amex and just cancelled the CSP. I’ll probably re-up the CSP once they send me a targeted offer again. The CSP was great and the PRG seems really good so far. I’m now eying the Citi Thank You Premier or the Prestige. I just joined Krisflyer, Avios, and Aeroplan, (already had aa and delta). Are there any others you recommend I join? I appreciate the help and look forward to learning more and maximizing my points!

  6. Gaurav Community Ambassador

    [USER=1006]@nevcat[/USER] are you planning to get seriously into points and miles credit cards? Are you aware of the Chase’s policy around UR earning cards? You may not be able to get the CSP back again and unless you are able to get an Ink you will not be able to transfer any UR in your account to airlines any more (hopefully you either transferred out your UR balance to another airline or to another UR earning card like Freedom before closing your card). I would call Chase back and see if they can undo the closing. If you are serious about earning UR in the future while also opening other cards on a regular basis I would consider keeping that CSP open and paying the annual fee. Alternatively I would consider downgrading it to the non-preferred option with no annual fee that you *may* be able to upgrade to the preferred version some time in the future…

  7. nevcat New Member

    [USER=79]@Gaurav[/USER], yes I used or transferred all the points before I cancelled. I always make sure I do this beforehand. I thought about keeping it, or downgrading, but with all the offers out there I decided to cancel. Maybe it was a poor decision, but one I will have to live with as I did it months ago. As I learn more, I hope to not make similar mistakes.

  8. Gaurav Community Ambassador

    [USER=1006]@nevcat[/USER] don’t worry too much about it… c’est la vie 🙂

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