topic Re: Seeking advice - CSR or Prestige? Lemme explain... in Credit Cards

Seeking advice - CSR or Prestige? Lemme explain...

ntenseone — Fri, 25 Oct 2019 08:25:01 GMT

Hi, everyone!
I'm new here, so bear with me.

I'm not what you'd consider a frequent traveler, per sé, but I my wife and I have some travel plans in the future for our 10th Anniversary that we're using my CSP to build points on. We bonused easily and therefore wouldn't get any extra bonus from a CSR, but we could accumulate points faster, we'd bet better redemption when the time comes, and the $300 annual travel credit would be used regularly. I'm not sure how I feel about not getting my 3x points until the travel credit gets met, either. I'm not concerned about the protections and my CSP is pretty close to the same there.
Personally, think I'd benefit from the Prestige advantages more. I know that everyone seems to value the CSR over the Citi Prestige, but for my personal uses, I think the Prestige is the right one for me., and here is why:
With my hotel stays twice a year I could easily use the free night, and as I mentioned about the $300 from CSR, the $250 offered from Citi would get used. Aside from that I would use it as a daily for the 5x and 3x categories through my regular spending and split that spend with my CSP to keep my utilization down some, as that's been the only thing in recent history that's been hurting me since the CSP is my daily driver and we put everything on it and PIF each month, so I need to cut that down to grow my score.

I do have extra questions, however that I'm hoping you all can help answer.
1. If I'm using my 4th night, do the other 3 nights go towards my $250 reward?
2. Since my wife has a Shop Your Way card and I have a Best Buy card, the way I understand the ThankYou points sharing system is that you can share and transfer points between accounts to maximize your rewards, but what I need to know is, while you can send points from Thankyou cards to the Shop Your Way card for 12SYWpts/1 TYpt, can it be done the other way around and transfer from SYW to TY? (I'm hoping someone has a good answer this)

Anyhow, thanks for your help, guys.
Let me know if I'm just crazy or if this seems justifiable to you.

Re: Seeking advice - CSR or Prestige? Lemme explain...

CaptJOB — Fri, 25 Oct 2019 21:03:41 GMT

It's really only worth it if you make sure to use both 4th night stays at competitive rates AND you value Thank You Point transfer partners. Otherwise I think the CSR would be a better move(possibly even the Premier as it has a higher sign up bonus and I believe that you can still redeem those for 1.25 cents through the Citi portal?). I'm in MR and UR right now and I don't think I really have enough spend(probably like 50k a year) to try and use two points systems indefinitely. The SUBs were nice but we'll see how this goes long term.

As for sharing TYP I have no idea how that works but someone here should. I also don't recall seing Citi Prestige in the approvals board since I started lurking here which makes me think there are only about a dozen regular contributors here who still have that card...

Re: Seeking advice - CSR or Prestige? Lemme explain...

Anonymous — Fri, 25 Oct 2019 21:17:22 GMT

@CaptJOB makes good points. Personally, if I were already in the UR ecosystem, I’d probably consider the CSR, as it would make more sense (to me at least).

If you value the TYPs over UR, and can gain better usage and benefit from the Prestige, that’s what you should go for.

As you may know, some of the benefits for the Prestige have changed. Here is a link regarding the Prestige. https://www.google.com/amp/s/thepointsguy.com/news/dwindling-appeal-citi-prestige-other-premium-cards-better/amp/

Re: Seeking advice - CSR or Prestige? Lemme explain...

wasCB14 — Fri, 25 Oct 2019 22:09:26 GMT

Prestige is great if you're using 4NF for two $200-before-taxes rooms. For rooms that are $80 before taxes it's less appealing.

I switched to CSR 1.5 years ago. I didn't have a good use for TYs since Prestige dropped the 1.6 cpp AA revenue redemptions.

Re: Seeking advice - CSR or Prestige? Lemme explain...

Anonymous — Fri, 25 Oct 2019 22:13:06 GMT

Although it does earn 5x now, so even at 1cpp, it is still even with CSR's 1.6cpp for 3x earning.

Re: Seeking advice - CSR or Prestige? Lemme explain...

wasCB14 — Fri, 25 Oct 2019 22:40:36 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Although it does earn 5x now, so even at 1cpp, it is still even with CSR's 1.6cpp for 3x earning.

I'm not sure if "restaurants" includes all dining, but on the travel side 5x is just for flights...while CSR's travel and dining categories are very broad.

Re: Seeking advice - CSR or Prestige? Lemme explain...

Anonymous — Sat, 26 Oct 2019 01:09:43 GMT

That is true. Lol

I have given up on TYP system and didn't learn enough of it.

