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I wonder if it wouldn't make more sense to just do all of that on a Chase Sapphire or Chase Ink Preferred. That's what I do. It's an effective 4.5% cash back on

I wonder if it wouldn't make more sense to just do all of that on a Chase Sapphire or Chase Ink Preferred. That's what I do. It's an effective 4.5% cash back on travel/dining with the Sapphire Reserve, which trounces any of the co-branded cards I'm aware of, plus it has primary insurance.

ozi 7y ago
Depends on your purchasing. The amex platinum bonus on air travel is worth about 10%.
- CydeWeys 7y ago
  Yeah, if you're buying huge amounts of flights that's probably the way to go (though note that the point return is 5%, and you can't always find good ways to spend MR at a 2 cents/point evaluation). But note that the Sapphire Reserve's effective annual fee is $150, because it's trivial to utilize the $300 travel credit (literally anything in the travel category including flights, hotels, taxis, Uber, parking, public transit, trains, etc., counts). The Amex's annual fee, by contrast is $550, without such easier ways to knock it down. If you take Uber religiously then that's good for a $200 benefit, and it's also good for $200 in airline fees (not flights or seat upgrades) which can be hard to use. In practice, I don't take Uber that often, the airline fees can be hard for me to use, I don't take a huge amount of expensive flights, and there are synergies that the Reserve has with other Chase cards that the Amex Platinum doesn't have (it increases the value of UR points earned by other cards, such as the Freedom's 5% quarterly categories, by transferring them to the Reserve before redeeming them). So the Reserve does appear to be the correct card for me.
atombender 7y ago
Chase Sapphire Reserve gives you 3% back on dining. What do you mean by "effective 4.5%"? The $450 annual fee means you have to spend $15,000 to make up for the fee alone, although it gets better if you're spending the $300 annual travel credit.
- CydeWeys 7y ago
  It's 3% points, and the points are redeemed at 1.5X on travels (hotels/flights/rental cars/etc.), for a total effective 4.5%. For a concrete example, $10k spent on dining/travel will yield 30k points, which can be redeemed for $450 worth of flights/hotels/etc. And the effective annual fee is $150 because the only way to not earn the $300 travel credit is to essentially not use the card at all, at which point you definitely shouldn't have the card anyway. So at the end of the day you "only" have to spend $3,333.33 on dining/travel to pay back the fee, and that's before considering the other perks it gets you like: It pays for Global Entry/TSA PreChek, it comes with included primary insurance for rental cards, and it effectively upgrades the value of points earned on other Chase UR cards, since you can transfer the points to the Reserve first before redeeming them, to get that 50% bonus. For example, I'm currently doing the 80k point intro offer on the Chase Ink Business Preferred. With the 25% bonus of that card, those points "only" redeem for $1000 worth of travel, but, transfer those 80k points to the Reserve before spending them and now they redeem for $1,200 worth of travel. So the Reserve is more than paying for itself this year just by increasing the value of the rewards from another card I have.
Aloha 7y ago
In this case, I'm getting 23.5 points on the dollar, marriott points are worth around .8-1 cent each - meaning with the combo, I'm getting 23.5% back in points. The return on the marriott card is 6 points of that 23.5.
- CydeWeys 7y ago
  What is the exact math on getting 23.5% back at Marriott? What card are you using exactly and what % does it give back?

ozi 7y ago

Depends on your purchasing. The amex platinum bonus on air travel is worth about 10%.

CydeWeys 7y ago
Yeah, if you're buying huge amounts of flights that's probably the way to go (though note that the point return is 5%, and you can't always find good ways to spend MR at a 2 cents/point evaluation). But note that the Sapphire Reserve's effective annual fee is $150, because it's trivial to utilize the $300 travel credit (literally anything in the travel category including flights, hotels, taxis, Uber, parking, public transit, trains, etc., counts). The Amex's annual fee, by contrast is $550, without such easier ways to knock it down. If you take Uber religiously then that's good for a $200 benefit, and it's also good for $200 in airline fees (not flights or seat upgrades) which can be hard to use. In practice, I don't take Uber that often, the airline fees can be hard for me to use, I don't take a huge amount of expensive flights, and there are synergies that the Reserve has with other Chase cards that the Amex Platinum doesn't have (it increases the value of UR points earned by other cards, such as the Freedom's 5% quarterly categories, by transferring them to the Reserve before redeeming them). So the Reserve does appear to be the correct card for me.

atombender 7y ago

Chase Sapphire Reserve gives you 3% back on dining. What do you mean by "effective 4.5%"? The $450 annual fee means you have to spend $15,000 to make up for the fee alone, although it gets better if you're spending the $300 annual travel credit.

CydeWeys 7y ago
It's 3% points, and the points are redeemed at 1.5X on travels (hotels/flights/rental cars/etc.), for a total effective 4.5%. For a concrete example, $10k spent on dining/travel will yield 30k points, which can be redeemed for $450 worth of flights/hotels/etc. And the effective annual fee is $150 because the only way to not earn the $300 travel credit is to essentially not use the card at all, at which point you definitely shouldn't have the card anyway. So at the end of the day you "only" have to spend $3,333.33 on dining/travel to pay back the fee, and that's before considering the other perks it gets you like: It pays for Global Entry/TSA PreChek, it comes with included primary insurance for rental cards, and it effectively upgrades the value of points earned on other Chase UR cards, since you can transfer the points to the Reserve first before redeeming them, to get that 50% bonus. For example, I'm currently doing the 80k point intro offer on the Chase Ink Business Preferred. With the 25% bonus of that card, those points "only" redeem for $1000 worth of travel, but, transfer those 80k points to the Reserve before spending them and now they redeem for $1,200 worth of travel. So the Reserve is more than paying for itself this year just by increasing the value of the rewards from another card I have.

Aloha 7y ago

In this case, I'm getting 23.5 points on the dollar, marriott points are worth around .8-1 cent each - meaning with the combo, I'm getting 23.5% back in points. The return on the marriott card is 6 points of that 23.5.

CydeWeys 7y ago
What is the exact math on getting 23.5% back at Marriott? What card are you using exactly and what % does it give back?