Best rewards or travel card for high spender?

luckycharms_2

Hi all,
I spend over 100k/year on my card (and pay it off on time), and am looking for the best rewards or travel card.  I currently have Cap One Venture as I used to have lots of foreign charges, but not anymore, so I'm looking to see if there are better deals than their 2% return.  I don't mind annual fees, given the amount I spend, though I'd want the benefits to outweigh the costs.  I've been looking around - the Banner Bank Tru Rewards has 4x points (I guess that's 4% return?).  If I had to pick an airline, it'd be American, but their card seems to be pretty crappy.  Any suggestions?
Many thanks....

dr_adidas01

luckycharms_2 said:

Hi all,
I spend over 100k/year on my card (and pay it off on time), and am looking for the best rewards or travel card.  I currently have Cap One Venture as I used to have lots of foreign charges, but not anymore, so I'm looking to see if there are better deals than their 2% return.  I don't mind annual fees, given the amount I spend, though I'd want the benefits to outweigh the costs.  I've been looking around - the Banner Bank Tru Rewards has 4x points (I guess that's 4% return?).  If I had to pick an airline, it'd be American, but their card seems to be pretty crappy.  Any suggestions?
Many thanks....

This is a U.K. site and from your post it sounds like you’re  in the USA? 

We don’t have any of the cards or banks you mention in your post here in the U.K. 

You might be better asking this on a USA based money saving site. 

Sandtree

luckycharms_2 said:

Hi all,
I spend over 100k/year on my card (and pay it off on time), and am looking for the best rewards or travel card.  I currently have Cap One Venture as I used to have lots of foreign charges, but not anymore, so I'm looking to see if there are better deals than their 2% return.  I don't mind annual fees, given the amount I spend, though I'd want the benefits to outweigh the costs.  I've been looking around - the Banner Bank Tru Rewards has 4x points (I guess that's 4% return?).  If I had to pick an airline, it'd be American, but their card seems to be pretty crappy.  Any suggestions?
Many thanks....

As above, this is a UK site so not going to be much help.

In general terms then it depends significantly on what you value and how you choose to travel. Some like cards that give points or cash back which, depending on your point scheme, can make valuing the card fairly easy. Others may value free airport lounge access or airline status but some travel Business so get lounge access anyway and travel/stay enough to earn status with airlines and hotels etc without the card. 

From what I read on travel forums most seem to come down to deciding between AmEx Platinum and Chase Sapphire unless they have realistic chances of the likes of the Centurion card but at $100k spend you'd be needing to more than double that to possibly be considered. 

lr1277

You mention American Airlines and their credit card offering being poor. My brother lives in the US and travels a lot. About 10 years ago he transferred from an airline based card to a hotel based card as he said he got more value out of it. But we haven't had the card conversation since. I don't know if that would work for you.

Have you come across 'ThePointsGuy' website, which covers reward based card in the US? The UK equvalent is Head For Points.

You mention a 4% return, but wouldn't it be better to look at what those points buy you.

Say you got 100K Amex points due to your spending. Then you wanted a 5 night leisure stay in a hotel. If you use points the hotel would charge you say 20k points a night, so you would spend 100k points. Say the cash cost of the room was $200 per night or $1000 for your 5 nights.This equates to 100 point per dollar or 1 point per cent of value. I think I have done that calculation right, but if I haven't, I would be pleased to be corrected. Due to restrictions on credit card fees in the UK, points here are worth less than 1p per credit card point, I think.

Also in your calculation you need to figure in the annual cost of the card.There is a difference between a card costing $75 per year and another costing $5000 per year. That calculation is not in my wheelhouse.

You will also need to decide if you want a charge card or a credit card. In the UK there are statutory protections for many purchases made by credit cards. However any protections offered  for charge card purchases are purely at the discretion of the card provider. I don't know the situation in the US so you would have to decide which card was better for your circumstances.

In the UK at least Amex points don't transfer to certain airlines or hotels. So if you have a preferred airline or hotel, you would need to find a card that can be used to top up the relevant scheme.

HTH

Sandtree

lr1277 said:

Say you got 100K Amex points due to your spending. Then you wanted a 5 night leisure stay in a hotel. If you use points the hotel would charge you say 20k points a night, so you would spend 100k points. Say the cash cost of the room was $200 per night or $1000 for your 5 nights.This equates to 100 point per dollar or 1 point per cent of value. I think I have done that calculation right, but if I haven't, I would be pleased to be corrected. Due to restrictions on credit card fees in the UK, points here are worth less than 1p per credit card point, I think.

Also in your calculation you need to figure in the annual cost of the card.There is a difference between a card costing $75 per year and another costing $5000 per year. That calculation is not in my wheelhouse.

You will also need to decide if you want a charge card or a credit card. In the UK there are statutory protections for many purchases made by credit cards. However any protections offered  for charge card purchases are purely at the discretion of the card provider. I don't know the situation in the US so you would have to decide which card was better for your circumstances.

In the UK at least Amex points don't transfer to certain airlines or hotels. So if you have a preferred airline or hotel, you would need to find a card that can be used to top up the relevant scheme.

In the UK and the US AmEx MR points can be transferred to a range of airlines and hotel groups. With airlines you can often use them on their partners even if you cannot directly transfer to a desired airline. Sure there are some airlines that are totally out of scope but with most the big groups covered it is sufficient for most.

There is no set value for what 1 MR point is worth and its generally accepted as being much more complex than you are suggesting in terms of calculating value. With the sign up bonus the OP could get a 1st class flight from HK to LHR (if they wanted) for 120,000 Avios + $5 whereas the cash price is currently around £14,500 meaning each Avios is valued at about 12p be those earned in the UK or the US. 

The question is really though, has using the MR points for this really saved the OP £14,500 in that scenario? Would they have actually flown First with Cathay Pacific if it weren't for the Avios/MR? Assuming they wouldn't then is it really £14,500/12p per MR or something lower?

Marchitiello

Capital One Uk used to have an Aspire Elite Credit Card that they have discontinued and have reduced the benefits for existing cardholders.

agree that the OP looks to be US based, but a good valuation for Amex MR point in the UK could be the MR to Avios to Nectar Conversion as you can then exchange Nectar points for Sainsbury spend. I would still use them for premium Airfare but for people that are not into this, the Nectar valuation seems to be the sensible option