Now I have run out of subs in UR, MR (sans green), AA, I may need to re-examine TYP sometime before 2021.

Re: Seeking advice - CSR or Prestige? Lemme explain...

Loquat — Sat, 26 Oct 2019 01:57:43 GMT

@wasCB14 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Although it does earn 5x now, so even at 1cpp, it is still even with CSR's 1.6cpp for 3x earning.
I'm not sure if "restaurants" includes all dining, but on the travel side 5x is just for flights...while CSR's travel and dining categories are very broad.

I have the Prestige and restaurants include just about anything you would normally consider dining with the exception of places that use POS systems such as Square or the other variations but that applies to Citi, Chase, Amex, etc.

The ThankYou systems is a bit more complicated to an extent than Chase or Amex. You have to be willing to put in a little more work but the points can be as valuable as any other. My biggest complaint with TYPs is the time it takes to transfer. The biggest plus for me is that you can do really well with a small setup and low annual fee.

If you're willing to spend $95 you can set up an ecosystem with the Premier, Rewards+, and Double Cash can pretty much cover just about all basis and have the ability to transfer to partners. This is something you certainly can't do with Amex for as little as $95 bucks. Citi can be a cheap ecosystem for someone new to the credit card travel hobby.

Re: Seeking advice - CSR or Prestige? Lemme explain...

Anonymous — Sat, 26 Oct 2019 02:47:37 GMT

How do you book AA and delta flights in TYP system? For direct flight, and connections?

Re: Seeking advice - CSR or Prestige? Lemme explain...

ntenseone — Sat, 26 Oct 2019 07:10:17 GMT

So my thought in starting this thread was this...
Get a Prestige for my hotel stays/travel and regular spending where protections aren't a real issue. (I feel like I would see a larger return on investment this way vs. a CSR.)
Use the CSP for any additional spending or when I need to make a purchase that I might have concerns about protections, such as airline flights, etc. and utilize the Shop Your Way card some here and there to help supplement my points earning capabilities, then transfer them over. (I just need to find out if that is allowable first, and if so, at what rate)

Hopefully this clears up my questions some.

Re: Seeking advice - CSR or Prestige? Lemme explain...

Loquat — Sat, 26 Oct 2019 20:15:27 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
How do you book AA and delta flights in TYP system? For direct flight, and connections?

@Anonymous For AA you have the option of transferring TYPs to Qantas and for Delta you can transfer to Virgin Atlantic.

Re: Seeking advice - CSR or Prestige? Lemme explain...

Anonymous — Sat, 26 Oct 2019 20:43:18 GMT

@Loquat wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
How do you book AA and delta flights in TYP system? For direct flight, and connections?
@Anonymous For AA you have the option of transferring TYPs to Qantas and for Delta you can transfer to Virgin Atlantic.

Thanks, now I do remember them, lol

As my MR network, I did sign up with both Qantas and virgin Atlantic. Qantas seems to have less availability than BA for me. It also costs 33% more points. Although it is a good option to have. My flights on delta are typically two legs, virgin Atlantic award never seems to have availability for them.

Prestige does earn alot of points, so TYP may work for me. I guess I will keep it in mind when my situation changes.

Re: Seeking advice - CSR or Prestige? Lemme explain...

Loquat — Sat, 26 Oct 2019 20:52:45 GMT

@Anonymous I hear ya. Qantas doesn't always show the same saver space for AA as BA so you're right in that regard (and Qantas usually requires more points). Virgin tends to be higher for what I'm usually looking for although I have found a few spots that are always better than Delta (SLC and MSP).

I have both the Amex and Citi system. Amex is a much easier ecosystem to navigate but it cost soo much more than Citi. I keep Citi because their ecosystem can be really cheap as I described above (Double Cash, Rewards+, and Premier) and if you want to add the Prestige it's even better. With DC having the option to move over to TYPs I find it a bit easier to rack up points...especially if one uses Plastiq and the points are worth more than the fee.

The end game is that we all have to find a system that works. Thankfully if I want OneWorld or SkyTeam I have Qantas and Virgin on both the Citi and Amex side so point pooling is easy.

If Citi would only find a way to ink a deal with American as a transfer partner or even add British Airways as one, I'd be a bit happier with them. Don't think either is likely but one can wish. I'm not a huge fan of American but they dominate at my home airport so regardless of liking them a little or a lot, chances are you'll be stuck on their metal unless you don't mind flying Southwest which has the second largest footprint around here.

Re: Seeking advice - CSR or Prestige? Lemme explain...

Anonymous — Sat, 26 Oct 2019 21:06:44 GMT

I think AA is smart in not linking its miles with citi or barclay. Look at Delta, United, with MR and UR cards, there is almost no attraction of airline co-branded cards. For AA, card is needed for earning miles without flying.

