With the 2-year anniversary of the Chase Sapphire Reserve card upon us, and the rate with which my 7-month-old son is outgrowing clothes (we’re in 18-month outfits already!), it has become time to re-evaluate the annual fees I am paying to keep credit cards. Today, I’m going to examine my stable of “ultra-premium” cards (those with annual fees of ~$350 or more) as I try to determine which one(s) belong on the chopping block.
Too many ultra-premium cards
When evaluating our current position, one thing became immediately clear: my wife and I have too many ultra-premium cards to keep them all. Currently, we have the following cards that I would consider “ultra-premium” (note a couple are listed twice in this table because we each have them, though in value-comparison tables after this I list each card once):
| Card Name | Annual fee at time of writing |
| Citi Prestige | $450* |
| Chase Sapphire Reserve | $ |
| Chase Ritz-Carlton Rewards | $450** |
| Amex Hilton Aspire | $450 |
| Amex Hilton Aspire | $450 |
| Amex Business Platinum | $450 |
| Amex Business Platinum | $450 |
*While the Citi Prestige annual fee is $450, I was grandfathered in to a $350 AF
**While the Chase Ritz-Carlton annual fee is $450, I was grandfathered in to a $395 AF
Accounting for lower grandfathered annual fees I enjoy on the Ritz and Prestige cards, that’s still $2,995 per year in annual fees between the two of us. And that’s only our premium cards. Could we possibly be getting enough value out of these cards beyond the price tag to keep all of them? I was skeptical.
A look at benefits
While some cards earn a good return for everyday spend and others offer killer bonus categories, you usually pick up a premium card for its benefits. If fact, premium cards sometimes come with such great benefits that they feel like a win in comparison to the annual fee.
Here is a quick rundown of those cards with a summary of the most important benefits to me as well as a counterpoint on carrying each. Click the card name for more information about each card:
| Card Info Name and Link Only (no offer) |
|---|
Key benefits: $250 annual airline credit, 4th night free on hotel stays, ability to pool and transfer points to partners, Priority Pass, trip delay coverage, price protection
Counterargument: Trip delay no longer pays for missed connections and price protection has been reduced. I don’t often pay for hotel nights, so I may not use the 4th night free every year.
| Card Info Name and Link Only (no offer) |
|---|
Key benefits: Easy $300 travel credit can be triggered by flights, hotels, award fees, tolls, parking, etc. I have used points through the portal at 1.5 cents each more times than I anticipated. Primary CDW coverage is great to have when you need it.
Counterargument: Most of the other benefits are redundant with other cards that offer even more benefit.
| Card Info Name and Link Only (no offer) |
|---|
Key benefits: Annual free night up to 50K, $300 airline incidentals credit, $100 Visa Infinite airfare discount when buying two RT domestic coach tickets, Unlimited Priority Pass visits, Primary CDW coverage
Counterargument: The incidental credits are not automatic (have to call or secure message) and can be harder to get. My Southwest Companion Pass means I don’t often use the $100 airfare discount.
| Card Info Name and Link Only (no offer) |
|---|
Key benefits: Annual free weekend night, $250 airline incidentals credit, $250 Hilton resort credit, Hilton Diamond status
Counterargument: Hard to argue with this one. Value easily outweighs the cost. Main drawback is that lack of travel protections mean it is necessary to carry another premium card.
| Card Info Name and Link Only (no offer) |
|---|
Key benefits: $200 airline incidentals credit, National Rental Car Executive Status, Hilton Gold (free breakfast), access to Fine Hotels & Resorts.
Counterargument: National Executive status actually comes with most of these cards. Hilton Gold won’t matter if I keep an Aspire card. Fine Hotels & Resorts is nice, but Chase has its own very similar Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection and many of the same benefits can be realized via Virtuoso without any specific credit card required.
That gives a quick glance at what I view as the key benefits of each card without much detail — see the individual card pages linked above for more information on those benefits and links to further posts about them.
