This is relevant to a decision I made today. I was deciding which travel card to get between the amex platinum and the chase sapphire reserve, and I went with the sapphire reserve. I felt the amex's perks were catered more towards business travelers doing expensive things, while the chase card was more focused on people who travel for fun. However, I do not understand why people think the sapphire reserve is not a snobbish card like amex: it has a $450 a year fee, which is almost as much as the amex platinum's $550 fee, is ~metal~, and is trying to capture the same group of people.
$450 yearly fee with $300 travel credit. This includes Uber/Lyft and public transportation. It's basically $150/yr, unless you don't use any of the $300 travel credit.
True, but you can't say that it doesn't have a $450 fee, the amex has $200 for travel expenses and $200 for uber but that doesn't mean it has a $150 fee either. The fee is a large upfront cost for most people.
As an economy traveller, I didn't realize how much international trips were if I used a lounge for hops. The CSR comes with free access to a large number of airport lounges, which was a benefit I was surprised I used.
So far, the Priority Pass card I got with my CSR has been completely useless. In San Francisco I was refused entry at the partner lounge because it was at capacity and Priority Pass holders are clearly the lowest concern; at the Reykjavik stopover there was no partner lounge at all; and in Paris the lounge was a 10 minute walk + 1 security checkpoint away from my gate.
I looked it up, and seems the lounge in SFO is the KLM/AF one. Which is weird because I've been in there at a "peak" time (I was on the daily KLM to AMS) and it didn't seem particularly crowded.
Though in general lounge benefits -- unless you're getting a dedicated lounge operated by the program giving you access -- are not something worth going for. Back when I had status on American Airlines, I and many other people learned how worthless the alliance-partner lounge benefits can be: in theory, as an AA Executive Platinum, I'd have access to a rather nice British Airways lounge when connecting to an AA transatlantic flight in Philadelphia, but BA's policy was basically "all times are peak times (so we can turn you away), if there's anyone in here it's at capacity (so we can turn you away), and if there's nobody in here we'll close (so we can turn you away)".
I looked at the Priority Pass offering and did sign up but it didn't seem very useful. I already have United Club (and, by extension, Star Alliance--which I've never had trouble getting access to) and Priority Pass doesn't really buy me anything.
Amex lounge benefits are now the same as Chase, both offer a Priority Pass Select, and now AFAIK offer the same number of guests. Amex also offers access to Amex Centurion lounges which are among the better domestic lounges.
You can still get into a Delta lounge as an Amex cardholder, but Delta has been tightening up its lounge access generally for a while. The biggest change was introducing two-tier membership; Amex cardholders, and even Delta's own top-level frequent flyers, now only get the base lounge membership (or equivalent). This shows up in things like being charged $29/person to bring guests with you, where previously you got two guests for free.
Honestly they're really only valuable if your home airport has a Centurion lounge. As much as I love Centurion lounges (and have access to them), I find myself in PP far more frequently.
Yeah, and if they're in the terminal you frequent too >.< At SFO, only T-I/T-3 (where the Centurion is) and T1-/T2 are connected airside. That said, I used to route everywhere via DFW so I could break the journey up and chill at the D17 lounge.
The Amex one is $550 - $200 for Uber - $200 in airline incidentals which often includes more than you think, check FlyerTalk. Net fee is the same if you do the legwork on Amex.
at one point you could buy delta gift cards and have it covered under the $200 airline incidental fee. Neeting you 200 off a flight of your choice for `free`.
Delta was always hard because they didn't sell gift cards online -- only at the airport! As far as I know that still works, but as always with this stuff, check the thread on FlyerTalk. United and American sell gift cards online ^_^
