If I'm not wrong, cashing out Chase Ultimate Rewards points wasn't that lucrative until recently, when they introduced Pay Yourself Back — it was 1 cent per point before, and is much higher now for certain categories (groceries, restaurants) with Pay Yourself Back.
> The Amex ones are rewards points, and you have to play a lot of games to get the value.
For US residents, cashing out at 1.1 cents per point would be opening a Charles Schwab brokerage account and the linked Amex Platinum card, then "investing" the points. That doesn't sound too complicated.
(Speaking as a non-US resident playing the game myself: I do have extreme difficulty trying to get good cash value for my points, since Schwab refuses to open a brokerage account for me.)
