Originally Posted by
crewdawg
Many lounges have lost their appeal due to overcrowding. If everyone is special, noone is special. Almost not worth keeping the amex or chase cards for lounge access anymore. Certainly have to be more judicious on its use to ensure you get your money's worth. Thinking of just going for straight cash back and being done with it because we dont use the travel points enough.
Amex travel portal for hotels is really good and the perks when you book their hotel collection. Need the gold or platinum for that though. I rack up a lot of point with the Amex Gold card - 4x at restaurants and grocery store, and just wait for a transfer bonus to an airline or hotel to book something. I have the Chase Sapphire Reserve for the $300 travel credit and now $300 stub hub points really, 3x on hotels and 2x on travel. Hopefully once school is back in session their lounges won’t be as crowded and then PP is good for Europe - also I think Chase has better transfer bonuses and more variety of partners than Amex alone