My next step was to try to figure out how these cards compared with regard to benefits that matter to me. I made the following chart so I could see overlap and gas at a glance. Of course, this chart does not feature a comprehensive list of all of the benefits, but rather compares a number of key benefits which are generally offered by more than one of these cards.
| Card | Airfare/Airline Credit | Hotel Credit | Annual Free Night | Priority Pass | Trip Delay Coverage time | National Executive Status | Hilton Status | Marriott Status | Primary CDW |
| Citi Prestige | $250 airfare | – | 4th night free | 2 guests | 6 hours | Yes | – | – | Outside USA |
| CSR | $300 travel | – | 2 guests | 6 hours | Yes | – | – | Yes | |
| Chase Ritz | $300 incidentals | $100 at Rtiz* | Yes (Max 50K) | Unlimited guests | 6 hours | Yes | – | Gold | Yes |
| Amex Hilton Aspire | $250 incidentals | $250 at resorts | Yes (any hotel, weekend only) | 2 guests | – | – | Diamond | – | – |
| Amex Biz Plat | $200 incidentals | – | – | 2 guests | – | Yes | Gold | Gold | – |
Wow. That surprised me a bit. If you had asked me before writing this post which of the premium cards I was most likely to drop, the Ritz probably would have been my answer. Yet looking at the above comparison, it would seem like the card with the widest range of benefits. Note that the $100 hotel credit has an asterisk because it requires booking a specific rate, which must be done over the phone and may not be the cheapest rate.
Even more surprising to me was the clear dead-last finish of the Amex Business Platinum card. I’ve long thought of that card as my favorite premium card for its benefits, yet it clearly wasn’t setting itself apart in any of the categories above compared to the competition.
Beyond that, it was also easy to see that there are a number of overlapping benefits. For example, all of these cards offer Priority Pass. While the Ritz card theoretically comes with unlimited guests (keep in mind that the lounge itself might still turn you away if you show up with too much of an entourage), they all provide for at least 2 guests. Further, all of these cards other than the Aspire cards offer National Rental Car Executive status. I’ll admit that it long escaped me that this was true of most Visa Infinite cards (like the CSR and Ritz cards). I really enjoy paying for a mid-size vehicle and then selecting what I want from the Executive area when I arrive with National. Little did I know that I didn’t need an Amex Platinum card to get that benefit.
Assigning some value
Here at Frequent Miler, we display credit card welcome offers with an estimated first year value. Those estimates are automatically figured by a spreadsheet we maintain. Greg has documented his process for valuing benefits like statement credits and free night awards for the purposes of determining first year value (See: Credit card signup bonus estimation details and Unbiased credit card rankings: a work in progress). That said, I figured it was worth looking at my cards with my own personal valuation of the benefits. My personal valuations are much more subjective than our rankings on “Best of” pages, which are automatically populated by the spreadsheet. Here were my personal values for these cards based on my use:
| Card | Annual fee | Benefits | Value | Methodology | Net annual fee |
| Citi Prestige | $350* | $250 airfare credit, 4th night free, ability to transfer to partners | $300 | Airfare statement credit at face value plus $50 value for 4th night free based on saving $150 once every 3 years | $50 |
| CSR | $550 | $300 travel credits, points worth 1.5c, CDW | $350 | Statement credit at face value, estimated $25 value for CDW and $25 value for ability to use points at 1.5c each | $100 |
| Chase Ritz | $395 | $300 airline credits, unlimited PP, $100 airfare discount, 50K free night) | $405 | 85% face value airline credits, $150 value free night | -$10 |
| Amex Aspire | $450 | $250 airline credit, $250 Hilton resort credit, 1 free weekend night anywhere, Diamond status | $625 | 90% face value on airline and resort credits, $150 value on free weekend night), $25 value for free breakfast at Hiltons via status | -$175 |
| Amex Biz Plat | $450 | $200 airline credits, Hilton Gold status | $205 | 90% face value on airline credit, $25 value for free breakfast at Hiltons via status | $245 |
As you can see, based on my valuations, a couple of cards come out to a negative cost — in other words offering more value than the price of admission. I expect some controversy over the way I valued some of those benefits (and assigned no value to others). There is definitely subjectivity in my valuation of statement credits. As you can see above, I valued the statement credits for the Citi Prestige and CSR at face value. I know that will draw the ire of some in the comments below who will deride my poor accounting and lack of account for the time value of money. They will say that by essentially pre-paying for travel, I am losing the liquidity of my money and its ability to earn interest in the bank not to mention the risk of the credits going unused. I can’t argue that those folks are wrong. On the other hand, I usually have those credits spent within the first month or so simply because I’m frequently booking travel and those credits have such little restriction. A year has not passed and I don’t expect it will in the foreseeable future where we don’t travel enough or book enough travel for family and friends to spend at least $250 a year on airfare and/or $300 on total travel. I can’t justify devaluing those credits by a consequential amount (the most I consider the opportunity cost to be is a couple of dollars in interest), so I kept those at face value.
