Getting half off your airfare for the next couple years thanks to Amex

So Amex lured me into getting an American Express Platinum card a few years ago with a stellar bonus.  I was lucky another 150,000 points for signing up for the Business version of the Platinum card.  This Business Platinum card currently has a publicly available bonus offer of 100,000 Membership Rewards points--not shabby at all although the spending requirements are quite hefty.  But here's why it might be worth it:

Make $1,950 immediately with minimal outlay

Why might you sign up?  Well, you'll make $2,000 off the bat.  Amex recently enhanced the Business Platinum card so that you can use Membership Rewards points towards airfare at 2 cents per point.  So that sign up bonus of 100,000 points is worth $2,000 in airfare.  Nice.  The annual fee of $450 is more than offset.  And it's pretty easy to get the effective first year annual fee down to $50 per the post in the first link.  Except it's even easier now that you don't even have to buy airline gift cards but instead can buy Amazon gift cards through the MileagePlusX app.  You might balk because to get the full 100,000 point bonus, you need to spend $15,000.  Here's where the next step comes in.

Get half off your next $12,500 in airfare purchases

Why is this even more lucrative?  First, along with making Membership Rewards points more valuable for Business Platinum cardholders, it also made them easier to earn by awarding 1.5X points on purchases over $5,000.  Second, through the end of the year, Amex is offering 2X points on small businesses, including a neat website called Plastiq.  Plastiq lets you earn credit card points by paying bills using your credit card, for a fee.  That includes mortgages, rent, and (better yet) home equity lines of credit.

So draw you could draw down a home equity line, and pay it back using Plastiq.  On a $4,878 payment (i.e. $5,000 including the 2.5% fee to Plastiq), you will earn 12,500 Membership Rewards points (5,000 base points, 5,000 small business bonus points, and 2,500 large purchase bonus points). Your out of pocket cost for the 12,500 points is $122 (that 2.5% fee).  Remember, those points are worth 2 cents each toward airfare, so essentially you are buying the points for a little less than 1 cent each and redeeming them for 2 cents.

The only limitation?  The 2X Small Business Saturday promotion is limited to 250,000 bonus points and runs until the end of the year.  You can shoot for 625,000 total points using this 2.5X opportunity, which is worth $12,500 in future airfare, not counting the sign-up bonus which adds another $2,000 worth of bonus points.  These $14,500 worth of points would cost $6,097.  If you are good at redeeming miles, you could use the points as miles and get even more value.

Amex Sync offers $25 off $75 Amazon.com

Update #2: Direct enrollment no longer working. Back to Twitter.

Update: no Twitter required, just go to this link and register all your cards!

This is one of the most generous Amex Sync promos I've seen.  Just sync your credit card with Twitter, and then tweet #AmexAmazon.  For more detailed step-by-step instructions, see this post. You'll then get a $25 statement credit for each $75 purchase.  Once confirmed (wait for a reply via Twitter from @AmexSync), you'll have until December 31 to get your 33% off Amazon.  Sync it fast because there are limited quantities of these promos.  Amazon gift cards purchases counted for me, but you might want to check the latest Slickdeals thread to confirm that before buying.

Is the $450 annual fee for the American Express Platinum Card worth it?

I never really considered holding the American Express Platinum Card, since it comes with a hefty $450 annual fee, and as my regular readers know, I am not a baller. I don't spend $450 without expecting A LOT in return. Like a life-sized gold nude sculpture of myself (solid gold, not leaf). To my surprise, I am considering keeping the Platinum card for the benefits. I get no commission whatsoever if you sign up--I'm writing this because a friend asked me about the card.

How they got me

I was lured into getting a Platinum card with the fleeting 100,000 bonus point offer almost a year ago. I transferred the 100,000 Membership Rewards points into 135,000 Avios (British Airways points). Take a city pair like LAS-LAX, which is 238 miles each way. On British Airways' award chart, that flight qualifies for a 9,000 point round-trip redemption. So my 135,000 point sign-up bonus would earn me 15 round trip tickets on this city pair or $3000 in airfare assuming $200/ticket. It was a no brainer to sign up for a year and cancel. It's very rare to get the 100,000 Membership Rewards sign-up offer, but there is a Mercedes Benz version of this card with a 50,000 point offer. Another strategy is signing up for the Gold Rewards card for 75,000 bonus points (a more regular offer) and then call and try to upgrade to Platinum (often they will offer you 25,000 additional points). Card Offers apparently has a 50,000 point offer for the Gold card valid now. There are numerous transfer bonuses from Membership Rewards currently (20% to British Airways, 25% to Emirates, 30% to Virgin Atlantic), but they are all limited time offers so be sure to time your transfers strategically.

