topic Re: US Bank Altitude Reserve Real Time Rewards in Credit Cards

US Bank Altitude Reserve Real Time Rewards

NRB525 — Sun, 25 Feb 2018 04:34:22 GMT

Got a paper mailer from US Bank. The Altitude Reserve has had Mobile Real Time Rewards redemptions available for non-travel categories, although I think those non-category redemptions are 1c per point value. Not a good redemption option.

They added Airlines, Hotel and Rental cars as available categories, and it appears this gives the 1.5c redemption rate per point on those categories. Prior to this, you had to book the Airline, Hotel or Rental car through the US Bank travel portal to use the points. This switches it to more of a purchase eraser.

While this pre-booking method was OK, when I looked at booking through the US Bank portal recently, the one-way flight I wanted on Delta was available, but was going to put me in Basic Economy, rather than Economy, with no means to update that to buy Economy. With Silver Medalion status, Basic Economy has no upgrade path to First Class. Economy does have the upgrade path. So I ended up buying the Economy ticket on that flight directly from Delta on the Delta AMEX.

This Mobile Real Time Rewards should work more like Capital One and other cards. When you sign up for categories ( I added Airlines only ), and a charge in that category shows up on your Altitude Reserve card, you get a text with the option to redeem Altitude points to erase the charge. From the promo literature, this shows 25,000 points for a $375 airline ticket, meaning it applies the 1.5c per point. This will make the use of the Altitude points much easier, as I can book through the airline portal for the exact class of service I want, and then erase the charge.

You do need to book directly with the airline, hotel, or car rental company, so if you go through some other travel portal it probably won't work. The minimum presumed redemption for car rental is $250, and for hotel is $500, so I did not activate those categories. And of course you probably need all the Altitude points to cover the charge.

There is also a 500 point promo for just going through the sign up process, so another $7.50 toward future travel

Re: US Bank Altitude Reserve Real Time Rewards

Shadowfactor — Sun, 25 Feb 2018 05:09:14 GMT

That’s good to hear. As a fellow Altitude card holder this is great news. Not quite as good as being able to transfer points to partners but with the points being worth 1.5C I think the card still is very competitive.

Good option to be able to buy higher class tickets and see use points. Will have to sign up for it. I wonder if I can get the 500 point bonus for FlexPerks and Altitude. I saw it listed for both accounts.

The Altitude when paired with a FlexPerks card gives you some great returns on purchases. You get the mobile wallet bonus plus the flex perks bonuses and can transfer points between the cards. I basically get 3% to 4.5% return on every swipe I make.

I’ve been debating getting a Samsung phone with MST just to maximize the mobile pay when I travel overseas but I’m worried about getting shut down by USB and also the cashiers thinking I’m up to no good. A lot of the Caribbean people have no idea it’s possible to pay with your phone.

Re: US Bank Altitude Reserve Real Time Rewards

NRB525 — Sun, 25 Feb 2018 05:39:28 GMT

So you are transferring points between FlexPerks and Altitude? I heard that was a speculated possibility last year, but nothing definite.

I may need to look into a FlexPerks card.

The ApplePay / Mobile Wallet is nice, except that Chase Freedom is taking over my Apple Pay this first quarter. I can't decide whether I want Chase to continue to offer that on a regular basis, or I prefer the Altitude Apple Pay.

Re: US Bank Altitude Reserve Real Time Rewards

Shadowfactor — Sun, 25 Feb 2018 06:01:38 GMT

As of right now, you can only transfer FlexPerks to Altitude and not vice versa but that will probably change very shortly with the fixed points at 1.5CPP on FlexPerks now.

In regards to chase. If you actually earn 5 UR points ( don’t have a CF, only have CSP) with the bonus categories then it’s a better return then Altitude at just 1CPP but it’s even better if you have a CSP/CSR where instead of each point being just 1CPP they become 1.25/1.5 CPP with the potential to be even higher if you can transfer to partners and get a higher value then the travel portal.

For what’s a better rewards program all comes down to your travel patterns and personal preferences.

