Category Archives for Credit Cards.
Skeptics of the program have little reason not to participate. If you think they’re providing too much value to be sustainable, that would seem to be an even stronger reason to go all-in with the program (to benefit from the excess value they’re delivering).
Here’s a CEO who spent 1.83 million American Express Membership Rewards points to cover a surprise tariff bill at the guitar pedal manufactuing company he runs in Oklahoma Cty.
One upside of this new approach that Chase and American Express are taking is that you’d expect richer rewards and lower annual fees to be the result in a highly competitive industry. In fact we have seen much richer rewards over time – standard bonuses were smaller and points-earning was generally just one mile per dollar when I got started – but fees have also risen. There are also a lot more rewards card issuers than there used to be, and a lot more products, so the customers Chase and American Express are trying to avoid can simply look elsewhere.
Chase’s new “Points Boost” feature on their premium credit cards looks a lot better than I thought it would. It’s available now for all Sapphire Reserve cardmembers, even though the rest of the card proposition’s changes don’t come into effect until October for those of us who already had their cards in our wallets.
The product was wildly successful attracting young, affluent cardmembers. But it wasn’t profitable. Early on Chase filed SEC 8-Ks outlining greater than expected costs. My understanding is that in the first five years after launch they’d cumulatively lost around $2 billion on the product.
Chase is revamping its Sapphire Reserve card. It’ll be more expensive, and the earning and redemption proposition will be different. There are a lot more credits than before. So what’s the next effect on cardmembers – are the changes to Sapphire Reserve good or bad?
Delta and American Express are working on a new premium credit card, positioned as higher-end than their current premium Delta Reserve card that comes with lounge access.
It seemed worth pulling out separately things like ‘what happens to my existing Sapphire Reserve points?’ and ‘when does this change actually go into effect for existing customers?’ And perhaps even more importantly, ‘is there a brief window for me to choose whether I like the old or new product better?’
Until now they haven’t had a business version of the popular Sapphire Reserve card. That’s surprising. Amex has the Business Platinum. Even Capital One has Venture X Business. Yet Chase’s small business cards focused on the entry-level Ink and the mid-tier product that was closer to Sapphire Preferred.
While some members will find reason to be disappointed, overall I think they’ve done a really great job re-engineering the economics of the card both to benefit their own book and to offer more value to cardmembers.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
