Chase Sapphire Reserve is changing... Alternative cards with high points for MVC maintenance fee payments?

[mountainboy]

Currently here at Union Square SFO, for a business trip.
Tons of Ads for CSR, all around; big billboards around Union Square SFO for CSR too...
They are really going for the mass affluent, Silicon Valley, urban, younger demographic for CSR (with all related credits like DD, stubhub, Edit, Lyft etc, which some of us suburban, older folks don't find useful....
I did use my Chase Sapphire lounge twice in the last month, to maximize my ROI, while I still have it until Oct 2026 (likely RC thereafter, based on best card for my use case)....

 

[mountainboy]

*Status does have benefits!

I did get a nice upgraded room + lounge access at the Marriott Union Square SFO (despite booking at the corp/event rate).
Lounge closed Friday 10a-Sun 4p, but they gave complementary BF for both Saturday & Sunday, which was excellent.
Excellent CS all around.
Lounge on 28th floor, overlooking Union Square, nice views + decent breakfast, PM snacks & desserts + tea/coffee/Greek yogurt/ fresh fruit/diet pop/nuts etc from 630a-9p Monday-Thursday.

*Marriott Platinum Elite (Thx to Bonvoy Brilliant card)
Excellent value for Elite status!

 

[rickandcindy23]

*Status does have benefits!

I did get a nice upgraded room + lounge access at the Marriott Union Square SFO (despite booking at the corp/event rate).
Lounge closed Friday 10a-Sun 4p, but they gave complementary BF for both Saturday & Sunday, which was excellent.
Excellent CS all around.
Lounge on 28th floor, overlooking Union Square, nice views + decent breakfast, PM snacks & desserts + tea/coffee/Greek yogurt/ fresh fruit/diet pop/nuts etc from 630a-9p Monday-Thursday.

*Marriott Platinum Elite (Thx to Bonvoy Brilliant card)
Excellent value for Elite status!

Love that you said "pop."

We have enjoyed many lounges at the Marriott hotels. It's a nice perk, and even the hotel we stay in Wichita on the road to FL has a great lounge, and the Birmingham, AL, one is even better. I am quite pleased with that lounge benefit with the Bonvoy Brilliant and with Rick's Titanium status. The breakfast is sometimes cold, and eggs aren't as good cold as they are hot.

 

[mountainboy]

Love that you said "pop."

We have enjoyed many lounges at the Marriott hotels. It's a nice perk, and even the hotel we stay in Wichita on the road to FL has a great lounge, and the Birmingham, AL, one is even better. I am quite pleased with that lounge benefit with the Bonvoy Brilliant and with Rick's Titanium status. The breakfast is sometimes cold, and eggs aren't as good cold as they are hot.

They had a nice omelet station at their sit-down restaurant with excellent CS over the weekend; the 'hot BF' was a modest $10 pp upgrade over the comp $28 BF; so only $25 for 2 people for awesome fresh made-to-order omelets, with 20% tip (vs $91, if no status)..

The lounge food/snacks were all good; eggs/bacon/sausage/potatoes/chicken satays etc were hot & tasty (& not cold/soggy)..

 

[tschwa2]

Lucky for me my renewal date is Oct 1 and I confirmed today that means still $550 this year and then I will have until Sept 30 to decide if it is worth the higher fee. I can't imagine that it will be worth it.

I did fly out of Washington Dulles last month and most of the regular Priority Pass Lounges either weren't taking Priority Pass or had such a long wait it still wouldn't be available. Turkish did let me go on the wait list but after 20 minutes and not moving up from 10th on the waitlist I went to the Sappire Reserve Lounge and that was quite nice. If that was my go to airport and I used the lounge regularly it might be worth it. We get free parking at BWI and it is less than 25 minutes even in traffic vs the 1.25-1.75 hours to get to IAD plus either $200 in Uber RT or parking fees.

I doubt I will use most of the enhanced benefits.

 

[Fasttr]

Lucky for me my renewal date is Oct 1 and I confirmed today that means still $550 this year and then I will have until Sept 30 to decide if it is worth the higher fee. I can't imagine that it will be worth it.

