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30k spend… amex or citi?
I am about to make a $30k purchase and I am planning on using either my amex prg or my citi prestige. I will be paying off the balance as soon as it posts on the credit card account but I was wondering if I should use amex or citi. I would get 30k points based on the 1 point per dollar, would 30k MR points be more valuable than 30k thank you points or is it the other way around?
It depends on what you’d like to do with the points.
CitiPrestige still allows for 1.6 cents per point when using their portal to book travel on AA and 1.33 with other airlines. If you do this at all or often, it makes sense to put the spend here. Citi TY also has some useful airline transfer partners.
Amex also has some useful transfer partners so it can also make sense to put the spend here if you’ve got any planned transfers coming up.
Would you have enough time to consider opening a new card and putting the spend there? Chase Sapphire Reserve is a great card, especially if you’re not limited by 5/24 and dont otherwise have any Chase UR cards. 100k is a fantastic bonus, especially factoring in their transfer partners. Another card is the Amex SPG. Many bloggers, including Lucky, value Starpoints above other miles and points. SPG has the most diverse list of airline transfer partners as well as offering a 5k bonus for every 20k transferred in a single transaction.
Second this. If you have the ability to open new cards and split the purchase between multiple cards this is a great opportunity to hit spending requirements on new cards.
If you are just going with one of those cards I’d look to see what balances you have in each currency and where the extra 30k would be more useful for your travel goals. Both currencies have some good options. I’d also call Citi to see if they have any retention offers for your cards that you might be able to easily hit with extra spend.
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