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Comment by kube-system | Hacker News Reader

I really don't see why people find it worth it to spend $550/year to get the Reserve. Sure, you get a lot of benefits, but I don't really see how they add up to $550 more in benefits over cards with $0 fee. If I want to buy $550 of airline points, I can do that without this card.

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The $300 yearly travel credit brings it down to $250 which is more approachable. Then you include the $100 Global Entry credit as well as Lyft benefits (10x points on Lyft + Lyft Pink sub)and it starts to "pay for itself." They're also offering $120 in credits to Peloton Digital subscriptions right now. Seeing the $550 charge on the statement isn't always fun but I think the benefits can start to make sense if you take advantage of them.

From the hyped introduction until earlier this year, the fee was $450/yr, bringing it to $150/yr with travel credit.

You also used to be able to cycle the opening bonus of 100k or 80k points every 18 months with the Preferred and Reserve. If you had a partner and were diligent about timing, it was a ridiculous amount of points.

I have a stash of bonus points and that I book hotels and trips with for years.

Previously the hotel and flight bookings in their portal were very good deals, at some point they switched to booking through a rebranded Expedia and now I would say the prices are average compared to other travel aggregators. You still get a higher value redeeming them for travel vs cash back though.

one plus side of booking through chase is that it is pretty much no questions asked cancellation refunded to your original payment method, whereas if you book through an airline good luck trying not to get "travel credits"

the card is intended for upper-middle income and above people who dine out and/or travel a lot. if you take advantage of the annual travel credit of $300, the effective fee is more like $250/year. if you redeem the rewards for airfare, it take a little over $4000 of dining + travel spending to break even versus a no-fee 2% cashback card. that's certainly more than I spend in a year (and I rarely fly, so I wouldn't make the most of the points), but it's not hard to imagine this being a great card for someone else.

https://thepointsguy.com/guide/break-even-point-chase-sapphi...

Well first, it's effectively $250 a year because of the $300 travel credit. Second, there's other benefits like dashpass and lyft pink. Third, Chase has the best travel transfer partners for me and where I want to go. I flew first to tokyo last year by transferring to Virgin Atlantic, and using that to buy a ticket on ANA. Round trip was 120k points. Super easy to justify $250 a year based on that.

This year is a no brainier. 100 dollar statement credit and 300 travel/grocery puts the fee at 150. The effective cash back on dining is currently 4.5 percent when using the statement credit feature. There was also a doordash credit.

IIRC uber eats and rideshare also count for the travel credit, so even doing no traveling this year it wasn't very hard to get that full reimbursment.

A lot of people who normally travel a lot don't do those though.

Until mid 2021 several other things also count for the travel credit such as gas and grocery stores. Chase probably did not want a wave of card cancellations over the $300 credit being mostly useless during the pandemic.

Aside from what other people have mentioned already, there's one more trick. The Chase Freedom Unlimited gives 1.5 points per dollar on all purchases, which can be transferred to the Reserve and spent at 1.5 cents per point. Effectively a 2.25% cash back card if you don't mind using Chase to book travel, which is among the very best.

With $300 in travel refund it’s more like $250.

It is worth $250 over other cards? It definitely was for me pre-2019. The points add up fast if you travel for work.

It’s no longer a “great” card. But there isn’t a good competitor.

Yep. Unfortunately, I don't think I'm going to hit my $300 from travel this year. I did travel early-on but I put all that on another card for various reasons. And I normally spend 10s of Ks on travel :-/

Through June 2021 they’re treating groceries and gas the same as travel towards the $300.

Also, the rewards points can be redeemed for statement credit with the same 50% travel bonus on this “pay you back” thing against grocery and restaurant purchases

Ah. Didn't know that. Thanks.

Yup. 3% on travel w/ +50% redemption is 4.5%. If you book travel on your personal card for any reason that adds up fast.

Really? The travel category includes Airbnb, car rentals, rideshare, public transportation, parking, tolls, etc. in addition to the more obvious flights and hotels.

I have spent exactly $0 on any of those things since early March.

I still keep the Amex Platinum

The main issue with the Platinum is that it doesn't accrue points as fast as it doesn't have spending categories and it doesn't have as many transfer partners. There are ways to get a bunch of points though, its just different.

The varying perks are worthwhile and rotate a lot. Love the statement credits, $200 Uber credits and other things.

I think its worth it

Amex also only does soft-pulls, which to me is more valuable than any hard pull

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