I have more cards than I’d like. I have Costco Citi VISA for Costco, restaurants, gas, and travel (but not anymore). I have the Chase United MileagePlus card for flying United. I get one free checked bag, a carry-on plus personal item, and priority boarding, even on the lowest basic economy fare. And the two United club passes every year doesn’t hurt. I have USAA VISA Signature with 1.5% unlimited cash rewards for everything else. The whole family are on that card and we practically charge everything. Technically I pay for my flights. Since money is fungible, however, the cash back I get from Costco and USAA had indeed paid for my flights and then some. I also have Discover which I rarely use (even for the quarterly 5% purchases). I keep it more for nostalgia (have had it since 1988). Needless to say I pay them off every month.
Costco stopped the travel benefits (trip cancellation, etc.) as of 9/22/2019. None of my other cards have comparable benefits. So I am the owner of a brand new Sapphire Reserve, on which I put all my expenses in the last month and blew by that $4K-in-first-three-months in no time to get 40,000 sign-up bonus points. The Sapphire is my go-to card now for travel and restaurants. Except for United flights, for which I’d still use the United card for the benefits. I’m going to see how far the Chase reward points get me on hotels, car rentals, and on non-United flights. I usually fly United or Southwest and I like that I can transfer points to them one-for-one. So far, car rentals are still more expensive than what I can get through Costco (but I don’t think I have to pay with the Costco card though). On the other hand, hotels look promising, especially taking into account the 50% bonus through the Chase reward center.
I feel like I need a degree in logistics to figure out how to stretch my spending power.