After D-Day, Whats your new strategy?

[SOPOOR]

I think most of have decided what to do to get the best out of before 15/04/19,
so given that basically all earn points to Airline is now halved, so essentially earn rates are now 1-1.5ppd depending on card and type of spend,
whats your new strategy going to be?

mine is to use both , amex for when surcharge is zero for supermarket spend only

I will keep the amexs for the moment, may cancel them later,

earnings will go to Kris, however, if my visa spend is higher I might focus on qantas


Whats your strategy?

 

[burmans]

Amex for supermarket (including gift vouchers for others, particularly when a bonus/discount applies), plus petrol spend. But I may cancel my Amex when due so I can get another signon bonus. I think the value is in signon bonueses, not ongoing spend these days.

 

[Chicken]

I have the Reserve, where earn rate is really staying the same after D Day, so no difference.

My Edge still earns slightly more for Woolworths, so it is still good for Opal card top up.

Hence I'm not changing.

 

[The Analyst]

Still thinking about it. We have the Explorer and a Westpac Black Mastercard. Feel like cancelling them both and just consolidate as we don't like having too many cards. Any other good options to replace them? Is the Citi Prestige a good card?

We (2 kids and wife) travel domestically and overseas to Asia once a year so travel credit is somewhat useful for us. Limo not so since they have no child seat, PP lounge we will need to pay for the kids i believe? Not that important to us.

 

[Happy Dude]

Not really concerned about earn rates after 14 April - with the right combo of cards that can even improve.

The burn rate of MR points is what hurts. My level of 'everyday' spending is so low that it'll take at least a decade to accumulate enough points for a pointy end award for one person - that's not practical for a family of 4 and there's FA chance of getting 4 tix together anyway.

Even if I cancel all cards, I'll only get 1 (one!) sign-on bonus in 18 months time and those points will be worth half anyway.

And even if you manage to get a meaningful amount of points in an airline program, there's the constant "enhancements", the anxiety around award availability, expiration of the points, and the often completely ridiculous and ever-increasing taxes/surcharges.

The only silver lining for me is the credit offers and these have been rubbish recently. Even the good ones tend to be watered down, targetted and/or Ozbargained. So it'll be hardly worth the effort to accumulate MR points and I'm undecided to bother with the credits.

I hear you say, "But with travel credits/various benefits, the cards are essentially free so you'll still get 'best in market' points" for nothing? Yep, but it's the burn rate that hurts.

 

[samh004]

I'll still put as much as I can through AMEX, for everything else, there's MC/Visa... which reminds me, I have to decide if I'm going to shelve the Coles MC soon as I no longer use it.

 

[oobi doobi]

I’ll be mostly using my St George Visa card from now on due mainly to the lower cc fees.

 

[SOPOOR]

for me, since explorer is now 1ppd, and my anz visa is also 1ppd, and out of principal ill use my visa, however all my points will go to qantas, however I prefer kris

until now, if I found a merchant that would accept amex with no surcharge it was a mini win in my mind, but going fwd, it will no longer be a win!

 

[SOPOOR]

Not really concerned about earn rates after 14 April - with the right combo of cards that can even improve.

The burn rate of MR points is what hurts. My level of 'everyday' spending is so low that it'll take at least a decade to accumulate enough points for a pointy end award for one person - that's not practical for a family of 4 and there's FA chance of getting 4 tix together anyway.

Even if I cancel all cards, I'll only get 1 (one!) sign-on bonus in 18 months time and those points will be worth half anyway.

And even if you manage to get a meaningful amount of points in an airline program, there's the constant "enhancements", the anxiety around award availability, expiration of the points, and the often completely ridiculous and ever-increasing taxes/surcharges.

The only silver lining for me is the credit offers and these have been rubbish recently. Even the good ones tend to be watered down, targetted and/or Ozbargained. So it'll be hardly worth the effort to accumulate MR points and I'm undecided to bother with the credits.

I hear you say, "But with travel credits/various benefits, the cards are essentially free so you'll still get 'best in market' points" for nothing? Yep, but it's the burn rate that hurts.

cant really see any point in you having any amex cards in the first place given your circumstances, unless its for sign on bonus

 

[carls888]

I am pretty much done now. All the big spending is finished and I'm just waiting for the points to drop to transfer Friday.
Going forward we will be keeping Explorer and Edge until the travel credits are used. My 18 months wait comes up in September and I am hoping that some amazing sign up bonuses are available then. I am considering the Plat Charge but will wait and see how things pan out and what options are around in September.
We will use the dragon visa card, or Explorer if there is no surcharge, and also Plat Edge at the supermarket, although I have just prepurchased a heap of gift cards...
My strategy will also depend on Reward Pay. We have pumped a lot through that portal in the last 12 months, fingers crossed it will continue to be worthwhile.
I am looking for a place to accumulate and park points now as we have enough in our FF accounts for 4 pax for the next 4 years to travel to Asia and Europe in J/R, which is wonderful, but also could muck up my strategy if the proverbial rug is pulled by the few warehousing options remaining. (we had to transfer Amex miles due to not having the Plat charge.)

 

[SuperSaeen]

I have the Reserve, where earn rate is really staying the same after D Day, so no difference.