If you don’t travel very often on chases travel partners and have to use the portal to redeem travel or if your just redeem for economy/domestic flights where your not able to get a redemption rate higher then 1.5CPP the Altitude wins.

But if your able to transfer points to a travel partner and get higher then 1.5CPP that way then the CSR wins.

Re: US Bank Altitude Reserve Real Time Rewards

NRB525 — Sun, 25 Feb 2018 06:10:08 GMT

Correct, and with the CSP I got in January, I got some 3c Hyatt redemptions last weekend. Looking at 3c United redemptions, so Altitude is a nice backup for earning rewards for general travel spend.

I've got lots of points in different programs, so travel during the last two years, and looking out to the next two years, is reduced cost. Altitude just adds another dimension to that with the nice 4.5% general return on Apple Pay items, added to the SUB. I've also got it defaulted for Hertz rentals personal and business, and used Lyft recently paid through Apple Pay charging Freedom.

Re: US Bank Altitude Reserve Real Time Rewards

Anonymous — Sun, 25 Feb 2018 07:26:40 GMT

Thanks for the info. That card is on my radar.

Regarding Samsung Pay, I miss being able to use it practically anywhere cards are accepted (I switched phones back in Nov.) It was always fun to surprise folks that thought their system wouldn’t allow mobile payment. I once successfully used it at a restaurant I frequented as a mid-teen (a decade or longer ago) that uses the same card reader from that time. Impressive tech.

Re: US Bank Altitude Reserve Real Time Rewards

NRB525 — Sun, 25 Feb 2018 14:29:25 GMT

The cafeteria at work switched a year or so ago, allowing most mobile payments. Once the main cashier figured out that it works, she gives me static if I try to use a credit card not AP.
A surprisingly high percentage of people use cash or a debit card at the same terminals. I just smh.

Re: US Bank Altitude Reserve Real Time Rewards

NRB525 — Mon, 13 Aug 2018 00:39:23 GMT

Update on the mechanics of “Real Time Rewards” for the Altitude Reserve.

I paid for a Delta Comfort+ upgrade fee. Text for the redemption came through, calculated at 1.5c per point. I did not get to it until more than 24 hours later. Ability to redeem had expired. Redemption Fail.

I bought a one-way Hawaiian Air inter-island flight. $59 for the seat, $10 for an upgrade to more leg room, early boarding. Purchased both together. Hawaiian Air handled it as two charges, so I got two sequential texts for the $59, then for the $10. Real Time Redemption only lets you REDEEM respond to the very last text, so I was only able to redeem for the $10. Next time will think about buying the seat first, then a separate transaction to upgrade, to ensure time to redeem. Learning Opportunity.

Bought a ticket on Delta, and learned the Delta apps do not allow you to apply those gift cards, even to a regular flight ticket. That must be done on the full browser. Applied two $50 gift cards, remainder paid with Altitude. Text came through, quick like a bunny texted REDEEM back, redemption success. ( I had recently learned that Delta Comfort+ cannot be paid for with gift cards because it is considered a fee )

Resolved to always REDEEM even if I didn’t particularly intend to apply the reward to that purchase, because I would just transfer the cash equivalent into my Future Travel Savings. That gets the points out of the Altitude account whenever possible, still making them technically sequestered if it is something like work reimbursed travel.

Got it a little wild and checked more boxes on the Redemption list, including groceries. Got a text yesterday, noticed it just now, inside of 24 hours since the text, something like 22 hours, followed my rule, REDEEM back, and only after redeeming did I check the charge. Groceries. 1c per point. Only $38, but will now go in to dial back the Real Time Rewards to Travel options only. Timing success, redemption value disappointment.

I use this card a lot. My DGF wanted to pay for breakfast today with her debit card. I could not let her, as the cashier took Apple Pay.

Re: US Bank Altitude Reserve Real Time Rewards

imaximous — Mon, 13 Aug 2018 03:05:41 GMT

Something I still haven't tried is purchase a few plane tickets at once. I wonder if the text will come only when the pending authorization for the full amount appears, or if they'll send another text after the airline reprocesses the transaction separately for each individual ticket.

