topic Re: Chase Sapphire Reserve vs United Club Infinite help me choose in Credit Cards

Chase Sapphire Reserve vs United Club Infinite help me choose

swankytiger — Wed, 15 Nov 2023 14:15:18 GMT

I am already leaning one direction but I want to see if any other opinions could sway me. I am leaning heavily toward the Club.

Am I missing anything that would make the CSR better?

1. SUBs do not matter as both would be from a Product change as im way over 5/24 and wont be under till late 2025.

2. AF is roughly the same.

3. Protections/Insurances are almost exactly the same.

4. This is going to be a 1 card set up so being effecient isnt needed and the categories are roughly the same.

5. I am a WFBF flyer(want first, Buy first) and award space(when one wants to travel) is usually a nightmare to get.

6. United miles will be used to pay for the AF on the Club(iirc its like 32,500miles via Chase Pay yourself back) or Miles+Money on tickets as I want to go for MM status and award tickets do not count for that.

7. I am at a regional airport(read Allegiant hub) which isnt hub locked per say, I mainly fly united domestically and lean toward other *A carriers for international on routes that united doesnt fly.

8. I will not use portals for airfare.

9. I am ok using portals for hotels since lets be honest, domestically hotel status doesnt matter.

10. Priority Pass means almost nothing as everyone has that and most airports I connect through have either 1 or no PP lounges as they are usually United hubs with United Clubs.

11. I value Chase points at 1cpp or whatever united miles+money redemption is.

12. If i book a cruise(i like cruises) it will be through United Cruises as they have special 7x or 10x United miles bonus' if you hold a United card.

13. I dont fly enough to get higher level United status organically but the Club gives me the equivalent benefits I want.

14. TSA Pre/GE doesnt matter as yet again every card gives that.

Re: Chase Sapphire Reserve vs United Club Infinite help me choose

coldfusion — Wed, 15 Nov 2023 16:31:27 GMT

I'll toss a couple of things out in a lame attempt to play devil's advocate.

IIRC mininum SL on the Club card is still $15K although if the info in your .sig is still accurate you have ways to address that.

Emperically, how much do you value access to United Clubs given that it sounds like you don't fly enough/spend enough to organically qualify for even UA Gold status?

You can transfer UR to UA miles at a 1:1 ratio. CSR has a $300/yr travel credit and travel spend beyond that earns 3 UR/$ = 3 UA miles/$.

Re: Chase Sapphire Reserve vs United Club Infinite help me choose

danzig47 — Wed, 15 Nov 2023 17:09:35 GMT

I have both, so I will try to give you some insights. Mainly though, I think it comes down to your United loyalty and how often you will use the United Club. If you almost always fly on United, and are going to use the Club alot, that's the simple answer. Looking through your comments, here's what I have seen with both, in no particular order:

1. Will you have Authorized Users? Do they need access to airport lounges? The CSR charges $75 per additional authorized user, but they get their own priority pass. Authorized users on the United Club card do not have their own Club access.

2. It's cost me 30,000 miles each of the last two years to cover the AF on the United Card. This is a great deal, it's significasntly cheaper to get United Club access this way than purchasing Club access outright from United. Through United directly, this would be at least $600 or 80,000 miles dpending on your status level.

3. The United Club card will earn you PQP towards higher status. Starting next year, 25 PQP per $500. The CSR will not help you with status.

4. I think you are undervaluaing the the Chase UR points. You get 1.25 cpp with pay yourself back towards the annual fee and other categories like groceries and gas. You get 1.5cpp when you purchase travel on their portal. United doesn't care whether you buy the ticket through them or the Chase portal, the miles and PQP earnings are the same.

5. The CSR has a lot of statement credits and free memberships, some of them easily attainable depending on your situation. $300/yr travel credit, Lyft Pink membership ($199/yr, includes bike membership in many cities) , Instacart+ membership ($99/yr), $15/mo Instacart credit, Doordash Dash Pass membership ($9.99/mo), $5/mo Doordash credit. Note the memberships are for 1-2 years, and it's uknown if Chase will extend them or replace them with something else.

Overall, both are great cards. I travel a good amount internationally on United, and the United Club card is indespensible for that. The CSR is a better general travel card with more flexibility for non-United travel, and ability to still get value if you temporarilly need to be on team cash back.

Re: Chase Sapphire Reserve vs United Club Infinite help me choose

danzig47 — Wed, 15 Nov 2023 17:15:38 GMT

IIRC mininum SL on the Club card is still $15K although if the info in your .sig is still accurate you have ways to address that.

It's a Visa Infinite - isn't the starting limit $10K?

Emperically, how much do you value access to United Clubs given that it sounds like you don't fly enough/spend enough to organically qualify for even UA Gold status?

I had the same thought when reading OP's comments. The value prop here is the frequent use of the United Club, which means regular travel.

Re: Chase Sapphire Reserve vs United Club Infinite help me choose

swankytiger — Wed, 15 Nov 2023 17:32:48 GMT

@coldfusion wrote:
I'll toss a couple of things out in a lame attempt to play devil's advocate.

IIRC mininum SL on the Club card is still $15K although if the info in your .sig is still accurate you have ways to address that.

