taliesin

It's very nice and I'm certainly pleased with my sudden and unexpected MR/RC Gold status, but I certainly don't expect that to be an ongoing benefit of the Amex Plat. Indeed my expectation is that since Marriott is aligned with Chase, once the merger is truly complete Platinum cardholders will wind up losing both their SPG and Marriott status. So you're left with, what, FHR, HH Gold, Sky Club access (for one), and Centurion Lounges? It's true that those are benefits that other cards don't mimic, but I don't know that all that many people will get a lot of value out of them.

yolandearagon

It doesn't affect me because I also have Chase Amazon and Freedom cards and haven't done anything with the Preferred card yet -- though I probably will.

yolandearagon

Since I'm planning my next international trip in 3 weeks but have not yet received the CSR card in the mail yet, I checked online (how I knew I'd been approved) then called to ask when it would arrive. The great rep I spoke with confirmed they have been overwhelmed with requests for the new card and so I would probably get a plastic card (as of Monday, she said) until more metal cards are produced.

She confirmed all online benefits I have read about. It turns out my other cards did not include Freedom, but were Slate, Amazon, Marriott, and Sapphire Preferred. I'm planning to keep the others but pointed out I'd never use the Preferred once I have the Reserve so asked her best opinion. She asked my traveling habits (international travel is the main thing I spend money on and put everything else at home on a credit card, until I receive my CSR Barclay's) then told me about both Chase Freedom and CFU. The end result was a no fee CFU replacing my Preferred Sapphire at no annual fee with 1.5 miles per all dollars spent. While it has disadvantages used abroad, my CSR would take care of that, so it seems like a perfect combination. With the $300 travel credit for CSR and no annual fee for the CFU, it amounts to me paying only $55 a year for the Chase Sapphire Reserve card (and that's not including all the other benefits like Priority Pass).

krazykanuck

Yeah, I admit that seems like a reasonable possibility. Hopefully we have another couple years since they have said they don't plan to launch a combined program until 2018.

STS-134

It's also possible that Marriott will go with Amex, or go with both. Remember that both Citi and Amex issue cards for Hilton HHonors. I'd expect Amex to fight hard to not lose SPG, because they've already lost a high profile customer (Costco) and they're probably getting killed by the introduction of the CSR.

mia

The beauty of competition is that right now anyone can hold two "$450" cards for the price of one, and any two of these three cards is more useful than the best card alone (without regard to which card you think is best). Further, since Chase is offering us $150 to try their card for 12 months I think many will hold all three for a stretch, and that's the best way to see how the features really work and how often we really use them.

I find value in all three issuers' products, but all three sometimes deliver disappointment. I don't find it productive to squabble about which card is better or predict the supremacy or decline of one issuer or card. These are mass market products assembled by immensely profitable enterprises. These products generate revenue streams that we seldom even think about.

Enjoy it while we can. At some point the real cost of ownership will rise, and we may have to choose.

mhdena

I believe its only domestic transfers that have the fee.

mia

Correct. The fee is $0.0006 per point (with a maximum fee of $99). It applies only to transfers to four programs: DL, HA, B6, VX (none of which are offered by Chase, and only one of which is offered by Citi.)

eajusa

Amen!

edealinfo12345

I would think so. You get a priority pass which will accommodate your entire family for free and is great for layovers. Plus you get trip delay and trip cancellation insurance, primary car rental insurance, etc. A good package that outweighs the incremental $150 cost.

mia

All of which is available with Chase Sapphire Preferred or Citi Premier for a lower fee, aside from the Priority Pass membership.

Enthusiasm for Priority Pass is an odd phenomenon. It's no coincidence that it is owned by an insurance company. They are good at profiting from the spread between the amount that people expect to use it, and the amount they actually do. The membership was quite valuable before the USA airline industry consolidated because DL, UA and US accepted it at most locations, and AA at some, but after consolidation those lounges had no surplus capacity and AA, DL and UA have all departed entirely, leaving Priority Pass with an uneven assortment of domestic USA lounges.

To their credit they have started opening their own lounges. These eight are actually operated by Collinson Group:

http://www.theclubairportlounges.com/

...the rest are lounges with surplus capacity.

Emotionally, I like having Priority Pass membership, but intellectually I cannot assign it any monetary value because I use it very infrequently. However, this might be different for economy class fliers if they are fortunate enough to find a Priority Pass lounge in the same concourse as their flight, which is the primary challenge facing any independent lounge network.

tmiw

PP valuation is problematic because some issuers cover more than others. Chase for instance offers unlimited free guests while some? AmEx cards don't even cover the primary cardholder.

However, if we had to give a value to PP, I'd say $27 per person per visit is a good number; it's what one would pay at a lounge if they didn't have a membership, anyway, and most cards with PP do seem to cover at least the primary cardholder's fee for lounge visits. Using that valuation, the travel credit plus at least 6 person-visits a year would net you more than the CSR AF's worth of value ($450 - 300 - 162 = -$12).

EDIT: I went looking through PP's website and at least one lounge (SJC) charges $40 for visits. That means you'd only need 4 person-years to make up the AF if the fee at the other lounges is closer to that than $27.

eajusa

Understood. I have used PP lounges very little. I usually fly DL domestically and UA internationally. With the UA Club Card I receive UA Club membership which gets me in a lot of Star Alliance clubs in Europe.

cbn42

Whenever a bank comes out with a new card, it's SOP to have excellent benefits at first, and then scale back after a user base is established.

When US Bank came out with Cash+, it was their first competitive cashback product. All they had previously was a flat 1% everywhere card. Obviously, they couldn't just copy the other cashback cards, because that wouldn't get people to switch over. Therefore, they provided stellar benefits, like unlimited 5% cash back on categories like airfare, hotels and bill pay (which included phone, cable, utilities, insurance, etc.). Once they had enough customers, they started to scale back the benefits until the card was more in line with the competition.

I imagine that Chase will do the same. They want a piece of the premium $400+ annual fee credit card market, and the only way to get it is to have a superior product. They can run it as a loss leader for a while if necessary, build up a client base, and then cut back.

Troopers

If you are going to give a VALUE to PP, then assign a VALUE (what one would be WILLING to pay), not it's cost (what the lounge charges).

And, $40 for the club at SJC, never...I might pay $10.


Agree, PP is overrated.