Amex Platinum vs Chase Sapphire

[Anonymous]

Didn't want to hijack the "which credit card do you use" for this more specific question.

I've had Amex Platinum for years but lately I have not been impressed with their customer service and somehow it's harder to use the full value of the points for travel.

And since Costco quit taking Amex, this really messed up our tracking system so I want to consolidate to 1 card only.

Thinking of switching to Chase Sapphire.
What are the pros/cons to doing this?

So far, here's how I've been using the Amex benefits- is Sapphire comparable?

-Using points for travel- my #1 reason for using cards of these types
-Airport lounge access
-Airline credit- I use that on United
-Credits- Saks Fifth credit, Uber, Global Entry

Thank you

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Didn't want to hijack the "which credit card do you use" for this more specific question.

I've had Amex Platinum for years but lately I have not been impressed with their customer service and somehow it's harder to use the full value of the points for travel.

And since Costco quit taking Amex, this really messed up our tracking system so I want to consolidate to 1 card only.

Thinking of switching to Chase Sapphire.
What are the pros/cons to doing this?

So far, here's how I've been using the Amex benefits- is Sapphire comparable?

-Using points for travel- my #1 reason for using cards of these types
-Airport lounge access
-Airline credit- I use that on United
-Credits- Saks Fifth credit, Uber, Global Entry

Thank you

I don’t know that Sapphire has Saks credit but I use everything listed with my Sapphire card.

[Anonymous]

I think your Amex also pays/reimburses for either TSA pre or Global entry. Not sure about Sapphire. My husband has platinum and our family of 4 was able to use the lounge privilege recently. If we didn’t have the platinum card, it would have cost us $240 for the four of us. I believe the web site The Points Guy has a pretty good cost/benefit comparison of both cards.

[Anonymous]

Chase sapphire is going to be a better value to use points, but amex platinum is going to be much better for lounge access, the other credits you get, and things like fine hotels and resorts.

IMO platinum is a card for the affluent traveler that isn’t particularly dollar conscious about using points for travel and cares more about a luxury end to end travel experience. It also depends if you travel solo or not, as amex has put policies into place preventing card holders from bringing guests unless they pay for additional passes or meet a specific spend threshold each year.

[Anonymous]

I think the only thing I’d miss is access to the Centurion Lounges. But if you don’t fly through airports that have them frequently, it’s probably not worth it.

Interested in your comment about customer service, as I have found it to still be good. I’ve also been impressed with the service from hotels that I book through Amex. Unlike other third party booking services, you generally get better service and the benefits at the hotel are good (food credit, late check out, etc). Chase may have all that as well — I’ve never tried it.

Agree with pp that the Platinum card is probably best for people who travel a lot and aren’t budget conscious. I definitely get back in benefits more than I spend on the fee, but I travel quite a bit.

[Anonymous]

I have both.

Lounges: CSR (Chase Sapphire Reserve) includes the Priority Pass restaurant benefit and I think you can get more people into lounges than with AmEx's Priority Pass.

BUT... AmEx has Centurion Lounges which are really nice when they aren't overcrowded. One big note here: they will open a Centurion at DCA in the next few months. It's nearly done construction-wise.

Points Spending: AmEx and CSR have different airline partners you can transfer to. Look at the list to see what's worth it.

Points Earning: AmEx gives you 5x on airline tickets. CSR gives you 3x on travel/dining.

Uber Credit: AmEx has this, but it's per month ($15/month) and doesn't carry over. If you use Uber (or UberEats) at least once a month, this is worth it in terms of helping to "pay back" your annual fee.

Airline Credit: CSR is beter on this as it's $300 towards any travel. The AmEx credit is on only one airline, and only for certain charges, but sounds like you're getting the value from this.

Benefits: AmEx gives you gold status on Marriott and Hilton. Big benefit for me -- gotten plenty of value from free breakfasts and room upgrades. CSR has nothing like this.

Another thing I like about AmEx: if you travel internationally in business or premium economy, their International Airline Program gives discounts on certain airlines. I've saved hundreds on tickets from this.


