HawkeyePierce

Riding in Zachary.

Depends on what you plan to do with the MR. If you primarily fly Southwest, MR isn't helpful. Usually the best use of MR is international flight and/or business or first class from a cent per point basis. You could also do a cash out at 1.25 cent per point with Schwab. The primary benefits of Platinum are travel based, so with no travel it's not as useful.

As for your current accounts, a couple ideas. Make sure that you use the streaming and wireless credit on the platinums. You can buy gift cards at some groceries to get 4x back on them for Gold. And you can always call and ask for a retention offer and see what they give you. Since COVID folks have been getting 30K point offers for platinum.

Other cards: If you like Southwest, their cards are good. If you have a business you can try for companion pass next year. Also the Freedom Flex and Unlimited to pair with Sapphire.

It'll take a couple steps, but if you have a schwab account, you can get their version of the Amex Platinum and transfer to an account at 1.25 cents per point. Certainly not the best redemption or "value" but if you prefer cash that's one way to go.

Depends on how the transaction is coded, but if I had to guess it would not be. Since it's a transaction with a vendor or independent consultant, I think that it would probably be best to look at something that was a cash back card at around 1.5 or 2%. There are a couple out there.

I think UPS invoices would fall under shipping purchases.

Couple recent good ones:
—American Icon by Bryce Hoffman (about Alan Mullaly and the turn around of Ford)
—Jobs by Issacson
—Shoedog by Phil Knight (Nike)
—The Snowball by Schroeder (Warren Buffet)
—Delivering Happiness by Hsiesh (Zappos)
—Principles by Dalio (Bridgewater Associates)
—The Everything Store by Stone (Amazon)
—The Virgin Way by Branson (Virgin)
—Elon musk by Vance (Tesla, SpaceX, Solarcity)
—Titan by Chernow (Rockefeller/Standard Oil)

Long time lurker, but have gotten alot out of this thread so hopefully can contribute back a bit.

As everyone else has said depends on what you want. It looks like you have a good set of Cashback cards between the BOA, IT, and Freedom.

For a big new purchase (and assuming you don't want specific types of points like Chase Ultimate Rewards/Amex Membership Rewards), I'd also consider the Citi Double Cash Back card. This isn't just for the cashback, but they have Price Rewind, Purchase Protection and Extended Warranty coverage that comes included with the card at no annual fee. I would double check though, because there was some talk of them getting rid of these around the same time that Chase got rid of theirs. And apparently they have a bonus for $100 back after $500 spend.

Also, remember that you don't have to redeem UR or Amex rewards for travel. You can always just exchange them for gift cards (even if it's not the best redemption).

Also, if you use reddit, the Churning subreddit has a daily discussion and question thread that I've used before for advice. Very knowledgable and very active.

They have for me. I've done it the past two months.

I was a huge fan of Lil' Wayne asking a question about "his" LSU Tigers. Probably the best part.