Ritz Carlton card or Amex Platinum?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

this is the only Ritz i can afford

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Are you crazy!

You're throwing away perfectly good pennies!

[Anonymous]

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@JoshNurse wrote:

Which one should I get?   WHich ones do you feel offers more?

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I personally like Ritz Carlton

[Open123]

Benefits wise, the Ritz offers a better value proposition (for all the reasons already listed), in my view.  From a spend perpsective (not that either is particularly compelling), MR points earned on the Plat is more valuable than points earned on the JPM Ritz.

Of course, aside from the initial $10K on the Ritz and purchase protection for the Plat, neither should be used as general spend cards.

[TitaniumCash]

I got the offer for 100,000 MR points with $3000 spend and also the offer for 70,000 points and AF waived first year after $3000 spend. Unfortunately, I don't know the luxury of having the Platinum but I can tell you a little about the Ritz-Carlton card. I chose it mostly because of it being a black metal card and the waived AF. 

It's got great concierge service, I've called them a few times asking to get reservations at the last minute at very busy restaurants on weekends and they were successful all the times. They also extend invitations to rare events like private dinner while watching gold medalists ice skate or mingle with Patrick Demsey and attend the Petit Le Mans. Of course these events cost money but the prices are pretty good considering the package deal. The $300 airline credit is pretty sweet too as you can just call in anytime after the flight and ask them to credit it to you. You don't have to pick one Airline like American Express. You also get $100 hotel credit if you stay at least 2 nights (doesn't count towards the room rate though).

The club level upgrade sounds great except I think you have to book through their reservation line instead of third party and that might cost more. All their lost luggage, travel protection, return, warranty protection is nice too. But I think it's a good card to have if you prefer to stay at the Ritz because otherwise you would just be earning 1 point per dollar on everything else (5 points per dollar spent at the Ritz, 2 points per 1 dollar spend on airline, car rental, and restaurants). They have different hotel tiers too; starts at tier 1 which you need 30,000 points to redeem 1 night and goes all the way to tier 5 that costs 70,000 points. 

[Open123]

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@TitaniumCash wrote:

It's got great concierge service, I've called them a few times asking to get reservations at the last minute at very busy restaurants on weekends and they were successful all the times. 

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Right, JPM CS has been very impressive, and has been better than Amex's, in my view.  Also, the purchase benefits and protections when using the card is amongst the best I've ever seen.

It's the little things I appreciate about this card; such as, when receiving a new card, even for an AU, no activation is required for the cardholder's convenience.  They take the risk for fraud to make things more convenient for me, instead of the other way around.  

[Anonymous]

I currently have the Ritz card, and like many others here, chose to get it for the benefits and protections it offers. From my experience so far (about 2 months) the JPM Customer Service has been great and better than any other CS I've experienced, even Amex. However, I recently tried to invoke the Return Protection benefit that the card, like many others, has and the experience as a whole has made me wary of pushing most of my spend through the card over my Amex. It seems that most of the Ritz's protections are handled through Visa, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, however the amount of things I was told to do to invoke the benefit, including paying shipping for all mail and the item, for a small purchase (especially in comparison to the total spend pushed through the card) made me wary of ever having to invoke it again for a larger item. 

Because of this, I'm starting to debate whether or not I should switch out my Ritz card for the Amex Platinum. The benefits and CS from JPM has been wonderful, and the card itself looks and feels nice, but depending on how you plan on using the card, I personally feel a lot safer purchasing items on my Amex knowing that all my protections are backed by them.

Just my thoughts 

[Open123]

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speedy523 wrote:It seems that most of the Ritz's protections are handled through Visa, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, however the amount of things I was told to do to invoke the benefit, including paying shipping for all mail and the item, for a small purchase (especially in comparison to the total spend pushed through the card) made me wary of ever having to invoke it again for a larger item. 

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While I've never had to make a claim, it's disappointing that however great the JPM Ritz's advertised purchase protections, it still requires to primarily be handled through by Visa.

In that case, my larger purchases will still reside exclusively with Amex.

[HiLine]

Ritz-Carlton, personally.

1. Way superior travel protection

2. Price Protection

3. Better merchant acceptance