@Anonymouswrote:
@icedwrote:
@Anonymouswrote:
@iced
To be honest, my daily driver (for other than business travel) is the Amex Delta Reserve. I fly almost exclusively on Delta and it gives me access to all the Delta skyclubs, free first class companion voucher, and so on. This was great while Costco took Amex. Everything went on the Amex and any non-Amex spend went on the Citi MC. So, now the Costco change is pushing me to a Visa branded card for all my "non-Amex" spending and I'll let the Citi MC sit idle/open (no annual fee on that one).
If you stay at Marriotts a bunch when you travel (guessing based on the Marriott card you have), why not use it for Costco? The PP lounges the CSR offers are garbage next to Sky Club, especially since you're flying Delta mostly. The 1.5 cpm rate on the portal isn't strong next to partner/mileage conversions, and Marriott points aren't worth the 1:1 transfer, especially when you can be earning that same rate on your existing card. so I would see the UR accumulation as a distraction from your travel focus of Delta/Marriott.
If the CL is a concern, I'd go with the HP CLI route and not bother with another new account.
If there's an airline partner on UR that you are targeting, ignore everything I just said.
Food for thought.
Yeah, good points. I keep my business travel expenses seperate from my personal expenses by using different cards. So, while I fly on Delta for work, still use my Marriott card to book those flights. Then I book the hotel on the Marriott card as you'd expect. It's rare that I pay for a hotel room with anything other than my Marriott card (because when I travel for fun I use points for the stays).
So, the CSR has the high annual fee but the $300 travel credit (which I'll use for personal travel). The single largest reason that I'm going with CSR is because I think it will give me the biggest credit line (which I can then transfer over to the Marriott card if that CLI gets denied for some reason). Any other cards that you think would come with high CL?
I have found once Chase likes you, the card doesn't matter. When I applied for the CSR, I got the same SL as a non-Sapphire Chase card I applied for previously. Some on here will howl at me and say that's not true, but those people are often looking to break a tier of CL ($5000, $10000). People with established reports, decent CLs on existing cards, and a good standing with Chase will get $30,000 SLs on a Freedom just as easily as they do $30,000 SLs on a CSR.
In other words, in your situation, you can go with whatever card of theirs works for you. If anything, based on our chat so far, I'd say go bigger on the Marriott since you value the night credits toward status. On top of the extra points, the Costco spend may well result in a few more of those each year, unless you're already hitting Platinum easily as they're doing away with rollover nights starting 2019.
