If you want a bit of a shock, total up the annual fees you pay on credit cards. The number is staggering. But I always felt I got more than my money’s worth up until this coming renewal year.
Katy and I both carry Amex Gold, Platinum and Hilton Aspire cards. And I carried the Chase Sapphire Reserve for about three years before downgrading it this past year to the Preferred version. I think our reasoning is sound for the upcoming downgrades.
Amex Gold Card
When Amex eliminated the ability to redeem the Platinum and Gold airline fee credit for gift cards, it really cramped our style. We bought American Airlines gift cards for years and this last year switched to Delta gift cards. Now that is no longer available, the Gold card will definitely be gone.
We can’t use the $10 per month restaurant benefit and are not interested in Boxed. So without the airline credits, its annual fee is not worth it EXCEPT for the 4X on grocery and dining. If we manufacture spend $25,000 each in grocery again, that card and fee make still make it through renewal. A retention bonus will probably allow us to keep it another year.
Amex Platinum Card
The Platinum Card airline fee credit was $200 per year and that one is pretty tough to replace. I got a retention bonus last year, so no hope for this coming year.
The thing we’ll miss most about the Platinum card is we each had the Schwab version, which allowed us to cash in our Membership Rewards points to our Schwab accounts at 1.25 cents each. We can live without the Centurion lounges I guess. But we never got to use the Uber credit each month and that stung.
Hilton Aspire Card
The big fee on the Hilton Aspire Card was easily covered with the $250 airline and $250 resort credit. We are going back to Palm Springs this year, so the Diamond status will be nice. But without the airline credit and really a limited selection of eligible resorts for the $250 credit, this is probably the easiest one to eliminate.
Chase Sapphire Reserve
And I downgraded the Sapphire Reserve to the Preferred as we have so many miles that the $300 travel credit there was just extra gravy. We don’t need it with all the miles we’ve got and I’m glad to start thinning the pile so to speak.
We are all at different places in life and in the game. Our travel is declining as we age, and these seem like the right moves for us. If you disagree or have another option on how to get more value out of these high fee cards, we are open to your suggestions and input. OR are there other high annual fee cards where you can still extract freebies that cover the annual fees?
I’m going through the exact same exercise. Between my wife and I, we have 2 AmEx Golds, 1 CSP and 1 CSR, 1 Amex Biz Plat, 2 Hilton Aspires, 1 CNB Crystal Visa, 1 AmEx Marriott Bonvoy Biz and Personal, 1 Southwest Performance Business, 1 AmEx BCP,, 1 Chase IHG (original, not the new one), 1 Citi Premier.
Total fees are getting to be ridiculous, but were justifiable when I could get gift cards on the AmEx cards.
After trying for retention bonuses on most of the cards when they come due, I think I will only end up keeping the AmEx Golds, CSR, Southwest, Citi Premier and IHG. I really like Diamond status at Hilton, so one of those *may* stay, but I’ll need to find a way to extract more value than just the $250 resort credit out of the card.
If there are any other ways to easily trigger the AmEx airline credits, I would love to know. That will allow me to keep a lot more of my AmEx cards, otherwise I’m getting rid of most of them. I was able to get a retention offer on the BCP to offset the annual fee a month ago, but I really don’t have any use for that card. I prefer 4x MR over 6% CB. So that’s gone next year.
This year I have used my credits for seat upgrades. I don’t buy many tickets but sometimes the fare is so low I don’t want to use points. Buy the dreaded basic economy ticket then upgrade your seat with the Amex cc. Or upgrade an award seat in economy to an exit row or bulk head.
I’ve read also that you can use a gift card to pay for part of the airfare and put the rest on your Amex card. The Amex portion will trigger the credit. I have not confirmed this.
If that works, that’s a great workaround. Thanks Kirk! Do you know if that gift card trick is specific to any airline(s)?
Not aware of restrictions.
I have successfully used this method on Delta tickets. I bought a $50 gift card, and put the rest on the Amex Plat. It triggered the $200 credits on the remaining balance.
I just triggered the Amex credit for a Delta purchase. Bought a $348 ticket and use $100 in gift cards. The remaining $248 was just reimbursed via credit today. The ticket is for a anticipated flight next year.
I had just gotten the aspire card a couple of weeks ago and didn’t have much time to trigger the credit for this year.
Great News
Thanks for the data point Richard!
I meant Richard and Kirk.
Amex is shooting them self’s in their foot. Between the hard to use air incidental credits, and how hard is becoming to MS them. I don’t see many of us paying those exorbitant annual fees. In addition they keep increasing AF in most of their cards and removing perks. No more gogo flight credits, no more restaurants for Priority Pass. I’m pretty sure you won’t be able to max out the 25k on the gold for much longer.
Agree, but I doubt we’re the customer base they want. Unless these ill-conceived changes result in customers that carry balances closing cards, I doubt AmEx will consider reversing course. AmEx used to have a great lineup, but with each year it gets worse and worse. And it’s still the least accepted card, so if I ever trim down my wallet, Visa and MC will make the cut while AmEx stays in a sock drawer, reducing their merchant processing fees even more.
I have successfully triggered the AmEX airline incidental credit when buying Southwest tickets under $100, and plan on using the gift card trick to buy tickets over $100. It’s a bit of a hassle, but better than nothing.
Doesn’t the Hilton Aspire also give a free weekend night? That should be in the calcuation. The annoying thing is the airline credits, which are ridiculous compared to the travel credits on the Sapphire Reserve and the Citi Prestige.
Yes, Aspire gives a free weekend night after paying fee every year. It’s a toss up for me now without airline credits working like they used to.