July 18Jul 18 28 minutes ago, LCHorn said: I’m a little skeptical on some of the proposed use cases for AI, but a good one would be to analyze spending patterns and to recommend the best card. I actually did some analysis using ChatGPT and the Chase Sapphire Preferred was suggested, but it was just a small sample of spending patterns. I need to find an easy way to get my purchases from the last 2 years analyzed without putting any personal information out there. Edited July 18Jul 18 by mycox
July 18Jul 18 1 hour ago, LCHorn said: Same, my wife is keeping hers, however (at least that’s the plan, currently). I haven’t found a suitable replacement yet; our travel is predominately foreign and it seems like some of the better alternatives (Amex, for example) are far less widely accepted than VISA. I’m a little skeptical on some of the proposed use cases for AI, but a good one would be to analyze spending patterns and to recommend the best card. I haven't found anything that beats the combo of CSR and Amex Platinum. I know fees are high, but you get 80-90% of that back through credits and things like Precheck.
July 18Jul 18 I would probably get back $400 of the CSR $800 credit. I won't renew precheck for another 4 years.
July 18Jul 18 13 minutes ago, Chewbacca said: I haven't found anything that beats the combo of CSR and Amex Platinum. I know fees are high, but you get 80-90% of that back through credits and things like Precheck. Do you? I’m pretty down conceptually on how the supposed credits are “tuned” to limit their value (like selling a $120 Door Dash credit but it’s actually $10 a month for 12 months-both of these cards are replete with that kind of chicanery). Precheck is $120 once every four years. Chase touts it because it’s marketing their card as the best for travelers, so it’s a complimentary offering, but the actual value isn’t that high. My big concern with switching is a) Chase and Amex are really pretty good when it comes to resolving disputed charges, b) additional warranty coverage on some purchases and c) built in trip insurance (which I actually have reason to need because we do a good bit of flying out of ABIA (so not direct) and I bet we end up delayed 50% of our trips.
July 18Jul 18 16 minutes ago, LCHorn said: Do you? I’m pretty down conceptually on how the supposed credits are “tuned” to limit their value (like selling a $120 Door Dash credit but it’s actually $10 a month for 12 months-both of these cards are replete with that kind of chicanery). Precheck is $120 once every four years. Chase touts it because it’s marketing their card as the best for travelers, so it’s a complimentary offering, but the actual value isn’t that high. My big concern with switching is a) Chase and Amex are really pretty good when it comes to resolving disputed charges, b) additional warranty coverage on some purchases and c) built in trip insurance (which I actually have reason to need because we do a good bit of flying out of ABIA (so not direct) and I bet we end up delayed 50% of our trips. Don't forget lounge access, too. That's worth a few hundred a year to me since I use it probably 5-6 times.
July 18Jul 18 45 minutes ago, Chewbacca said: I haven't found anything that beats the combo of CSR and Amex Platinum. I know fees are high, but you get 80-90% of that back through credits and things like Precheck. If you are beholden to a hotel and airline franchise owning their branded cards is a no brainer. There is almost no day to day spending you should do on a plat. The only reason to have it is for the lifestyle credits and the GE/Clear and ailine fee reimbursement which for me personally I can get my fee back. Their lounges are completely unusable at this point.
July 18Jul 18 Just now, Chewbacca said: Don't forget lounge access, too. That's worth a few hundred a year to me since I use it probably 5-6 times. On the Chase side, the Priority Pass lounges are crowded, ghetto or non-existent. I might swing by for a free Diet Coke, but I’m not drinking a fucking Heineken and stuffing my face with a ham and cheese croissant right before I depart, and because I fly out of ABIA I’m usually sprinting to my connect. It’s frankly been more valuable when you can get credit at some random restaurant. I presume that’s why Chase is trying to build out their own lounges.
July 18Jul 18 1 minute ago, midtown said: If you are beholden to a hotel and airline franchise owning their branded cards is a no brainer. There is almost no day to day spending you should do on a plat. The only reason to have it is for the lifestyle credits and the GE/Clear and ailine fee reimbursement which for me personally I can get my fee back. Their lounges are completely unusable at this point. I put business spend on the plat and personal spend on the CSR. I know I could optimize for points but I don't really care to. Currently sitting on about 1.5 million miles combined.
July 18Jul 18 1 minute ago, LCHorn said: On the Chase side, the Priority Pass lounges are crowded, ghetto or non-existent. I might swing by for a free Diet Coke, but I’m not drinking a fucking Heineken and stuffing my face with a ham and cheese croissant right before I depart, and because I fly out of ABIA I’m usually sprinting to my connect. It’s frankly been more valuable when you can get credit at some random restaurant. I presume that’s why Chase is trying to build out their own lounges. Most of my lounge time is in the Amex lounge in either DFW or IAH when my flight gets delayed, but I have managed to swing by a couple of Chase lounges. Agreed on the Priority Pass lounges. They are trash.