On the other hand, I only valued the Ritz airline incidental credits at 85% of face value. That’s because they are the most restrictive of the credits. While they can cover fees at any airline, you need to call or secure message to be credited and YMMV as to which charges will be covered. I also kept a very low value on the free night certificates that come with both the Ritz and Aspire cards. It should be difficult to get less than $150 in value out of those. Each cert has its pros and cons: the Hilton certificate is limited to weekend nights but is valid at almost any property worldwide whereas the Ritz certificate is capped at hotels charging up to 50K points but can be used any night of the week (subject to availability). I kept those equal, though if pressed I’d personally value the Hilton certificate a bit more since Hilton usually doesn’t tack on resort/destination fees on award nights and I am usually looking to use a valuable certificate on a weekend night anyway. I suspect many other folks would value the Ritz certificate more due to its validity any day of the week.
So what will I keep?
Looking at my valuation of the benefits, the clear winners are the Aspire cards and Ritz card. That said, I don’t expect to stay invested in Marriott beyond 2019 (likely my only year of Platinum status), so I’m somewhat hesitant to consider it a long-term keeper if it means having to drop something else. I very much undervalued the 4th night free benefit on the Prestige card so as not to overstate its value and because I rarely stay in one hotel for four nights and also typically use points. That said, I’ve made one reservation this year that saved me $352 with that benefit. Last year, I used it twice and saved around $150 each time. I probably won’t use it every year, but I’ll use it enough to likely eclipse the cost of keeping the card for at least a couple of years. Furthermore, I love my AT&T Access More card and need to pair it with a card that can transfer to partners. It would be hard to justify downgrading to a card that provides less year-to-year value.
So unexpectedly, that has me looking at the Sapphire Reserve and the Business Platinum cards as expendable. We don’t need to have a Sapphire Reserve in the household. I valued the ability to use points at 1.5 cents each at $25 per year — meaning I estimate that this saves me at least 10K points per year over only getting 1.25 cents each with an Ink Business Preferred card. While I never redeemed points through the Chase portal before the Sapphire Reserve card, I have used points at 1.5 cents each more often than I would have expected. That said, the card does not really offer much else that I won’t get by keeping either the Prestige or Ritz cards, and I more often transfer to partners (which I can do with a cheaper card than the CSR). The travel credit is much more flexible on the Sapphire Reserve — but I am obviously free to spend $300 on travel with or without the CSR in my pocket. However, another consideration on this card is the fact that while Chase recently instituted 48-month language on the Sapphire cards, referral links still have 24-month language. If we keep a CSR, we can still earn up to 50K points per year in referrals. As long as that is true, this might be the deciding factor in keeping it.
And so that leaves me in an unexpected place: with the Business Platinum cards likely on the chopping block. While an Amex Platinum card was long the standard for a premium card with premium benefits, it just isn’t standing out as much to me as it has in the past. Furthermore, with the Ameriprise version of the personal Platinum available with the first-year fee waived should we decide we need one of its unique benefits again, I’m not sure it makes sense to continue to pay the annual fee on this one. One benefit I did not include in my analysis is emergency evacuation, which the many flavors of Platinum card cover courtesy of being a cardholder — you do not need to have paid for your trip on the card. Having peace of mind that we can be evacuated in a medical emergency is nice — but is it worth $900 a year between the two of us? Probably not.
I’m going to give myself a few more days to contemplate these cards before making my final decisions. Beyond the analysis here, the upgrade offer to move my SPG card to an SPG Luxury card looms and is a further motivating factor in determining what to keep and what to toss — adding another $450 card to the mix without nixing anything just doesn’t seem prudent.
