If you travel enough in the relevant places to take advantage of: - Centurion lounges & non-restaurant Priority Pass membership - $200 FHR credit (keep in mind this usually requires booking a pricier room than you might otherwise) - $200 Airline incidental credit - CLEAR credit - modest monthly uber cash then yes... But if not, you're paying a lot for questionable benefit imo (This isn't an exhaustive list but it covers the major stuff)
Just general travel perks I suppose. It seemed like most articles suggested that the CSR and Amex Platinum had the highest levels of travel perks if you utilized them enough to justify the high fees.
Anyone ever take advantage of any travel insurance offered through a card? Specifically CSR, but wondering how much people value that.
That last part is the key. How much do you travel and will you actually use the perks. I'm relatively new to this game, but without an elevated sign up bonus (which the CSR doesn't have right now) it may not be worth the high fee. One thing it does have is pretty good travel protection, if that matters to you. I got a CSP (when it had an elevated bonus) over the CSR. Capital One Venture X has some nice perks and you get $300 of the annual fee back in travel credits through their portal. It's what I put pretty most of my spend on outside of restaurants/groceries (those go to Amex Gold). Check out BellottiBold post above for the Amex Platinum perks. Either way, I'd check out something like Frequent Miler or TPG to see the full perks and earning rates of each cards and see what works best for you. And then come back here to see if anyone has a referral bonus to offer. Also - don't put TOO much stock in Priority Pass domestically. It's losing its value because lounges are capping how many PP members can get in.
Yeah, all those protections. I'm going to move to an Amex gold for most of my spending and it doesn't have any of that.
Never had to file a claim with the rental insurance but trip delay insurance is super easy to use. Just save your receipts and documentation of the delay and submit the claim.
I was today years old when I learned that awardwallet has a merchant category lookup tool https://awardwallet.com/en/merchants
My referral link conferring well under what the normal non-referral sub is these days is f'n annoying
Yeah I'm pretty annoyed I do t get the top referrals. I'd have to imagine I'm a pretty hugh spender/user
Damn, I was going to request a Plat referral here, but it looks like the elevated offers ended June 1st.
Got my amex platinum last month. Travelling for work this week and got stuck in Atlanta for 5 hours. First time in a lounge and god damn that was sweet. Just checked and have a centurion lounge in my concourse coming home today. This is paying off in spades!
Bank of America finally approved me for one of their cards. I’m going to take them for all they have.
I’ve had F experiences in Centurion Lounges. Horrible food. Overcrowded to shit. Best lounge experience I had was in Costa Rica. Self serve draft beer
Free lunch will be had regardless (on the company). I am flying out of Columbus so wasn't expecting anything too crazy. Just get me out of this god forsaken state. 5 days in Springfield, OH is more than enough to drive someone insane.
Working. Have a ton of family in Akron so I'm no stranger to the state but this...holy hell. Was in Akron NYE for a wedding and that was a fucking disaster of a trip. It's like the universe is telling me to stay away.
I've only been with Amex for a few years now... had Centurion experiences at LGA, JFK, SEA, and SFO. I enjoyed LGA quite a bit and the new one in SEA has pretty good food/drink, but SFO (pre-reno) had been disappointing and JFK was half open so whatever. But I've read a lot of complaints about food degradation over time, so I'm watching SEA and SFO closely for that. People are already griping about SFO sliding downhill fast.
Yep, Springfield is rough. We drove through the south side from Yellow Springs to hit the brewery there, and it was about as depressing as I've seen. It's also like an hour away from anything.
I didn't realize they had beer on tap in there. I've looked in a few time and usually just stayed outside
Just tried the Amex Plat delta gift card trick. $417 flight. $250 gift card. $167 charted to the card. Hopefully this works. any idea how long until the credit hits my account?
I've had the Chase Hyatt card for 3-4 years now. Thinking about transferring my available credit to another Chase card, cancelling the Hyatt card, then signing back up for the Hyatt in a few months to get the sign up bonus again. Am I doing something dumb here?
I’ve had the Hyatt card for about three years as well. Hadn’t thought about doing this. Did some quick research and it looks like that’s no issue. The current sign up bonus off doesn’t look all that great though unfortunately.
They tanked that card a couple years ago by ruining the bonus/spend requirements. It used to be so much better.
Hyatt card is still nice to have, the one free night usually more than covers the cost of the card. Used all my points for a few nights at the Park Hyatt Kyoto later this year
I signed up sometime in 2020 for 60k points. I thought that was great at the time. I agree. I don’t see myself not keeping it. Used my Cat 1-4 award last year for a night in NOLA for FSU-LSU. Was going for $330. Used it this year for Park MGM in vegas. Typically a cheap hotel, but was crazy that night. Unfortunately that’s the name of the game, right? Every year the points become worth less. No point in sitting on them. My gf switched to hyatt this year. Already has accumulated 70k points with no card. Will be Globalist in 5 nights (thanks to the Bilt promo). Excited to see what that brings.
i do keep my hyatt card because i go to nola once a year and the hyatt centric french quarter counts. always a 200-300 a night room otherwise.
That’s the exact one I stayed at. Thought it was pretty nice. Seemed renovated. And even the basic rooms are spacious.
I have a referral for 125K...help yaselves! Apply for an American Express Card with this link. With your new Card, you could earn a welcome bonus and your friend could earn a referral bonus. Terms Apply. https://americanexpress.com/en-us/referral/JOHNMfqex?XLINK=MYCP
Does Amex have limitations on how many bonuses I can get? Can I get the Marriott then delta card bonuses?
Yes, the one free night covers the cost of the card. By canceling the card and picking it back up in a few months, I would be getting 60,000 points which is worth a lot more than a 1-4 free night.
Yeah this was my thought. May be better off getting the CSP if you’re eligible for the SUB. The spend categories on the Hyatt card aren’t great. If you have a few Hyatt stays coming up, then get the Hyatt.
That's my thought too. I'm not as aggressive as a lot of you fellas so I'm happy to just have a free night wherever. I've always used it and it's always been worth it even though I don't use the card for anything else.