Sticking it to the man

The easiest way to get value from the card is to get $200 in statement credits for airline charges each calendar year. I have spent $200 on airline gift certificates ($100 in two transactions). This is perfect to use in combination with offers such as Alaska Airlines' companion pass that comes with its BofA credit card. With my flight patterns, it's very easy to get the full $200 in value every year. Unless your card is issued on January 1st, you will get two calendar years in your first year of card membership. So in your first year (never cancel before getting another $200 on January 1st!), you can easily get $400 in value toward airfare, which takes a big chunk out of your first year's $450 fee. To keep the card, though, I need to come up with another $250 in value.

Another way I get value from the card is the bonus offers I get from Amex Sync programs. For example, Amex is offering me $25 off $250 purchases at Best Buy if I just tweet #AmexBestBuy. I can do that. I can also buy Visa gift cards there and earn 10% off money. I also saved $50 on a Travelocity hotel booking earlier this year. In total, I've saved $260 this year through Amex Sync programs on this card alone. You can be sure that I'll spend at least $10 on this card on Small Business Saturday. Did I get $270 in value? Not exactly, because unlike the Best Buy and Small Biz Saturday offers, I had to spend money I probably otherwise wouldn't have spent.  So call it $150-200 in value.

I was fortunate enough this year to make several reservations for myself and others through American Express' Platinum Concierge service at restaurants like Per Se. It's rumored that American Express has its own standing table at certain restaurants. The service touts being able to find a painter in Paris to choose a color to paint a Paris apartment...I don't think I will be using it for that anytime soon. The service is pretty bad for restaurants not in its radar screen (even Michelin starred restaurants), but it has definitely saved me a lot of time and effort.

I also got value from the American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts program, which offers amenities such as free breakfast for two, a $100 credit for dining or spa services, early check-in, late check-out, a room upgrade, etc. Recently I booked a room at THEhotel in Las Vegas for $90 for one night using this program, so we got an $80 breakfast credit and a $100 spa credit. Or a spa service that comes with a free room, depending on how you look at it. Great value.

I haven't traveled much this year for business, but if I traveled more, I would place even more value on the lounge access that I get with the card. In addition to the American Airlines Admirals Clubs, Delta Sky Clubs, US Airways Clubs, you get access to Priority Pass Select lounges and two Centurion lounges (I took advantage in Las Vegas, and it is well worth a visit even if you access it using your non-Platinum Amex card and pay a $50 entry fee).  Access to these clubs cost hundreds of dollars per year, but I think I've gotten at least $100 of value from access this year.

My car battery died last month. I don't have AAA, and thanks to Amex Platinum, I don't need it!

I think I did quite well this year with the Platinum card. While there are other amenities (below), I would recommend it to heavy travelers in particular. And even better, if you can leach onto someone who has the Platinum card, the additional user fee is only $175 and covers up to 3 additional cardholders. That works out to $58/year! Well worth it for any of combination the benefits that I got most value from (above), but you might also find value in (although many of these apply to the primary cardholder):

• One year free of Amazon Prime (I sadly signed up before they started offering this)


• Free Gold status in the Hilton and Starwood programs (although this status is easy to come by via other means)


• Global Entry fee refund (gets you through lines faster)


• Other benefits like shipboard credits when you book a cruise


• Companion pass when you book an international business class ticket (good luck using it and finding a truly discounted fare!)


• Generous accident insurance, purchase protection (90 days and up to $300 per item), etc.

Another Whole Foods discount through Amex

American Express offers $10 off a $75 purchase at Whole Foods if you tweet #AmexWholeFoods. It's not as good as last year's $20 off the same amount, but now that I have signed up all my cards (including my additional card holders for multiple savings per card), I can stretch these discounts a bit further. If you prefer Facebook over Twitter, you can sign up for this same promotion by heading to the Amex Like Link Love app on Facebook.

