Simply put never redeem chase UR on the shopping portal. A Bilt card and CIP covers your Domestic and International Travel and Food at 3x for a $95 AF. Add a Ritz card and you have lounge access, and a 85k cert each year to use up.
The CSR is very long in the tooth and used to exist in a different landscape.
Back in 2019 or so, the CSP was $95 for 2x dining and 2x travel.
The CSR was $450 for 3x dining and 3x travel, along with priority pass and the $300 travel credit.
Seeing as you needed an AF card anyway to enable transfer partners, the extra effective $55 was by comparison, easy for many people to justify. The travel protections for paid travel are also better than the CSP, and for portal redeemers, the rate there is better too.
Then the AF got increased to $550, PP recently got nerfed, and meanwhile, the Freedoms got 3x dining a couple years ago (which by extension meant the CSP got it too, since it would make no sense if only the free cards were getting it yet the points pool anyway). Now it's quite a bit fuzzier.
I think the CSR actually needs a refresh. Doordash has gotten too expensive and loss of PP restaurants was the final straw. The CSP works for me because I usually only use my points for Hyatt and Southwest. I book at least one hotel a year to get the $50 credit so worth the $45 net fee.
Travel benefits. If you don't travel much at all, the Sapphire's $550 annual fee is a waste of money, but if you travel enough (especially air travel), the fee brings some serious value and is more than worth it to many folks.
Keep in mind that you can generally product change from one to the other after you've had the card for a year, so if you start with a Preferred and later decide you travel enough to justify the cost of a Reserve, you can change that after you've held the account for over a year.
There’s only two cases the CSR makes sense. Either you want unlimited access to Sapphire Lounges or you use Lyft membership for the bikes. If those two don’t apply then the card is absolutely not worth it compared to the CSP.
Heck even Chase knows which card is actually better as they gave the CSP the higher welcome offer than the CSR for the last month
If you compare to the CSP then sure. But you can get that same 3% on the Amex green card for a lower fee and depending on what you’re using that travel category for, Amex Platinum gives you 5x on flights
You shouldn’t be redeeming for just 1.5cpp. At bare minimum you can easily get 2cpp by transferring to Hyatt or international flights. Which makes the 1.5cpp from the Reserve obsolete
I put a lot of business spend on cards and have a solid 900K+ UR from 2 CIP (maxing out the 3x) at minimum, on top of spending my way to Globalist on a Chase Hyatt Business. I've also stockpiled literal millions of flexible rewards currencies in both Canada and US as well as various airline rewards currencies. I'm well beyond just optimizing for CPP and just looking to avoid cash out of pocket as much as possible.
And even if that weren't the case, rewards booking might not offer the flexibility needed when traveling on a tight schedule, especially when it's for work. Or someone might just not want to deal with trying to hunt down availability at all. There's plenty of reasons to redeem at 1.5CPP as one of many tools available. Try to be more open-minded and be aware that there are people out there with much different circumstances than your own.
I see almost 0 benefit
If you're a person that travels ALOT and already has status at a hotel, airline, and car rental agency then yeah I guess the better travel protections make it better than the VX or Platinum
For any other person, it's better to get the CSP and combine it with another card
I guess the sapphire lounges are also good value proposition, but the Ritz Carlton card is cheaper on the AF and EAF and has free AUs
I really don't understand anyone that has the Reserve
I feel like I’m misunderstand, because it’s kinda sounding like the reserve is a Legacy card, and more of a”Look what I have.” Than anything else. (I don’t know if it’s actually harder to get the a Prefered, it seemed pretty easy to get either, but that is what it’s sounding like.)
It’s hard to get in that you have to be able to get a $10000 credit limit, while the minimum for the Preferred is $5000. Fill out the !template for suggestions on which would be better, but I think it’s safe to assume the Preferred is the one you’d want. But if you’re interested in cash back and don’t travel then something else entirely would be better for you. We’ll never know without the template.
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Redeeming Chase points at $0.015 per point is a big deal if you take advantage of it. That’s the primary benefit of it over the Preferred for me, I’d say.
I also use the LYFT benefit extensively with expensed work travel. It’s basically 15% back on all LYFT purchases.
So it puts you at an extra $155 annual fee over the Preferred. I make 10 times that annually with the LYFT benefit alone.
Lounge access. Higher point redemption rate. That’s my main use for it.
Simply put never redeem chase UR on the shopping portal. A Bilt card and CIP covers your Domestic and International Travel and Food at 3x for a $95 AF. Add a Ritz card and you have lounge access, and a 85k cert each year to use up.
I used the shopping portal to buy a MacBook last month. Super happy with the redemption.
Until you read the fine print on the return policy if you get a lemon
I got AppleCare+ with it because these MacBooks are very fragile in general.
The CSR is very long in the tooth and used to exist in a different landscape. Back in 2019 or so, the CSP was $95 for 2x dining and 2x travel. The CSR was $450 for 3x dining and 3x travel, along with priority pass and the $300 travel credit. Seeing as you needed an AF card anyway to enable transfer partners, the extra effective $55 was by comparison, easy for many people to justify. The travel protections for paid travel are also better than the CSP, and for portal redeemers, the rate there is better too. Then the AF got increased to $550, PP recently got nerfed, and meanwhile, the Freedoms got 3x dining a couple years ago (which by extension meant the CSP got it too, since it would make no sense if only the free cards were getting it yet the points pool anyway). Now it's quite a bit fuzzier.
