Thanks! I have read numerous card comparisons and watched several videos and keep coming back to the two Chase cards as our best options. Because I’ve done so, I can’t recall which one(s) had warned about the complexity of those cards in making the most of them. It’s quite unfortunate we can’t transfer the miles to AA which we already have and has a major hub here in Charlotte. We do have United though.
With that said, I can’t make up my mind between the Chase Sapphire Reserved and Preferred. We cruise every year. If we use the card to pay for a cruise (or hotel, etc) would that give us the $300 travel credit on the Reserve card or would we have to pay through their portal. Do VRBO or Air B&B rentals count? We tend to rent cabins in the mountains annually. The Priority Pass membership sounds like a nice plus, but we aren’t frequent flyers. It looks like we would need to book hotels through their portal to reap the most benefits, but it’s generally cheaper to book directly with the hotel.
Edited to add: We are also considering the Am Ex Platinum card, but that annual fee is so high! I do see where we’d get a lot of it back though.