If you are rich, you probably can reach that $25k dining within 2-3 months

😊

Green card just needs a gas multiplier and it’s a wrap

Got Amex plat 2 months ago and Pay over time feature seems to be there already. Where do I go to turn it off?

While I have made my share of mistakes as a rookie in the points game, I have tried to maximize my AMEX MR points to their best value with the transfer bonuses. I pulled off an ANA RT J before the devaluation. This year I secured an ANA F. Never would I have been able to afford a trip of this magnitude. The value is there if you're patient and have some flexibility in your schedule.

Resy resturaunts are generally more high end, but the way I look at it is if you use all the other credits every month on the Gold card, that comes out to like $324 out of $325. That basically means you get a heavily subsidized, if not free lunch or dinner at a high end restuaunt twice a year on Amex's dime.

No can do 😝

Some very good points. Thanks!

$25000 spends in restaurants for 6 months to earn 100k points is the worse investment ever.

Still prefer visa over Amex, a lot of Asian restaurants don’t take Amex 😢

Amex really does make travel feel better and the cards make it easy to rack up a ton of points with the different (not overlapping categories). Nice video bro!

Membership has its privileges! I’m 7 months into the Amex ecosystem and I LOVE IT!!!!

I really enjoy the gold card but dang that resy credit in my city is a joke there is 6 restaurants listed and they try to be slick and say 8 but they are just the same ones just at 2 different locations 😂😂😂

Can’t afford it 😅 cancelled the Gold and went back to Amex BCP cash back card~~

As a newbie to the Amex club my only regret is I didn’t look for the best welcome offers for my platinum & gold cards. Great video!

Engaging content 😊

King Charles

You, Luke, Sebby and Mark Reese have the highest quality content in your videos

This is a very high quality video JP...well done! I agree that AMEX is the best, especially if you 1) are willing to use the coupon book, 2) have high velocity, making it tough to get approved with other banks, and 3) have a lot of use for all the meat on the bone that they have to offer.

Thus the high annual fee!

Great overview of why AMEX is 🏆 and also the downsides. Loved the transitions JP! Keep up the great work!🫵

I know that it won’t happen but if the Platinum card ever had 3x on food then it would be an every day card! Lol

Great video JP!

Funny this video dropped and I just pulled the trigger on the Biz Plat this morning for the 250K offer. When you say they "welcome you better than any issuer out there" is the truth. They keep approving me for their Biz cards left and right even though I don't run that much spend through their cards lol Edit: And holy crap dude, that "15X points at restaurants worldwide on up to $25,000 in eligible purchases on your new Card during your first 6 months of Card Membership." IS super baller, Jesus Chroist I could have hit that easily.

I am here just for the location change transitions. I can tell you are enjoying making these. Thanks for sharing 😊

I like the Sisyphus statue. That's my favorite Greek story

Thanks for this thought provoking video JP. I appreciate hearing your perspective.

Have smartly at 4% tier. Agree it likely won’t last but for most the SMARTLY4%+VENTUREX+BILT might be the best net zero fee trifecta. Points on rent, status/lounges via VentureX and most of spending on smartly and buy points as needed or buy hotels and air AND get points/bonuses via cash (“double dip”). Importantly, the 4% smartly won’t devalue when moved to cash and earns interest. Points in programs devalue and that’s😢

Cannot ignore 4X on everything. Thanks for the info + video!

What’s the answer? Was too hard to find I gave up

Chapters please

Get it while it lasts!

I agree with you that the card is awesome, but maybe only in a vacuum. The problem is all the actions you need to perform that go uncompensated: US Bank will give you $0 to open the required savings account, $0 to transfer over assets to US Bancorp Investments, and a $0 welcome bonus on the card itself. If you transfer $100k in IRA funds to RobinHood their standard offer is a 1% match so $1k, or BoA will give you $400 for $100k or $1000 for $250k. You have to step past these other opportunities that will give you hundreds/thousands of dollars up front to pick up an extra 2 pennies for every $1 you run through the card. How much spend is it going to take before you just break even with the opportunities you skipped to pursue this?

Mmm I still prefer transferrable points. Good for CB but still weigh against the BofA Platinum honors on which makes more sense.

Great video and I certainly learned a couple of things, so thank you for that. I wanted to try to return the favor by pointing out a couple of big picture things that your audience might appreciate: 1) Most people know that not everyone has $100k cash lying around and you also pointed that out. However, what many folks who do not have that kind of cash lying around may not know of is the issue with opportunity cost. Unless you already chose to invest with US Bank (which you did mention), locking $100k into their savings account is a horrible deal for you due to how abysmal their savings interest rate is. You are far better off throwing this in a high yield 4.00+% account and just using another credit card. Especially given cashback rewards you for spending whereas high yield savings rewards for NOT spending. If you are rich enough that the additional total cashback you end up getting outweighs this option, you are not likely going to care about getting cashback from this. Your investments are one of the most important possessions each person will own and you want to choose your brokerage carefully on many factors. An extra 2% cashback alone is generally not a good reason. 2) On the matter of cashback versus earning points, it's also important for each person to consider how likely they are to impulsively spend. Yes, cashback earning interest in a savings account is theoretically better. But realistically, how many people have the discipline to do that versus treating the cashback as free bonus fun money as it rolls in? I don't judge how others spend and there is nothing wrong with doing this but if you DO tend this way, then the arguments for cashback over points (which are much harder to spend on a whim) are no longer valid.

is this a lifetime accessible class?

Love the thumbnail! Powerful 4% for sure!

My 2x catch all card is the BBP but it doesn’t have NO FTF… so I will not be using it abroad. The new premium Alaska cc coming in summer 2025 will be very interesting with the 3x foreign transactions!

You're spot on with using cash back in order to buy points. Using the cash back route in conjunction with cashback apps is a great alternative to stack cash back to then use to buy say Hilton Honors points or IHG points when they have the 0.5 CPP sale. In that regard, the 4% Smartly card becomes a catch all 8x Hilton honors points per dollar as well as 8x IHG points per dollar which will beat out using either the IHG Premium or any of the Amex Hilton cards as your catch all (minus the FNC of course). Me personally, I'm not sure that it's worth it for me to go through so many hoops to get the card considering that I don't even have $100,000.00 of assets to begin with.

Thanks for the informative video.

Only for US domestic spend though. So not exactly "catch all".

👌

Hi, I would like help booking international tickets. How much do you charge?

I've been waiting for these lives to come back! Good stuff JP

I also found that using points for intercontinental travel gives me the best value.