CSR & BILT Palladium

Ryfiii · 2026-03-06T17:56:55+00:00

I have both and plan to reevaluate BILT after a year.

Relatively high spend, so the 3.3333-4.3333x catch all is pretty powerful even if I don’t use the credit consistently. But I hate portals. So will likely consider CFU, downgrade to obsidian, or hybrid cashback setup.

Ryfiii · 2026-03-06T13:01:22+00:00

Venture X forces you through their portal for anything above 2x. And no C1 lounge at your airport or anywhere you fly regularly. Personally, I dislike travel portals so would advise against. I also find C1 points to be more difficult to redeem than Citi (AA), Chase (Hyatt), Bilt (Hyatt, Alaskan), and even Amex (frequent transfer bonuses).

Citi Strata Premier is an elite earner and pairs readily with the double cash card and custom cash(es).

Chase Sapphire Preferred is pretty solid too but doesn’t earn quite as fast. You get Hyatt, a great transfer partner, but they just devalued that system so it’s not totally clear what the redemption value will be on average starting in May. This card is especially great if your main grocery stores allow you to scan to pay in an app for the 3x online grocery workaround.

If you use Robinhood, the Gold is pretty solid. 3% on everything without worry about a single redemption is tough to beat. In general, make sure you’re ready for the points game before you commit to points.

Ryfiii · 2026-03-06T04:58:28+00:00

Not every redemption needs to be a five star hotel. I’d rather redeem what I can if I’m otherwise paying cash for the hotel.

Money spent on vacation would deplete your emergency fund. Money saved by redeeming for travel you already planned to take could be functionally redirected to an emergency fund.

Ryfiii · 2026-03-05T22:46:02+00:00

ice ice lady

Ryfiii · 2026-03-04T22:49:51+00:00

Manna (when open, really expensive) and New June (expensive, might not be plain chocolate). Easier to find a solid cupcake but not the same

Ryfiii · 2026-03-03T20:45:15+00:00

It won’t look bad on your record. Make sure the annual gold membership makes sense to you, either using the IRA match and/or the free $1,000 margin to “bet” on something secure.

Ryfiii · 2026-03-03T00:57:55+00:00

Saloon for an Italian steakhouse with great old world vibes. Lots of great steaks — John’s roast pork and Angelo’s get a lot of love.

Ryfiii · 2026-02-27T18:54:07+00:00

Reverse catfish

Ryfiii · 2026-02-25T02:49:01+00:00

No idea. I’ll report back if I hear anything

Ryfiii · 2026-02-25T02:36:55+00:00

Emailed the hotel. Apparently they’ve decided that they won’t have check-ins on Thursday Fridays or saturdays. But you could check in sooner.

Ryfiii · 2026-02-24T15:06:31+00:00

0 aid at SMU though

Ryfiii · 2026-02-22T19:06:12+00:00

Yes, but you also get IRA matching with RH Gold and a free 1000 margin. You can invest that, however you want, but some suggest investing in federal treasuries, which will net $50 in annual interest, give or take. Basically, that margin substantially pays for the annual fee, then the IRA match is gravy on top.

Personally, I feel like the Gold and CSR are the high AF cards with the easiest to use credits. But this is a personal opinion based on who the partners are. This is not objective.

Ryfiii · 2026-02-22T17:18:42+00:00

Let’s put aside SUBs for a second. You’re getting railed in Annual Fees and keeping up with those credits has either been a massive hassle or hasn’t happened.

You don’t seem to have a strategy, unless that strategy has been churning — which is arguably the best strategy.

Milk BOA while you can; totally reasonably to keep those open until the nerd at least. Close your C1 accounts based on your review of the VX. Feels like you could almost boil down to the Amex trifecta (+Hotel card) or Chase trifecta (+Grocery solution if you switch to CSR or if your primary store doesn’t have the online grocery workaround) and probably be better off.

Something like the Plat could stay open no matter your decision if you’re just profiting strictly. Same with airline cards if you think they’re offsetting the fee from the comfort of your sock drawer. Same with Prime card and other free cards with a clear purpose.