I wish I could be as zen as you in life

 

[Happy Dude]

cant really see any point in you having any amex cards in the first place given your circumstances, unless its for sign on bonus

Well there have been some sweet spots in the past, particularly with the statement credits. But yes, the sign on bonuses are the main way for those who don't run a squillion through a company, have ATO spend, can afford to hold tens of '000s in gift cards, etc to accumulate any points. The new transfer rates all but kill off the incentive to accumulate MR points for 'ordinary' spenders.

 

[Chicken]

I wish I could be as zen as you in life

I have learnt not to churn and burn a deal which is too good to be true, if the numbers indicate so.

A lot of people see some devaluation, or see some sign up bonus somewhere, so they jump the fence because the grass looks greener on the otherside. What I have learnt is not to let go of a deal which is too good to be true, and always look at the long term average.

When AmEx offered me a deal of Reserve + Edge + gold charge for $395, I took it, even though it was expensive and I didn't exactly needed it at that time. I kept this deal for over 10 years, because this package offered me all 3 best cards from the AmEx product range. I could have cut AmEx loose when I got Citi free for life, but I decided not to, and so, I am now ripping the benefits of still having AmEx.

Same with Citi, many people got angry when Citi devalued 3 years ago, some people saw better products on the market so they cut off their free for life Citi. Then of course, RBA kicked in, so Citi is now only marginally worse than most cards on the market for earning SQ KF miles, except I still have it free for life, while many others have to churn, and they don't even get Priority Pass with their new churn and burn cards.

I think some people would regret their decisions of cutting off AmEx this time, some time later down the track, especially those who cut off the Edge card, as even more banks continue to devalue their reward programs, I don't know how long the Edge card would be around, as I cannot think of a business case for Edge to exist as a going concern (as as outsider of course), but to make people develop the habit of using AmEx for daily grocery. Now that all the supermarkets and convenient stores take AmEx, there is no need for AmEx to fund the extra points to be given out for members to use Edge card.

AmEx has consistently been the best earner for 10 + years, if you do the numbers and look at the long term trend.

But this is just my opinion, and I am not even a bean counter.

 

[SOPOOR]

Well there have been some sweet spots in the past, particularly with the statement credits. But yes, the sign on bonuses are the main way for those who don't run a squillion through a company, have ATO spend, can afford to hold tens of '000s in gift cards, etc to accumulate any points. The new transfer rates all but kill off the incentive to accumulate MR points for 'ordinary' spenders.

dont disagree with you at all, I may be in that situation going fwd post april, or until the game changes

 

[SponsorSFC]

It may just be my opinion and experience but the Amex statement credits have more than paid for themselves before point earn is even considered.

There will continue to be at least one Amex card in the household for as long as this continues.

We will likely be alternating and churning every 18 months though after cashing out a referral bonus.

 

[codash1099]

I'll probably use both Amex and Visa/MC for the moment, but the value of Amex has dropped so far that I'll be looking for a lower fee card in the near future. I have the Rewards Advantage which allows transfer to QF from Ascent, but the annual fee makes me doubt the value of this "perk".

 

[SOPOOR]

It may just be my opinion and experience but the Amex statement credits have more than paid for themselves before point earn is even considered.

There will continue to be at least one Amex card in the household for as long as this continues.

We will likely be alternating and churning every 18 months though after cashing out a referral bonus.

yes, and having multiple supp cards does make it a stronger argument for keeping them

 

[andye]

I'll still put as much as I can through AMEX, for everything else, there's MC/Visa... which reminds me, I have to decide if I'm going to shelve the Coles MC soon as I no longer use it.

Mrs Andye's has had two consecutive months of triple points on her Coles MC. It has been very productive (though still waiting to see if all retailers will be honoured with the bonus points)

My spend + statement credits is enough to justify a portfolio of Amex.
I'm weighing up whether to keep the Accelerator as a way of maximising supplementaries.
I'm also weighing up whether to stop using the Charge purely for business expenses now that it will be my highest-earning Amex outside of supermarkets

 

[Ade]

I have an AMEX Qantas Ultimate - the earn rate is only reduced from 1.5 to 1.25, so effectively 0.25 points loss per dollar. So I guess I'll stick on to my AMEX for a while and I've got some high intensity payments to make ($30K & upwards).

Otherwise, I have an ANZ Qantas which still earns 1 pt/$, will use those for places where AMEX isn't accepted (lunch at work, opal recharge, etc)

 

[lovetravellingoz]

I have the Reserve, where earn rate is really staying the same after D Day, so no difference.

.

What counts is the points that land in your preferred FF program, and with that there is enormous difference.

Overall my strategy is the same. To generate as many points into my preferred FF program as I can subject to the time and cost in earning those points. And to also still collect them into my 2nd and 3rd FF Programs. I still generate enough points for my flying needs and so unlike some I refrain from "buying" too many points.

Retaining Amexes remains attractive even if it is now less attractive. In part as I prefer KF far above say QFF for many reasons one of which is the added cost of Fuel Fines.

So I will continue to mine FF points of many persuasions each day. in numerous ways. I just wish that KF points were as easy to come by as the lowly QFF points.