PSA -Sapphire Reserve with 100K points bonus, LAST CHANCE is Saturday 3/11 at branch...

[GoodRevrnd]

Does the lounge access only work for you and authorized card users, or if only you have it can you take someone in?

 

[purbeast0]

Does the lounge access only work for you and authorized card users, or if only you have it can you take someone in?

According to the website as long as you have the priority pass card you can bring your whole party in, as long as there is room.

 

[Anubis]

Oddly enough, I've had access to lounges via Amex Plat, but have never taken advantage of it. Which leads to my question, do the lounges alert you to when your plane is starting to board? Or do you have to just go to your gate when you think they are going to board?

i can only speak for the delta lounges but they announce when planes are boarding for the people who are in the lounge, i would assume the others do as well

 

[Exterous]

Not all of the lounges will announce flights (And not all Delta lounges do that either).

 

[zinfamous]

Does the lounge access only work for you and authorized card users, or if only you have it can you take someone in?

the paper that came with my Priority pass card said "Card owner and their companion." I think. It's not with me, but maybe I can remember to go check it at home. I understood that it would allow one guest with the card holder.

It's completely free, though, so no reason not to request it.

 

[ponyo]

Priority pass is good for all in the party. Reserve is the only card like that.

 

[Svnla]

Oddly enough, I've had access to lounges via Amex Plat, but have never taken advantage of it. Which leads to my question, do the lounges alert you to when your plane is starting to board? Or do you have to just go to your gate when you think they are going to board?

For me, I always check the departure board before I head into a lounge and then I will leave the lounge and head to the gate at least 10-15 minutes. Don't want to miss a flight because the lounge did not announce my flight. Some lounges can be far from my gate of departure.

Does the lounge access only work for you and authorized card users, or if only you have it can you take someone in?

Most (not all) lounges are ok with children under 12 to get in free of charge.

I think you need to read this for more details - https://www.prioritypass.com/en/conditions-of-use

 

[LikeLinus]

Thanks for all of the replies. We are going to Japan this year and possibly one other trip, so now I will certainly use the lounge if we have a long layover or delay. I need to do the TSA precheck. While I travel globally, its mostly with co-workers or family. So it's a bit pointless and I can do the TSA thing and get it for at least my wife as well.

 

[Svnla]

Thanks for all of the replies. We are going to Japan this year and possibly one other trip, so now I will certainly use the lounge if we have a long layover or delay. I need to do the TSA precheck. While I travel globally, its mostly with co-workers or family. So it's a bit pointless and I can do the TSA thing and get it for at least my wife as well.

I recommend that you do Global Entry instead of TSA PreCheck. Same cost to you ($0) but Global Entry is better IMO. Nexus is even better. More info = https://www.dhs.gov/trusted-traveler-comparison-chart

 

[magomago]

can someone give me a quick TLDR? I love traveling, and I can get up to 1K after paying 450 dollars for a yearly fee? Can I redeem the rewards and then cancel the card? Must I maintain for a minimum 1 year? Thanks...

 

[ponyo]

can someone give me a quick TLDR? I love traveling, and I can get up to 1K after paying 450 dollars for a yearly fee? Can I redeem the rewards and then cancel the card? Must I maintain for a minimum 1 year? Thanks...

Spend $4k within 3 months and get 100k points which is worth $1k cash or $1.5k through Chase Travel portal. You also get $300 statement credit for pretty much anything travel related so the $450 annual fee is really $150. You don't have to keep the card for 1 year. You can cancel anytime but the $450 annual fee is on the first statement so you have to pay that.

If you love to travel, this is like the best travel card so I don't know why you would cancel and not renew. Perks on this card are sweet and 3X points for travel and dining are great. Using the Chase Reserve 1.5X travel points redemption, I booked flights to Turks and Caicos, Aruba, and San Francisco for my family. Atlanta to San Francisco flight was only 6,880 points one way per person. And there's no additional taxes or airline junk fees to pay since it's a purchase rather than airline miles redemption. So you still get frequent flyer miles for your ticket.