Btw, thanks for updating the thread.

Re: US Bank Altitude Reserve Real Time Rewards

NRB525 — Mon, 13 Aug 2018 03:31:25 GMT

If it is different flights, not a round trip for example, I would expect the airline to keep those in the “shopping cart” as separate transactions. I suggest completing them, releasing them to authorize one at a time, else you may get them all separately in a quick rush and cannot respond to each one.

Re: US Bank Altitude Reserve Real Time Rewards

imaximous — Mon, 13 Aug 2018 04:15:31 GMT

@NRB525 wrote:
If it is different flights, not a round trip for example, I would expect the airline to keep those in the “shopping cart” as separate transactions. I suggest completing them, releasing them to authorize one at a time, else you may get them all separately in a quick rush and cannot respond to each one.

No, I meant if I buy tickets for a family trip, for instance. Before activating RT Rewards, I actually bought 6 plane tickets for all of us. The initial cc authorization was not broken into 6 separate pending charges, but it showed the full amount for all 6. Then, a few days later, that pending charge disappears, and another day or two after that, all 6 tickets appear as pending charges but as separate transactions.

Based on RTR, I would've received a text as soon as the initial authorization is generated, right? Let's say $3000. Problem is, I didn't have enough points to cover that amount in points completely, but I would've had enough to cover a single ticket (or more). RTR wouldn't trigger at all because of lack of points (since it only works if the full purchase can be covered with points). So, I wonder if I'd get a second text message (or set of text msgs) once all the tickets reappear as pending but separately. Meaning, a few days later, I'd have 6 pending charges for $500.

I think I just made this scenario complicated. It's easy when I buy only 1 ticket, but if it's 2 or more, the transactions don't post the same way, and I wonder how that affects RTR triggering. I haven't been able to get DPs when it comes to buying more than 1 ticket, and hoping to use RTR for redemption.

Re: US Bank Altitude Reserve Real Time Rewards

NRB525 — Mon, 13 Aug 2018 05:47:02 GMT

Your basic question is, what if the travel charge is more than the available Altitude Points?

If you have a charge of $150 airline ticket that requires 10,000 points, and only 50 Altitude points, can you redeem the 50 as partial, to go to zero points.

Good question. I hope so

Re: US Bank Altitude Reserve Real Time Rewards

NRB525 — Fri, 07 Sep 2018 04:04:36 GMT

My Altitude Reserve statement came in a few days ago, and this statement includes the use of the Real Time Rewards.

I have autopay set up to pay the full statement balance, on the due date of that statement. It has been running a few months now. For Aug 31, it was scheduled to pay about $900.

The Real Time Rewards usage was applied during August in such a way that it reduced my autopay amount to about $550. This is fine because I was still left with a payment of the remainder and that was well over the minimum payment. This also means that I get a little more grace period on the $350 paid through Real Time Rewards, as that amount is now due from this statement, at the end of September.

If I was not using my Altitude Reserve heavily, and the Real Time Rewards turned out to be more than my prior month statement balance, I wonder if that might cause a missed Minimum Payment. The way the RTR were applied, perhaps not, but be aware of the possibility in that high redemption situation.

I also was billed the AF, so will be looking where to spend that $325 travel credit.

Re: US Bank Altitude Reserve Real Time Rewards

UncleB — Fri, 07 Sep 2018 10:19:58 GMT

@NRB525 wrote:
Your basic question is, what if the travel charge is more than the available Altitude Points?

If you have a charge of $150 airline ticket that requires 10,000 points, and only 50 Altitude points, can you redeem the 50 as partial, to go to zero points.

Good question. I hope so

This is my question as well... surprisingly I've yet to see any of the usual blogs address it. Surely we're not the only people who have thought of this?

If someone only has large-ish travel charges it would be a pain if U.S. Bank required the entire charge to be covered by real time rewards. Then again it might be that way by design... hopefully not, though.

