I don't think csr is considered all that competitive anymore. Capital One a contender. If you travel as much as I do and don't have a better airline specific card (Delta reserve for me) the plat is a no brainer. Although I've gotten discounts on annual fee every year.
The points system seems better on the CSR with 10x hotel and 5x flights. I also don’t do a lot of lounges where the Amex has a significant advantage there. The insurance aspect that CSR offers is also more appealing. I mainly looking at maximizing travel rewards as best as possible and the AP seems like you have to “work” to do that
3x dining that has an offering for 10x under certain criteria point transfers for hotels are to Hyatt, IHG, and Bonvoy I’m leaning towards the CSR. I have no loyalty to any airline or hotel either. This is my first “card to travel” so I’m weighing the options but unless I’m missing something this suits me best. Or I’m overlooking something with the AP or not paying attention to the fine lines with the CSR rewards
it’s fine to start with CSR bc I believe you can get a sapphire bonus every four years Amex platinum is one and done as far as I know so I used that up a long time ago currently I just use csp for chase points transfers and then have venture x, which is decent and basically pays for itself with the annual statement credit
my sapphire preferred’s job is to be there so I can transfer points from Ink sign ups and use them in their portal
It may vary but mine was like 10 years ago and I haven’t gotten any new offers since closing that account.
If you're feeling froggy, may want to try next time you see an elevated sign up offer. I believe you would get the ineligibility pop up before they actually ran the credit, so no harm no foul.
Yes AP can be done through the airline directly which is better flexibility but from the little research I’ve done, prices aren’t vastly different if at all between CSR travel portal and airline direct
I just did the check my offers tool and it lists the platinum, but that reminded me that I tried to sign up a year or so ago when the bonus was 150k or something and got the ineligible screen I’ll try again next time it’s high
The only time I have used the Chase portal was to burn off the $50 CSP hotel credit and the prices weren't quite as low as booking through hotel directly, but close enough. But then you are also giving up the miles on the hotel/airline side, correct? I've been debating upgrading my CSP to a CSR.
Do you mean if you don’t use the portal to book? You’d lose out on the yearly $300 travel credit. You can book through their partners for full maximum value. I like the hotel partner options but the airlines are mostly international edit: looks like you can still get the $300 yearly travel credit even if you don’t go through the portal. Anything outside of portal is 3x points vs the 10x and 5x through I really don’t see a better travel card out there
I could be wrong but I think the Chase portal just pulls stuff directly so there's usually no difference in cash prices. With my most recent flight purchase it was a lot cheaper moving points to JetBlue than booking the flight through the portal.
Coming up on decision time for my platinum card. I also have a gold card. The problem is the gold cards new fee is getting pretty steep and the only real credit I use from it is the uber eats. No interest in the new Dunkin’ credit. trouble is that food is my far biggest spend category. Wonder if it’s worth giving up the 4x multiplier for free Hulu and lounge access. deep down I know I don’t travel enough for the platinum to make sense, but giving up lounge access hurts. superior points earning vs far better credits
Especially expanding to Hawaii, Alaska, Caribbean and Central America. Delta Plat/Reserver are no brainers
Did this with Plat last year and got 35k points. Was easy I'm probably going to cancel the Gold this year unless they give some ridiculous deal. 4x on groceries isn't really worth it and don't get many other benefits. I think I'm going to spam some of the lower end cards this year. 90k miles for a Delta Gold Amex w/ $2k spend for $195 is a steal lol
Fully agree on the companion pass, it's basically free money if you know you're going to take a trip with a +1. My only complaint with it is they're getting tricky with all the damn class delineations. The last 2 years when I've gone to use it, basic main cabin tickets haven't "qualified" because they're some random "J" class or whatever they call it where there's no functional difference in benefits, they just DQ it from companion pass eligibility. Specifically, last time we flew from ATL to SNA or LAX the ONLY qualifying flights were the overnight flights, like leave California at 10pm and arrive 6am in GA.
I can sympathize but I realized that even with a few, the fact that all you need to do is use the card at the participating place (you don't need to even use the reservation platform) it can be surprisingly easy to get value out of it. Also double check the app/site to make sure you know how many places there actually are participating, bc at one point I was fooled based on the search being limited to available reservations at a specific moment in time.
I just picked up a Citi Strata Premier hoping that they will do this AA partnership right and make Citi points transferrable to AA in the next year or so. It gives 3x on restaurants and gas.
Gold introduced a twice yearly $50 RESY credit earlier this year. It's triggered simply by spending with any restaurant that is a participant in the platform.
Sorry if this has been covered. Anyone have the United Club Infinite card? Thinking of upgrading from the United Explorer card. Seems like a better way to get PQPs, and therefore, move status tiers.
Good card though. Get more than $95 out of the free night for the most part and they occasionally do spend promos like spend $3k in 3 months and get 9k bonus points or whatever.
Yes I do. I get the PQP bump every year, if you fly united then it's worth it IMO. You can also use miles to pay the fee
About a month into Amex Plat and the high fee is going to pay for itself and then some. 175k bonus on 8k spend didn’t hurt either
Awesome. Thanks a lot. Didn’t know that about the points paying the annual fee. I’m going to do some more research this weekend, and will probably apply next week. Referral code would be great, so I’ll reach out when I come to a decision. Thanks again.
One thing I will mention is it won’t help you get global services, they don’t take card PQP in that equation. It doesn’t sound like your anywhere close to that, so probably not something to worry about