 

[Exterous]

Spend $4k within 3 months and get 100k points which is worth $1k cash or $1.5k through Chase Travel portal. You also get $300 statement credit for pretty much anything travel related so the $450 annual fee is really $150. You don't have to keep the card for 1 year. You can cancel anytime but the $450 annual fee is on the first statement so you have to pay that.

If you love to travel, this is like the best travel card so I don't know why you would cancel and not renew. Perks on this card are sweet and 3X points for travel and dining are great. Using the Chase Reserve 1.5X travel points redemption, I booked flights to Turks and Caicos, Aruba, and San Francisco for my family. Atlanta to San Francisco flight was only 6,880 points one way per person. And there's no additional taxes or airline junk fees to pay since it's a purchase rather than airline miles redemption. So you still get frequent flyer miles for your ticket.

Quick caveat with the canceling - you lose any remaining UR points in your chase account unless you have another UR earning card. You can transfer them to one of their partners though to avoid that issue

 

[GoodRevrnd]

$1500 seems to be the certain value of the bonus, assuming you use the UR portal booking (why wouldn't you). You can also convert the UR points to other airline or partner points and potentially get even more value than that. I was really put off by the fee, but the $300 credit saves it. At a 25%/75% mix of travel-dining/normal earning rates, you "break even" on the $150 annual fee at guaranteed point value at around $6,500 in spend.

 

[brianmanahan]

At a 25%/75% mix of travel-dining/normal earning rates, you "break even" on the $150 annual fee at guaranteed point value at around $6,500 in spend.

plus 25$ per year in prorated global entry refund, plus 20-30$ per day of car rental LDW/CDW savings

 

[GoodRevrnd]

LDW is only useful overseas and my free credit card has that. I'd like to do GE, but giving the government my fingerprints to keep on file for 75 years doesn't sit right with me.

 

[brianmanahan]

what? LDW is useful in the US as well if you don't want to have to file an insurance claim.

 

[LikeLinus]

I recommend that you do Global Entry instead of TSA PreCheck. Same cost to you ($0) but Global Entry is better IMO. Nexus is even better. More info = https://www.dhs.gov/trusted-traveler-comparison-chart

So the expectation is to leave my wife and son or coworkers behind and just move on?

 

[Svnla]

So the expectation is to leave my wife and son or coworkers behind and just move on?

Huh? Why you have to leave your family members/co workers?

 

[Viper GTS]

what? LDW is useful in the US as well if you don't want to have to file an insurance claim.

Over the last few years I have rented probably dozens of cars with no issues. The very first one I rented with my Reserve ended up with a cracked windshield. National's price to repair it was shockingly reasonable at $212 but it was covered by the Reserve with little hassle.

So that's another $212 to my take from this card, or $50 and a saved insurance claim. Either way I win.

Viper GTS

 

[Anubis]

my GE app finally got approved. anyone who has done it how is the interview? and how many proof of residency docs did you need to bring with you

 

[LikeLinus]

Huh? Why you have to leave your family members/co workers?

Global Entry doesn't allow everyone in your party to pass through. So if I don't travel alone that frequently, what's the point? They would have to stand in the long lines and I leave everyone else behind.

 

[RossMAN]

This is still available at local Chase B&M branch but ends in 2 weeks on Saturday March 11.

Here's something I recently learned which is very cool feature of the card:
http://frequentmiler.boardingarea.com/chase-sapphire-reserve-complete-guide/
http://frequentmiler.boardingarea.com/2013/09/25/partial-payment-full-trip-coverage/

My wife and I are considering a LAX/SFO to Asia or Australia trip, suggestions on how to spend 200k UR?

 

[Exterous]

This is still available at local Chase B&M branch but ends in 2 weeks on Saturday March 11.

