A sad farewell

My new Amex Blue arrived in the mail last month, but I ignored it and kept using my beloved In NYC Amex. Finally, though, I accepted that it can't be put off any longer. The Blue must be activated. So, after one final "hello to 2009" Amex swipe at my corner deli this morning, I grudgingly got online and activated my Blue.

Sigh. The membership rewards choices leave me underwhelmed -- no more Oasis gift certificates, no more fully paid Blue Water Grill brunches ... instead, it looks like the best I can do is cash in for gift certificates to Bananna Republic. Maybe we can use some of it for Amex's travel site. We shall see.

Given our new imminent-one-income-Recessionomics, I'm mostly trying to figure out how to use the points to pay for things we'd otherwise be spending cash on. Bananna Republic gift certificates might work for that ... but I'm still trying to figure out if there's any way to use points for the HP Mini 1000 I'm coveting to replace my unusably ancient laptop ...