Emperically, how much do you value access to United Clubs given that it sounds like you don't fly enough/spend enough to organically qualify for even UA Gold status?

You can transfer UR to UA miles at a 1:1 ratio. CSR has a $300/yr travel credit and travel spend beyond that earns 3 UR/$ = 3 UA miles/$.

Yea i will just move limit from my CFU to my gateway before I product change.

I havent been traveling much recently because of just getting my finances in order(stable job/Emergency fund where i want it/etc) and of course the other issue recently. I am wanting to travel more.

I think UA gold would still be out of reach and even then you would only get *A club access domestically not united club and most of those wouldnt be in the domestic terminal anyway. The PQP earning changes with the chase cards might help though. Its now 25 PQP for every $500 to the PQP Cap(club was raised to 10k PQP as well) of the card instead of 500PQP per $12k of spend.

I traveled a lot this year and lounge access would have been really nice to have.

Re: Chase Sapphire Reserve vs United Club Infinite help me choose

swankytiger — Wed, 15 Nov 2023 17:41:36 GMT

@danzig47 wrote:

1. Will you have Authorized Users? Do they need access to airport lounges? The CSR charges $75 per additional authorized user, but they get their own priority pass. Authorized users on the United Club card do not have their own Club access.
2. It's cost me 30,000 miles each of the last two years to cover the AF on the United Card. This is a great deal, it's significasntly cheaper to get United Club access this way than purchasing Club access outright from United. Through United directly, this would be at least $600 or 80,000 miles dpending on your status level.
3. The United Club card will earn you PQP towards higher status. Starting next year, 25 PQP per $500. The CSR will not help you with status.
4. I think you are undervaluaing the the Chase UR points. You get 1.25 cpp with pay yourself back towards the annual fee and other categories like groceries and gas. You get 1.5cpp when you purchase travel on their portal. United doesn't care whether you buy the ticket through them or the Chase portal, the miles and PQP earnings are the same.
5. The CSR has a lot of statement credits and free memberships, some of them easily attainable depending on your situation. $300/yr travel credit, Lyft Pink membership ($199/yr, includes bike membership in many cities) , Instacart+ membership ($99/yr), $15/mo Instacart credit, Doordash Dash Pass membership ($9.99/mo), $5/mo Doordash credit. Note the memberships are for 1-2 years, and it's uknown if Chase will extend them or replace them with something else.

Overall, both are great cards. I travel a good amount internationally on United, and the United Club card is indespensible for that. The CSR is a better general travel card with more flexibility for non-United travel, and ability to still get value if you temporarilly need to be on team cash back.

No authorized users, Solo traveling 95% of the time. Starting to ramp up my travel.

My CFU is a downgraded CSP and for the last 6-8months I had it, the only pay yourself back option was charities.

The statement credits other than the $300 travel one are all useless to me as I live in a rural area where I use 0 of those services if they are even available. One of the reasons im dropping my AMEX Gold and Platinum.

Re: Chase Sapphire Reserve vs United Club Infinite help me choose

danzig47 — Wed, 15 Nov 2023 17:50:07 GMT

@swankytiger wrote:
My CFU is a downgraded CSP and for the last 6-8months I had it, the only pay yourself back option was charities.

The CSR has more options than the CSP. Currenty, it is 1.25cpp Groceries, 1.25cpp Gas, 1.5cpp Select Charities, 1.25cpp Annual Fee

Re: Chase Sapphire Reserve vs United Club Infinite help me choose

swankytiger — Wed, 15 Nov 2023 18:07:32 GMT

i could always try one then downgrade back and try the other

Re: Chase Sapphire Reserve vs United Club Infinite help me choose

coldfusion — Wed, 15 Nov 2023 19:47:53 GMT

@danzig47 wrote:
IIRC mininum SL on the Club card is still $15K although if the info in your .sig is still accurate you have ways to address that.
It's a Visa Infinite - isn't the starting limit $10K?

$10K minimum SL is the convention, but not a requirement. To give 2 other examples of Visa Infinite cards that don't follow the norm the CNB Crystal also has a $15K mininum SL and USBank will issue Altitude Reserve cards with starting limits of less than $10K - $5K is the lowest I remember seeing.

Even when the UA Club card was a Visa Signature it still had a $15K mininum SL whereas the Visa Signature standard was/is $5K and that is also still a convention - witness all of the $500 USBank Cash+ approvals over the last several years.

Re: Chase Sapphire Reserve vs United Club Infinite help me choose

PullingMeSoftly — Wed, 15 Nov 2023 22:14:30 GMT

I'm also a holder of both, so adding a few tidbits in addition to Danzig's point above:

While the value of the Club access is the main highlight, I would say that Premier Access is very valuable to anyone who doesn't already have status. On my summer trip, my family and I were able to jump into the Premier access line at SFO, and into the 1K line in Mexico City, which totally helped us make our flights on time. Since we don't have TSA/Global (don't ask, my DW refuses), we went into an expedited security lane thanks to Premier Access.
2 checked bags for yourself and a companion, lots of value (again if you don't already have status)
IHG platinum status, and a $75 IHG annual credit, helps that AF value proposition in conjunction with the point redemption rate toward the AF