Re: US Bank Altitude Reserve Real Time Rewards

Anonymous — Fri, 07 Sep 2018 12:02:06 GMT

Unfortunately, you can only redeem for points if the entire purchase can be covered by the points. That was my experience in June. I rented a car for three weeks, hoping to redeem my 720kish Altitude points on the charge, which came to about $1108. When I didn't get the redemption text I called Altitude customer service and confirmed with a CSR and a supervisor that you cannot redeem on a transaction unless the points cover the whole charge.

I did end up using most of my points on a cruise payment which I made sure was in the redeemable range. I'm also happy to report that not only did I get 1.5x redemption value on my points, I got 3x points for the cruise payment, got the full credit and lost no points on that, and I also received my $325 travel credit on the same charge. Triple dip!

Chris.

Re: US Bank Altitude Reserve Real Time Rewards

Anonymous — Fri, 07 Sep 2018 12:36:00 GMT

This will be my next card.

I need a new phone, and will be switching from iPhone to Note 9 in preparation to take advantage of Samsung Pay with this card.

I wish that that Cash+ card allowed transfer of those points to the Altitude so I could redeem those at 1.5 cents for travel (like you can do with Freedom and CSR) . . .

Re: US Bank Altitude Reserve Real Time Rewards

imaximous — Fri, 07 Sep 2018 14:56:26 GMT

@NRB525 wrote:
Your basic question is, what if the travel charge is more than the available Altitude Points?

If you have a charge of $150 airline ticket that requires 10,000 points, and only 50 Altitude points, can you redeem the 50 as partial, to go to zero points.

Good question. I hope so

Not sure how I missed to respond a while back. My question goes a little beyond that because of the way airlines post ticket purchases when you buy more than 1 ticket. To illustrate my question a little better:

Let's say, I buy 3 tickets at $500 each. The initial authorization on the credit card will show a full $1,500 as a single transaction.

However, a few days later, the airline will take away that $1,500 authorization, and split the purchase into 3 separate transactions. So, now you'll see 3 different $500 pending authorizations, which eventually become posted transactions for $500 each and not as a whole $1,500.

Going back to my question, if I had 99,000 points and taking into account 1.5x to cover the full $1,500 purchase, RTR would not trigger because you need the entire purchase to be covered with points. So you'd barely miss an opportunity to use your points.

But then, since the airline is splitting the full charge into 3 transactions, I have enough points to cover at least 2 tickets at $500 each. So I've been wondering if the re-posting of the charges will trigger another opportunity to use points using RTR because it's no longer a $1,500 single charge, but 3 charges of $500. Do people get another RTR text for the re-posted transactions? That's my question.

I also understand that in the event of successive charges, only the last one will work with RTR, so that means I could only use my points at 1.5x for 1 ticket. But that's still better than not being able to use them at all.

It may sound like I'm over analyzing this scenario, but I'm really curious because aside from work, I always travel with family and that means buying at least 5 tickets or more.

Re: US Bank Altitude Reserve Real Time Rewards

imaximous — Fri, 07 Sep 2018 14:59:01 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
This will be my next card.

I need a new phone, and will be switching from iPhone to Note 9 in preparation to take advantage of Samsung Pay with this card.

I wish that that Cash+ card allowed transfer of those points to the Altitude so I could redeem those at 1.5 cents for travel (like you can do with Freedom and CSR) . . .

That'd be great. At least you can transfer Flexperks points to the Altitude if you have any of those cards.

Re: US Bank Altitude Reserve Real Time Rewards

UncleB — Fri, 07 Sep 2018 15:05:48 GMT

@imaximous wrote:
@NRB525 wrote:
Your basic question is, what if the travel charge is more than the available Altitude Points?

If you have a charge of $150 airline ticket that requires 10,000 points, and only 50 Altitude points, can you redeem the 50 as partial, to go to zero points.

