To be clear, I’m not advocating for people to pay AFs. Just don’t cancel the card! PC it to a CIC or a CIU and avoid the AF. IF you cancel you might never get a CIC in the future. I’d rather have 3 CICs now than cancel 2 of my Chase biz cards and only have 1. IF I want a CIP again the future for some purpose (it to transfer URs to partners) I need a card to PC from.
I’ll edit the fireside chat to include this clarification.
Queen of AF's responds to Benevolent Dictator:
I'm going to add a counter point.
I do advocate paying AFs. However, that is only IF the AF brings you greater value. This value may be quantifiable or totally subjective depending on the card. The value may vary from person to person. I know some folks enter this hobby with the idea that all AFs are bad and should be avoided. One size does not fit all. I hold a good number of AF cards that I keep year after year. As long as I value what the AF can do for me and it outweighs the fee, I will keep the card. When they stop giving me value I will cancel (if there's no PC option) or PC the card.
Hilton Aspire $450 - FN weekend cert, Diamond status, $250 resort credit, $250 airline incidentals credit. This is my favorite sock drawer card. I view this card as AMex saying, give me $450 and I will give you between $750 and $1850 back. The weekend FN cert is unrestricted and can be used for a night in an overwater bungalow in the Maldives that would cost over $1350. The $250 resort credit can be used on Hilton's list of resort hotels. I find a lot of value in this card.
Chase Sapphire Reserve $550 - Second favorite sock drawer card. I will PC this one this year since PlanePrincess will be keeping his. But for newbies on the thread, I'd like to explain the value. The $300 travel credit includes a broad range of categories and is easy to hit. The increased value of your UR points with a CSR vs a CIP/CSP is makes up for the fee if you are redeeming at least $1,000 in the UR travel portal annually.
Radisson Rewards card $75 - Third favorite sock drawer card. This card gives me 40k Radisson Reward points each card anniversary. Those points have been responsible for many nights in Europe that would have cost much more than the AF every year. So, we let the points pile up and then use them for stays across the pond.
Chase Ink Plus $95 - gets 5x at office supply stores (which sell gift cards) up to $50k in spend per year. This is the work horse of my UR quadfecta.
IHG $49 - cat 1-4 FN cert. This is easy enough to use on one of my many weekend jaunts over to WDW and save me using DVC points. I have yet to see an IHG property near there for less that $49 a night.
Amex Gold $250 - Has a $100 airline incidentals credit, and $10 per month dining credit that we use to pick up a $10 Cheesecake Factory GC each month. To me this is a $30 a year card since I can use those benefits. It gets 4x in groceries up to $25K and 4x unlimited dining. Now $10 per month in a GC at Cheesecake Factory may not sound great but did come in pretty handy. PlanePrincess and I both have this card and used about $320 in Cheesecake Factory $10 GCs to purchase a ton of takeout dinners and freeze them so we could "dine out" occasionally during stay at home.
Chase Ritz $450 - This was a PC from the Chase Boundless. It has a $300 airline credit and comes with a 50K Bonblah/Ritz FN cert. I can always get more value with one of those FN certs than the fee. My plan is for this to replace the Amex BonBlah Brilliant card which I will downgrade.
There are other AF cards I have but not all necessarily keeper cards. They are on the chopping block unless I get a good retention offer. Next few AF keeper cards in my line up will be Chase Hyatt, Chase Boundless, and if I get an upgrade offer to a second Aspire, I'll take it.
It's not one of the more popular cards. It can bring great value to some. The majority of the properties I've used for point night bookings have been between 50k and 70k per night. I only use them in Europe. It's nice to let the $75 AF be part of our annual vacation budget and let these points pile up. Then, when we decide on a Europe trip, we've got our hotel nights covered. Even though we don't use the points every year, we've still received far greater value in the hotel redemptions every few years that far exceed the annual fees combined year after year.