How do I use each? AmEx for booking flights and hotels. CSR for "everyday" spending.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think your Amex also pays/reimburses for either TSA pre or Global entry. Not sure about Sapphire. My husband has platinum and our family of 4 was able to use the lounge privilege recently. If we didn’t have the platinum card, it would have cost us $240 for the four of us. I believe the web site The Points Guy has a pretty good cost/benefit comparison of both cards.

Chase pays for one travel program per year (precheck/global entry) and gets 2 people per cardholder into PP lounges. I could be easily convinced that centurion lounges are nicer in domestic airports, but I've been impressed by PP lounges when we travel internationally.

[Anonymous]

I’ve had both and am currently an Amex girl but will go back to Sapphire once they raise the points bonus again. I churn and burn credit cards but can’t do it with Amex because it’s one bonus per card type per lifetime.

I find Amex is a keeper for the following reasons- $240/ year entertainment bonus, $15/ month Uber credit ($35 in December and I splurge for Ubereats once a month), CLEAR credit (if you go through United Airlines you get yourself and one other person for the credit), Global Entry reimbursement, $200 airline credit (I buy two $100 United Travel Bank credits and it triggers the reimbursement), priority pass and Centurian lounge access (getting less valuable by the day), $12.99 Walmart plus credit (free grocery delivery), and $100 annual Saks credit. It gives you status at some hotel chains and also offers a $200 hotel credit but I haven’t found use for that because I don’t normally stay at fancier hotels. It really does pay for itself if you take advantage of everything it offers.

[Anonymous]

You can also get a credit each month for the NYTimes with Amex Platinum. Something like $15 a month.

[Anonymous]

We used the Am Ex Platinum Fine Hotels and Resorts credit last month at the park Hyatt DC so only paid $79 plus it included free breakfast and $100 off our dinner at the Blue Duck Tavern. It also includes early check in and 4 pm checkout but they were booked that night so offered us 10,000 World of Hyatt points (or $100 off our bill) to checkout at noon. Score! It was a fun little staycation.

I used the $200 travel credit for inexpensive Southwest flights which I will cancel and keep the credit for.

Plus I order Uber Eats once a month, have The Disney Bundle and NY Times subscription reimbursed, and am wearing my Bombas socks from Saks right now.

Also, Global Entry snd Clear and Marriott Gold and car rental status. Have used a few of the offers as well, so have certainly gotten back my fee, plus have earned 160,000 MR points in 4 months.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We used the Am Ex Platinum Fine Hotels and Resorts credit last month at the park Hyatt DC so only paid $79 plus it included free breakfast and $100 off our dinner at the Blue Duck Tavern. It also includes early check in and 4 pm checkout but they were booked that night so offered us 10,000 World of Hyatt points (or $100 off our bill) to checkout at noon. Score! It was a fun little staycation.

I used the $200 travel credit for inexpensive Southwest flights which I will cancel and keep the credit for.

Plus I order Uber Eats once a month, have The Disney Bundle and NY Times subscription reimbursed, and am wearing my Bombas socks from Saks right now.

Also, Global Entry snd Clear and Marriott Gold and car rental status. Have used a few of the offers as well, so have certainly gotten back my fee, plus have earned 160,000 MR points in 4 months.

Is this the one with $700 annual fee?

[Anonymous]

I’ve had the CSR for a number of years now and like it. I also like the Amex benefits mentioned here. Does it make any sense to have both?

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thank you so much for the input. I am just so torn!

To the poster asking about Amex customer service.
I've had Amex for 30+ years and have always been impressed with their impeccable customer service. Then I got the platinum card. Wow, even more amazing.

But the last few calls I've had have not been impressive at all:

-I enrolled for the Gold Status on Hilton online. Arrived at the hotel and they said I was only Blue. It was too inconvenient for me to call Amex when I was traveling and thought I'd address it when I got home. It took 3 separate calls over a span of a few weeks to get the status to appear, and they couldn't tell me what the issue was- but it was definitely on their end, not mine. When I pointed out that I had missed out on the Hilton bonus points, the Amex I once knew would have just fixed that especially since it was their mistake. They said, "sorry, no can do."

-My Uber credit wasn't going into my account and they couldn't figure out why. This also took a few calls. They told me someone at Uber will reach out. That did not happen. Finally, I got someone on the phone who had a clue- apparently, if you enter your Amex card as a form of payment on someone else's Uber account (such as my kid), the credits will be issued to the last account you added. Would have been helpful to have that written somewhere. They eventually connected me to Uber (which I don't know why they didn't/couldn't do the first 3 times I called. Uber had to disable the 2nd account, then Amex did their fix.

