@wasCB14 wrote:
Barclays Black/Gold/Titanium/former Luxury Cards are generally considered by card enthusiasts to be quite inferior to CSR and Platinum. It's about marketing a luxury image, not providing a superior product.
+1000 I wouldn't even consider adding those to my wallet. There are some other quite good cards that often fly under the radar, such as the City National Bank Crystal Visa Infinite which offers up to a $550 annual statement credit for lounge membership (enough for ALL of the legacy carriers) with $50k spend. For those that have a lot of annual spend, the American Express Delta Reserve (at $30k, $60k, and for those that are targeted again at $90k) and Starwood Luxury (at $75k) cards can make elite status possible, or enhance existing elite status.
@Anonymous wrote:Discover seems to be devoid of any higher end features. It has things like fee and payment flexibility and expedited card services but no special benefits.
I imagine this is because it's not their target market segment. Considering how competitive the premium card market is currently, I don't know if Discover would be able to keep up as effectively with the one-upmanship that larger banks / established players are able to do. Signs of strain can be seen even in Amex what with benefits always having some kind of a caveat or condition (staggered credits for dining/Uber/Saks and 'conditional' credits like airline incidental charges) whereas large banks can afford, even at a loss, to simply throw around large chunks of statement credits and benefits. I imagine Discover doesn't quite have the resources to be able to do compete effectively, or even if they did, I'm guessing they've come to the conclusion that the endeavour might not really be worthwhile.
From the looks of it, Discover looks like they're comfortable with their current target segment. They shed whatever 'higher end' cards they had ages ago, and now they're stripping whatever perks their cards did have to replace it with a magazine 
@Anonymous wrote:I realize there are rewards cards with the best rewards per category and some high net worth exclusive cards, think JP Morgan Palladium, Amex Centurion, and the like.
For mainstream high benefit cards and frequent travelers, the Amex Platinum makes sense considering it comes with Centurion lounge access at the airports along with other benefits. For Visa, you have the Chase Sapphire Reserve and other Visa Infinite cards. Mastercard has the Black Card which seems to be the highest end Mastercard I believe that one can apply for. I believe this may be an upmarket World MasterCard Elite with added features. Discover seems to be devoid of any higher end features. It has things like fee and payment flexibility and expedited card services but no special benefits.
Yes, those cards can provide top tier benefits, even the Barclays Black Card. However the cards themselves only provide some perks, like lounge access and in some cases insurance.
If one really wants to be treated as “top tier” it is best to spend a lot of money at hotels, airlines, and rental car agencies. Those are the actual companies that provide the services. The cards link you up with Fine Hotels and Resorts, for example, but you’ve still got to pay the bill.
@wasCB14 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Discover seems to be devoid of any higher end features. It has things like fee and payment flexibility and expedited card services but no special benefits.Discover has dabbled in the premium space with Premier and Premier Plus. However, I don't think they have added new premium customers for some time, and they may have "demoted" existing ones back to the regular IT.
Not that either card was ever particularly good.
Yes, and all that for a meager $40,000 annual spend 
@Anonymous wrote:
@wasCB14 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
Discover seems to be devoid of any higher end features. It has things like fee and payment flexibility and expedited card services but no special benefits.Discover has dabbled in the premium space with Premier and Premier Plus. However, I don't think they have added new premium customers for some time, and they may have "demoted" existing ones back to the regular IT.
Not that either card was ever particularly good.
Yes, and all that for a meager $40,000 annual spend
Better to just get a 2%+ card and use the extra cash back to pay for a Platinum!