Flemings Steakhouse $50 off from Amex

Amex's Like Link Love promotions are a great way to get discounts.  Now you can get $50 toward your $100 meal at Fleming's Steakhouse at any of their 60+ restaurants around the country.  They have a great chocolate lava cake, which I recommend.  I especially like these promotions because you don't have to think about minimums, risk under-tipping, or have to pull out a piece of paper that takes the waiter an extra 10 minutes to process.

Get 150,000 Membership Rewards points from Amex

(offer expired -- that was fast)

The point addict world is abuzz with this offer from American Express that gives you 100,000 Membership Rewards points for signing up for an American Express Platinum card after $3,000 in spending and 50,000 Membership Rewards points for signing up for a Gold Amex after $1,000 in spending.  The Platinum card comes with a whopping $450 annual fee, but it can be very worth it if used strategically.  For example, the Platinum card comes with $200 in airline credits against certain fees (for a single airline of your choice) every calendar year, so you can for example buy $200 worth of American Airlines gift cards this year and next year before the annual fee comes up again.  This makes the effective annual fee $50 for 100,000 points (currently transferrable to 130,000 British Airways Avois points!).

• 
  
  
  Go to creditcards.com


• The first option on the left menu says “Offers Matched for You.” Click it.


• Enter all your info and submit (No need to enter your SSN until you reach Amex's website.  In fact, entering in dummy info takes you to the Amex application page.)

Here is Gary Leff's analysis of the Platinum card.

Sweet deal gets even better via American Express SimplyCash

A wrote a little while ago about the sweet OfficeMax OPEN deal, where you can get over 7% back on all your spending.  This deal is even sweeter than I thought.  Using the American Express SimplyCash card, you can get an extra 5% back because OfficeMax.com deals do qualify for bonus category spending.  So in total, you can earn 15% back on gift cards, 11.2% back on all other spending (10% back from OPEN+ 5% from SimplyCash).  Thank goodness my readership is small, because this is one of my best discoveries ever!

Get 7.5% back on all your spending, 11% back on gift cards

(extra $50 travel card code expires today, July 28)

Bonus savings for today only: Enter code TRAVEL to get a $50 hotel cash card redeemable here.

A couple posts ago, I talked about how you could get 4.2% back on any spending category using a combination of the American Express SimplyCash card and the American Express Prepaid card.  Today, I'm sharing a similarly diabolical way to get 7.5% back on all your spending, this time involving any of the American Express Small Business cards.  American Express has a program called OPEN, which gives small business card holders a statement credit rebate for certain merchants such as Hyatt hotels, FedEx, Hertz, and OfficeMax.  Last month, American Express changed its rebate terms on OfficeMax, getting rid of rebates on in-store purchases but upping rebates to 10% on purchases over $250 at OfficeMax.com.

But we can buy only so much toner at inflated prices.

What we prefer to buy is money at a discount.  So get an American Express Small Business card if you don't already have one.  I recommend cards like the American Express Starwood Card, the American Express Premier Gold Rewards card (especially if you can get in on a 75,000 account opening bonus), the American Express SimplyCash card, and the American Express TrueEarnings Costco Business card.  All of these are great cards on their own, and the SimplyCash card even carries no annual fee.  Don't worry about having a small business--you can just put your name as your business name.

So follow these steps to get your cash back:

1. Go to OfficeMax.com, and buy at least $275 worth of OfficeMax gift cards.  These should arrive about a week later via USPS Priority Mail.  Do not buy just $250 worth of cards.  You must buy $275 or more, otherwise you will get only 5% back from OPEN if you buy $250 or less.
2. When the gift cards arrive, go to your OfficeMax store and shop their gift cards.  They have $200 Visa gift cards that carry a $6.95 service charge.  They also carry gift cards to Amazon.com, Nordstrom, Apple iTunes, and many more.  Some cashiers might say you can't buy a gift card with a gift card, but I usually just tell them to try it and see if it works, and it has always worked for me.  You might need to visit a few different registers or stores if you get shot down.