July 18Jul 18 3 minutes ago, Chewbacca said: Most of my lounge time is in the Amex lounge in either DFW or IAH when my flight gets delayed, but I have managed to swing by a couple of Chase lounges. Agreed on the Priority Pass lounges. They are trash. Most lounges are trash now. With PP being the worst. AMEX you can barely get into because the whole planet has a plat now and even the guest rule hasnt seemed to help. The united lounges are hti and miss; they can get crazy crowded and they are filled with kids its seems. Its almost better now to sit out in the concourse and have a bite and drink out there.
July 18Jul 18 3 minutes ago, midtown said: Most lounges are trash now. With PP being the worst. AMEX you can barely get into because the whole planet has a plat now and even the guest rule hasnt seemed to help. The united lounges are hti and miss; they can get crazy crowded and they are filled with kids its seems. Its almost better now to sit out in the concourse and have a bite and drink out there. We hit up the United lounge in DIA in May when our flight to Reykjavik was delayed (had access through Icelandair). I was sorely disappointed. Food was terribad and I had to pay $15 for a Hendricks and tonic. We should have just stayed in the terminal and gotten some food. Amex lounges are much better but, as you say, quite overcrowded. Amex needs to raise their fee to cut some of the riff raff. Edited July 18Jul 18 by Chewbacca
July 18Jul 18 1 minute ago, Chewbacca said: Amex needs to raise their fee to cut some of the riff raff. I'd rather they just raise their required credit score. That would solve a bunch of the problems. You can't tell me all those people have 800 credit scores
July 18Jul 18 CSR also has a $300 generic travel credit each year, so if you take just one trip it chops that off the annual fee immediately.
July 18Jul 18 Just now, Biff Tannen said: CSR also has a $300 generic travel credit each year, so if you take just one trip it chops that off the annual fee immediately. And toll roads count towards that, too.
July 18Jul 18 14 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said: CSR also has a $300 generic travel credit each year, so if you take just one trip it chops that off the annual fee immediately. They are increasing the fee to $800 this year. I agree the Chase lounges are trash these days, and a let of terminals don't have Chase lounges anymore. They don't even offer restaurant credit anymore. The Lyft perk is nice, however. Edited July 18Jul 18 by mycox
July 18Jul 18 2 hours ago, LCHorn said: Same, my wife is keeping hers, however (at least that’s the plan, currently). I haven’t found a suitable replacement yet; our travel is predominately foreign and it seems like some of the better alternatives (Amex, for example) are far less widely accepted than VISA. I’m a little skeptical on some of the proposed use cases for AI, but a good one would be to analyze spending patterns and to recommend the best card. I'm sure the CC companies, Apple Pay, etc. are doing that in the the background but giving that type of data to Google, Amazon or Grok could lead to some interesting targeted marketing.
August 3Aug 3 Anyone know wny the extra fee for travel on AA to or through LHR have dropped for some business class rewards tickets? The extra fee was ~$1k but now I'm finding $18. Just found a couple for 55k miles + 18USD fees from Denver to Italy (with an LHR connection) in October. After my purchase I looked to see if the same deal was available for direct to LHR, and it is - on some but not all flights. The low fees are also shown for Alaska redemptions on AA metal. Edited August 3Aug 3 by Chopper
August 3Aug 3 That fee is/was a “fuel surcharge” or some shit. Haven’t heard about it changing, but wouldn’t surprise me if enough of the right people bitched.
August 4Aug 4 16 minutes ago, millhouse said: Is it on BA or is it on AA? BA is like 1k more in most cases through LHR I think that's right. It's been awhile since I did a AA mileage redemption through LHR. It appears Heathrow reduced their landing fees, which seems to also play a part. The $737.50 is a BA flight and the $5.60 is AA. I don't remember AA fees to London being that low in quite awhile though.
