From my understanding of real time rewards. You can use it to cover partial charges as it’s applied as a statement credit with a higher redemption amount.
I haven’t actually used it yet as I’m banking my points but the literature and playing around with the rewards system sure makes it seem that way.
A quick call to USB would get you a for sure answer on that.
With getting the Cash + at 7500. I would say you have a good shot at the Altitude.
My fiancé was approved for the AR with a 699 FICO 04 score. She has good credit but high amounts of student loans. Her FICO 8 scores are around 770
I haven’t actually used it yet as I’m banking my points but the literature and playing around with the rewards system sure makes it seem that way.
A quick call to USB would get you a for sure answer on that.
With getting the Cash + at 7500. I would say you have a good shot at the Altitude.
My fiancé was approved for the AR with a 699 FICO 04 score. She has good credit but high amounts of student loans. Her FICO 8 scores are around 770
@imaximous wrote:I hope this doesn't add to the confusion on points redemption, but here's an extract from the Rewards Program Rules on the AR site:
"You may obtain airline tickets with a combination of Points redemption and purchase; however, the first ticket must be covered in full by Points redemption before any additional tickets may be purchased. Other travel-related redemptions, such as for hotels and car rentals, must be paid in full with all Points or purchase."
I've been reading that Real Time only triggers if you have enough points to cover the entire purchase -- not partial.
I've read that before as well... thus why I'm unsure of exactly how it works in 'real-life'. 
@UncleB wrote:
@imaximous wrote:I hope this doesn't add to the confusion on points redemption, but here's an extract from the Rewards Program Rules on the AR site:
"You may obtain airline tickets with a combination of Points redemption and purchase; however, the first ticket must be covered in full by Points redemption before any additional tickets may be purchased. Other travel-related redemptions, such as for hotels and car rentals, must be paid in full with all Points or purchase."
I've been reading that Real Time only triggers if you have enough points to cover the entire purchase -- not partial.
I've read that before as well... thus why I'm unsure of exactly how it works in 'real-life'.
Ok, since I had time to kill, I went to the AR rewards site and booked a dummy reservation using their internal portal. For hotels and car rentals, you can only make points reservations if you have enough for the entire itinerary. If you don't, it asks for a credit card to pay for the full amount. No option for both points and cash.
For travel, I tested 2 plane tickets at once, and made sure I could cover the first with just points. The site allows you to book with both points and cash, as long as your first ticket can be covered fully with points. You can use your credit card to pay for the rest.
Important: You also need to have enough points to cover entirely the 2nd ticket. I had points leftover after purchasing the first ticket, but not enough to cover the second one completely. It wouldn't take the remaining points and finish the purchase with cash. It wanted the entire second ticket with cash.
I also looked at itineraries where I wouldn't have enough for one ticket, and it requested payment for all tickets.
I hope that's more real-life for you, haha 
@imaximous wrote:
@UncleB wrote:
@imaximous wrote:I hope this doesn't add to the confusion on points redemption, but here's an extract from the Rewards Program Rules on the AR site:
"You may obtain airline tickets with a combination of Points redemption and purchase; however, the first ticket must be covered in full by Points redemption before any additional tickets may be purchased. Other travel-related redemptions, such as for hotels and car rentals, must be paid in full with all Points or purchase."
I've been reading that Real Time only triggers if you have enough points to cover the entire purchase -- not partial.
I've read that before as well... thus why I'm unsure of exactly how it works in 'real-life'.
Ok, since I had time to kill, I went to the AR rewards site and booked a dummy reservation using their internal portal. For hotels and car rentals, you can only make points reservations if you have enough for the entire itinerary. If you don't, it asks for a credit card to pay for the full amount. No option for both points and cash.
For travel, I tested 2 plane tickets at once, and made sure I could cover the first with just points. The site allows you to book with both points and cash, as long as your first ticket can be covered fully with points. You can use your credit card to pay for the rest.
Important: You also need to have enough points to cover entirely the 2nd ticket. I had points leftover after purchasing the first ticket, but not enough to cover the second one completely. It wouldn't take the remaining points and finish the purchase with cash. It wanted the entire second ticket with cash.
