An examination of my JPM Select does not show any signs of metal between the plastic, and a comparison of thickness between my JPM Select and other credit cards suggests they're as equal in thickness as can be determined with the human eye.

On the other hand, my card might not be the most recent version of the card (maybe a year old?)...so maybe that was all for naught.

Makes me laugh, cause a couple of months ago I had a waitress at a very high end restaurant here in Austin flip my card over 20 times trying to figure out what it was, consulting with another waitress, and final came back to the table to ask if it was mastercard, visa or amex. While she was probably closer to room temperature IQ, the cards seem to be a bit confusing outside of their metal materials.

On this note, Chase RC is replacing their cards with a chipped version (including sending a return envelope to destroy the cards) - I'm wondering if the new ones are going to be metal or not.

I've heard of both versions of the JP Select. Just as the CSP use to be plastic as well.

Exactly. I live in SE Asia. So its more language and culture as opposed to your not so bright waitress. And the amount of flipping or rejection of the one sided metal cards has totaled alot of wasted time and inconvenience. Until they start making 2 sided metal cards with normal raised numbers, I'm sending back my metal cards immediately for plastic replacements.

Live in Middle Asia; not much of a problem here as long it's EMV :D

I typically do one carbon imprint credit card transaction a day, and sometimes it's upwards of ten. A friend of mine actually has one of the United cards without the raised numbers, and it was a PITA to write out all the credit card information.

As an aside, don't international duty free purchases on aircraft use this method still? That seems very applicable to a travel type purchase for people who use credit cards.

I think most airlines now use portable POS terminals for on-board purchases, including international duty free.

Yep. FAs use a portable terminal with a swiper or a chip insert. It's done as an offline process while in the air. Once they are on the ground, the terminal is hooked up for online processing. You can tell that's how it's done if you check your credit card account daily; when you buy something onboard, the transaction doesn't show up as a pending transaction until a day or two later.

So I kinda, maybe, sort of accidentally put my Select in the cash-slot of a machine, and it got pretty beat up. Stupid, I know. :(

But obviously I can't be carrying around a beat up card everywhere, so naturally I took this as an excuse to order a new card. ;) I'm curious to see if they send a metal one...

I haven't had troubles with my CSP in SEA. A few cashiers flip and look back and forth to figure out the stripe to swipe. A few times "don't accept this" but ok after I point out that it's a Visa.

Most of the times, they compliment the look and feel. CSP is poor man's Centurion. I once had 6 ladies surrounding the card to see what it is (oh well, office ladies)

The Citi Prestige card, which IS plastic AND has the traditional raised account numbers has the EMV chip in it: I can't see why Chase can't put the EMV chip in the Club card either myself. If Citi can put it in a "cheap" plastic card, they should be able to put it on the Club card (much like they do with the Marriott Reserve) to the left of the card name and voila, there you go, it's now an EMV card with MileagePlus Club still in the same position on the face of it.

The new one they sent me still doesn't feel like metal, despite them describing it as such.

That's my point. Flipping the card over to figure out where to swipe. Not sure if it's a Visa or some sort of membership card. I want the card swiped and move on. I don't want to explain how to swipe the card and that its a real card all the time. It's a big time waster, when you add up all the times it happens.

CSP is not a poor man's Centurion in SEA. No one knows what it is. Amex Platinum is is pretty highly regarded. And Citibank in Thailand (and SG, HK,etc) has a USD$1000 annual fee, invite only Ultima card. And there is the Visa Infinite cards across SEA too. Of course Thailand is strict on any foreigner, regardless of working permit and salary level. You are made to jump through endless hoops for a regular CC. It's likely I'll never qualify for a elite Thailand issued card.
the OL's were probably intrigued by the unique color and the metal. Since most cards are black or silver colored.

The J.P. Morgan Select card is a plain plastic credit card, no metal insert of any kind. The card hasn't been discontinued, it's just no longer offered by Chase Private Client, only J.P. Morgan Wealth Management (PB-HNW, PB-UHNW and JPMS).

Exactly, it gets attention because nobody knows what it is + the color and metal. I'd guest they wouldn't notice a Centurion card if it was plastic. Also, places that I go to in SEA are probably not frequented by people with 1k AF cards.