Anonymous
08/05/2025 16:01
Subject: Chase Sapphire Reserve Alternate?
I've been waiting to get into the Dulles lounge for 30 minutes. No one has left.
Anonymous
08/05/2025 09:09
Subject: Chase Sapphire Reserve Alternate?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Lounges are a gimmick. The companies have a massive incentive to have them as full as possible, so eventually these lounges will be worthless and they’ll make you pay a lot to get what you had for free. Just look at what happened with priority pass.
If lounge access is your top priority with a card, I’d get the highest end airline card for the airline you fly the most.
PP here- agreed, the crowding also reduces the value of the credit card and PP lounges significantly. You get to the airport 30 extra minutes early to grab some food and...there's a 45-60 minute wait. And once you get in, it's hard to find a seat, etc.
It’s my DH who has the Amex so I don’t know what it costs but we use the lounge for quick breakfast a lot and I’ve never had to wait. It’s a buffet. Not great, not terrible, kind of fine. But fast and easy enough.
Anonymous
08/05/2025 09:00
Subject: Chase Sapphire Reserve Alternate?
Anonymous
08/05/2025 05:28
Subject: Re:Chase Sapphire Reserve Alternate?
Anonymous wrote:does anyone know how long i have to wait to reapply for Venture x and citi strata? was denied both because i had opened two cc in the last month
Probably 6 months.
Anonymous
08/04/2025 16:42
Subject: Re:Chase Sapphire Reserve Alternate?
does anyone know how long i have to wait to reapply for Venture x and citi strata? was denied both because i had opened two cc in the last month
Anonymous
08/04/2024 08:53
Subject: Re:Chase Sapphire Reserve Alternate?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I’ve had the Reserve since it launched and never had any issues. What kind of issues did you have?
Not the OP but for me it was a large fraudulent charge on my card that they refused to do anything about despite repeated requests to them and the vendor.
I am OP and this is essentially what’s happening with me. I keep getting rebilled for a bad charge I was credited for and it’s taking months of headache and paperwork and re-explaining the situation to fix. The icing on the cake was the angry man in their disputes department who lied and made everything more difficult.
Now I have a Venture X. It comes with a decent sign up bonus so I’ll try it out as my main card for a while. I plan on using all my CSR points then downgrading/cancelling before year-end.
Anonymous
08/02/2024 19:04
Subject: Re:Chase Sapphire Reserve Alternate?
Anonymous wrote:The 2 similar cars are Cap One VentureX and AmEx Platinum.
I'd lean towards the CapOne, since they have a really good lounge at IAD and AmEx has non. AmEx does have a new lounge at DCA, but it gets full quickly. CapOne will be opening a grab'n'go style lounge at DCA soon.
Finally does look like some progress on the DCA CapOne "Landing", furniture being installed. Hopefully opening in a month or two
https://www.reddit.com/r/Venturex/s/eX3e9iifMd
Anonymous
08/02/2024 18:31
Subject: Re:Chase Sapphire Reserve Alternate?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:The 2 similar cars are Cap One VentureX and AmEx Platinum.
I'd lean towards the CapOne, since they have a really good lounge at IAD and AmEx has non. AmEx does have a new lounge at DCA, but it gets full quickly. CapOne will be opening a grab'n'go style lounge at DCA soon.
I keep the X because it’s cheaper (used to have the CSR as well) but the lounge is a total crapshoot at IAD. They took away the grab and go option and now there’s always a long wait to get in.
I find most of the lounge “privileges” to be useless, as least domestically. You can rarely get in because everyone and their mom has a Priority Pass now.
Really?! The grab and go was what they advertised and what I was looking forward to!
Wow that really is a loss if the grab and go is gone. Last time I was there it was before a cross country flight. I didn't go into the main part, just got a quick coffee and grabbed a sandwich and salad that I ate on the flight. It was perfect. I guess not surprising, all these things get worse over time- they are nice at first to build customers then they cut back to save money because these services cost too much.
Anonymous
08/02/2024 17:56
Subject: Re:Chase Sapphire Reserve Alternate?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:The 2 similar cars are Cap One VentureX and AmEx Platinum.
I'd lean towards the CapOne, since they have a really good lounge at IAD and AmEx has non. AmEx does have a new lounge at DCA, but it gets full quickly. CapOne will be opening a grab'n'go style lounge at DCA soon.
I keep the X because it’s cheaper (used to have the CSR as well) but the lounge is a total crapshoot at IAD. They took away the grab and go option and now there’s always a long wait to get in.
I find most of the lounge “privileges” to be useless, as least domestically. You can rarely get in because everyone and their mom has a Priority Pass now.
Really?! The grab and go was what they advertised and what I was looking forward to!
Anonymous
08/02/2024 17:54
Subject: Re:Chase Sapphire Reserve Alternate?
Cap One Venture X. Worth it just for the lounge access at IAD!
Anonymous
08/02/2024 17:07
Subject: Re:Chase Sapphire Reserve Alternate?
