Originally Posted by
TTT103
I realize that things happen, but this is a travel card. Why get a travel card if you don't anticipate traveling in 12 months? Then, why would you want to keep it? I am beginning to think that the VX clientele is significantly different than the CSR and AmEx Platinum clientele.
I don't recall how heavy the advertising was for the Sapphire cards when they first launched, but Cap1 did a lot of mainstream advertising outside of airports and targeted ads - I remember seeing a few online and at bus shelters here in the Twin Cities (Minnesota.) The marketing still seemed geared towards travelers/traveling, though.
That said, travel spend doesn't equal Cap1 portal spend. Many people are still skeptical of using portals, particularly for things that may change, and may have put off using the portal in hopes that they'll come across a trip where they're not as worried about flexibility, pricing is in line (so don't have to deal with calling for a price match,) etc. It's quite possible someone spends hundreds or even thousands on travel in a year yet hadn't put $300 worth of that expense through the portal.
Originally Posted by
droningwaves
Not sure about the clientele, but this 300 credit is pretty useless except for domestic flights (and no Southwest??). Trying not to ascribe to breakage that which is adequately explained by incompetence, but darn, painful to use both this 300 and the Airbnb 200. Other than fixing the IT problems, CapOne should just do a straight credit for qualifying charges rather than forcing us to use their OTA.
I doubt they'd ever do this without a hike for the annual fee, or reducing the credit significantly. There's both a good amount of margin in being the OTA, so $300 on the portal isn't $300 out of their pocket, and they're almost certainly expecting a decent amount of breakage as people forget to use the credit, find themselves averse to using the portal, etc. I'm surprised the math even worked out enough with this model for Cap1 to release it as-is, and there's no way the math would work out if it was a $300 general travel credit plus 10,000 points on renewal with a $395 annual fee, considering the other benefits the card also gives (lounge access, Hertz status, TSA/GE credit, transfer partners, etc.)