In a couple of days after your initial purchase, you will get a 10% OPEN Savings statement credit.  On top of this, you will have earned whatever your card's core earnings program gives you -- 1% cash back for SimplyCash and TrueEarnings, 1 Starpoint per dollar spent (certainly worth more than 1% back), or 1 Membership Reward points per dollar spent.  So your earnings are as follows on a $200 purchase (I choose this amount because that's the largest Visa gift card size, but remember you need to buy >$250):

• Visa gift card: 10% off $200 in OfficeMax gift cards = $20 statement credit, plus you get an additional 1% back or $2.  $22 in rewards less $6.95 in fees is 7.5% off a Visa gift card.
• Other gift cards: If you are purchasing something at other stores like Amazon, you can trade in $200 in OfficeMax gift card for $200 worth of Amazon.com gift cards.  Your net rewards would be $22, with no fees whatsoever, for 11% off any gift card that they carry.

Think of the possibilities.  For example, you can pay your tax bill with a 1.89% fee, so you can make a 6 point spread on your taxes.  Or, get a free Square card reader and pay a 2.25% fee for a 5 point spread ($10.50 per $200 gift card).  It's hard to spend money on $200 gift cards and keeping track of balances, so the Amex Prepaid deal can be more convenient for large purchases.  But this deal is very rewarding--it's free money.  Don't risk getting stuck with thousands of dollars in OfficeMax gift cards.  If you already have an Amex small business card I recommend taking advantage of this deal today for the $50 hotel credit!

Get 4.2% on all purchases with the American Express Prepaid Card

Another Amex deal (no, I am not paid in any way by them, except by exploiting opportunities like this next one).  American Express has introduced a Prepaid Card, a re-loadable stored value debit card of sorts.  There is really nothing special about this card, except the way that you can reload it.  They expect you to link it to a bank account and load it via direct debit, and if you get a new card and reload it this way with $50 in July, Amex will give you $10.

However, there is another reload method that yields 4.2% on everything you buy.  For all of my strategizing to get more than 2% back, this deal trumps them all.  Office Depot sells "vanilla reload" cards, displayed right next to "temporary" American Express prepaid cards in its retail locations.  Buy these vanilla reload cards with a credit card that rebates you 5% on office supply purchases, and you will net 4.2% after the $3.95 fee per reload card (maximum value of $500).  You will pay $3.95 for the reload card but get $25 back on your $500 purchase.  Cards that give you 5% back include:

• American Express SimplyCash - No annual fee and 5% back is rebated as a statement credit (2 cycles after your purchase).  Also get 5% back on mobile phone bills.
• Chase Ink Bold - $95 annual fee (waived for the first year and more than offset if you can spend $10,000 to earn 50,000 Ultimate rewards points).  This can be a better value, because you get 5 points per dollar at office supply stores, which you can redeem for airline tickets worth 10 cents per dollar or more.  Also get 5% back on mobile phone bills, internet services, and cable bills.

American Express 75,000 Membership Rewards points for Amex Gold Premier sign up

(expires June 26) They last had this big bonus as a one-day deal for the leap year. The 75,000 point bonus for the American Express Premier Rewards Card is a whopper because Amex often has transfer bonuses to other airlines. I signed up for this card on leap day and after spending $10,000, I got my 75,000 bonus points plus 10,000 regular spending points. Then I transferred them to British Airways with a 50% American Express bonus, netting me 127,500 miles--even more than British Airways own credit card that doesn't waive the first annual fee like this one does. A great deal! It's hard to spend $10,000 in 4 months, but some ideas include paying taxes (yes, you'll pay a 2.3% fee but it could be worth it), using Amazon Payment to send a friend money (no fees), or just prepay some expenses by buying gift cards.

Amex discounts via Twitter

(expires April 30)

American Express is giving away some nice discounts when you pimp out your Twitter account.  Just sync your Twitter account (or a newly created one just for this purpose) and tweet various hashtags to get discounts.  Some examples include:

• $20 off $75 at Whole Foods with #AmexWholefoods
• $10 off $100 at Best Buy with #AmexBestBuy
• $10 off $75 at Zappos with #AmexZappos

Watch this video to see how it works:

Get 75,000 Membership Rewards points with Amex Business Gold Rewards card

(expires today) American Express offers 75,000 Membership Rewards points for signing up for their Business Rewards Gold card after spending $10,000 in 4 months with the first year's $175 fee waived. Usually this card comes with no bonus points, so this is a great offer if you are looking to spend a lot in the next few months (or willing to prepay expenses). As I wrote earlier, this card is good for spending on airfare (3 points per $ spent), but I don't think the perk is worth the $175 annual fee unless you fly a lot for business.

