HawkeyeFlyer

Is the JP Morgan card still available to new members?

Troopers

The JPM Reserve card is available but need (reportedly) $10M with them. I have a healthy amount with Chase (less than $10M) and unable to obtain the card.

mia

JP Morgan Reserve card requires a JP Morgan Private Bank relationship. (Not the same as a Chase Private Client account.) I believe the minimum account balance is nominally $10 million.

Discussion here:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/chase...palladium.html

Kagehitokiri

but it was available to basically anyone initially

mia

The Palladium card was widely available for a period, to my knowledge the JPM Reserve card was not.

Kagehitokiri

ah, so thats how they made that change >

hawata

I believe it was only available to Chase Private Clients in addition to JPM clients...

mia

In principle, but in practice there was a loophole.

Kagehitokiri

as ~99% of FTers with card were not Chase Private Clients

hawata

I Believe that the fact that they are very stringent now is a good sign. It is a great card!

steve4

+1

I think the AMEX Schwab Platinum and Blue for Business Plus cards go well together. It would have been even better if AMEX credited MR points at the closing of the current statement, instead of at the end of the 2nd statement. At least make this a Platinum benefit. I know you can request to accelerate the points, but I'm not sure if this is always granted.

shoelessj

I have Corporate Platinum and a personal CSR and Gold Card. I recently cancelled my Gold Card of 40 years as a statement of general displeasure with AMEX. I thought they were on to something with the expanded Platinum benefits but was dismayed to find none of the new benefits apply to corporate cards and of course they want people to ante up further for Personal Plat.
I find the AMEX points of reduced value- the only sweet spot is the gift cards (1 cent.$) but how many Cheesecake factory and Home Depot cards can you use? Many of the popular gift cards now have less favorable redemption values which I view as a sign of the future.

Chase points can be exchange into a wide variety of hotels and airlines as well as being used for direct travel purchases at a great redemption value.

Reserve has primary CDW for rentals, excellent trip cancellation and 100,000
medical evac, This is important as we book frequent cruises through Costco and AMEX card cannot be used so their trip protection is a moot point.

Also pointed out is pricing protection for purchases.

I hear much about AMEX service and in my decades have not had much positive to report on this front. Damaged plastic cards were always promptly issued (they finally have steel like Sapphire). I had an issue with T-Mobile closing an account and the cheerful rep said she could immediately reverse my charges. What she did not explain was that this was not initiate an active inquiry and long story short the process of denying payment without the inquiry created many more headaches for me.

I also have had the account compromised and while there were no liabilities I found their security a bit concerning. Like sending a letter telling me there is a strong potential threat to my card security but refusing to advise the apparent source. 'Hey we think your house might burn down but we can't tell you why we think this will happen'.

I had used AMEX travel on a few occasions with uninspiring results (I used to book cruises but the Plat cruise benefits were really meager).

It got so my interactions with AMEX were mostly complaints and they did placate me with some points.

Amex charging penalty for late payment is another negative twist that changed a long standing policy.

Finally, cost of Plat Personal vs. Chase Reserve is effectively 150 vs 595. I know there are other values to be evaluated but this is really the simple significant difference when one accounts for the travel creds for CSR.

Sorry for this long rant. When I was a young college grad and got my gold card and I was enamored with the 'prestige' it offered. With the advent of CSR I feel I get so much more at such a better price point that even with AMEX newer percs , their model is a dinosaur and they are only being driven to compete because of the unprecedented success of CSR.

JMHO

mia

As can Membership Rewards points.

Take me thorough the arithmetic.

shoelessj

450 CSR less 300 travel credit is 150
While AMEX offers some benes (airline credit, now Uber) these are not automatic (sorry I mistakenly put in 595 instead of correct 550)
So to me 550 is a 'hard' cost and maybe I get some back with wi-fi or airline credits, of now Uber but in the past I personally never took advantage of these.
If you work to use them obviously the Platinum benes increase its value prop but in my mind it would be very difficult to make up what I consider the 400 hard dollar difference. Frankly I think the increase in fees showed some arrogance on the part of AMEX.

mia

The American Express $200 travel credit doesn't require much effort to redeem. On most domestic airlines you an simply buy giftcards. We have a separate thread for each carrier explaining what qualifies.