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[…] fall, I published a post about trying to slim down my collection of ultra-premium cards. In that post, I concluded that the most expendable ultra-premium cards in my household are the […]
[…] week, I wrote a post about considering which ultra-premium credit cards to keep (those with annual fees of $350 or more). That post inspired Greg to make an awesome spreadsheet […]
The Hilton Ascend is a better deal than the Hilton Aspire. Only $95 annual fee with $100 of airline incidentals, 10 passes for yourself + a guest for priority pass, $100 TSA/Global entry every 4 years, Gold status, no Fx fees, 6x multiplier on common spend categories along with some other fringe benefits.
I generally do not believe in the ultra premium cards unless there is a very specific benefit you use on a consistent basis. I went through a similar analysis on my own (keep in mind I do not have any premium cards. My cards are a mix of the mid tier cards + free cards). My analysis yielded a mix of 2-3 cards that have ~$100 annual fee and a handful of free cards for max value. I have long held the Gold AMEX, which is my most expensive annual fee but will be dropping that before next fee is due. Keeping my blue card (free) to retain my legacy balance of points. Unless you want to pay for the “status symbol” of the premium cards or as I mentioned before can exploit a specific benefit those ultra premium cards do not provide the best value
I can definitely see the appeal of the Ascend, especially if you’re not interested in staying at a Hilton Resort. However, you have a couple of benefits listed that don’t exist. The Ascend card does not have a $100 airline incidental credit nor does it have $100 Global Entry / TSA credit.
I stand corrected. I still think it is best value as far as an AMEX goes for those of us that do not live in an airport. AMEX gold is overpriced at $195 per year and I have contemplated upgrading to platinum strictly for the airport lounge access but do not fly with long layovers enough to warrant. If I convert my AMEX gold => Ascend, I essentially get that benefit (limited to 10 times per year). The other benefits are more or less that same except you save $100 (51%) per year and accrue Hilton instead of AMEX points. You can get TSA fees reimbursed through most employers or a number of other cards. Saving $100 cash is much better than having to spend it on incidentals to have that “savings”. If AMEX points are really important can get a free blue card to accrue those with only loss being the 2x/3x multiplier that I do not see being all that lucrative
Do you agree with my sentiment that the premium cards are generally not the best value unless you are a high frequency traveler who can exploit one of those premium card specific benefits?
Your question is kind of like: “Do you agree that ordering a steak and potatoes isn’t a good value if you’re a vegetarian and only want the salad course?”. :-). If you aren’t going to use the benefits, of course it’s not worth it to pay the fee. No argument from me there.
However, my subjective opinion is that the Aspire is a tremendous value. I mostly fly Southwest when I travel domestically because I have the Companion Pass. Since I can trigger the $250 incidentals credit with gift cards or cheap flights and then use that to fly both my wife and I for the price of 1 passenger, that’s easily worth close to face value to me.
I’ve previously written a post showing how you can get value out of the $250 Hilton resort credit even if you only stay at a Hilton resort every other year:
https://frequentmiler.com/2018/07/12/maximize-hilton-resort-credit/
I have not in the past stayed at a Hilton resort every other year, but I have stayed at Hilton resorts sometimes and now that I have a family I will have no qualms with a Hilton resort stay at least every other year. I don’t assign it full face value, but I won’t have to struggle to get value out of it, either.
I spend a couple of weekends a year in New York City, where I’ll easily get $200+ in value from a free weekend night certificate. You could go really crazy with those if you’re able to use them at a property like the Conrad Tokyo or Conrad Maldives (where you could use it for an overwater bungalow…though you’d obviously want to have the points to spend more than one night). Whether or not that has value to you depends on your travel.
Even if I assign no value at all to things like Priority Pass and Global Entry credit (which I don’t since those benefits come with other cards I keep), the Aspire is worth it to me. Paired with an Ascend for 6x at grocery stores and restaurants, it can be an easy way to amass Hilton points and enjoy good stays. On that note, Diamond access giving lounge access can be valuable in terms of saving you some money on food. I enjoy eating out when I travel, but if I go somewhere for several nights and the lounge can hold me over one night, that’s more of my travel budget to put toward a notable meal another night. If I had teenage kids, I imagine the lounge would save me a measurable amount.
