With the recent release of the Chase Sapphire Reserve, it’s time to compare the new offering to other luxury credit cards issued by other carriers, namely The Platinum Card from American Express and the Citi Prestige.
These cards are all solid offerings, but one may be a better choice for you depending on the other cards you currently have and your travel goals. In this post, we’re going to look at the relative pros and cons of each credit card. Benefits that are shared or equivalent between all cards are ignored in this analysis (e.g. Global Entry fee credit, annual fee).
Pros
- Priority Pass membership includes guest access
- Earns 3 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent on travel and dining and 1 Ultimate Rewards per dollar spent on all other purchases
- 100,000 Ultimate Reward point sign up bonus after spending $4,000 on purchases within the first 3 months of card membership
- $300 annual travel fee credit that can be used directly for many types of travel purchases
Cons
- Tough to get this card with Chase’s implementation of the 5/24 rule meaning that if you have gotten five or more cards in the last 24 months you likely will not be approved for most Chase cards.
Pros
- Priority Pass membership includes guest access
- $250 annual airline fee credit that can be used directly for airline purchases
- 4th night free at hotels for any booking of four nights or longer
Cons
- 40,000 Citi ThankYou point sign up bonus after spending $4,000 on purchases within the first 3 months of card membership
The Platinum Card from American Express
Pros
- Access to American Express Centurion Lounges in select airports. Currently, lounges are located in Miami, New York LaGuardia, Houston, Dallas, San Francisco, Las Vegas, and Seattle within the U.S. and Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo, Mexico City, Mumbai, New Delhi, and Sydney internationally
- Access Delta SkyClubs when you are flying Delta on a same-day ticket
- Gold status with Hilton and Starwood hotels
Cons
- Priority Pass membership does not include guest access
- Earns 1 Membership Reward point on all purchases
- 40,000 Membership Reward point sign up bonus after spending $3,000 on purchases within the first 3 months of card membership
- $200 annual airline fee credit that can be used directly on some types of purchases made with airlines (e.g. priority seating, checked bags) and can be used indirectly to purchase airfare by buying airline gift cards and only with one selected airline each year
Which one is best?
Ultimately, which card is best depends on what other cards you have and how you travel.
For someone who will often find themselves in cities with American Express Centurion Lounges should strongly consider The Platinum Card from American Express. Similarly, if you often fly Delta, the Platinum Card may be your best bet so you have somewhere nicer to relax before your flight. If you aren’t frequently going to use either of these benefits, this card is definitely inferior to the other two options.
If you stay frequently at hotels for four nights or longer, you’ll be able to recoup some serious costs by making use of the Citi Prestige card’s 4th night free benefit. This alone could easily make this card pay for itself.
The Chase Sapphire Reserve card is, in my opinion, the new best luxury credit card offering that is available to the masses. Unfortunately, Chase’s 5/24 rule is going to make it difficult for a lot of people to get approved for the card outright. Product changing is another option, but you won’t get the sign-up bonus when you do that.
There are some cases where having more than one of these cards would make sense even though all three cards have high annual fees. If you live in a city with a Centurion lounge and also frequently stay at hotels for four nights or longer, you could consider getting both the Citi Prestige and the American Express Platinum.
Take a look at the benefits of each card and assign a value to them when considering how they fit into your travels. If the benefits of the card are worth more than the annual fee, then it is a card worth getting!
Which of these three luxury travel cards is the right choice for you?
[Image via Getty]