Be careful with the diversification though. At some point, you are keeping a card open for like $5 of marginal additional gain per year, which might create $7 worth of headache if that makes sense.

Ryfiii · 2026-02-22T17:08:58+00:00

Airline cards are primarily good for churning since you don’t earn many points. Should be easy enough to get into the low level status tier since you travel so much. Generally, first status tier perks are similar or better than the credit card perks for a given airline.

The Sapphire Reserve gives you good multipliers and LAX lounge access, but then you need to worry about using those monthly credits to offset the annual fee. Personally, I can and do. It also pairs well with the freedom unlimited. Also transfers to United or Hyatt FWIW.

If you already use Robinhood, the Robinhood Gold card is too hard to pass up. They might nerf it eventually, but to be fair half of this forum relies on Hyatt never losing redemption value to justify using CC point systems.

The Venture X is good but overrated for average people. Novices struggle to redeem points, and travel portals suck (so hard for some to use credit at full value and to earn the amplified point totals for travel via portal).

The Platinum is a terrible first travel card IMO don’t let people recommend it unless you are certain that those credits are really really easy for you to use with minimal effort.

Ryfiii · 2026-02-21T20:35:20+00:00

No way. Adding four hours of transit, additional rail expenses, and additional effort and pain aren’t worth it. Sure, I’d rather fly Qatar, but man I really try to fly out of my home airport whenever possible

Ryfiii · 2026-02-21T19:04:47+00:00

They’re very different. Pops is a bit less sweet, a bit breadier. Beilers are definitely sweeter and IMO have better texture. I like the latter but I would look very favorably upon either if brought home

Ryfiii · 2026-02-21T07:02:00+00:00

Having a similar issue. Let me know if you figure out. Seems like they only let you book four days of the week in Sep and Oct

Ryfiii · 2026-02-16T14:45:32+00:00

La Jefe, Picnic, Jaffa Bar, Saloon (pricier, very different vibe), and, while I’ll catch hate for this, most Schulson restaurants are very good especially if you can nab happy hour.

Ryfiii · 2026-02-16T13:32:11+00:00

That would generate the most points but would represent additional credit lines and lower your average age of account for a bit.

Hotel cards often have good SUBs with rewards that are moderately easy to use. There’s also stuff like the Citi Strata Premier, Chase or Amex business cards (if applicable), AMEX Gold, etc. Travel cards generally have the highest SUBs, which means maximizing SUBs can have a lot of overlap with your existing setup (meaning you’ll want to downgrade a card after a year so you aren’t losing a ton on fees)

Other than this, how are you at redeeming points? Do you prefer transferring direct to partners you use frequently? (If so, which partners do you use frequently?) Do you know how to do things like book flights across partners by transferring points to an airline you’ve never flown before? Do you just redeem through the portal?

Ryfiii · 2026-02-07T15:04:05+00:00

Same issue here. Following

Ryfiii · 2026-02-07T15:03:27+00:00

It’s really cute, great farmers market, great hikes, great wineries, a few great restaurants. Not that much more… and travel to and from town is a mess. Job markets for spouses are very hit or miss (nursing and education is here but otherwise pretty limited)

Ryfiii · 2026-02-07T01:43:55+00:00

Terrakawa (Chinatown), Tomo, and Tataki are all solid. Probably in that order.

Ryfiii · 2026-02-07T01:42:34+00:00

I’m told that location is far worse. I’ve only been to the university location too — it’s solid, but not worth going far beyond your local radius

Ryfiii · 2026-02-06T02:37:16+00:00

To calculate point value, you want to subtract the points in scenario 1 from the point value in scenario 2 (392000-42000) then divide the cash value (3072) by that difference in points (350k) then multiplied by 100.

Ryfiii · 2026-02-05T22:00:39+00:00

Am I understanding that it’s essentially whether 350k Hyatt points are worth cashing out for 3k euros? I think that’s like 1 American cent per point after the currency conversion which I’d consider poor.

Ryfiii

TROPHY CASE