Hipplewm

I started accumlating Amex points - not sure if that was a good idea, but I am sitting on 1.5 mil+ UA and Marriott points and due to building a new house, moving etc, proably won't take a real vacation until late 2021 or potentially 2022, so I will naturally accumulate stupid amounts by then,

Yes, I know holding them is bad as they only devaluate, but not much i can do. That is why i switched to AMEX this year.

Hipplewm

I use the Uber benefit as well - almost exclusively on business trips to the airport, so I get that $200 flat reimbursed. I also buy the $200 in WN gift cards each year, so, I offset the annual fee by $400 every year at a minimum

STS-134

OT, but WN GC purchases stopped working last July. See https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/amer...west-only.html

mr8

How far are you going to drop in 20/21? I wouldn't be surprised if we see some new and/or revamped cards coming from Chase to reflect all the new MP changes. Maybe a Chase United Priority Premium Card or some other name with PP?
As other have said, it's $150 after the travel credit. Priority Pass is great, but has been seeing some significant cuts in recent years, especially within the US. Still might be worth it if you do international travel. You also get the standard GE/TSA credit, but one of the better features of the card is probably all the travel coverage.
If you travel enough, you will eventually run into some sort of IRROPS or baggage issue, and the card could easily earn more than the annual fee back on a single incident. Trip delay, for instance, kicks in at 6 hrs vs 12/24 hrs like on most other cards.

Unlike amex which only offers secondary coverage, you get primary coverage on car rentals with Chase so you wouldn't have to deal with your own insurance at all.


tl;dr - CSR is easily worth more than $450 if you do a lot of international travel and rent cars.

findark

It's worth looking at your Platinum spend benefits for your air travel - 5x Amex MR points can be quite valuable although they are somewhat harder to use than 3x Chase UR points which are readily spent as $0.015 each toward cash travel. Amex MR can be 1:1 to DL SkyMiles which, while they are much maligned, are still worth no less than 1 cent each, or a wide variety of other airline programs (not UA) where you can fill gaps (BA is great for this) or join the bloggers in claiming staggering imputed CPM on F awards (your mileage may vary, significantly).

I also learned recently that the Schwab-issued Amex Plat will allow you to receive cash back directly into a tax-advantaged account (IRA) which potentially has very high value also depending on your tax situation.


But by no means should you be buying tickets with a United-branded card!

Chase once sent me a letter outlining the thousands of dollars of benefits I had realized in one year of card membership.. it was obviously a marketing pitch to make me feel good about the card but I couldn't help but wonder if anyone at Chase read how much money they were losing on me

(Although Chase cards are top-of-wallet for me, so I guess they win a little there.)

uastarflyer

The Select earns up to 5,000 PQM. This and 2miles/$ at grocery and home improvement stores are areas I spend on the Select card. This assumes I flip miles for 1.5x or higher which I have done historically.

To say the card was useless to date for use is too simplistic.

Brucemcdou

Interesting discussion - I have the Chase UA Club Card, with $450 annual fee but just the United Club membership by itself costs from $550 to $650 a year depending on your status. For me the other benefits (1.5 points per $, rental car and travel insurance, etc.) are just gravy. With the changes to the status qualifications I'm definitely going to drop to Gold and may even drop to Silver next year so the extra benefits will also help. Most of my domestic flying is between major United hub airports so I/we frequently take advantage of the Clubs and the customer service reps located in the Clubs. I've looked at Priority Pass lounges but they really don't seem to have good offerings in the US. Internationally I have *A Gold status and am usually flying in a front cabin so have access to partner lounges anyway.

Am I a sucker for keeping the Club Card when I'm essentially a United hub captive?

uastarflyer

No, being captive at UA hubs makes having a Club card more meaningful...to use the club.

i too have the Club Card but hitting 1MM and having PP via CSR means I likely will not renew.

This year I ran $50k on the Club Card. So this will be a major change.

Gig103

If you want to be able to transfer points to your UA account, then the CSR makes sense. But if you already have the Amex Plat, what about complementing it with an Amex Premier Rewards Gold? It provides 4x points on dining worldwide and at U.S. supermarkets, plus some credits.

Also note that moving your travel spending to Amex Plat will start providing trip insurance in 2020. Flights at 5x, prepaid hotels at 5x, and other spending at 1x.

findark

If you value the club, not really. My argument is against putting any spend on the cards (other than for status qualification), not against holding them

STS-134

Exactly. Up until 2017, I made PQD targets, but these last 2 years, I did not, and I made sure last year to put around $25,001 on the UA card and then immediately shut it down. I could have shut it down at $25,000.00 but didn't want to risk not getting status due to an error in my calculations, lol. All further spend went on the CSR and now I am glad it did, because that gives the the ability (but not the obligation) to use the points outside of UA.

Collierkr

This is the only reason I would consider it... gonna give it a look.

eng3

For a GS/1K, you still get the possibility of CPUs on award flights. Having the status gets you somewhat high on the list so depending on the flight, you might get an upgrade. I've gotten one. For everyone below, even if you dont get the PQD waiver, you still get some PQP credit so perhaps some use. Plus two UC passes which is of non-zero value. I had the MPE card for several years because it was basically free. UA would give me a $50 credit and Chase would give me at least a $50 credit by calling in every year. Once UA cut the credit, I cancelled the card. I got it this year to renew my GE.

Though I only later learned about the CSR and got that as well and shifted all my spend to there and CFU. Initially the $450 fee turned me off, but once I realized there's a $300 credit and you basically get 4.5% back (if you use your points on UA), I did the math and found my travel/restaurant spending to be sufficient to justify the $150. Plus there's PP. With CSR, it made sense to get CFU, 2.25% back (if used for UA) is better than my current 2% back on everything cards. Either way, the signup bonus (50K points for CSR, double points for first year) are worth a try. Had I know about the CSR earlier, I would have never signed up for the MPE. Its pretty easy math. Just for the CSR, if you spend ($150/4.5%+300)=$3633 on travel/restaurants, you break even on the annual fee. That's not counting the signup bonus or any other benefits. If you get the CFU which has no fee (2.25% back on anything) and/or have the CF (7.5% back on category), you break even even easier. If you can meet the signup bonus, you definitely will break even.

The risk is if the UA/chase relationship goes away in the future or they devalue the 50% bonus or 1:1 mileage (which basically has been devalued by UA)

nnn

Not always true. Some of us still have the legacy "Platinum" UA Visa, which carries a $140 annual fee. Until now, that card offered up to 10,000 PQM per year. That alone was a reason to use the card, as it helped me reach 1K on multiple occasions. With the new changes that make PQM irrelevant, that benefit is being converted into a weak offer for PQP (like the Select card). Makes me sad.

dulcamara

I'm moving all air travel to the AMEX Plat card for the 5x points. Ditto for hotel bookings.
I'm moving all other spend to the Alliant Signature Visa
https://www.alliantcreditunion.org/b...signature-card

I just got the Alliant card and have moved my UA Chase "platinum visa" card to the sock drawer. I'll cancel it before the renewal fee is due unless UA figures out how to make it worth my while to keep it. It's useless for keeping status now. I like those 10K pqm and that really helped me stay a 1K.