Re: Seeking advice - CSR or Prestige? Lemme explain...

CaptJOB — Sun, 27 Oct 2019 18:08:59 GMT

@ntenseone wrote:
So my thought in starting this thread was this...
Get a Prestige for my hotel stays/travel and regular spending where protections aren't a real issue. (I feel like I would see a larger return on investment this way vs. a CSR.)
Use the CSP for any additional spending or when I need to make a purchase that I might have concerns about protections, such as airline flights, etc. and utilize the Shop Your Way card some here and there to help supplement my points earning capabilities, then transfer them over. (I just need to find out if that is allowable first, and if so, at what rate)

Hopefully this clears up my questions some.

I wouldn't sign up for a Prestige without the intention to use it for airplane tickets...

As for the Shop Your Way points after a brief search I kind of doubt those are combinable with TYPs.

Re: Seeking advice - CSR or Prestige? Lemme explain...

ntenseone — Wed, 13 Nov 2019 05:39:07 GMT

I probably should have been up front about this to begin with, but my wife and I are wanting to use our points to pay for our 10yr anniversary and so I'm trying to formulate a plan to get us there. Currently we put everything we do in our day-to-day lives on my CSP and earn as many points as we can. This is working, but it does cause my utilization to be higher than desired and I'd like to use an additional card to mitigate that problem. I figure I can either see about getting a CFU and use that to stack UR points or I can start earning TY points with Citi. I'm not enough of a traveler to take advantage of anything from Amex, to be honest, so that's why I'm not concerned with taking advantage of their MR system. (That, and I hear it's a bit of a pain to get your credits as they are not automatic, unless that's recently changed)

Now, I'm the type that reads all the fine print and over examines everything so I know what I'm getting into before I do something, so at this point I'm pretty familiar with the benefits if each card and how they'll help me attain my goal. (I've read all of the card user agreements on everything from CSR, Amex Plat, Prestige, and several others, too) I mainly just need to make sure there isn't something I missed or might need to know from someone with personal experience with these products to make sure I have a good feel for what to expect from them and if I'm headed down the right path or if I should alter my plans based on the experience of someone who may know better from their experience or other kind if insider knowledge. There are a lot of people here with good insight, so I want to utilize that if possible.

The thing is, with the Prestige I will be able to reap higher than $495 annually between hotel stays and the $250 travel credit.
I don't fly much, but I would take advantage of the Pre check/ global entry credit in case I needed to. Priority Pass would be nice if I'm needing to fly as well, but the way I spend, I feel like the Prestige is just more advantageous for me.

The CSR $300 travel credit is great, but leaves me with a $150 unused reward each year and I can't start earning my 3x points in that category until I earn said credit and that is something if a turn off for me. That said, I'm considering upgrading about 6mo. before we book our anniversary trip to get higher value on our points plus add the travel credit to boot.

In the meantime I'm considering having her sign up for her own CSP about 2yrs prior for the SUB and then converting her to CSR 6-ish mo. prior as well to get additional travel credit and points value, too.
She already has the Shop Your Way card, that's why I inquired about the points conversion, but as you found, I'm not sure they play well together.

I am looking at options for other cards in order to points stack, I'm just trying to connect all of the dots first so I can have a plan in place before I go after it.

So, now that I've laid it all out there, does this sound reasonable, or am I missing some important details somewhere? (I've done a lot of reading so it's possible I've crossed up some details somewhere)

Thanks again!

Re: Seeking advice - CSR or Prestige? Lemme explain...

budugu — Wed, 13 Nov 2019 21:52:39 GMT

Restaurants for citi prestige are pretty broad. Even my cafeteria at work and snack vending machines seem to get 5x (Amex does not). That is one of the reasons we still have the card.

Travel is just airfare for 5x.

Re: Seeking advice - CSR or Prestige? Lemme explain...

ntenseone — Wed, 13 Nov 2019 22:48:35 GMT

@budugu wrote:
Restaurants for citi prestige are pretty broad. Even my cafeteria at work and snack vending machines seem to get 5x (Amex does not). That is one of the reasons we still have the card.

Travel is just airfare for 5x.

The 4th night and the $250 travel credit is what I'm after, the latter of which being defined by them thusly "Travel Purchases are defined as purchases made within the travel category, including purchases from airlines, hotels, car rental agencies, travel agencies/travel aggregators/tour operators, commuter transportation, ferries, commuter railways, subways, taxis/limousines/car services, passenger railways, cruise lines, bridge and road tolls, parking lots/garages, and bus lines."

That's where it's at for me.