jacca

Hello!

I will receive the CSR in the next couple of days and will instantly book a long flight. If the flight is $3000, would I get $300 travel credit back (at some point) and earn 3x points on the remaining $2700? Or because that's the first purchase, I won't get points for it?

Thanks!

(I just realized this might not be the best place for this question - Can it please be moved to the Chase section?)

philemer

[Edit: members below have stated that you will get the $300 right away.]

Check all the benefits here: https://creditcards.chase.com/reward...erve?CELL=6TKX The $300 credit isn't available until your 1st anniversary. You'll have to wait 12 months. And you will of course earn full pts on any travel purchase.

mangust

Hmm... The $300 credit is available right away. So the OP will get the $300 statement credit and earn rewards points on $2700.

Steve in Olympia

Are you sure that there is no travel credit the first year? I am not seeing that in the Terms & Conditions, but perhaps I have overlooked something.

“A statement credit will automatically be applied to your account when your card is used for purchases in the travel category, up to an annual maximum accumulation of $300. Annual means the year beginning with your account open date through the first statement date after your account open date anniversary, and the 12 monthly billing cycles after that each year.”

serpens

The Chase web page is not completely clear, but I read it as saying the card holder gets the benefit during the first year. It doesn't help that Chase put an asterisk at the end of the sentence (which is the full description of the benefit on the web page) and has no footnote providing clarity or limitation. (Poor form by Chase!)

Certainly I received the benefit during the first year, but some things have changed since then. Maybe this benefit changed, too.

Steve in Olympia

With an annual fee of $450, it would be a very expensive first year without the $300 travel credit. Not likely.

trikotret

You do get the 300 credit when you open your account or PC change to it. I did a PC change last week and it shows I have $300 credits available to use until 12/2020.

philemer

Thanks, good to know. The website isn't clear when it states:

"$300 Annual Travel Credit

Automatically receive up to $300 in statement credits as reimbursement for travel purchases charged to your card each account anniversary year."

Happy

The language is unclear but in all practical sense, the CSR $300 travel credit is a card benefit Starting at the moment you own the card - much like the AMEX cards' airline benefits, EXCEPT you dont have to enroll on anything, it is automatic. You do need to enroll the PP benefit either online or calling Chase.

What you are seeing, may be a poor wording of the eligibility period, which has changed from basing on Calendar Year to Membership Year 2+ years ago. That just means, when CSR was first introduced, you can claim the travel credit twice in a single membership year and later cancel the card. There were lots of examples on people taking advantage (or abuse) this feature, either by outright cancel or by downgrade, and still got 2x Travel Credits. Of course Chase noticed such, hence this "loophole" has been eliminated 2+ years ago for those who applied the card after the change put in effect.

Besides, when you really think through this, ALL expensive AF cards have something to offset the AF in their FIRST year ownership immediately started from the date the card is approved. Chase cannot be different else nobody would get the card. This is just a layman's common sense but a common sense that actually makes some sense. Punt intended.

When you actually have the card, go to UR portal thru that card, the first thing you see, in very BIG display too, is a counter of the $300 travel credit, showing you how much you have to use as of this moment.

When an eligible travel expense is posted, the credit also posted at the same time, $ for $ until the $300 is used up. So if the credit has $55 left and your next travel expense is $70, the credit would be at $55 only.

The ONLY change Chase has done aside from changing the eligibility from Calendar year to Membership year back 2 years ago, is to no longer allow point earning on the $300 travel expenses that are completely offset by the $300 Travel Credit.

Slightly off topic - everyone should have known by now, Chase closely monitor the ecosystem of Sapphire cards - it announced the first restriction on how many Sapphire card one can own thru new application, (min 24 months past) right before people were getting ready to X CSR and go with CSP sign up bonus. It then announced the 48 months restriction right before CSR's 24 months life was up... Shouldn't such moves tell us that Chase really closely monitor CSR ownership?

Now we are seeing the rumors on Chase testing the water on raising the fee, and adding some crappy benefits... It remains to be seen how that would fair with the cardholders. At a Net $250 AF, this card is NOT worth it in many people's books, ours incl. My bet is the attrition rate that Chase brags about will go thru the roof and for the first time, there will be retention offers for CSR.

zoned_post_meridiem

Can confirm that there is. I opened a CSR in October, travel in November, and got $300 credit from hotel and Uber bills. No 1-year wait.

zoned_post_meridiem

The way the credits appear on my statement makes me think they're linked to the charge. So when the charge disappears (due to your cancelling the hotel), my guess is that the credit will also disappear with it.

Either way though, probably not worth trying to scam them for a $300 credit...

Hosecat

Has anyone bought a Marriott gift card lately? My credit just refreshed and I want to use it and downgrade. Are there any tricks to getting Marriott credit? Do online cards work or do physical cards at a hotel work?

Happy

You need to buy it at the hotel so the purchase is coded as a hotel charge (Travel). This is no different when people try to use AMEX offer of Spend X at Marriott, Get Y $ statement credit - only the charge directly comes from the property would work.

Call around your local Marriott properties to find which properties have gift cards on premises to sell. You would generally have better luck at Marriott, Renaissance and St. Regis, not so much with other brands.

Hosecat

All we have around here are like, Fairfield, Courtyard, etc. If they have the GC it should work?

Happy

Go to the Marriott gift card site to read the T&Cs, it will tell you what brands accept gift cards. If the brand is among the eligible brands, and also has gift card for sale, that I would imagine it would work.

Personally I have used a Marriott brand gift card at Fairfield JFK, so Fairfield is participating. In Marriott forum there were reports about a CY giftcard worked at other brands as well. So CY is also participating.

Issue is, they may not carry gift cards for sale at all. When I did the AMEX $40/$200 offer a few months ago, none of the CYs near me sell gift cards. There is a Renaissance of about same distance, does sell gift card, as well as a Marriott quite far away doubled the driving distance, so I headed to Ren.

Be prepare for about 20 to 30 min on the process - the FD has other guests, so you wait aside. The FD may need a manager to process such sale. Or the manager is occupied by other matters, and instructed the FD over the phone on how to process the transaction.... It is not like you go buy a gift card at the grocery store or a retailer, just bring it to the register to pay for it... The transaction at the FD is quite a complicated one, took multiple screens on the system, plus getting the correct print out of receipt also took some fiddling.

You should get a print out looks just like a folio but the item listed is gift card sale. The gift card number should be on the print out. If the person knows what to do, you also get another print out that shows the gift card details only. I have bought GCs using AMEX offers at this Ren several times - Each time the experience and the print out was slightly different! Nonetheless AMEX statement credit posted without hiccup. Therefore I suspect this should work for Chase Travel Credit purpose, other than you dont earn anything from the spend, while AMEX still gives the correspondent points on the card used for the transaction.

PS
Once you obtain the giftcard, make sure you register the giftcard under your name on Marriott gift card's site. This way not only you can track the usage of the card, but in the case the card is lost or compromised, you can get help much easier when you are the registered owner of the card. Very important.