Chase only pulled Experian for me as well... although TWO hard pulls, one month apart for my Sapphire Preferred (issued first month), then Freedom (issued one month later).

Chase pulls two if you're borderline. They pull one otherwise.

I'm debating which card to apply for because of the same reason you pointed out as it seems like the cost for rewards is higher for the A+ compared to the CSP. I'm going to Europe this summer and my economy ticket costs $1700, which would cost 170,000 A+ miles vs 60000 UR points (if transferred to United Airlines). As another example, most of the trips I take are domestic and cost ~300-400 per flight if I'm going across the country. This would cost 30,000-40,000 A+ miles vs 25000 UR points. I realize the A+ card gives 2 points per dollar for all purchases which narrows the gap between the cost for rewards.

Is my logic correct in these calculations, or are these examples atypical? It seems like the A+ card only wins out for inexpensive flights and that the CSP card may have more value when redeeming points.

maths son, use it:

for your european trip, without knowing actual $ that you'll pay in fees to redeem UR points, you're going to get max 2.8c/mile

if you want a no worry without bargain shopping straight up redemption card then in my mind you can't beat A+ at 2.2c/mile. if you're going to be hunting around bargains at low level awards, or booking $10K business tickets that you most likely would never book to begin with your UR points will obviously be more valuable.

for your short domestic trips you're lucky to get 1.6c/mile on the URs, unless you really bargain shop for award flights. in my opinion if this is majority of your travel you can't beat A+.


this does not include any bonus or portal arbitrage, which both cards offer and can definitely skew the calculations.

also, not sure where you live, but you should see this post as you may be able to find yourself a first class flight to europe for $1700...

I would go for the CSP hands down. I have found value way hugher than in my arrival which I am cancelling next year. If you need a 2x on everything card, go for the discover card or the citi double dash.

Wondering which of the two I should get as well
 

Hey everyone, New here.

Been doing lots of research and it seems like either the CSP or the Arrival+ would be the best options for me.

I am 25 years old and finishing up my last quarter of college this fall. I live in Seattle. I am also interning for an IT Consulting company and will be going into the IT field after I graduate and my internship ends. I have good credit, mid 700's, and have never had to pay interest on my current credit card before so I am fairly confident I will be able to get either of these two cards.

I have read a lot on both these cards but am still unsure which one I should get. I have been over on the Points Guy blog and other places trying to get a better understanding of the options when it comes to Chase's travel partners. Meaning I am trying to determine if the benefits of being able to transfer points to their transfer partners on a 1:1 ratio is actually worth it for someone like myself.

I do not travel a lot. I generally do not travel somewhere that requires me to fly more than once a year, maybe two depending on how much money and time I have. I do love to travel and would like to do it as much as I can while I am young so I do think a travel card is ideal for me. I do not have very high expenses right now given my age and whatnot.

The impression that I have gotten from several sites is that utilizing the frequent flyer programs of Chase's travel partners is generally only beneficial for those people who want to fly in business or first class or people who want to stay in nice hotel rooms or people who travel all the time.

I am the type of traveler who plans where he wants to go, gets the time off in advance, and then finds the cheapest ticket possible and generally stays in the cheapest accommodations possible such as hostels or cheapest hotel I can find. Part of that is being a college student and the other part is just being frugal and not minding traveling that way. I don't really that changing even when I transition to a full time job and am making much better money. I did say I am interning in IT consulting but I am not sure I will be with the company after or not and if I do I may not be traveling at all so the potential that I could be traveling a lot shouldn't be factored into this decision imo. However, I think the company has a reimbursement style for a lot of expenses so employees pay for their stuff and then expense it which means the potential to rack up large numbers of miles is there.

My future travel desires include going back to Europe (been a few times already), go to Japan or SE Asia, maybe Hawaii again or somewhere down in the Caribbean.

Based on all this what do you all think would be my best option? Are the frequent flyer rewards partners good for people buying the cheapest flight possible ahead of time?

Seeing as my expenses are not huge I will likely not accrue enough points to cover much more than the plane tickets I will end up buying for my future trips.

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks! :)

I had both, but canceled CSP. The only reason to have CSP over BA+ is to transfer points to partners, which i do not do. Booking travel using CSP was a terrible experience: Chase travel site was unable to complete transactions half of the time, and when it worked, the prices were often higher than those on discount travel sites. With BA+, on the other hand, redeeming points for travel is easy.

I eventually found out what the issue was -- my credit reports were very sparse. 10+ years with two credit cards and that was it -- NO addresses. No lates, no negatives of any sort, but without addresses Chase was very leery. Not sure how that happened, but that's what it was.

I'd suggest a cash back card like Citi's 2% DoubleCash with no annual fee, in your case. If you're not going to be traveling frequently, all of the travel cards are going to cost you more in fees than you're likely to get. Now, if you're going to get into churning, MS, and other ways to increase points earned, travel cards might make sense. BUT read up and do your homework. The last thing you want to do is rack up 1,000,000 points that are worthless. Earning rates are important, but just as important are redemption rates.

It depends how much work/effort you want to put into things. Like many things in life, the more effort you put into something the better the reward. With CSP you're able to maximize value by maximizing earning AND maximizing redemptions. BUT, agreed, it requires work. If someone doesn't travel often, the BA+ might be the better choice. Even then, it might not be the best choice. With a $90 annual fee, you need to spend $4500 just to break even. Contrast this to something like the Citi 2% card with no annual fee, so that'd be an additional $90 you could use towards travel or anything. Now, if you travel internationally, I believe the Citi card DOES charge foreign transaction fees, so not best for those situations. BUT for the majority of Americans, it's probably the best choice.

However, if someone travels frequently and knows how to work over the system on the earnings side (bonus categories, Freedom/Ink cards, shopping portals, etc.) and knows how to work over the redemption side, you can do far better than 2%.

Case in point: I managed to earn 8x points via category bonuses & shopping portals on the purchase of a new refrigerator. So figure that's 8% there. THEN assume you can get 1.6%-2.8% on redemption, so 12.8%-22%. Much better than Barclaycard's paltry 2-2.2%.

Thumbs up on this entire post! I couldn't agree more. Also, regarding the foreign transaction fee, there are other options with no annual fee like CapOne Quicksilver. Between that and Citi Double Cash, there's little reason to pay $89 annual fee for Arrival+.