2% means every dollar earns you a "point" worth at least 2 cents. How do any points beats this?
http://www.dansdeals.com/archives/24840The beauty of miles over points or cash-back:
The great thing about being able to transfer points into airlines or hotels are the incredible values you can attain.
-A first class ticket to Hawaii can cost $4,000 but you can use 60,000 miles for that same ticket, a value of 6.7 cents per mile. If you were using Capital One points you would need 400,000 points per ticket.
-A last minute ticket or a ticket where you don’t stay for 3 nights from New York to Cleveland costs $1,200 in coach but just 9,000 miles. That’s a value of 13.3 cents per mile. If you were using Capital One points you would need 120,000 points per ticket.
-A first class ticket to Asia can cost $20,000 but you can use 140,000 miles for that same ticket, a value of 14.3 cents per mile. If you were using Capital One points you would need 2,000,000 points per ticket.
-A night at a Park Hyatt in Paris, Sydney, or the Maldives can run $1,100 with tax but you can use 22,000 points for that room, a value of 5 cents per point. If you were using Capital One points you would need 110,000 points per night.
The Hawaii ticket would require 60K in spending for miles or Fidelity spending of 4,000/.02 = 200K
NYC-CLE =9K for miles spending or 60K fidelity
Asia = 140K spend vs 1 million fidelity
Park Hyatt =22k spend vs 55K fidelity
Finally, and the most important factor is that in UR the sign up bonus makes it all worthwhile.
The Hawaii ticket can be had by signing up for 2 cards and spending no more than 9k in MS
NYC-CLE -get 5 tickets with one SP sign up
Asia - sign up for 3 cards with about 9-15k spend
Park Hyatt - one card sign up wiht less than 5k spend.
Fidelity = no minimum spend
If you want to compare cash back value then the 2.2% arrival+ gives more than fidelity.