August 4Aug 4 Unless you are really wanting to try the a380 or save miles, you should do that flight through ORD. That 78P is the new flagship layoutAA edit: Also check and make sure you are business all the way through. Some legs may not be in the class you are hoping for Edited August 4Aug 4 by millhouse
August 4Aug 4 On 7/18/2025 at 12:54 PM, LCHorn said: On the Chase side, the Priority Pass lounges are crowded, ghetto or non-existent. I might swing by for a free Diet Coke, but I’m not drinking a fucking Heineken and stuffing my face with a ham and cheese croissant right before I depart, and because I fly out of ABIA I’m usually sprinting to my connect. It’s frankly been more valuable when you can get credit at some random restaurant. I presume that’s why Chase is trying to build out their own lounges. I was shocked there was a lounge in AUS. It was actually not bad but very small. The prices at the restaurants in AUS are outrageous. I am always shocked at the number of morbidly obese folks waddling around the terminal. On 7/18/2025 at 1:02 PM, midtown said: Most lounges are trash now. With PP being the worst. AMEX you can barely get into because the whole planet has a plat now and even the guest rule hasnt seemed to help. The united lounges are hti and miss; they can get crazy crowded and they are filled with kids its seems. Its almost better now to sit out in the concourse and have a bite and drink out there. There is a kind of cycle to this. During COVID, I was flying transatlantic with 50 passengers on the 787. Two years later you could not get an empty seat. Centurion lounges all have waitlists now, it kind of sucks. Less so in Europe because they remain poor. On the other hand, when you need it, sometimes it is there and it's awesome. ANC headsets help a lot. Edited August 4Aug 4 by Thetexashammer
August 18Aug 18 I have to make a ~ $4500 purchase and I initially was just going to put it on my Chase Sapphire Preferred to rack up some points but then I thought hmmm....the 5/24 rule isn't in my way anymore, maybe I should apply for a new card with a $5k spend bonus in the first 3 months and get some real points. The only really good bonuses I'm seeing are for the reserve and the ink business, but that is an $8k spend. Any recs?
August 18Aug 18 Sorry I was in a hurry with that post. I'm out of DTW so Delta but I already have all of Amex cards. preferred Hotel is Marriott (or AirBnb/VRBO) but I have the Bonvoy card. I think Chase points make the most sense because of flexibility and transfer partners so I was leaning that way. My award travel is always going to be for 4 people so adding a bunch of points to my Chase bank would be ideal, I think, but I'm not expert level at the travel hacking stuff which is why I threw it out to you all.
August 18Aug 18 Freedom Unlimited, and merge points to Sapphire? Not a big bonus, but you’ll get more points overall from general spend vice categorized. (they do have bonus cats each quarter as well, so points to be had there.) Then every so often you move those points to your sapphire, no problem, and instant transfer.
August 18Aug 18 Question, the Chase Southwest RR card has a 100k "bonus points" offer after $4k spend. I'm not seeing in the t&c whether those points are Chase points or RR miles. I'm guessing the latter? If they're regular Chase points I think this would fit the bill. I am half considering the Sapphire preferred as some of the credits may offset the annual fee. The Southwest card only has a $99 annual fee.
August 18Aug 18 Just now, Baboontyme said: Question, the Chase Southwest RR card has a 100k "bonus points" offer after $4k spend. I'm not seeing in the t&c whether those points are Chase points or RR miles. I'm guessing the latter? If they're regular Chase points I think this would fit the bill. I am half considering the Sapphire preferred as some of the credits may offset the annual fee. The Southwest card only has a $99 annual fee. They're SW points. Unless you're going for a companion pass, keep looking. Sapphire pref/resv, and Freedom Unlimited are the only two I can think of (off the top of my head, on the personal, non-business side) that earn chase points. Anything I can get the kicker percentages on for the Sapphire, I do. Anything else (not covered with another card/kicker percentage) goes on the Freedom Unlimited. 2% is 2%, which beats no %. I just moved ~30k points off my Freedom to my Sapphire.
August 18Aug 18 If you are looking at transferring out of chase and into a redemption in another program, that can give you more options to look at. If that’s the case, find a card that also transfers to those partners. Once transferred, points are points in whatever system, and where they came from doesn’t matter. Chase tends to have one of the better point values with transfers, or at least they did. If trying to use points as cash through chase travel, don’t.
August 18Aug 18 1 hour ago, thunderlounge said: If you are looking at transferring out of chase and into a redemption in another program, that can give you more options to look at. If that’s the case, find a card that also transfers to those partners. Once transferred, points are points in whatever system, and where they came from doesn’t matter. Chase tends to have one of the better point values with transfers, or at least they did. If trying to use points as cash through chase travel, don’t. Definitely would utilize transfer partners. I'm thinking about going for the Reserve for a year. 100k points when I hit $5k plus $500 Chase travel bonus. I would use the Apple TV, Door dash and might even sign up for Global Entry as next year's trip will probably be abroad. That should negate the annual fee. Then cancel before next year's fee unless I change my mind. I have plenty of open cards and unused credit so I'm not worried about closing a card after a year. Anything I'm not thinking about here? Is the $500 travel credit through Chase straightforward to use? I should then have a nice stash of Chase points to shop around through partners for next summer.
