Premium Card Showdown: Which One is Best: Amex Platinum, ChaseSapphire Reserve, or Capital OneVenture X

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Premium Card Showdown: Which One is Best: Amex Platinum, Chase
Sapphire Reserve, or Capital One
Venture X

Premium Card Showdown: Which One is Best: Amex Platinum, Chase Sapphire Reserve, or Capital One Venture X - The Frugal Expat

Are you a frequent traveler? Do you want to earn points quickly while enjoying awesome travel perks? If so, there are 3 top cards worth considering: Amex

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Richard

 

[rickandcindy23]

Chase Sapphire Reserve is the best for charging MF's. 3X points on $20,000 in MF's = 60,000 points, which is a $900 airline ticket through the portal.

I can transfer the points to Hyatt 1:1, Southwest 1:1. The same $20K gets 60,000 points in Hyatt or Southwest. Value of SW points is 7,500=$100 (60,000 =$800).

Venture X, I like it for car rentals and the airport lounge in DEN. 2X points is helpful, when we shop at grocery stores, Walmart, Lowe's, Home Depot, and everywhere we only get 1X with CSR.

 

[jp10558]

Though, if you have HGVC the Amex Aspire (if your MFs are at one of most of the resorts (look up the list to be sure)) gets the dual $200 statement credit and I'm pretty sure 14x points as Hilton Spend, which in your case would be (at the 0.005 valuation) $1,400 for a total possible of $1,800. Of course, that's not one of the one's suggested, and I agree that of the suggested ones I think the Sapphire Reserve is probably the best.

I continue to think that if you can align a hotel card with your life, and I think Hilton's might be the best, it makes a really useful complement for where there aren't Timeshares available to you, or where Timeshares don't make sense.

 

[rickandcindy23]

Though, if you have HGVC the Amex Aspire (if your MFs are at one of most of the resorts (look up the list to be sure)) gets the dual $200 statement credit and I'm pretty sure 14x points as Hilton Spend, which in your case would be (at the 0.005 valuation) $1,400 for a total possible of $1,800. Of course, that's not one of the one's suggested, and I agree that of the suggested ones I think the Sapphire Reserve is probably the best.

I continue to think that if you can align a hotel card with your life, and I think Hilton's might be the best, it makes a really useful complement for where there aren't Timeshares available to you, or where Timeshares don't make sense.

No Hilton MF's, not yet. If I get rid of some, I will look into Hilton. We do have the Aspire card, but I barely get value from it.

 

[Eric B]

the airport lounge in DEN.

The Capital One Venture X lounge at IAD (Washington Dulles) is quite nice, too. One nice thing about that card is that you get a $300 credit towards booking flights through their travel portal annually for a $395 annual fee; it doesn't completely offset the annual fee and I'm not sure I'd really value the credit at the full $300 due to the limited airlines you can book through them, but I do like the lounge there when I fly out of Dulles so it's worth it to me.

Though, if you have HGVC the Amex Aspire (if your MFs are at one of most of the resorts (look up the list to be sure)) gets the dual $200 statement credit and I'm pretty sure 14x points as Hilton Spend, which in your case would be (at the 0.005 valuation) $1,400 for a total possible of $1,800. Of course, that's not one of the one's suggested, and I agree that of the suggested ones I think the Sapphire Reserve is probably the best.

I continue to think that if you can align a hotel card with your life, and I think Hilton's might be the best, it makes a really useful complement for where there aren't Timeshares available to you, or where Timeshares don't make sense.

The Aspire card is definitely worth having for an HGVC owner. The addition of the small luxury hotels to Hilton Honors definitely upped the game for Hilton.

 

[rickandcindy23]

The Capital One Venture X lounge at IAD (Washington Dulles) is quite nice, too. One nice thing about that card is that you get a $300 credit towards booking flights through their travel portal annually for a $395 annual fee; it doesn't completely offset the annual fee and I'm not sure I'd really value the credit at the full $300 due to the limited airlines you can book through them, but I do like the lounge there when I fly out of Dulles so it's worth it to me.


The Aspire card is definitely worth having for an HGVC owner. The addition of the small luxury hotels to Hilton Honors definitely upped the game for Hilton.

Check car rentals with Venture X. We rented a car, $1,407 with taxes/ fees from Dollar for Maui, February-March, 45 days. That is an unbelievable price. They took the $300 right off of the cost. That card will be a keeper, if the car rentals continue to stay low. I used to use RCI, but the prices aren't as good as they once were.

 

[jp10558]

The Capital One Venture X lounge at IAD (Washington Dulles) is quite nice, too. One nice thing about that card is that you get a $300 credit towards booking flights through their travel portal annually for a $395 annual fee; it doesn't completely offset the annual fee and I'm not sure I'd really value the credit at the full $300 due to the limited airlines you can book through them, but I do like the lounge there when I fly out of Dulles so it's worth it to me.


