Originally Posted by
SP03
I was referring to people getting an Ink card in addition to Reserve.
That's precisely what I was referring to as well and my point still stands with regard to the amount needed to spend on 3x travel on a CIP to justify the $95 AF. It doesn't need to be $5k, it can be quite a bit less.
Obviously if you don’t care for Chase lounge access, then there’s really no need to get or keep the Reserve.
That’s really the main selling point for all these premium cards now. It’s no longer a no brainer hold card just because you travel.
For people who do spend money on these coupon categories (and I suspect a lot of Chase target demographics do), the choice becomes an effective “free card” with added benefit vs $95 a year.
I would never argue you should spend up or clip coupon to justify having a card. But the Chase gamble, and I don’t think they are necessarily wrong, is that there are plenty of people who already do or plan to.
I currently have both CSR and CIP. I'm not holding the CSR for the lounge access - for me the $300 travel credit plus the boosted value of 1.5 cpp justified the AF until now. With the 1.5 cpp value going away in 2+ years time (for me) plus the increase to $795, I do need to take a hard look at the coupon clipping I can do to continue to justify holding that card.
I use the CIP for 3x on advertising and for 3x "other travel" for our business which is actually a bulk of the expenses we have in that category anyway (airport parking and tolls). The only "other travel" expense I see that I put on the Reserve for 3x points because they were personal expenses are Rail tickets when vacationing overseas so I may just move this to the CIP - the whole reason I go on vacation anyway is because I need one from my business
. It's a nominal amount in the bigger scheme of things so I can just leave it be on a CIU too if I want to keep those Rail charges on a personal card.