Get $10 off $50 at Whole Food Market from Amex

(expires February 29)

American Express' long-running promotion called "Like, Link, Love" is an evil way of giving marketers your personal information. But for some things, like 10 bucks to spend at Whole Foods, it just might be worth it. If you haven't already signed up for Like, Link, Love, you need to give Amex access to your (fake?) Facebook profile, register a card, and then click to "add" this coupon to your card.

If you are willing to pimp your privacy for another $10, check out this promo from Foursquare.

Show me the plastic money! (Update)

(updated September 2013 to take into account changes in Citi's ThankYou Premier card)

In honor of a young padewan who hopes never to fly coach again, I am updating a post from a few years back.  As veteran credit card schemer Gary Leff lays out, there are generally 3 reasons to hold a credit card:

1. Bonuses - Miles and points that are good toward travel or gift cards.
2. Benefits - Getting free price protection, primary rental car insurance, lounge access, or companion travel passes.
3. Rebates - Earning a rebate on your everyday purchases meaningfully more than the standard 1% back.

One of the key things to keep in mind is that everyone has different spending patterns and utility functions, so no one strategy is going to work for everyone.  More on that below.

Bonuses

We are living in a second Golden Age of credit card bonuses.  The first was when credit cards let you earn bonuses on the same cards more than once, but most banks have wised up and no longer let you "churn" cards.  This second Golden Age is the age of humungous sign-up bonuses.  I remember signing up for credit cards for a 10,000 mile bonus, and paying an annual fee for the privilege.  Today, that's chump change, and furthermore only chumps pay annual fees.  I believe today's golden age of monster bonuses are a result of the Durbin Amendment, which is creating strong incentives for banks to get consumers to adopt credit cards over debit cards.  How long issuer incentives will last is not clear, but I suggest taking advantage the bonuses while you can.

Bonuses are pretty straightforward.  The issuers advertise a lump sum of points or miles, usually with minimum spending requirements.   If you had the card before, issuers like Chase and American Express will deny you from getting the same bonus again.  There used to also be 0% balance transfer bonuses, but today virtually all of these offers have a minimum fee that makes it not worthwhile.  My advice here is to do two things:

• Hold out for the big bonuses. Bonuses worth less than $300 are a waste of a credit inquiry. Also be aware of how big bonuses have been historically. For example, the British Airways card from Chase offers 50,000 miles, which seems like a lot until you remember that they have offered 100,000 miles twice before.  Similarly, in the previous post, I note that the Citi ThankYou Preferred card had an unusual 50,000 point bonus (link still working, but no guarantees) vs. the typical 25,000 point bonus, so if you ever want to own this card for the bonus, last week was a good time.
• Apply for cards that will disappear. Since you (usually) can't earn bonuses more than once, cards that are going away are use-it-or-lose-it opportunities to earn miles. This usually happens when 1) an airline gets merged (e.g. Northwest bought by Delta), 2) an airline changes credit card partners (U.S. Airways switching from Bank of America to Barclays), or 3) when card products get changed (e.g. Citi's PremierPass cards changing to ThankYou cards). In each of these cases, you have an opportunity to double dip (i.e. earn miles twice in the same program with the predecessor and successor cards). 

What you should do today: Apply for the Continental OnePass Plus card before it disappears (likely in March) and earn 25,000 Continental miles with the potential for 50,000 miles if you point out that United has a 50,000 mile offer.

Benefits

There are several categories of benefits, ranging from travel to price protection. Below are the key benefits that cards generally offer.  Which you find most valuable obviously depends on your travel and spending patterns.