Here's something I recently learned which is very cool feature of the card:
http://frequentmiler.boardingarea.com/chase-sapphire-reserve-complete-guide/
http://frequentmiler.boardingarea.com/2013/09/25/partial-payment-full-trip-coverage/

My wife and I are considering a LAX/SFO to Asia or Australia trip, suggestions on how to spend 200k UR?

200k UR isn't enough to get to those places in business class but United will let you book economy with miles and then pay for economy+ with some more leg room on flights they operate (Not sure about code shares or partners). Its not too terribly priced either at around $225 per seat each way. (At least thats what I've seen for OZ and NZ). If you have limited flexibility in when you can go I'd check to see if OZ/NZ tickets are available and book those if they are - simply because those will be much harder to get than most gateways in Asia. Personally I'm not against getting close to where I want to go and then paying for a much cheaper\shorter flight to my destination. For example instead of flying to Sydney if you can't find availability consider flying to Auckland or Melbourne instead and then making your own way to Sydney.

For Korea you have Korean Airlines and United (who partners with Asiana) as options (Unless you want to do some more intricate routings). Korean will likely have better\newer plane options on the route and charge fewer miles but Asiana has superb award availability on United's website so you may want to check both to see what would work before transferring

For SE Asia I'd look at Singapore airlines. Not sure about Japan. Korean might allow you to connect via Seoul to Japan for less miles than a United partner flight but I've never checked.

I like open-jaw flights as well as I can cover more ground. If its a long trip fly into Narita and back from Seoul. I'm pretty sure all the UR transfer partners will let you book a one-way without penalty (Some charge a lot more than 50% of a RT award ticket for a one way - or at least they used to). This is particularly helpful when an airline doesn't have award space back to your origination airport.

If you have various flight options I'd take a close look at the planes on the route or even between LAX and SFO. Don't assume newer is better as a lot of newer plane mods are cramming more seats across than similar width older planes. For me its worth a bit more flying time to go out of a different city if I can get a bit wider seat\more seat pitch. Seatguru is ok for this but a flyertalk search is better

With the availability of non-chain hotels, coupon codes, airB&B and hotel chain credit cards I generally don't use UR for hotels, even for aspirational bookings. I definitely wouldn't consider using them at the Park Hyatt Sydney as they are notoriously for giving terrible rooms to people who book on points.

 

[Svnla]

This is still available at local Chase B&M branch but ends in 2 weeks on Saturday March 11.

Here's something I recently learned which is very cool feature of the card:
http://frequentmiler.boardingarea.com/chase-sapphire-reserve-complete-guide/
http://frequentmiler.boardingarea.com/2013/09/25/partial-payment-full-trip-coverage/

My wife and I are considering a LAX/SFO to Asia or Australia trip, suggestions on how to spend 200k UR?

You can't do it in business class for 2 with 200K UR points but you more than with cattle ..ooops, coach. I used 40K for one way trip for myself from Texas to SE Asia just last year via United.

You can transfer UR points directly to partners such as United 1:1 without any extra cost or fee.

If you see the Dreamliner, book it. I do like those planes a lot.

If you want a good cheap trip to Australia, I would make a flight to SE Asia and then fly to Australia via Air Asia, A LOT cheaper than from US directly to Australia.

 

[ponyo]

This is still available at local Chase B&M branch but ends in 2 weeks on Saturday March 11.

Here's something I recently learned which is very cool feature of the card:
http://frequentmiler.boardingarea.com/chase-sapphire-reserve-complete-guide/
http://frequentmiler.boardingarea.com/2013/09/25/partial-payment-full-trip-coverage/

My wife and I are considering a LAX/SFO to Asia or Australia trip, suggestions on how to spend 200k UR?

Trip protections like delayed flights and lost luggage are not something I considered when using points reward bookings. So if you use UR points to completely pay for the flight, you're not protected with the Sapphire Reserve trip protection perks? If not, the optimal method if you want credit card protection is to use UR points but charge $1 dollar for the flight?