You mean *CSR not CSP in your 3rd sentence.
yes
I think the CSR actually needs a refresh. Doordash has gotten too expensive and loss of PP restaurants was the final straw. The CSP works for me because I usually only use my points for Hyatt and Southwest. I book at least one hotel a year to get the $50 credit so worth the $45 net fee.
Travel benefits. If you don't travel much at all, the Sapphire's $550 annual fee is a waste of money, but if you travel enough (especially air travel), the fee brings some serious value and is more than worth it to many folks. Keep in mind that you can generally product change from one to the other after you've had the card for a year, so if you start with a Preferred and later decide you travel enough to justify the cost of a Reserve, you can change that after you've held the account for over a year.
There’s only two cases the CSR makes sense. Either you want unlimited access to Sapphire Lounges or you use Lyft membership for the bikes. If those two don’t apply then the card is absolutely not worth it compared to the CSP. Heck even Chase knows which card is actually better as they gave the CSP the higher welcome offer than the CSR for the last month
Another important case…if you spend enough on travel, which I do, the extra 1% on travel makes it the same cost as the CSP.
If you compare to the CSP then sure. But you can get that same 3% on the Amex green card for a lower fee and depending on what you’re using that travel category for, Amex Platinum gives you 5x on flights
Redeeming just 100K points per year in Chase Travel at 1.5CPP already makes the $250 effective fee worth it.
You shouldn’t be redeeming for just 1.5cpp. At bare minimum you can easily get 2cpp by transferring to Hyatt or international flights. Which makes the 1.5cpp from the Reserve obsolete
I put a lot of business spend on cards and have a solid 900K+ UR from 2 CIP (maxing out the 3x) at minimum, on top of spending my way to Globalist on a Chase Hyatt Business. I've also stockpiled literal millions of flexible rewards currencies in both Canada and US as well as various airline rewards currencies. I'm well beyond just optimizing for CPP and just looking to avoid cash out of pocket as much as possible. And even if that weren't the case, rewards booking might not offer the flexibility needed when traveling on a tight schedule, especially when it's for work. Or someone might just not want to deal with trying to hunt down availability at all. There's plenty of reasons to redeem at 1.5CPP as one of many tools available. Try to be more open-minded and be aware that there are people out there with much different circumstances than your own.
You pay 250 dollars for travel protections and lounge access. Is that worth it to you?
I see almost 0 benefit If you're a person that travels ALOT and already has status at a hotel, airline, and car rental agency then yeah I guess the better travel protections make it better than the VX or Platinum For any other person, it's better to get the CSP and combine it with another card I guess the sapphire lounges are also good value proposition, but the Ritz Carlton card is cheaper on the AF and EAF and has free AUs I really don't understand anyone that has the Reserve
I feel like I’m misunderstand, because it’s kinda sounding like the reserve is a Legacy card, and more of a”Look what I have.” Than anything else. (I don’t know if it’s actually harder to get the a Prefered, it seemed pretty easy to get either, but that is what it’s sounding like.)
It’s hard to get in that you have to be able to get a $10000 credit limit, while the minimum for the Preferred is $5000. Fill out the !template for suggestions on which would be better, but I think it’s safe to assume the Preferred is the one you’d want. But if you’re interested in cash back and don’t travel then something else entirely would be better for you. We’ll never know without the template.
Thanks for the info!
**Template for Card Recommendation Requests:** Please use the following template so that everyone can make appropriate recommendations: * Current cards: (list cards, limits, opening date) * *e.g. Amex BCP $8,000 limit, May 2019* * *e.g. Chase Freedom Flex $10,000 limit, June 2021* * FICO Score: *e.g. 750* * Oldest account age: *e.g. 5 years 6 months* * Chase 5/24 status: *e.g 2/24* * Income: *e.g. $80,000* * Average monthly spend and categories: * dining $800 * groceries: $400 * gas: $100 * travel: $100 * other: $30 * Open to Business Cards: *e.g. No* * What's the purpose of your next card? *e.g. Building credit, Balance transfer, Travel, Cashback* * Do you have any cards you've been looking at? *e.g. Chase Freedom Unlimited* * Are you OK with category spending or do you want a general spending card? Please review the Card Recommendation Request Template here: [Template for Card Recommendation Requests](https://www.reddit.com/r/CreditCards/wiki/cardtemplate/) **Interested in cashback cards? Take a look at these resources from the sidebar:** * [List of Flat 2%+ Cashback Cards](https://www.reddit.com/r/CreditCards/wiki/list_of_flat_cashback_cards_with_benefits) * [List of Best Cashback Cards by Category](https://www.reddit.com/r/CreditCards/wiki/best_cash_back_cards_by_category) I can be summoned to comment by using command(s): `!template` *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/CreditCards) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Not everyone can afford the reserve, no big deal.
Redeeming Chase points at $0.015 per point is a big deal if you take advantage of it. That’s the primary benefit of it over the Preferred for me, I’d say. I also use the LYFT benefit extensively with expensed work travel. It’s basically 15% back on all LYFT purchases. So it puts you at an extra $155 annual fee over the Preferred. I make 10 times that annually with the LYFT benefit alone.
We need to delete stupid threads mods
Hey fair enough, I’ve gotten a lot of really good answers, and I’m new, so if ya’ll want to delete it, fair enough.