The white-hot ultra premium credit card market is making me melt (on Nick’s mind)

The year 2025 will go down as the year of the ultra-premium credit card. I can’t recall a year where we’ve seen such a shake-up in the ultra-premium credit card space. In just the past two months, we’ve seen the lukewarm launch of the newly-couponized Sapphire Reserve cards, learned that the Altitude Reserve will be nerfed, seen the launch of the Strata Elite card and the Alaska Atmos Summit card, have caught wind of the rumored launch of new higher-end Amex Marriott business cards and rumored changes coming to the Amex Platinum cards and we have been told to expect the new Bilt $495 card soon. The market for ultra-premium cards has become white-hot, but I think I’m reaching my melting point.

When the year started, I was looking to trim my ultra-premium card collection. Now, we recently added the Strata Elite to our household, upgraded a Business Gold to Business Platinum, and I find myself intrigued by the Alaska premium card. I have to wonder what Bilt has up its sleeve to compete and we probably can’t drop my wife’s Sapphire Reserve this year since she’ll be charged the old $550 annual fee upon her upcoming renewal (and we’ll get access to the new coupon benefits in late October as pre-June 23rd cardholders). We can’t keep all of these high-end cards long term, so I really need to create a game plan for late 2025 and 2026 renewal decisions.

My ultra-premium card collection is officially out of control

Over the years, we have added numerous ultra-premium cards to our household collection. With the annual fee creep that we have seen in recent years, things have really started to spiral out of control on that front.

In my household,  we currently have at least one of each of the following cards:

• American Express Platinum Card for Schwabm: $695 annual fee (rumored to increase to $895 in September)
• The Business Platinum Card® from American Express: $695 annual fee (rumored to increase to $895 in September)
• Chase Sapphire Reserve® Card: $795 annual fee (though we’ll pay $550 at next renewal, which happens before 10/26)
• Capital One Venture X Rewards Card: $395 annual fee
• U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve: $400 annual fee. Note that this card is no longer available to new applicants.
• Citi Strata Elite℠ Card: $595 annual fee
• Hilton Honors American Express Aspire Card: $550 annual fee
• Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant® American Express® Card: $650 annual fee
• Chase Ritz-Carlton Visa Infinite: $450 annual fee. Note that this card is no longer available to new applicants, but it may be possible to product change from another Chase Marriott card.

Add to that list the fact that I want the Alaska Atmos Summit card. It is enough to make even my head spin.

Greg maintains an excellent spreadsheet for determining which cards to keep and which to cancel (See: Which premium credit cards are keepers?). The spreadsheet is very useful in determining whether I think I can get more value out of the benefits than the cost of the annual fee for each of the cards we hold. Still, I’m finding myself at a difficult crossroads: even though the spreadsheet offers the chance to value some benefits at $0 since they are redundant with other cards you’ll keep, I could still make a marginal case for keeping any one of the cards above in conjunction with one or two of the others.

However, zooming out to look at the big picture, if we had one of each of the cards above in our household (and no other cards!), our collective annual fees would total $5,625 (more than $6K if we got the Alaska Atmos Summit card!). In reality, my wife and I have some duplicates in the list above, so the true total climbs even higher. Furthermore, we have lots of other cards. If you asked me if I’d pay $5,000 or $6,000 per year for a single card that combined the benefits of all of the cards above, I don’t think I’d be willing to pre-pay that much money on all of the collective benefits.

That suggests that I should go back to Greg’s spreadsheet and be a little more conservative with my perk valuations. That’s probably a good idea. However, I wanted to walk myself through my ultra-premium card collection, considering which are definite keepers, which are definitely going, and which are on the borderline in 2026.

Definite keepers

I would without a doubt keep the following cards for years to come for the reasons listed here:

• Chase Ritz-Carlton Visa Infinite
  
  • The unlimited Priority Pass with unlimited guests and unlimited Sapphire Lounge access with unlimited guests aren’t available on any other card.
  • The $300 in annual airline incidental credits are really easy to use (we’ve seen all sorts of things work for this)
  • The annual 85K Free Night Certificate gives me the opportunity for a really nice Marriott night each year
  • I can easily justify spending $450 on the above combination. I’ve consistently used the free night certificate on a stay that would have otherwise cost more than $450. The travel credits and Priority Pass make this very easy to justify.
  • One of our household Ritz cards is grandfathered at a $395 annual fee, which is an even better deal yet.
• Amex Hilton Aspire
  
