Booking air travel through Chase gets 8 points/$ while booking with the airline gets 4. Ordinarily I'd just book with the airline because it's my impression that it makes it much easier to manage the reservation if changes are needed or flights get canceled, etc. I'm wondering how people think about the value of the additional four points and decide whether to book with Chase or the airline.

Everyone's risk tolerance is different.

Beyond that 4x difference is not that big for tix that are a few hundred dollars, but if you were booking tix that are a few thousand dollars each, they can add up quickly.

So I would use Chase portal for international business class tix, but otherwise for convenience of schedule changes, book direct.

I'm thinking the same.

I just booked china-us economy direct

China- Thailand direct

And mainland - HK direct
All economy. I would've tried chase for the 8x but the prices were higher. I'm seeing if I can earn enough 8x and 4x to make it worthwhile to keep CSR because the numbers don't add up for me from coupons.

I have booked a few times on airfare using Chase Travel because I have a lot of points and want to use them instead of cash. If everything went well, I don't really see any difference between booking thru Chase or book directly. However, if you need to cancel or change, the airline will make you go back to Chase Travel and do it there. I had to cancel a non-refundable flight because of death in the family, and Chase Travel would not do it even though it is one of the few reason you could cancel non-refundable flight on United. So I ended up calling United and a nice rep was able to do it for me there even though he did say that normally they won't do it as it is booked thru Chase Travel. The money was refunded to the Mastercard that Chase Travel uses and it took a long time and after many calls to Chase Travel for the points to refunded back to my account.

you can find intl trips that are priced the same as booking direct, but this is less consistent than domestic flights. but as many have mentioned, it is not the same as direct, and while you should be able to get it right in the end, it can be an hassle should you need to change or cancel your flight. so you have to factor in how much you value this convenience. and i suspect it is going to be more challenging to deal with intl airlines

well the csr trip cancellation insurance should cover you if you paid using UR points, so either way, chase would have to pay you back

Heh, I have the CSR since it started, and I completely forgot that it has trip cancellation insurance LOL.

We had to cancel three cruises last year and the CSR more than paid for itself just via those. It's a major reason we're going to stick with CSR (at least for now) even with the annual fee increase and the loss of 3% earning on cruises.

I think the CSR's emergency evac for medical could also come in handy as well. I just haven't have to use any of the "things went south" coverage yet <knock on wood>.

the trip cancellation policy for CSR and CSP are identical and CSP earns 2x for cruise. there are some minor difference between CSP and CSR travel insurances such as a lower rental car insurance limit (60k vs 75k) and requiring 12hrs instead of 6hrs to trigger the trip delay reimbursement, but it could be more than sufficient depending on your needs. so it may be better to go with CSP for cruises

I'm waffling between that (2ppd and $10K insurance) and Ink Preferred (3ppd and $5K insurance).

depends on how much you spend on your cruise trips. but assuming you spend $20k a year for the next 20 years. that is 400k more points or ~$6k (i used 1.5cpp). making use of the $10k insurance just once in the 20 years will get you $5k more back, and that is almost equivalent to all the additional points you will earn over 20 years. so personally, i will take the higher coverage. of course, im just assuming some numbers here, so you need to sub in your numbers

That's off by a factor of two, because those numbers are per person. One cancellation is a $10K difference. Though a 20-year horizon isn't necessarily a reasonable assumption.

But your basic point stands. In fact, it may even make sense to split payments across two cards to double the insurance (we have some rather expensive cruises booked). Something else to think about.

I do that with some pricey cycling trips. Put the tour company�s charge on Chase Sapphire Reserve, and the air tickets on Amex Plat. Thankfully, we�ve never had to file a claim, but it would be a whole lotta money if we ever had to do so. Plus, a cycling trip is more at risk for sudden injury or illness than an ordinary trip.

If you're booking a fairly easy itinerary domestic etc then book through Chase for extra points or redemption but anything more complex It's not worth the risk for me

So I just booked a premium economy from Thailand to the US in chase for about half the price I could find on any airlines direct website or on Expedia or Ctrip.

I also booked a Texas to Florida flight on chase at same price as direct.

If this pricing holds, then I might keep CSR for the 8x. Now, sometimes the prices are much higher. So I just booked on ctrip a Thailand to China round-trip flight for economy.

So I'm going to have to check and see before renewal.

The real kicker for me is if I can use edit. It just doesn't seem likely. Most likely I'll still cancel this card. I've applied for business version and am awaiting news (12 days waiting).