Originally Posted by
YoVikings
I am looking for a keeper card (pls correct my terminology here) or card that I can keep not necessarily use much. But would give some decent benefits or perks. I don't mind having little annual fees (<$100), if the benefits or perks compensates it.
What I am looking for is a card that by having it or using it will give you a good discount on purchases/access to lounges / get a free or upgraded stay an hotel or in flight. A card that I can only use once a while to keep it active.
I know about the Chase IHG / Marriott or Hyatt cards., which give a free night on the anniversary. Are these the only keeper cards or are there more like these.
Any suggestions?
Note: I already have CSP.
Welcome to FlyerTalk,
YoVikings.
The Chase cards you listed are the best ones for a free stay at a hotel. No card will automatically give an upgraded stay, a free flight, or an upgraded flight. At best the Amex Hilton Surpass card, which gives you automatic Hilton Honors Gold [mid-level] status may give you
a chance at some upgrades (while definitely giving you free breakfast). But you need top status at a hotel for a better chance, and no card gives top status just for holding it. (Very high annual spend on a few cards might, perhaps, but you don't sound interested in that anyway.) And no card gives free flights outright or free airline upgrades outright; in fact, most airline cards don't even give you the first level of elite status, and even at that level of elite status upgrades are generally few and far between.
Hotels just seem to "feel" they have more "excess capacity" than airlines, and that's why it's easier to get something (of the kinds of things you mentioned) for very little spend from a hotel card while near impossible for an airline card. (Airline cards' benefits are typically things like free checked domestic bag, which doesn't help if you carry-on only or don't fly that airline domestically, ie, they're useful only
at the margins for people who fly that airline enough, but not enough to have real elite status.)
Be careful paying too much for a card that gives you lounge access. You can pay for
several lounge day passes for less than some cards' annual fees. (Cards that give lounge access typically have multi-hundred-dollar annual fees.) And you can buy those day lounge passes from
many more lounges than the card might give you free entry for.
(Unfortunately, one of the few cards that gives decent lounge access for just $95/year is unavailable for new applications, and it's unclear if/when it'll ever starting taking applications again: Diners Club USA from BMO/Harris.)