I also looked at itineraries where I wouldn't have enough for one ticket, and it requested payment for all tickets.
I hope that's more real-life for you, haha
That's definitely helpful (thanks!) but real-time rewards is still lacking clarity, which is the only way I would redeem the points (the portal would be useless to me).
I have a feeling it's all-or-nothing with real-time redemption, but that could possibly be worked-around by doing a split-payment at the time of checkout (i.e. have the clerk run a charge for an amount that would be completely covered by rewards, then pay the remaining balance due in a second transaction).
In any case it's still an exceptional card, and I hope they don't mess things up by nerfing it later on. <fingers crossed>
@UncleB wrote:
@imaximous wrote:
@UncleB wrote:
@imaximous wrote:I hope this doesn't add to the confusion on points redemption, but here's an extract from the Rewards Program Rules on the AR site:
"You may obtain airline tickets with a combination of Points redemption and purchase; however, the first ticket must be covered in full by Points redemption before any additional tickets may be purchased. Other travel-related redemptions, such as for hotels and car rentals, must be paid in full with all Points or purchase."
I've been reading that Real Time only triggers if you have enough points to cover the entire purchase -- not partial.
I've read that before as well... thus why I'm unsure of exactly how it works in 'real-life'.
Ok, since I had time to kill, I went to the AR rewards site and booked a dummy reservation using their internal portal. For hotels and car rentals, you can only make points reservations if you have enough for the entire itinerary. If you don't, it asks for a credit card to pay for the full amount. No option for both points and cash.
For travel, I tested 2 plane tickets at once, and made sure I could cover the first with just points. The site allows you to book with both points and cash, as long as your first ticket can be covered fully with points. You can use your credit card to pay for the rest.
Important: You also need to have enough points to cover entirely the 2nd ticket. I had points leftover after purchasing the first ticket, but not enough to cover the second one completely. It wouldn't take the remaining points and finish the purchase with cash. It wanted the entire second ticket with cash.
I also looked at itineraries where I wouldn't have enough for one ticket, and it requested payment for all tickets.
I hope that's more real-life for you, haha
That's definitely helpful (thanks!) but real-time rewards is still lacking clarity, which is the only way I would redeem the points (the portal would be useless to me).
I have a feeling it's all-or-nothing with real-time redemption, but that could possibly be worked-around by doing a split-payment at the time of checkout (i.e. have the clerk run a charge for an amount that would be completely covered by rewards, then pay the remaining balance due in a second transaction).
In any case it's still an exceptional card, and I hope they don't mess things up by nerfing it later on. <fingers crossed>
Agreed. The only way I plan to redeem my points is with Real Time Rewards. I just tested the portal to get a picture of how redemptions work, and I'm almost positive it works the same for Real Time. I've read a bunch of user data, and they said that you need to have enough points in your account for RTR to trigger the text message.
The system is a little complicated and confusing because I've read that you get the redemption text message when you make the purchase, so that's based on the initial authorization. If you cancel the purchase, you don't get points back, but a $ credit to your account in the respective amount.
What I'd like to get more data on is when you purchase more than 1 plane ticket. Let's say 5 tickets, for instance. Typically, airlines get an authorization for the full amount (all 5 tickets), but then, they split the purchase by the number of tickets. So you end up getting separate transactions for each ticket individually. If the RTR text message is supposed to trigger upon initial authorization, you may not have enough to cover the whole purchase, but you probably would for single tickets depending on the number of points you have.
In those situations, your workaround would be ideal because I may not have $5k in points for 5 tickets, but may have $2k in points to cover 2 tickets, and then I'd have to use a different card to pay for the rest. If I don't split the purchase in 2 cards, I won't even trigger the RTR text message because there isn't enough points to cover the initial authorization on the card. Therefore, you lose a chance to use points altogether.
Thanks for the infomation.
It was definitely helpful with understanding how it worked.
When I played around with the system. It made it seem like you could cover the rest with cash if you didn’t have enough points. Guess that’s not the case.
Thanks
It was definitely helpful with understanding how it worked.
When I played around with the system. It made it seem like you could cover the rest with cash if you didn’t have enough points. Guess that’s not the case.
Thanks