Their reps on these calls were just not trained well. Just didn't have that "I got you" type of customer service.

I do have a Chase Explorer card right now- $75/year which gets me 2 passes to the United Lounge, and also free checked in bags. Would love to have both Sapphire and Amex but I can't justify paying $600 for 2 cards.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thank you so much for the input. I am just so torn!

To the poster asking about Amex customer service.
I've had Amex for 30+ years and have always been impressed with their impeccable customer service. Then I got the platinum card. Wow, even more amazing.

But the last few calls I've had have not been impressive at all:

-I enrolled for the Gold Status on Hilton online. Arrived at the hotel and they said I was only Blue. It was too inconvenient for me to call Amex when I was traveling and thought I'd address it when I got home. It took 3 separate calls over a span of a few weeks to get the status to appear, and they couldn't tell me what the issue was- but it was definitely on their end, not mine. When I pointed out that I had missed out on the Hilton bonus points, the Amex I once knew would have just fixed that especially since it was their mistake. They said, "sorry, no can do."

-My Uber credit wasn't going into my account and they couldn't figure out why. This also took a few calls. They told me someone at Uber will reach out. That did not happen. Finally, I got someone on the phone who had a clue- apparently, if you enter your Amex card as a form of payment on someone else's Uber account (such as my kid), the credits will be issued to the last account you added. Would have been helpful to have that written somewhere. They eventually connected me to Uber (which I don't know why they didn't/couldn't do the first 3 times I called. Uber had to disable the 2nd account, then Amex did their fix.

Their reps on these calls were just not trained well. Just didn't have that "I got you" type of customer service.

I do have a Chase Explorer card right now- $75/year which gets me 2 passes to the United Lounge, and also free checked in bags. Would love to have both Sapphire and Amex but I can't justify paying $600 for 2 cards.

Is that all? And that’s why you want to drop Amex? Because after 30 years you experienced 2 instances of subpar customer service?
In both instances, your issues were still resolved. Right?
Let me tell you that the customer service won’t be different with Chase.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thank you so much for the input. I am just so torn!

To the poster asking about Amex customer service.
I've had Amex for 30+ years and have always been impressed with their impeccable customer service. Then I got the platinum card. Wow, even more amazing.

But the last few calls I've had have not been impressive at all:

-I enrolled for the Gold Status on Hilton online. Arrived at the hotel and they said I was only Blue. It was too inconvenient for me to call Amex when I was traveling and thought I'd address it when I got home. It took 3 separate calls over a span of a few weeks to get the status to appear, and they couldn't tell me what the issue was- but it was definitely on their end, not mine. When I pointed out that I had missed out on the Hilton bonus points, the Amex I once knew would have just fixed that especially since it was their mistake. They said, "sorry, no can do."

-My Uber credit wasn't going into my account and they couldn't figure out why. This also took a few calls. They told me someone at Uber will reach out. That did not happen. Finally, I got someone on the phone who had a clue- apparently, if you enter your Amex card as a form of payment on someone else's Uber account (such as my kid), the credits will be issued to the last account you added. Would have been helpful to have that written somewhere. They eventually connected me to Uber (which I don't know why they didn't/couldn't do the first 3 times I called. Uber had to disable the 2nd account, then Amex did their fix.

Their reps on these calls were just not trained well. Just didn't have that "I got you" type of customer service.

I do have a Chase Explorer card right now- $75/year which gets me 2 passes to the United Lounge, and also free checked in bags. Would love to have both Sapphire and Amex but I can't justify paying $600 for 2 cards.

Is that all? And that’s why you want to drop Amex? Because after 30 years you experienced 2 instances of subpar customer service?
In both instances, your issues were still resolved. Right?
Let me tell you that the customer service won’t be different with Chase.

Also AmEx has a lot less control when it involves partners (Hilton, Uber) and how they run things. I've called AmEx for stuff they can do internally (airlines tickets, for example) and service has been excellent.

I also have Chase. Service definitely won't be any better with them, and perhaps worse.