So my opinion is that the Apsire is well worth while. I’d pair it with an Ascend and spend $15K per year on the Ascend (likely in large part at the grocery store) for a free weekend night and a stash of points. Speaking of a stash, since Hilton allows points pooling, you can also build a nice stash if you’re playing this game in 2-player mode and picking up a few Hilton bonuses together.
As for the Amex Gold, I have no interest at all in it apart from its welcome bonus. I don’t see any scenario where that card is a long term keeper. As you note, it makes a lot more sense to either get 2x everywhere with no annual fee or pony up an extra $255 for the Business Platinum if you value its benefits (preferably with an upgrade offer to get something like 50K for upgrading).
I don’t think comparing the Gold and Hilton makes sense in terms of everyday earning. 1 Membership Rewards point on everyday spend is worth more than 3 Hilton points per dollar unless you mostly redeem your Hilton points at places like the Conrad Maldives / Conrad Tokyo. Most of the time, Hilton points are going to be worth around half a cent each, meaning your return on everyday spend is about 1.5%. You’d do better with a Citi Double Cash — again, unless you’re redeeming your Hilton points only at high value. It’s not impossible to get 1 cent per point from Hilton points, but those opportunities are few and far between. It really makes the most sense to use the Ascend at grocery stores and restaurants while working towards the $15K spend since you’re pairing both 6 points per dollar (approx 3% return) with earning toward a (potentially very valuable) free weekend night. Even if you only get $250 in value out of the free weekend night, that’s like another 1.67% return on that $15K spend, bringing you up to a respectable ~4.67% return on that spend. Note the math there gets a bit fuzzy as it really depends on how you value your points and free night certificate. Some would argue (persuasively) that you should be considering other cards for grocery store & restaurant spend. Some would say that since you may not otherwise pay $250 for a hotel night (I normally wouldn’t), you shouldn’t value it so highly.
One final (umimportant) note: you justified not valuing TSA precheck because “you can get TSA fees reimbursed by most employers or other cards”. While I agree that you can get it reimbursed by other cards, I disagree with the notion of being able to get it reimbursed by most employers. Perhaps if your job involves travel that’s true. I would think the vast majority of employed Americans do not have a job where getting TSA fees reimbursed would be a benefit. If you do have that kind of job, great — no need for a card with that benefit and feel free to value it at $0 (or to offer to buy TSA precheck for a friend/family member who has a job that would not otherwise reimburse it). But if not, the benefit may be of value to you. That’s just another point adding to the argument that how you value the cards in your pocket is subjective and based on a lot of variables from one person to the next.
I enjoy staying at luxury resorts and boutique hotels that are not part of a hotel chain, so the CITI Prestige card is my #1 card. My annual fee is $350 – $250 airfare = $100 then I save well over $2,000 a year just in hotels! Blows out all of the other cards. The 4th night free has revolutionized my travel because now I get every 4th night free and therefore I am able to have longer vacations. Instead of a 9 day vacation I get a 12 day vacation! The value of that goes way beyond the cash savings.
The problem with the Aspire card is that the $250 resort fee is only for a small number of mid-level resorts. I would not stay at a mid-level resort just to save $250 when I can stay at a far better and more luxurious resort. My vacations are far too valuable to be spent at a limited selection of mediocre Hilton resorts. So this benefit is worthless for me. I can easily save more than $250 using my CITI Prestige card at ANY hotel. If it could be spent at any Hilton world-wide this would be worth it for me and I would get this card in a heartbeat! I have the Ascend card and it is good enough for me. I love being Hilton Diamond but Gold is good enough (much better than my IHG Spire status!).
I also have the CSR card and am questioning the value of keeping it. I had the AMEX Business Platinum before and dumped it a long time ago.
[…] Contemplating which ultra-premium card(s) to keep […]
[…] Evaluating Ultra Premium Cards: With the steep annual fees of these cards, one must evaluate if you get enough value out of them every year. Here’s an excellent article where one takes a deep dive into their analysis of their ultra premium card arsenal. […]
[…] this week, Nick pondered which ultra-premium credit card he should keep. Ultra-premium cards typically offer terrific benefits in exchange for terrifically high fees […]
[…] what great value this card offers year after year not even considering the welcome bonus. In my recent post on evaluating my personal collection of ultra-premium cards, I conservatively valued the card’s benefits at a $150 win every year. The truth is it could […]
@Nick Reyes. You don’t have any premium airline credit cards? Are these not worth keeping?