• Companion passes: Most companion passes are pretty worthless because they are capacity controlled or require you to pay a higher fare level.  But several programs have passes that are very worthwhile: 1) Chase British Airways gives you a companion pass for a mileage redemption but you must spend $30,000 on the card to earn one, 2) BofA Alaska Airlines card gives you a companion pass good for any class of service (think First Class to Hawaii), 3) Citi ThankYou cards give you companion tickets for domestic (Premier card) and international (Prestige card) travel.
• Price protection: This is an increasing rare benefit but can be very valuable.  If you buy something but find it cheaper later, you can get a check for the difference.  American Express used to offer this benefit but stopped.  Today, some credit cards like the Citi ThankYou Premier offer it.  I have a credit card that offers it for Internet prices (!), but this card is no longer open to new customers.
• Primary CDW rental insurance: When you rent a car, your credit card more often than not offers a form of insurance.  However, with a few exceptions, this insurance is not primary insurance--it's secondary to your own personal insurance.  So when does secondary insurance get triggered?  Almost never.  Some cards like the Continental OnePass Plus offer primary rental insurance. Nerdwallet has a list of current cards offering primary insurance.
• Free checked bags: Most airlines offer a credit card where you can get free checked bags.
• Lounge access: Some people love airline lounges and good for them.  Cards that offer lounge access include the American Express Platinum card (American, Delta, US Airways) and the Citi Prestige card.  Continental Presidential Plus offers lounge access to United and Continental lounges.
• Elite status: Some cards also offer hotel elite status, generally at the middle tier.  The American Express Platinum card offers complimentary gold status with Starwood and the Citi Prestige offers complimentary gold with Hilton.
• Roadside assistance: American Express Gold and Platinum cars offer this benefit for $50 per incident.  The United MileagePlus Explorer card offers a similar benefit.

What you should do today: Ask yourself whether any of the benefits above are "must-have" and see if the annual fee is worth it.

Rebates - Miles & points

Do you earn less than $500 worth of rebates from your credit cards every year?  You might be able to do better.  This is the most complex way of earning rewards, but it can pay off.  Assuming that you can manage spending and payments on a multitude of cards, your optimal spending strategy depends a lot on your pattern of spending and how much you value miles and points.  How much you value miles and points depends on your utility for premium travel, your travel patterns, and your travel flexibility.

For example, I recently redeemed miles for premium cabin airline tickets worth about $35,000, or $0.16 per mile redeemed.  Would I pay $35,000 for this travel?  Um...no.  What would I pay?  Maybe $5,000, or $0.02 per mile redeemed.  Was it a pain to use these miles?  Absolutely.  We didn't get the dates we wanted, and we almost changed our destination based on availability.  Would I rather have had $5,000 in cash to buy tickets on the days I wanted?  Probably.  Miles can buy great deals on travel--especially premium cabins--but they can be frustrating and time consuming to use.  Because I don't value premium cabins much, I value most miles at about 1.5 cents per mile.  A lot of the travel experts value them at triple that, because they prefer to travel in business/first all the time.  Some people value their legroom.

Programs like Chase's Ultimate Rewards or Citi's ThankYou points can be hard to value. Chase points can convert directly into United miles if you have a Chase Sapphire or Chase Ink card, so you can value them as airline miles which are a good use of the points.  Citi's ThankYou points are generally worth less than a penny, unless you have a Citi Premier card (which adds 25% in value when redeeming for airfare) or a Citi Prestige card (which adds 33%).  So if you have both a Citi Prestige card and a Citi Forward card, each dollar you spend at restaurants and Amazon.com convert to 5 points that are redeemable for 6.67 cents in airfare.  So you have some travel experts tripping over themselves to get 2.14 miles per dollar in restaurant spending, but they are giving up 6.67 cents in airfare that would earn them those precious miles that they forfeit by using mileage.  It's worth it to accumulate miles if you will redeem them for business or first class, but if you find yourself redeeming miles for economy travel, take a step back and consider cash/point alternatives.  Let's take some examples.  Plugging in a date in March, I get airfare on Cathay Pacific of:

	SFO-HKG Economy	SFO-HKG Business
Cash	$1,103	$5,973
Miles (if available!!!)	70,000 miles spent	110,000 miles spent
Value per mile (before taxes & opportunity costs)	1.6¢	5.4¢
Taxes & opportunity costs (don't forget!!!)	13,800 miles earned on cash $350 taxes on award	17,250 miles earned with cash $350 taxes on award
Value per mile (after taxes & opportunity costs)	0.9¢	4.4¢
Value per mile as elite member (after taxes & opportunity costs)	0.8¢	4.0¢