August 18Aug 18 You wouldn’t have to cancel, just downgrade from reserve to preferred (or just plain sapphire, if still offered) and put a tank of gas on it 3-4 times a year.
August 22Aug 22 FYI the Chase Reserve card bonus is now 125k points after 5k spend. Unfortunately I am ineligible I guess because I collected the bonus for the Preferred card. At least they told me during the application before the credit pull. I wound up going with the Amex Delta Gold which gave me 60k Skymiles after 4k spend.
September 8Sep 8 I guess there's nothing open at T3 (AA) at O'hare after 11 on a weeknight? I have an upcoming connecting flight to Japan. Edited September 8Sep 8 by Chopper
September 8Sep 8 2 hours ago, thunderlounge said: Flagship Lounge is open. Everything I've found online says 9:45pm
September 18Sep 18 Amex Platinum raising annual fee from $695 to $895 beginning end of the year. Seems like there are some new benefits (Lululemon credit?).
September 18Sep 18 1 hour ago, Native Horn said: Amex Platinum raising annual fee from $695 to $895 beginning end of the year. Seems like there are some new benefits (Lululemon credit?) I just did a quick calculation. The hotel credit is a joke. Their hotels are always much more expensive. Looks like it still makes since for me Airline fee $200 Entertainment $300 Resy Credit $400 Uber $200 CLEAR $200 Walmart+ $144 SAKS $100 $1,544 Edited September 18Sep 18 by midtown
September 30Sep 30 On 9/18/2025 at 10:05 AM, midtown said: I just did a quick calculation. The hotel credit is a joke. Their hotels are always much more expensive. Looks like it still makes since for me Mine renewed this month so I have another 11 months to decide. fwiw there's also the lululemon credit too that's $75 every quarter...looks like they have socks and stuff anyone can use The uber credit is actually now 15/month (25 I think in december) PLUS the reimbursement of 200$ for uber one If you haven't used your resy or lululemon credit this month it's not too late you still can buy gift cards - edit gift card option was shut down today. I believe regular online orders are okay. For resy select a restaurant here and buy a giift card online from that restaurant's toast page. But for both of these keep in mind the quarter ends tonight. https://useyourcredits.com/maps/resy/ explainer if you want it https://www.reddit.com/r/amex/s/uA0PSwXrfN Edited September 30Sep 30 by Chopper
November 29Nov 29 Heads up: Iberia had a data breech. "Allegedly" only first/last name, email, and your Iberia FF #.
November 29Nov 29 holy moly and lol if you're scheduled to fly on a A320 anywhere in the world at anytime over the next few weeks - thousands of the jets are being recalled for an urgent software update. Avianca stopped selling tickets because that's practically their entire fleet. Quote Industry sources said a sharp loss of altitude on a JetBlue flight on October 30 from Cancun, Mexico, to Newark, New Jersey, that injured several passengers had triggered the Airbus recall. https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/japans-ana-cancels-65-flights-saturday-after-airbus-a320-recall-2025-11-29/
November 30Nov 30 Need some AA Advantage help. Long story short I have 174k Advantage miles. I fly United and I've qualifeid for plat again. I just want to use these up and be done with AA. I'd like to fly from SAT to LHR for a match then use the trains to go somewhere else. Probalby Ghent or Bruges etc then into AMS and home a week later. Jan 15-24ish First is just out of range pts wise but prem is. I don't mind prem since the flight over the atlantic is 9 hours. Is there a transfer partner where I can get into first with 174k? Teach me AA pepole My other option is to just fly United and get all my perks and save these and take some hoe on a trip Edited November 30Nov 30 by midtown
November 30Nov 30 4 hours ago, midtown said: Need some AA Advantage help. Long story short I have 174k Advantage miles. I fly United and I've qualifeid for plat again. I just want to use these up and be done with AA. I'd like to fly from SAT to LHR for a match then use the trains to go somewhere else. Probalby Ghent or Bruges etc then into AMS and home a week later. Jan 15-24ish First is just out of range pts wise but prem is. I don't mind prem since the flight over the atlantic is 9 hours. Is there a transfer partner where I can get into first with 174k? Teach me AA pepole My other option is to just fly United and get all my perks and save these and take some hoe on a trip AA saver rate is cheapest. First class you could do rt or 1 way with 2 people edit to add Saver rate in biz is 57,500 but quite often it's either combined with a BA flight which means a $760ish fee per ticket. Economy starts at 22,500 miles and then if you want to ugrade to their version of premium economy I think your only choice is to pay coin (not miles). Edited November 30Nov 30 by Chopper
December 2Dec 2 Maybe it's on another thread, but Capital One Venture X has a 100k bonus after $10k in first 6 months right now.
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