[quote=AN]I would disagree. I think AMEX has the best rewards card for me. I love Starwood hotel chain and love their cash and points program. The best “cash back” (i.e. how much $ I save from the points I earned) I got was ~12%. No other cash back program can get even come close to that. I can easily get 3-5% cash back all day long with their average hotel deals. So, I use my AMEX Starwood card exclusively.[/quote]
That’s a good point if you are picky about your hotel when you travel. I usually use priceline and save 30-50% off the lowest published price for a 4 or 3.5 star hotel in the area. I only end up having to pay listed rates about 10% of the time when priceline fails me. Thus for me a free night in a downtown LA hotel like the giant Westin or the Marriott is only worth the $135 I pay on priceline, not the normal $250-300.
There is no comparable way to save on airfare. Priceline and hotwire will save you, at best 8% over lowest published, and so rarely that I usually don’t even check.
Also, the big bucks are in the sign-up bonuses. My CC spend is about 30K a year between biz and personal, so even with a 2% reward that is only $600. But with sign-up bonuses, I actually get more like $1500 the last couple years, and $2200 back when it was really rich 2008-2012.