So what to conclude from this?  If redeeming for economy travel, your value per mile is pretty poor.  If your travel dates are rigid (e.g if you usually travel during the holidays), then plan on spending double the miles and getting 1/2 the value per mile shown above if traveling on your loyalty program's own planes but forget it if you're relying on alliance partners, who generally offer seats using "saver" award capacity.  But even if you're redeeming miles for business class travel, consider this: the 110,000 miles I spent could have easily earned $2,200 in cash back rewards using a simple 2% back credit card.  Would I rather 1) redeem miles and fly business (subject to availability) or 2) spend $1,103 for an economy ticket, save $350 in award taxes, and have $1,447 more to spend in Hong Kong while earning miles and status for my next trip?  Suddenly, 4 cents per mile doesn't look as good.  If someone gave me $1,447 to downgrade from business to economy, I would probably take it.

So what to do about airfare if miles aren't the answer?  Citi PremierPrestige cards can be 2.66% cashback cards if you buy airfare from time to time or even if you just redeem miles, providing that the taxes are over $49.99.  You see, using Citi Prestige, you can earn ThankYou points for the miles you fly, not just the money you spend on a ticket.  So recently I redeemed 12,500 miles for a one-way ticket cross country and paid the close-in fee of $50 on Continental.  Because I charged it to my PremierPrestige card, I banked ~2,500 "flight points."  They get released only when I spend an equal amount in dollar purchases.  So my 1 point back effectively becomes a 2 points back as long as I keep banking flight points.  And these 2 points are worth 2.66 cents in airfare with a Citi Prestige, as I mentioned earlier, and when you combine it with a Citi Forward, more categories are bonused, including Amazon.com.  Citi Prestige has a hefty annual fee but it's lowered if you are a Citigold customer.  Chase Sapphire is also a solid card because you earn 2 miles per dollar, but it depends on how much you value premium travel.

Rebates - Cash & equivalents

Below is a list of rebate categories and notable credit cards in each category.  If this table gives you a headache, do yourself a favor and skip this post and consider just signing up for the Fidelity Investment Rewards Visa card, which pays 1.5% back (2% above $15,000 in spending) on everything you buy or the Fidelity Amex, which gives you 2% cash back on everything you buy.  Also, if the card carries an annual fee (e.g. Chase Sapphire, Citi Premier), it might be worth just keeping it simple if your spending in these categories is less than $10,000/year, which is the incremental reward on a 3% vs. 1% that would justify two $100 annual fees.

The table of cashback rewards shows mostly cards that have no annual fees, partly because many annual fee cards don't pay off beyond the first-year bonus unless you're a big spender.  But I have noted annual fee points and miles cards that are particularly rewarding and worth getting if you spend a lot in these categories.  Note that the Amex Blue Cash skims your cashback until you pay out the equivalent of an annual fee and the Costco TrueEarnings requires a paid Costco membership, but who's counting?  I also left out cards like the Bank Americard have rewards that are inferior to the Penfed Platinum Cashback Rewards.

Category	2%	3%	5%	>5%	Points/miles alternatives (with annual fees)
Bookstores		Chase Amazon (Amazon only)	Citi Forward* (includes Amazon!)	Amex OPEN (6% at Barnes & Noble***)
Drugstores	Chase Amazon			^Amex Blue Cash
Gasoline	American Express Premier Rewards	Costco TrueEarnings Amex Consumer card Costco TrueEarnings Amex Business card (4%) Amex SimplyCash	Penfed Platinum Cashback Rewards Discover More** Chase Freedom**	^Amex Blue Cash	Chase Ink Bold/Plus (2 points/$)
Groceries	Penfed Platinum Cashback Rewards		Discover More** Chase Freedom**	^Amex Blue Cash	American Express Premier Rewards
Restaurants	Chase Amazon	Costco TrueEarnings Amex	Citi Forward* Discover More** Chase Freedom**		Chase Sapphire (2 points/$)
Office Supplies			Amex SimplyCash	Amex SimplyCash (10% at Kinkos***)	Chase Ink Bold/Plus (5 points/$)
Telecom			Amex SimplyCash (wireless)		Chase Ink Bold/Plus (wireless, landline, cable, internet)
Travel (see below for additional bonuses)	Costco TrueEarnings Amex	Citi Expedia (4% with award redemptions)	Discover More** Chase Freedom**		Chase Sapphire (2 points/$)
Travel - Airfare				Citi Preferred	American Express Premier Rewards Citi Premier
Travel - Car rental				Amex OPEN (6% at Hertz***)
Travel - Hotels		Amex OPEN (4% at Hyatt***)		Amex OPEN (6% at Marriott***)	Starwood Amex (2 points per $ at Starwood hotels) Hilton Amex (9 points per $ at Hilton hotels)