I did fly out of Washington Dulles last month and most of the regular Priority Pass Lounges either weren't taking Priority Pass or had such a long wait it still wouldn't be available. Turkish did let me go on the wait list but after 20 minutes and not moving up from 10th on the waitlist I went to the Sappire Reserve Lounge and that was quite nice. If that was my go to airport and I used the lounge regularly it might be worth it. We get free parking at BWI and it is less than 25 minutes even in traffic vs the 1.25-1.75 hours to get to IAD plus either $200 in Uber RT or parking fees.

I doubt I will use most of the enhanced benefits.

Not sure how many of the Priority Pass lounges allow this, as I had never seen it before, but perhaps its new and everywhere now, but at a recent visit to Calgary, YYC's PP lounge (Aspire in concourse E) allowed pre-booking, in essence making a reservation... you select a date and time, and they hold your lounge resy show up time for 30 minutes before they would give it away to somebody else. Appeared they only allowed 10 pre-bookings per half-hourly show up time slot, but worked great for me. You could book up to a month ahead. May be worth checking into via the PP app.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

Costco's Citicard does 3% on travel. I haven't seen how it categorizes maintenance fees because I have used CSR because of the effective 4.5% return when you then redeem the points through the travel portal. Once CSR no longer yields that, I may try using the Costco card and see how they code.

Good reminder on the Costco card to replace the 3%. My only issue is that you must wait until the end of the year to get the rebate. Even then you must look for the mail/email with the rebate and have a limited time to use it if you find it lost in your inbox.

I have a 2% card that pays back every month automatically.

 

[mountainboy]

That B of A card with the Honor's Tier is by far the greatest credit card perhaps ever offered. We love it and getting Priority Pass Restaurants is amazing. Best kept secret in the credit card world.

Agree @hrmoreau !

Update on my BoA PRE journey, so far:

BoA shipped the card overnight FedEx; Nice presentation (nicer than Amex Platinum, Amex Biz Platinum, CSR, Bonvoy Brilliant & Amex Aspire, for me).

Merrill Rep was excellent. xfr from my Brokerage to Merrill occurred very quickly (to get Platinum Honors, 100k+ parked money with BoA/Merrill), to get the highest cashback: 2.625% on everything; 3.5% on dining/travel, although apparently a 20% boost for airfare for effective 4.375% back, but haven't looked into it)

Was able to signup for PP right away (many had indicated a wait at FT)

*Airline incidental credit works for AA GCs purchase (received credit already)

*Lifestyle credit received for Uber Rides

*PP Restaurant worked beautifully today (nice to get it back, after losing it on Amex Platinum & CSR)

So far, so good!

Love it, esp if CSR & Amex keep making their premium cards into worse coupon books & keep raising their fees...

 

[daviator]

Agree @hrmoreau !

Update on my BoA PRE journey, so far:

BoA shipped the card overnight FedEx; Nice presentation (nicer than Amex Platinum, Amex Biz Platinum, CSR, Bonvoy Brilliant & Amex Aspire, for me).

Merrill Rep was excellent. xfr from my Brokerage to Merrill occurred very quickly (to get Platinum Honors, 100k+ parked money with BoA/Merrill), to get the highest cashback: 2.625% on everything; 3.5% on dining/travel, although apparently a 20% boost for airfare for effective 4.375% back, but haven't looked into it)

Was able to signup for PP right away (many had indicated a wait at FT)

*Airline incidental credit works for AA GCs purchase (received credit already)

*Lifestyle credit received for Uber Rides

*PP Restaurant worked beautifully today (nice to get it back, after losing it on Amex Platinum & CSR)

So far, so good!

Love it, esp if CSR & Amex keep making their premium cards into worse coupon books & keep raising their fees...

I’m strongly considering this card to replace my CSR.

I don’t have an existing relationship with Merrill or BofA (actually I despise BofA, lol) but I have a self-managed brokerage account I could move over from Schwab to put me into the Platinum Honors tier to maximize rewards from the PRE card, without adversely impacting my Schwab relationship. (I don’t think this card is worth considering unless at the maximum rewards tier.)

Pros include the relatively simple benefits with no coupon book items to worry about, the return of the Priority Pass restaurant benefit which I used to use frequently, and decent earning, probably including on timeshare MFs if I chose to charge them to this card. It’s a little hard to do an apples to apples value comparison with the CSR, but I am confident I’d make full use of the $300 travel credit and $120 lifestyle credit each year. And there's the 75,000 point signup bonus and $600 if I open the Merrill account.