The Aspire card is definitely worth having for an HGVC owner. The addition of the small luxury hotels to Hilton Honors definitely upped the game for Hilton.

Oh, yea, I also forgot that if you're spending $20,000 on MFs - if you get an additonal $10k spend however on Aspire you also end up with 2 free night certs also, which at the low end would be $200 per, but the high end could be thousands, especially with that SLH stuff, but even just higher end Hiltons can be $550 per easily.

 

[Eric B]

Oh, yea, I also forgot that if you're spending $20,000 on MFs - if you get an additonal $10k spend however on Aspire you also end up with 2 free night certs also, which at the low end would be $200 per, but the high end could be thousands, especially with that SLH stuff, but even just higher end Hiltons can be $550 per easily.

I’ve used an FNC from Hilton for a Waldorf Astoria stay that wound up being upgraded due to Diamond status to a suite that would cost thousands, even before the SLH stuff.

 

[rickandcindy23]

FNC: Free Night Credit.

I am kind of a dope because I book my free night with Hilton at hotels on the road, which is not such a great use of that free night. I just don't know how to take advantage of my free night with Hilton. I might get a $200 hotel room for that free night. We are simple people and like the kitchens for our stays on the road. We use the refrigerator.

 

[jp10558]

I’ve used an FNC from Hilton for a Waldorf Astoria stay that wound up being upgraded due to Diamond status to a suite that would cost thousands, even before the SLH stuff.

My sister used either points or FNC for Times Square on NYE that was otherwise $2,500 so ... you certainly can do it lol.

 

[rickandcindy23]

I am pasting this because the 10,000 points you get each year is worth $100. $300 credit + $100 = the entire card fee.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

I've had terrible interactions with Capital One Bank. Their website is down and wonky most of the time. Poor customer service and crazy labyrinth of rules. They've got their Bank, An online legacy bank and another bank and there is no logic and no one there seems to understand the issue. For example, to move cash from one Capital One entity to the other I cannot do it directly via ACH but must move money to/from my Wells Fargo account as the intermediary. Bananas.

I won't take a Capital One credit card for the same reason.

 

[Eric B]

View attachment 99287
I am pasting this because the 10,000 points you get each year is worth $100. $300 credit + $100 = the entire card fee.

The one caution I would keep in mind is that the limitation on what airlines you can use should have the effect of lowering the value of the credits a bit. I've used the $300 credit for booking flights within Mexico because that's what I needed at that point - I had to book on Aeromexico rather than Volaris because that's the airline they work with there. That meant that I paid more for the flight than I would otherwise, though the $300 credit covered most of it. The flight would have cost about $100 less for the same city-pair overall, so I would probably value the $300 as something like $200-250 rather than the full $300.

I also understand that booking through Capital One counts as a third party booking, so you don't wind up double dipping on Capital One miles and airline miles. With my AMEX Platinum card, I get 5x AMEX points for a booking with an airline directly as well as the airline miles. YMMV, but it's nice having additional options so I can choose which one works best for what.

 

[rickandcindy23]

Well, I have used credits for two car rentals, and the prices were better than anywhere else. Check car rentals for Maui for your next trip and see if you can get some savings. Saved almost $1,000 over my best car rental reservation, 45 days on Maui, Feb-March.

 

[jp10558]

Well, I have used credits for two car rentals, and the prices were better than anywhere else. Check car rentals for Maui for your next trip and see if you can get some savings. Saved almost $1,000 over my best car rental reservation, 45 days on Maui, Feb-March.

I think your usecase is pretty different from mine, and anyone I know. I don't know anyone who's ever rented a car for more than 10 days or so, cause that's the longest they've had a need for one on any trip. I don't know what counts as a good deal in Maui either, never been, probably unlikely to ever go. In the US I did find the National Emerald status from Aspire (they just added it) useful as it got me 10% off the rental, free upgrade, and up to 9 drivers for free. So I think I paid 488.50 for a week and got a Mazda CX 90, which is a large midsize SUV. I think in the past they were going for more like $1,000 so the free size upgrades made a huge difference I think. That said, I have no idea what pricing looks like for 45 days, I thought most of the agencies cap out at 30 days.

I do wonder if the Uber rental program will affect car rental companies at all. I sort of doubt it given Uber is no longer super cheap so I figure the price difference isn't there to drive business.

 

[rickandcindy23]

We stay a long time on Maui as "snowbirds" I guess you would call it. We also go to Kauai 2-3 weeks at a time, Oahu and Big Island, also two weeks. Everywhere we go, we stay 2+ weeks, actually.

Our Orlando trips have been as long as 4 weeks. We talked about moving there for 6 months at a time and working at Disney, like 10/1-4/1 every year. Rick was set to do it, we bought the Wyndham points, but he liked being a grandpa too much to miss watching them little ones grow up. He is a grandpa extraordinaire. He even has a shirt that says, "I am not retired, I am a professional grandpa."