  • At a $550 annual fee, this card’s benefits easily outweigh the fee.
  • We’ve been using the annual free night certificate for nights that would cost well over $550
  • We have no difficulty using the card’s $50 quarterly airline credits ($200 total each year).
  • Even if we only used the free night and the airline credits, we’d feel good about the trade for the annual fee. If we use even one of the $200 resort credits, we’ll feel comfortably ahead. Writing this made me realize that we should be using this card for CLEAR membership, taking one thing away from our Platinum cards (which is what we currently use for CLEAR).
• Capital One Venture X
  
  • Between $300 in annual travel discounts through the Capital One portal and the 10,000 anniversary miles, I’m satisfied that this is an easy no-effort trade in exchange for the $395 annual fee. The Hertz President’s Circle status and Primary CDW insurance contribute further value to make this an easy keeper card (note that while the Ritz card has primary CDW for most cardholders, its coverage is only secondary for me as a New York Resident, so the Venture X holds appeal for me).

Out of the above three keepers, the Venture X and Ritz card each have a single $300 “coupony” benefit that can potentially be used in one shot each year. I love that simplicity.

The Aspire card ramps up a bit in couponiness, but the coupons are easy enough to use. I appreciate that those coupons are not split into tiny monthly increments that require more time/effort than the amount of value they provide. Further, the annual free night certificate makes it easier to justify a little bit of coupon effort.

It is worth mentioning that the above card combination gives me a pretty comprehensive list of core ultra-premium benefits apart from the hotel free night certificates:

• Great lounge access with the Ritz card.
• Primary CDW and rental car elite status with the Venture X
• Great travel protections (between the Venture X and Ritz card)
• CLEAR membership with the Aspire card
• Global Entry or TSA Precheck credit with the Venture X if we should ever decide that we want those
• Top-level hotel elite status with the Aspire card

The combined $1,395 in annual fees above are easy enough to justify for at least one of each card. The Ritz and Aspire cards are even relatively easy to justify in multiples (such as my wife and I each having one) given the added convenience of having two matching annual free night certificates — enough for a nice weekend away — without significant added coupon complication. That said, if I were to accept one Ritz card each + one Aspire card each + one household Venture X card, the total in annual fees would be $2,395 (actually $50 less for me since I have a grandfathered Ritz card with a lesser annual fee).

Ultra-Premium cards that I definitely plan to cancel

Several cards will feel easy to cut from my wallet at the next renewal. Here are the cards and brief explanations as to why I plan to cancel:

• Amex Bonvoy Brilliant card
  • While I’m happy to use this card’s 85K free night certificate and automatic Marriott Bonvoy Platinum status for now (and load up on the Starbucks app once a month to use the dining credit), but I really hate having to remember to use the dining credit each month and I wish I didn’t have to spend $300 per year at Starbucks just to make this easy. I am 1 year of Platinum and 50 nights short of Lifetime Platinum status with Marriott. I have 8 more nights planned this year (which reduces my path to Lifetime Platinum to just 42 more nights + 1 more year of Platinum when 2026 begins), so once my elite night credits from this card (25 elite nights per year) and my Amex Bonvoy Business card (15 elite nights per year) post to my Marriott account early next year, I’ll be just 2 nights short of Lifetime Platinum, which will give me the free breakfast and 4 pm checkout that I want (at many (most?) Marriott properties). I’ll likely downgrade this to the $95 Amex Bonvoy card sometime early next year to score a prorated annual fee refund and then cancel at renewal time.
• Citi Strata Elite
  • The first-year value on this card is extraordinary right now. Between the welcome offer and the relatively easy-to-use calendar-year credits that can be double-dipped (earning a slate of them this year and again next year), it just makes sense to get this card. However, I have absolutely no desire to keep it. The gimmicky Friday/Saturday night dining thing is just plain silly; the lack of other bonus categories that aren’t tied to the Citi travel booking portal will make this an easy product change to a Double Cash. We already have a Double Cash card, but we’ll product change that existing Double Cash to a Custom Cash when the time comes. We’ll keep my wife’s Citi Strata Premier to transfer to Citi partners, but I can’t see keeping the Strata Elite.
• Chase Sapphire Reserve
  • I have justified keeping one of these in our household because I’m a blogger and it is useful to be able to write about ultra-premium cards, but I just don’t want to spend nearly eight hundred bucks for the headache of having to remember to use the time-limited coupon benefits. I could probably get more than $795 in value out of the card, but the invisible time and effort costs annoy me here.

I won’t lose all that much when I trim out the cards above. It is worth noting that we’ll have the Sapphire Reserve until October of next year since we won’t get hit with the new annual fee until October 2026. Once the cards above are gone, I probably won’t miss all that much.

