I’m willing to pay a bit for an airline card (like $70), but $450 annual fee seems exorbitant for credit card. What am I missing here?
You are missing the real benefits behind this card. This card gets an annual $300 travel credit and also $1,500 sign on bonus for spending x amount within a few months.
Heh, my wife was just showing me this evening and saying she want lounge access for travelling with kids that come with this card.
So it really just is about the sign-on bonus, not something you would want to hold onto for years.
myo, I’d think you could get lounge access with a card that costs less than $450. But maybe not.
You do have to book through Chase though. Can’t just transfer the points to an airline.
Southwest allows you to get 50K points for a $69 fee=$600 or so. Seems like a better deal.
The Southwest card is nice and the companion pass is really awesome. But Southwest flies mainly domestic.
The Chase Sapphire Reserved is targeted for international travelers. With the $300 annual travel credit, you’re really paying $150 fee every year. You can transfer UR points to hotels/airlines.
My friend got this card when it first came out. She’s already taking advantage of the global entry reimbursement with her CSR. She travels for work internationally. I’m stick to the simple 2% cash back card, Citi Doublecash. I don’t travel enough.
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It would be $150 / yr to keep it assuming you use 300 credit to travel every year. What we were thinking of when travelling with kids to Asia (Taipei transit) or longer domestic travel, one card that can handle it.
Also I had good experience with Chase Travel (I have Chase Sapphire) when I was travelling to Netherland and there was some tragic event happened in Brussels (which we are supposed to go next day), they were pretty helpful with re-arranging and getting non-refundable fees refunded from hotel and such.
I think most people who signed up for this card don’t plan to hold it for years. They get the bonus and then will eventually downgrade to a lower fee/no annual fee card later.
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Not true - you can easily transfer the points to any partner/don’t have to book through Chase at all - I just upgraded from the Sapphire Preferred to the Reserve and it’s an amazing deal
I’m planning on holding the card for years- most of my spend is on travel and dining so this card’s return on that is 3x points for every dollar spent - way better than any cash back card. You can transfer them to any of these partners -
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, Hyatt Gold Passport, Marriott Rewards, The Ritz-Carlton Rewards, British Airways Executive Club, Korean Air SKYPASS, Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards, Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer, United MileagePlus, IHG Rewards Club, Air France KLM Flying Blue
Yes, you have to do a little more research in what to transfer to but most of the time you aren’t getting a point for dollar exchange and if you are then you’re not booking hotels or flights right.
I can also tell you the other benefits of the card (travel cancellation has paid back in the hundreds) our flight from New Zealand to Japan was cancelled due to weather so we had to book extra night of hotel, rental car and had an unpaid hotel room that was unused - all of that was claimable for reimburemsent which was $$$ of dollars.
Here is the summary of all the benefits of the card
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Thanks guys! What you say makes a lot of sense. We don’t travel much domestically, let alone internationally, so clearly I’m not the target market for this card. Maybe that’s why it didn’t resonate with me.
I got this card, but probably won’t hold it. But lets say you travel a lot AND you already are a member of airport lounges:
$250 airport lounge membership + $300 annual travel credit > $450 annual fee
plus:
3x points on travel
1.5x redemption value
global entry ($100 value)
It would be worth it if you travel a lot
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Initial bonus will be cut in half, to 50k. deadline is 1/12 online or at a branch 3/12