This post was really about ultra-premium cards (those with an annual fee of ~$350+). So I assume that’s what you mean — i.e. the United Club card, AA Executive card, or SkyPass Select card (all with AFs of $450).
I live in a small town and fly out of a small airport with no lounges for domestic flights. When I’m flying out of NYC, it’s because I’m flying international…and 99.8% of the time that’s going to be an award ticket in a premium cabin. Therefore, airline lounge access isn’t important to me at all. That’s really the key benefit with the United Club card or AA Executive card. More than 90% of my domestic flights in the last 5 years have been on Southwest due to the Companion Pass and that is unlikely to change until at least 2020. The United Club card also offers 1.5x on spend — but I could get that with no annual fee on the Freedom Unlimited. So no, I’m not interested in keeping the United Club card or anything like it.
Keep CSR and hilton aspire. Ritz too just because it is a negative fee card. Close everything else. Easy to rationalize spending money.
I’m relatively new to the game but for me the csr combined with ink cash is hand down best thing out there… Having a family of 4 we aren’t flying business. So only econ.. Super rare to be able to get better value than 1.5 when booking econ via transfer. And the ease and miles earned on the flight through portal is just another great bonus. Then by transferring all my spend to 5x plus freedom at 1.5 means I will be getting 200k points a year… Finally, I am no fan of big chain hotels and resorts. We prefer airbnb or small boutique.
USB Altitude reserve was totally missed ….u should cancel all 450 $ cards…and just get this one for effective 75$. U can’t miss the 1.5X points redemption for uber eats. May be ritz can be a keeper card. All are churn and burn cards. CSR is the highly overrated card…..
It’s not that it was missed — this post is about the currents my wife and I currently have and which one(s) to keep and which to cancel out of our current stable. I agree that the Altittude Reserve is an often-overlooked card — but it wasn’t part of this post just because we don’t have it.
I agree that the lack of trip cancellation is a big factor with AMEX Biz Plat but would you have a change of opinion if a user limits the use of said card to purchases over $5K? That generates 1.5x points/$ thus significantly lowering the ultimate cost of a ticket once the 35% is applied.
Cancel Biz Plat. Open a Morgan Stanley Access account with $5000. Get the Amex Plat for $550 and get your wife a free AU. You will lower you AF by $350, both will have an Amex Plat and will enjoy more benefits (Uber, Sacks, etc)
That’s a very good thought.
The Uber, Saks, and airline fee credits are only for the primary cardholder.
Yes Greg. Nick will be paying $550 and get up to $500 credit if used (200 Uber, 200 Airline, 100 Sacks). Right now he is paying $900 for $400 airline credit. Plus both will have a Plat Card that they can use to access your beloved Delta lounges when flying Delta :0)
Right — it’s a very good thought. In our case, we definitely wouldn’t be able to maximize the Uber credit (no Uber at home, so we’d only really use it for EATs occasionally when traveling). Even still, the $200 airline + $100 Sak’s + even a third of the Uber credit used makes it a pretty good strategy. Of course, the Ameriprise version locks in all that without any annual fee in year 1. Essentially, we’d be paying $550 for 60K Amex points by going your route. That’s not necessarily bad.
At this point, I’m still not sure we need the Amex Plat benefits. It’s really only FOMO that’s holding me back from cancelling :-).
Right. Sorry. I forgot that he had two Business Platinum cards in the family.
All: I created a spreadsheet to help estimate how much you value the different ultra-premium cards. It’s still a work in progress, but if you’d like to take it for a test spin, please go ahead. Make sure to read the instructions on the Intro tab: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1M5ggGg-I3bMheSNMt46NGJxhmGN5QxvyaIYPVTzjKdg/edit?usp=sharing
@Greg. Love the spreadsheet. No love for premium airline credit cards?
Ooh, good point. I’ll have to add United Club, AA Executive, and Delta Reserve. Any others?
great spreadsheet. thanks Greg !!