Lounge access and American Express Platinum card, status with Marriott and Hilton. Considering this card. Questions.

[rickandcindy23]

The Chase Sapphire Reserve card has been great for lounge access, and now the card is $550 per year, which made me wince a bit. I would never cancel it, Rick has the same card, and I don't think we would ever cancel his, but I am unsure if we need two of them. Benefits change, and with the $300 travel credit, that card is still pretty expensive. I don't get the Door Dash addition. I don't see us using it. The Lyft addition, we would maybe use it once or twice a year.

We just went to San Francisco airport. last Monday to fly SW home, and we went to the Priority Pass restaurant in terminal 3, Yankee Pier, and we really enjoyed our free food and soda there. We had hamburgers, Rick's was w/french fries, mine was with a salad and no bread. It was good. My burger was not medium, as I ordered, but no big deal.

So at least Priority Pass is still a great benefit for us. We also visited the lounge in SEA. We were flying Hawaiian and thought we wouldn't be able to get into any lounges, but there was a lounge right near our gate. Very convenient.

We have visited SJC quite a bit and used that lounge several times. It's not much anymore. They used to have salad and some other great items to eat, but it's not all that impressive anymore. No snacks last time we visited.

We used to have the restaurant in Denver, right on concourse C, which made the Priority Pass lounge benefit very worthwhile. We ate there at least five times a year and took guests more than once. Timberline left Priority Pass because servers were not getting tips. I cannot imagine people not tipping.

There is going to be a new Centurion Lounge at the Denver airport. It's opening soon, and we would get about 5 visits in the lounge each year, so I am thinking of getting the Amex Platinum. We fly DEN-MCO a lot. If they offer food, we might get some great value to the Platinum American Express.

 

[Luvtoride]

I do carry both cards CSR and Platinum Amex and find good value in both. The lounge access with Priority Pass is almost identical but the Amex access to Centurion and some other lounges May work well if you frequent those airports.

I have used the CSR new DoorDash Pass feature quite often already and has saved us a lot in fees while opening up many new restaurants for delivery in our area.

My recommendation would be to call Chase and “threaten” to drop your CSR card due to price increase etc and tell them you’re going over to AMEX Platinum. They may offer a statement credit to try to keep you (AMEX did that for me when I was going to cancel).

They are pricey to have both but if used properly and take advantage of the many benefits they are both easily worth it.



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[jabberwocky]

I get plenty of use from the Amex Platinum. The Centurion Lounges are well done (I frequent the ones in LAS, PHX and HKG).

That plus Hilton Honors Gold status and a few other perks like the concierge make life a bit more enjoyable when traveling. I’m Bonvoy Titanium so the Marriott status doesn’t mean much - but Shangri-la hotels are nice too.

 

[rickandcindy23]

If I paid maintenance fees on this Amex Platinum card, what amount of points would I get for Marriott/ Vistana fees?

What about more generic resorts? I have been getting 3X on all of my MF's, except the Shell.

 

[regatta333]

I cancelled my CSR card after the first year and transferred the points to my husband. We plan to keep his card, even with the fee increase, not so much
for the incidental perks like lounge access (which is nice), but for the travel and car rental protection benefits. We don't have to worry about getting travel
insurance for our trips and, while many credit cards offer secondary car rental insurance, CSR offers it as primary insurer. On a recent trip to New Zealand,
our car had a flat tire on the first day of the rental and had to be replaced. Cost was reimbursed through CSR card.

 

[am1]

Both are good cards.

Side note: Who orders a hamburger medium? 2 weeks ago we were at the Cheesecake Factory in Beverly Hills. My sons ordered mini hamburgers and they come out medium. I tell the waiter we want the hamburgers cooked and he replies, "Well done" and I tell hi, "No, cooked" . Then they came out fine.