Hello everyone.
I usually take 2-3 domestic flights per year by myself, and another 2 with my husband, so about 7 flights per year, plus 10 or fewer nights at miscellaneous hotels. Though we don't travel a ton, most of our flights are coast-to-coast and pretty expensive. We're looking into a travel reward card to try and get something back on all those travel purchases, and better rewards for other purchases than my current sad BoA rewards card.
We've got it narrowed down to Chase Sapphire Preferred card, the Barclaycard Arrival Plus World Elite MasterCard (what a name!), and the Starwood Preferred Guest AMEX.
I'm about ready to rule out the SPG AMEX, but I keep reading that their points are "really valuable." What is it that makes them valuable? Are they all that valuable if you have no intentions of staying at a Starwood property ever? We rarely stay at hotels. When we do, we usually don't have a choice of where to stay, and when we do have the choice we usually try to find a Holiday Inn Express or sometimes something cheaper. Not really interested in luxury rooms unless the points bring them down to around $100/night. Or is it the fact that they convert to airline miles what makes them valuable? I have read that miles can turn out to be worth more than points, but is that just if you're getting upgrades and things like that? We never do any airline upgrades/perks. I also don't like the SPG policy of not having authorized users on an account.
The Sapphire is the next on the chopping block, as I've read the Ultimate Rewards marketplace is best if you can be flexible with your travel. We only travel for holidays or specific events, so little to no flexibility.
Basically, I'm really leaning toward the Barclaycard since it seems like the happy medium between the three, flexible (not airline-specific), with good rewards and perhaps most suited to our personal needs. But since this is all really new to us, I wanted to see if I'm missing anything with the SPG or Sapphire.
Thanks!