The PRE card doesn’t allow transfer of points to airline or hotel partners, but that isn’t something I’ve typically done (though maybe I should have.). It’s become such a chore to find value in airline awards that I’ve usually just redeemed my CSR points for travel directly through their portal. I would (by necessity) do the same with the BofA card

What would I lose if I give up the CSR? Access to Chase lounges, which is a benefit I’ve never used – they don’t have lounges anywhere I go, so I don’t think I’m giving up anything of value there. I’m trying to figure out if there is anything else I’d regret giving up if I make this change.

If you want to do us a favor, pre-pay $100 of your next maintenance fees and see how the transaction is categorized on the PRE account. I’m assuming it will be “travel” and earn at the higher rate.

Really thinking about pulling the trigger on this, but it’s a bit of a counterintuitive choice. The credit card review sites all rate the. SR and Amex Platinum much more highly, but at the new $800 annual fee (maybe more for Amex) I’m just not seeing the value.

 

[jwalk03]

Good reminder on the Costco card to replace the 3%. My only issue is that you must wait until the end of the year to get the rebate. Even then you must look for the mail/email with the rebate and have a limited time to use it if you find it lost in your inbox.

I have a 2% card that pays back every month automatically.

You have almost an entire year to use it. It’s good until 12/31 of the year the rebate is issued.

 

[mountainboy]

I’m strongly considering this card to replace my CSR.

I don’t have an existing relationship with Merrill or BofA (actually I despise BofA, lol) but I have a self-managed brokerage account I could move over from Schwab to put me into the Platinum Honors tier to maximize rewards from the PRE card, without adversely impacting my Schwab relationship. (I don’t think this card is worth considering unless at the maximum rewards tier.)

Pros include the relatively simple benefits with no coupon book items to worry about, the return of the Priority Pass restaurant benefit which I used to use frequently, and decent earning, probably including on timeshare MFs if I chose to charge them to this card. It’s a little hard to do an apples to apples value comparison with the CSR, but I am confident I’d make full use of the $300 travel credit and $120 lifestyle credit each year. And there's the 75,000 point signup bonus and $600 if I open the Merrill account.

The PRE card doesn’t allow transfer of points to airline or hotel partners, but that isn’t something I’ve typically done (though maybe I should have.). It’s become such a chore to find value in airline awards that I’ve usually just redeemed my CSR points for travel directly through their portal. I would (by necessity) do the same with the BofA card

What would I lose if I give up the CSR? Access to Chase lounges, which is a benefit I’ve never used – they don’t have lounges anywhere I go, so I don’t think I’m giving up anything of value there. I’m trying to figure out if there is anything else I’d regret giving up if I make this change.

If you want to do us a favor, pre-pay $100 of your next maintenance fees and see how the transaction is categorized on the PRE account. I’m assuming it will be “travel” and earn at the higher rate.

Really thinking about pulling the trigger on this, but it’s a bit of a counterintuitive choice. The credit card review sites all rate the. SR and Amex Platinum much more highly, but at the new $800 annual fee (maybe more for Amex) I’m just not seeing the value.

*1,000 bonus if xfr'ing 250k, fwiw...

Online travel influencers earn tons of referral points/$ (part of their business models) & strongly promote transferable currencies (as they can be lucrative for J or F fares but I usually travel economy).

I have transferred AmEx to HA to AS, like @Zenichiro ; AS is excellent; only 4.5k miles for short haul AA metal flights.
Also can xfr Cap1 or Amex or Chase UR to BA/AY avios for booking AA metal.
Chase UR to Hyatt is excellent value, as well.

But, they keep raising fees & coming up with these junk coupon book benefits, which do not work well for my use case.

BoA PRE is a simple cash back card; sometimes simplicity is better rather than trying to keep spreadsheets of all the various benefits, one is paying for but not using. If I were using most of the benefits of the new CSR, I would have stuck around. I unfortunately won't be, so not worth the extra fees for me from Oct 2026 (still paying 550 this 10/1, so keeping another year)...

I love Chase lounges, when I can get into them but not planning to pay too high a fee, for access I may not use/get, with higher fees.

*Everyone's use case is unique, so see, what works for you.

If you are not transferring points to xfr partners, & using your CSR UR pts & Amex MR pts as cashback effectively, than better cashback with BoA PRE...

Cust svc for Amex is generally excellent; haven't used enough/any of their concierge that I don't think I will miss them. If you do use them heavily for fancy things, then you may miss them with BoA's CS..