Ultra-Premium cards that are on the fence for me

The cards that have me struggling to decide include:

• Amex Platinum (consumer or business?)
  • Assuming the rumors are true that both consumer and business Platinum cards will cost $895 per year beginning next month, I can not see keeping both at a cost of $1,790 for one of each (keeping one or both for both me and my wife gets crazier yet).
  • In general, I find the coupon benefits on the consumer side easier to justify, though the Uber credits have become less appealing as Uber Eats prices have continued to climb. I like the Business Platinum card’s 35% rebate when using points to book flights on your chosen airline. JetBlue’s 25 for 25 has made me revisit the fact that this 35% rebate can be excellent for domestic flights (which is the core usefulness of the benefit moving forward since the rebate will no longer be available on other airlines in business and first class from September 18, 2025 onward).
  • Although I think I can probably get good use out of the rumored Fine Hotels & Resorts or The Hotel Collection credit once per year, I won’t count on being able to use it twice per year on a single card. I don’t think we’re going to be able to justify multiple household Platinum cards in the future, so I think I’m going to need to pick a single Platinum card to keep. After using most of my wife’s Amex points stash for JetBlue 25 for 25, I’ve been building back my collection. I’ll probably keep a Platinum card in my name.
  • Since rumor has it that changes will be announced in mid-September, I’ll hold off on making a final decision until we have a fuller picture of the refreshed benefits. At this point, I am leaning slightly toward keeping a single Business Platinum card if the prepaid hotel credits end up matching those on the consumer side.
  • If new benefits are not compelling enough, I may consider instead keeping a Business Gold card with a thought toward a strategic upgrade if and when I want the ancillary Amex Platinum card benefits.
• U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve
  • I have become so accustomed to tapping my phone to pay everywhere and have gotten my wife used to the same! I’ll be really sad to see this card change drastically in December. The drop from 1.5c per point to 1c per point for travel redemptions stings.
  • On the other hand, I’m really curious to see what U.S. Bank’s transfer partner program will include. If they end up with a solid set of transfer partners, I could see keeping this card as our default warehouse club & Walmart card. During most months, we wouldn’t exceed $10K in purchases even if we continued to use this as our default in-person payment method, so if the transfer partners are good, I could see keeping this for what will essentially be 3x almost everywhere we pay in-person (since the card earns 3x on mobile wallet payments like Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay).
  • If the transfer partners are not compelling, I will let this card go (while probably holding on to my disappointment for a long time). With the Venture X offering a $300 travel portal credit and 10,000 miles per year and offering rental car status and a good transfer partner program, I’m just not sure that it is worth also paying for this card to earn 3x instead of 2x on in-person spend unless U.S. Bank offers something compelling on the transfer partner side.
  • This card does not come with any compelling side benefits like elite status or other credits that make it more appealing.
• Atmos Rewards Summit Visa Infinite
  • We don’t yet have this card, but I am very much intrigued by the combination of benefits. We discussed the card and why I find it so interesting on this week’s coffee break. See: Alaska’s intriguing premium rewards card | Coffee Break Ep68 | 8-26-25.
• Bilt’s Premium card
  • We don’t yet know anything at all concrete about this card other than the fact that it is expected to be issued by Cardless and carry a $495 annual fee.
  • Bilt has said that they did not want to follow the coupon book model. I expect that we’ll see some unique benefits on the card, but I can’t yet imagine what they will be.
  • Many Cardless cards have featured lukewarm welcome offers, so I don’t have high hopes for a great welcome offer. However, I’m leaving room for Bilt to innovate something that makes me want the card. Given that I do love Bilt’s transfer partners, I’m keeping my eye out here.

At most, I think I can justify two of these ultra-premium cards. Will it be Atmos + Business Platinum? Will U.S. Bank surprise us with a killer transfer partner program? Can Bilt offer something that kicks out one of the others here? I’m still undecided.

I could even imagine a scenario where I dumped both the Altitude Reserve and the Platinum card or one where I decide not to pursue status with Alaska, which could make me eliminate all three of those cards. The Bilt card could have zero appeal for me — I won’t know until we hear more.

In reality, it will be hard for me to imagine dropping the Platinum card from a professional standpoint (since the card has so many solid travel benefits that we write about), but I’m definitely feeling the coupon fatigue.

Bottom line

I’m currently paying north of $6,000 in annual fees for ultra-premium credit cards alone. Examining these cards on the whole, I think I could be happy with halving my annual fee outlay. I could still have a pretty solid three-card ultra-premium combination for just $1400 for one player (and I’ll consider spending the additional $1,000 to double up on hotel free night certificates. Maybe I’ll add up to another ~$1400 in fees with the cards from the fence. That would still be a lot of money spent on ultra-premium cards, but it would represent a significant reduction in total cost. Now to trim the rest of the collection a little bit . . .

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