Chase Sapphire reserve vs. Cap one Venture X??

I have the Chase Sapphire Preferred and it’s my favorite card by far. The annual fee is only $95. I don’t get the $300 annual travel credit or the $100 global entry credit, but all other benefits are the same as the Reserve card. I am going to Switzerland in three weeks and staying on points in all of my hotels for the trip.

The return for Chase is 3% on travel as well. You get an immediate travel credit of $300 . Now you are $250 out of pocket. You get excellent rental car coverage and good travel insurance as well. How much do you usually pay for travel insurance? Other benefits include priority pass lounge membership, door dash and Lyft discounts/credits. IYou have either a cash back, 50 booked travel bonus, or transfer option for your points.

The travel insurance benefits are different between Sapphire Reserve and Sapphire Preferred.

I'm interested in this discussion as well.

I use Amex Gold. Rewards accrual just works better than the Platinum in my situation. The negative, which I've now experienced a couple of times, is that air travel has to be booked through Amex. I've had situations in which it was better to purchase my own flight ticket (and not use points) because Amex did not show all flights on their system. Also, using the Amex online booking system is quite cumbersome. Most recently, they would not let me purchase seats/seat upgrades at the same time, which created some issues for me. Once, I simply transferred points from Amex to Hilton, which was actually much more efficient than any other Amex offer.

At one time I had an Amex card (Blue Travel I think), which let me charge for my travel, then go online later and redeem points to pay for the travel. No restrictions. Nice. I think Amex discontinued new issues of that card, and now only issues Blue (and not Blue Travel).

So, the big question: How a) easy and b) efficient is it to redeem points on the cards discussed above? I can work through the math on the cost/points accrual, but things sometimes change in actual practice.

Gene - you mentioned your don't have the ability to transfer the points and lounge access. I assume you mean to another card. Can you transfer your points to other travel partners like hotels, rental cars, etc?

I've had the Venture X card for a few years (since it first appeared) and love it. The $300 bonus is applied to my account immediately after paying the annual fee and I usually use it immediately. To use it, you have to book through Capital One's travel portal, but I've found it competitive for what I need (usually hotels and car rentals). I believe that the 10k mile bonus also shows up as soon as I renew the card, not at the end of the year. The way I look at it is that Capital One is paying me $5 a year to have their card. I get a lot out of it with Priority Pass and Capital One lounge access (less so the latter, because they are still building their own lounges, but I was pleasantly surprised in the Jakarta airport that I got access to a really nice lounge as a Capital One card holder and not part of Priority Pass). It's easy to use miles for travel purchases through the app, although I've never transferred miles to airlines with the Venture X.

Hi April and Carol now retired.. I heard many stories about accessing Priority lounge has been a problem due to overcrowding.. Has that been your experiences??
My no annual fee Citicard also gives me excellent rental car coverag - it saved me so much money, when I rented a car in Norway w/o accepting rental companies insurance
BTW April, just returned from Switzerland 2months ago. you'll love it.. it's so beautiful

Hi WR.. I was looking into Amex as well, as their lounges are so much upscale than other lounges, but I found many European shops/restaurants do not want to accept Amex - has that been your experience??
And regarding your question, WR - I would like a CC that I can transfer points to hotel and/or airplane for purchase or upgrade maybe to Business class.. My travel cards do not allow any transfer.. it gives me cash reward only..

And Jeff - you don't get that bonus until after one year has passed.. So basically, you are paying the 395 fee first, but must wait until renewal time to get it reimbursed.. .. The fact you have to pay 395 again at renewal to see the bonus, means, you are spending 790 to get $400 back..
I also heard, the bonus is not paid to you.. but it remain on Travel portal. and must book a travel thru the portal to use the credit.. How's the travel portal for booking flights?? the fact that it is contracted out to Hopper third party, makes this less desirable..

Cant tell you if its worth it but I have carried the Chase Reserve card for many years and have banked many points. As Carol stated, the travel protection benefits are good. That's a plus. I've never booked thru their travel portal( Expedia I think) as I have a preference for booking direct in the event of changes etc.. I have transferred points to Marriott and that worked out fine but honestly I'm not one to spend a ton of time figuring out point values so cant say whether it all beats your 2.63-3 % return at the end of the day. Also, look at the transfer partners and ask yourself if they are partners you are likely to use. On the lounge access, that is nice as it includes a guest. But, suggest you research and ascertain if their are lounges in the airports you are likely to transit. Go to Priority Pass's web site to view. When I first acquired the card, I was based out of Boston and BOS Logan had multi lounges so work or pleasure, I used that frequently. Having relocated, my base airport has no Priority Pass lounges and the airports we connect thru may have a lounge, but its in another terminal etc... For that reason, the card is less compelling to me now that when I first acquired. On your crowded/full lounge question, only had that happen once and we were wait listed for 15 minutes. No biggie.

Gene - I checked the Amex site, and I don't think the Gold card gives access to lounges. I think the Platinum does (or did), but I seem to recall Amex was trying to change that. When I looked at the Platinum upgrade offer I did not see anything about lounges. There are some perks, like $10 / month Uber credit, and some monthly chain restaurant credits that I never use. Platinum seems to have a lot more perks that I never considered, but may. Users earn more points for grocery, gas and restaurant purchase with Gold, and more points for travel with Platinum. I don't travel for business anymore, so Gold is better for me re points accrual. I think the Amex Gold is $250 a year, but no credits (except the perks mentioned above) and the Platinum is $695 with some airline credits (plus perks).

I also looked at points transfer and there are many options for airlines and hotels. I did not do the math to put a value on the transfers, but the Hilton transfer was quite valuable a couple of years ago. You can also use Amex points to pay for goods on Amazon, but I don't think the conversion rate is appealing.

The Amex site used to provide a good comparison of its card options.

Hope that helps.

Oh, and yes, I agree that Amex is not accepted at as many places in Europe or in the US. That hasn't been a problem, but you'd need to be aware. I also carry a Visa for that reason.

I'm in the SapphireReserve camp, having compared these two card programs earlier in the year, and switching from Am/Ex Platinum to CSR. We had been on the former for 15+ years, so this isn't something we routinely do. But taking all the perks into consideration and getting 70,000 points to join* (* $4k spend req'd in first 90 days to receive this bonus). As Carol mentioned, you get an immediate $300-credit for ANYTHING travel related (not just airfares... but taxi's, tolls, hotels, parking) each and every year you're in the program -- so that adds up quickly and gets directly credited by Chase off the first monthly bill/s -- and nets the 'realized' out-of-pocket to $250/yr to have the card. The program also has the most flexible uses/transfers for spend points, domestic and international airlines/hotels we typically frequent easily moved into those rewards programs on a dollar-for-dollar basis; as well as a robust travel insurance program and access into PriorityPlus airport lounges. You also get free participation in several programs (Lyft's platinum, DoorDash's dash-plus and other grocery/convenience delivery services), with 3-7x additional points on spend with those providers and/or categories. Net-Net, SapphireReserve offered more trimmings for what we consume, but your circumstance may be different. Here's a handy side-by-side to contrast/compare CSR with CapOne's VenureX program: https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/credit-cards/capital-one-venture-x-vs-chase-sapphire-reserve

Cheers, and good travels!

I have had to wait up to a maximum of 15 minutes for entrance when priority pass lounges are full. Usually less time than that.