Hope this helps...

 

[jmhpsu93]

We get free parking at BWI and it is less than 25 minutes even in traffic vs the 1.25-1.75 hours to get to IAD plus either $200 in Uber RT or parking fees.

If you don't mind me asking, how do you get free parking at BWI?

And sorry all, for the hijack.

 

[mountainboy]

Looks like we will hear about another option from Citi soon....

[Rumor] Citi Strata Elite Details (Full Terms Leaked)

Update 7/27/25: card has now launched, full details here Update 7/21/25: Full details have been leaked with the terms online. Some highlights: Update 7/19/25: a few more rumors: Related reminder…

www.doctorofcredit.com

 

[mountainboy]

Also, with BoA PRE, same 75k coverage limit for Primary car rental insurance (for LDW/CDW) compared to CSR...

https://usa.visa.com/content/dam/VCOM/regional/na/us/pay-with-visa/documents/auto-rental-infinite.pdf

Visa Infinite Credit card benefits and rewards

Explore the Visa Infinite Credit card. Enjoy premium travel perks, lifestyle rewards, and protection benefits designed for everyday and special moments.

usa.visa.com

 

[daviator]

Looks like we will hear about another option from Citi soon....

[Rumor] Citi Strata Elite Details (Full Terms Leaked)

Update 7/27/25: card has now launched, full details here Update 7/21/25: Full details have been leaked with the terms online. Some highlights: Update 7/19/25: a few more rumors: Related reminder…

www.doctorofcredit.com

Unless it is going to include the Premier Pass restaurants I think it’s still the B of A card over the Citi. Most of the cards, including this one if the reports are correct, are going with such a coupon book approach, and I’m really attracted to the simplicity of the PRE.

Of course, the reason for the complicated coupon book approach is probably that most people can’t keep track of all the complexity and don’t take advantage of most of the benefits, so they don’t cost the bank anything. I’d guess that some of these cards would be unprofitable for the issuers if every cardholder used all the benefits.

Anyway, I’ve opened my Merrill account and put in the order to transfer securities from another brokerage. Once the account is funded I’ll open the CRE account.

 

[mountainboy]

Agree 100%
Wish Citi had brought some good things from Prestige but they chose to couponify & nerf their premier card (like CSR & AmEx Plat) :-(

 

[frank808]

Good reminder on the Costco card to replace the 3%. My only issue is that you must wait until the end of the year to get the rebate. Even then you must look for the mail/email with the rebate and have a limited time to use it if you find it lost in your inbox.

I have a 2% card that pays back every month automatically.

For the annual rebate, you can print out the voucher from citibanks website. Just have to log into your account. I believe Citi also allows you to direct deposit the rebate into your checking account. I am not 100% sure on this but believe I have read it. You also have until Dec of the year you get rebate check to use so around 10 months.

I like getting a rebate check annually for a few thousand. Makes it like I am getting a free cruise or airfare. I also have a 2% card for every purchase that does not get a higher rebate. That monthly deposit for a couple hundred is great, but just doesn't feel as satisfying as the Costco annual rebate.

Sent from my SM-S928U using Tapatalk

 

[frank808]

Agree @hrmoreau !

Update on my BoA PRE journey, so far:

BoA shipped the card overnight FedEx; Nice presentation (nicer than Amex Platinum, Amex Biz Platinum, CSR, Bonvoy Brilliant & Amex Aspire, for me).

Merrill Rep was excellent. xfr from my Brokerage to Merrill occurred very quickly (to get Platinum Honors, 100k+ parked money with BoA/Merrill), to get the highest cashback: 2.625% on everything; 3.5% on dining/travel, although apparently a 20% boost for airfare for effective 4.375% back, but haven't looked into it)

Was able to signup for PP right away (many had indicated a wait at FT)

*Airline incidental credit works for AA GCs purchase (received credit already)

*Lifestyle credit received for Uber Rides

*PP Restaurant worked beautifully today (nice to get it back, after losing it on Amex Platinum & CSR)

So far, so good!

Love it, esp if CSR & Amex keep making their premium cards into worse coupon books & keep raising their fees...

Will have to apply for BOA card after moving some money to Merril Lynch. I miss the PP restaurants after Chase RC eliminated it. I wish T Rowe Price was affiliated with a bank and offered banking products.