^ Requires $6,500 in spending before reaching these payout tiers.  Update: This card is no longer offered.
* Comes with a 33% bonus if you also have a Citi Prestige card.
** Bonus categories rotate quarterly but often enough in these categories to warrant mention.
*** Amex small business cards receive cash back from OPEN merchants in addition to the regular rewards program.  Unless otherwise stated, this chart assumes regular program pays 1%.  However, if you use, say the Costco Business Amex, your payout could be higher.

What you should do today: Assess your spending and see if you spend enough at any of these categories to switch.  My favorite is the Citi Forward card for 6.7% back at Amazon.com and restaurants.  Don't forget that sign-up bonuses can be substantial, even for these cards that you get for ongoing spending and not just the bonus.

Get $20 for signing up for American Express' Paypal-like service called Serve

(expires January 5)

American Express has a Paypal-like service called Serve that lets you send money by e-mail.  Until January 5th, you get a $10 bonus in your account for signing up.  Then, after you sign up, you can play a simple trivia gave to get another $10 deposited in your account (after a business day or so).  You can also fund your account with a credit card without fees (for now), up to $250 to pick up some token miles or cash back.  You can also refer your friends to get $5 for each referral.  You'll need to enter some identifying details like the last 4 of your social security number.

Amex giving you $25 statement credit on Small Business Saturday

(valid on Saturday, November 26 only, registration live now)

American Express is helping you spend your money at small businesses this year with their 2nd annual Small Business Saturday promotion.  Register for Small Business Saturday and then spend at least $25 at a small business.  You should receive a statement credit a few days afterwards.  You are eligible for a credit per card, so I am looking forward to $75 in credits for my 3 Amex cards.  If they keep doing this every year, it'll take some of the sting out of those annual fees.

Additional 10% of TVs: more love from Amex

(expires August 31)

Amazon has an additional 10% of select TVs if you use your American Express card and use code AMEXTV10 at checkout.  This is a nice sweetener to deals such as the LG 37" LED TV that I blogged about recently, which you can now get for $503 after this discount. Have a look at the full selection of TVs, there are some great deals to be had though most of the TVs are 37" and larger (search for Samsung for the smaller TV deals). Amazon is a great place to get a TV because shipping is free on most TVs, some TVs come with 30-day returns (no shipping fee charged, like most returns), and you can avoid sales tax (though you need to pay use tax).

Costco Amex card $100 credit

(expires March 31)

For a limited time, American Express is giving you a $100 statement credit if you sign up for the Costco TrueEarnings American Express card.  The bonus offer of $100 may not sound like much given the crazy offers of 100,000 miles/points, but this is a great card that gives you 4% cash back on gasoline, 3% back on restaurants, 2% on travel, and 1% for everything else.  But unlike the mega mile bonuses we are seeing, this card has a business case that you should be wary of.  The reason that Costco offers you such generous rewards is because in order for you to get your cash back, you need to walk into a Costco store.  Good luck keeping that wad of cash on your way out, because the marketers are betting that you'll turn around and spend it in the store!

5 free songs on iTunes from Amex

(expires March 15)

American Express is giving away 5 free songs on iTunes, valid with prior registration using your personal American Express card.

American Express Small Business Saturday - now till year end

American Express sponsored Small Business Saturday last weekend, a program that gave a $25 statement credit last Saturday people who spent $25 at a small business that accepts Amex cards.  My credits (I have multiple cards) came on Monday of this week, showing up as:

11/29/2010 * Mon Small Biz Sat #SBS11 001 0 -25.00

Fortunately for any Amex card holders who missed this deal, there is good news.  You can earn the same $25 credit by shopping any any small business through the end of the year.  But you must register here.