Anonymous wrote:The 2 similar cars are Cap One VentureX and AmEx Platinum.
I'd lean towards the CapOne, since they have a really good lounge at IAD and AmEx has non. AmEx does have a new lounge at DCA, but it gets full quickly. CapOne will be opening a grab'n'go style lounge at DCA soon.
I keep the X because it’s cheaper (used to have the CSR as well) but the lounge is a total crapshoot at IAD. They took away the grab and go option and now there’s always a long wait to get in.
I find most of the lounge “privileges” to be useless, as least domestically. You can rarely get in because everyone and their mom has a Priority Pass now.
Anonymous
08/02/2024 17:02
Subject: Re:Chase Sapphire Reserve Alternate?
Anonymous wrote:I’ve had the Reserve since it launched and never had any issues. What kind of issues did you have?
Not the OP but for me it was a large fraudulent charge on my card that they refused to do anything about despite repeated requests to them and the vendor.
Anonymous
08/01/2024 12:05
Subject: Chase Sapphire Reserve Alternate?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:For the reasons many have mentioned, lounge access is nice if you would have the card anyway for other reasons, but lounge access alone is not a reason to get a premium card. We rarely use it because almost never do layovers or arrive super early to the airport.
Exactly- one of the big benefits of the DC area is having nonstops to so many places if you utilize all 3 airports. The only time we ever have a stop is if going to some pretty remote western airport like the smaller ones near some of the national parks. And we rarely check bags and have PreCheck, so are usually getting to the airport around an hour from departure. As such, even with lounge access it's not worth spending more time in the airport, so we pretty rarely do it. One thing that was nice when the Sapphire Reserve has the restaurant perk was going 45 minutes early if the flight was around mealtime, and getting a discounted meal before the flight so we didn't have to bring food onboard. But that's gone now. Thanks Chef Geoff's, you weren't bad for airport food.
What do you mean it's gone now? Is there no more discounts on meals at the airports?
https://onemileatatime.com/news/chase-sapphire-reserve-cuts-priority-pass-restaurants/
Nooooo! I love that crappy mexican place in the Miami airport. Sometimes they would hook us up with $50 each!
Yeah the only cards with the PP restaurant option now are a couple of pretty niche cards like the US Bank Altitude and the Citi Prestige, which isn't even available for new cardholders anymore. I am sure that a few of their customers used the restaurant option a lot and cost a lot of money, so they have been dropping it.
Anonymous
08/01/2024 10:26
Subject: Chase Sapphire Reserve Alternate?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:For the reasons many have mentioned, lounge access is nice if you would have the card anyway for other reasons, but lounge access alone is not a reason to get a premium card. We rarely use it because almost never do layovers or arrive super early to the airport.
Exactly- one of the big benefits of the DC area is having nonstops to so many places if you utilize all 3 airports. The only time we ever have a stop is if going to some pretty remote western airport like the smaller ones near some of the national parks. And we rarely check bags and have PreCheck, so are usually getting to the airport around an hour from departure. As such, even with lounge access it's not worth spending more time in the airport, so we pretty rarely do it. One thing that was nice when the Sapphire Reserve has the restaurant perk was going 45 minutes early if the flight was around mealtime, and getting a discounted meal before the flight so we didn't have to bring food onboard. But that's gone now. Thanks Chef Geoff's, you weren't bad for airport food.
What do you mean it's gone now? Is there no more discounts on meals at the airports?
https://onemileatatime.com/news/chase-sapphire-reserve-cuts-priority-pass-restaurants/
Nooooo! I love that crappy mexican place in the Miami airport. Sometimes they would hook us up with $50 each!
Anonymous
08/01/2024 10:25
Subject: Chase Sapphire Reserve Alternate?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:For the reasons many have mentioned, lounge access is nice if you would have the card anyway for other reasons, but lounge access alone is not a reason to get a premium card. We rarely use it because almost never do layovers or arrive super early to the airport.
Exactly- one of the big benefits of the DC area is having nonstops to so many places if you utilize all 3 airports. The only time we ever have a stop is if going to some pretty remote western airport like the smaller ones near some of the national parks. And we rarely check bags and have PreCheck, so are usually getting to the airport around an hour from departure. As such, even with lounge access it's not worth spending more time in the airport, so we pretty rarely do it. One thing that was nice when the Sapphire Reserve has the restaurant perk was going 45 minutes early if the flight was around mealtime, and getting a discounted meal before the flight so we didn't have to bring food onboard. But that's gone now. Thanks Chef Geoff's, you weren't bad for airport food.
What do you mean it's gone now? Is there no more discounts on meals at the airports?
https://onemileatatime.com/news/chase-sapphire-reserve-cuts-priority-pass-restaurants/
We got the VentureX last year for the bonus and the new lounge at IAD, and figured would make a decision when the 2nd year came up as to which card to keep. The significant reduction in the CSR value made it easy, but I was already leaning towards the VentureX. Downgraded to the Sapphire Preferred.