Sent from my SM-S928U using Tapatalk

 

[tschwa2]

If you don't mind me asking, how do you get free parking at BWI?

And sorry all, for the hijack.

husband works for Delta at BWI

 

[daviator]

For the annual rebate, you can print out the voucher from citibanks website. Just have to log into your account. I believe Citi also allows you to direct deposit the rebate into your checking account. I am not 100% sure on this but believe I have read it. You also have until Dec of the year you get rebate check to use so around 10 months.

I like getting a rebate check annually for a few thousand. Makes it like I am getting a free cruise or airfare. I also have a 2% card for every purchase that does not get a higher rebate. That monthly deposit for a couple hundred is great, but just doesn't feel as satisfying as the Costco annual rebate.

Sent from my SM-S928U using Tapatalk

My recollection is that you only get the option to direct deposit the rebate if it’s over a certain amount ($300? I don’t remember.) So some years I can do that and some years I can’t, depends on my spending. In any case, it’s easy to redeem at Costco.

I use so little cash these days that some years I get my Costco rebates in cash and that ends up being my pocket cash for the entire year, or close to it.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

For the annual rebate, you can print out the voucher from citibanks website. Just have to log into your account. I believe Citi also allows you to direct deposit the rebate into your checking account. I am not 100% sure on this but believe I have read it. You also have until Dec of the year you get rebate check to use so around 10 months.

I like getting a rebate check annually for a few thousand. Makes it like I am getting a free cruise or airfare. I also have a 2% card for every purchase that does not get a higher rebate. That monthly deposit for a couple hundred is great, but just doesn't feel as satisfying as the Costco annual rebate.

Sent from my SM-S928U using Tapatalk

Thanks Frank for the pointer. I was able to look up when I cashed the credit card rebate on the Citi site.

Costco.com doesn't show whether I spent the membership rebate from last year. Internet says that only way to know is to walk up to membership at the store and inquire to get it reissued.

 

[rickandcindy23]

My biggest expense I put on credit cards is timeshares, much is Wyndham, but most is Sheraton/ Westin/ Marriott. I don't love Marriott points, so I have been using the Chase Sapphire Reserve for MF's and getting 3X. It's been great for us. If those post as 1X, I need to use our Venture X at 2X.

 

[TXTortoise]

FWIW, I was talking to the CSR rep about the reduction from 3x to 1x for timeshare MFs. I'm leaning toward prepaying a hefty Maui set of invoices in after my August closing date. She suggested I get them through the system before October, when the changeover occurs.

Then figure out what to do go forward, as that was the big points driver for my Chase points each year.

 

[daviator]

Also, with BoA PRE, same 75k coverage limit for Primary car rental insurance (for LDW/CDW) compared to CSR...

https://usa.visa.com/content/dam/VCOM/regional/na/us/pay-with-visa/documents/auto-rental-infinite.pdf

Visa Infinite Credit card benefits and rewards

Explore the Visa Infinite Credit card. Enjoy premium travel perks, lifestyle rewards, and protection benefits designed for everyday and special moments.

usa.visa.com

One quick note if there are others considering the BofA Premium Rewards Elite: I learned today that you can’t join the Preferred Rewards Program without opening a Bank of America checking account. So it isn’t enough to have a fat brokerage account and the credit card, you also need to open a checking account. The account won’t have a monthly fee so long as you qualify for Preferred Rewards membership ($20,000 on deposit with BofA/Merrill) and you don’t need to use it, you could just park $100 in if.

I need another checking account like I need a hole in my head, so that’s what I will do, just open the account but probably won’t use if.

The requirement for a checking account is clearly stated, but somehow I had missed it previously.

 

[mountainboy]

One quick note if there are others considering the BofA Premium Rewards Elite: I learned today that you can’t join the Preferred Rewards Program without opening a Bank of America checking account. So it isn’t enough to have a fat brokerage account and the credit card, you also need to open a checking account. The account won’t have a monthly fee so long as you qualify for Preferred Rewards membership ($20,000 on deposit with BofA/Merrill) and you don’t need to use it, you could just park $100 in if.

I need another checking account like I need a hole in my head, so that’s what I will do, just open the account but probably won’t use if.

The requirement for a checking account is clearly stated, but somehow I had missed it previously.

Yes pls; but thankfully no additional silly fees attached as one already is parking 100k at Merrill for Platinum Honors with them..