Good question. I hope so
Not sure how I missed to respond a while back. My question goes a little beyond that because of the way airlines post ticket purchases when you buy more than 1 ticket. To illustrate my question a little better:
Let's say, I buy 3 tickets at $500 each. The initial authorization on the credit card will show a full $1,500 as a single transaction.
However, a few days later, the airline will take away that $1,500 authorization, and split the purchase into 3 separate transactions. So, now you'll see 3 different $500 pending authorizations, which eventually become posted transactions for $500 each and not as a whole $1,500.

Going back to my question, if I had 99,000 points and taking into account 1.5x to cover the full $1,500 purchase, RTR would not trigger because you need the entire purchase to be covered with points. So you'd barely miss an opportunity to use your points.

But then, since the airline is splitting the full charge into 3 transactions, I have enough points to cover at least 2 tickets at $500 each. So I've been wondering if the re-posting of the charges will trigger another opportunity to use points using RTR because it's no longer a $1,500 single charge, but 3 charges of $500. Do people get another RTR text for the re-posted transactions? That's my question.
I also understand that in the event of successive charges, only the last one will work with RTR, so that means I could only use my points at 1.5x for 1 ticket. But that's still better than not being able to use them at all.

It may sound like I'm over analyzing this scenario, but I'm really curious because aside from work, I always travel with family and that means buying at least 5 tickets or more.

This is actually a very meaningful question for those who purchase airline tickets for families.

Basically, what happens when the auth amount that triggers RTR is different from the actual charge (or in the case of airline tickets, the same total amount posts as multiple smaller transactions later on).

Re: US Bank Altitude Reserve Real Time Rewards

imaximous — Fri, 07 Sep 2018 15:22:57 GMT

@UncleB wrote:
@imaximous wrote:
@NRB525 wrote:
Your basic question is, what if the travel charge is more than the available Altitude Points?

If you have a charge of $150 airline ticket that requires 10,000 points, and only 50 Altitude points, can you redeem the 50 as partial, to go to zero points.

Good question. I hope so
Not sure how I missed to respond a while back. My question goes a little beyond that because of the way airlines post ticket purchases when you buy more than 1 ticket. To illustrate my question a little better:
Let's say, I buy 3 tickets at $500 each. The initial authorization on the credit card will show a full $1,500 as a single transaction.
However, a few days later, the airline will take away that $1,500 authorization, and split the purchase into 3 separate transactions. So, now you'll see 3 different $500 pending authorizations, which eventually become posted transactions for $500 each and not as a whole $1,500.

Going back to my question, if I had 99,000 points and taking into account 1.5x to cover the full $1,500 purchase, RTR would not trigger because you need the entire purchase to be covered with points. So you'd barely miss an opportunity to use your points.

But then, since the airline is splitting the full charge into 3 transactions, I have enough points to cover at least 2 tickets at $500 each. So I've been wondering if the re-posting of the charges will trigger another opportunity to use points using RTR because it's no longer a $1,500 single charge, but 3 charges of $500. Do people get another RTR text for the re-posted transactions? That's my question.
I also understand that in the event of successive charges, only the last one will work with RTR, so that means I could only use my points at 1.5x for 1 ticket. But that's still better than not being able to use them at all.

It may sound like I'm over analyzing this scenario, but I'm really curious because aside from work, I always travel with family and that means buying at least 5 tickets or more.
+1

This is actually a very meaningful question for those who purchase airline tickets for families.

Basically, what happens when the auth amount that triggers RTR is different from the actual charge (or in the case of airline tickets, the same total amount posts as multiple smaller transactions later on).

I kinda know the answer to one part of your question. Once you've been sent an RTR text to redeem for X amount, there's no refund of points if you cancel the transaction/purchase or if the amount differs from the original charge. For instance, if you cancel a purchase for $150, you can't get your 10,000 points back, but the redeemed amount would still be applied to your statement, which is really not a bad thing if you think about it. The same happens if the final purchase differs from the original charge. No refunds but they apply the original redemption towards your statement balance.

I can also see abuse with this policy. People could be buying tickets and canceling right after getting the RTR text and redeeming just so they can use their points at 1.5x for statement credit, which would otherwise be only 1x.