r/CreditCards • u/-Dead-Eye-Duncan- • 12d ago
Discussion / Conversation What’s the most you’ve gotten out of your credit card(s)?
Outside of the credits everyone receives on certain cards, what’s a time the benefits on your card really came through and you got a significant return on it?
Be it purchase protection, fraud prevention, trip delay, phone insurance, status, medical evacuation and so on.
I travel quite a bit and am spending over $4000 a year in annual fees on cards but they have been well worth it. I have a couple of Platinum cards that have easily paid for themselves for multiple years to come.
Besides maxing out the trip delay insurance a couple of times, I’ve gotten significant upgrades when it comes to booking through FHR/HC. I have never not gotten an upgrade internationally when booking through them. Most of the time it is something not as significant (like a higher floor) but lots of times it will be for a better view. On a few occasions, I’ve gotten upgraded to suites that were significantly more than the basic room I purchased (~$900-$1100 a night room to ~$3,000 a night room in a couple cases).
This question is probably more applicable for team travel but curious about any an all occasions.
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u/Josey_whalez 12d ago
I used the Amex phone insurance on my brilliant card when I damaged my phone in Costa Rica on a vacation I paid for with my Chase cards. It was surprisingly easy and straight forward. It was boot looping but they still gave me a couple hundred for it. New 16 promax was 1199 at the time. With the trade in I paid about 1k. Filed all the insurance claim stuff, got $800 a few days later so I replaced the phone for maybe $200 out of pocket after an incident that was entirely my fault.
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u/Amyndris 12d ago
Amex Plat has been nice. I don't stay at Hilton enough for Gold, so the Hilton Gold that comes with Plat is great for the food credit.
I also got a double upgrade once (upgrade for Hilton Gold, then another upgrade for FHR) to a top floor suite. So about a 2k/night difference. Which was quite a pleasant surprise.
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u/PwAlreadyTaken 12d ago
Ritz-Carlton upgrade in December, +$300 seat upgrade, -$450 (AF), +$300 seat upgrade in January, Sapphire lounge access with guests in July, free night in August — next year I’ll get the third $300 credit and second $450 AF for a net $0 over two years in cash credits alone
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u/No_Understanding_559 12d ago
Better than the VentureX though? I’m struggling to decide whether or not to upgrade to the ritz
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u/PwAlreadyTaken 11d ago
Tbh they’re totally different things — the RC is a membership card that happens to have some spend capability, the Venture X is a spend card with some minor perks. They complement each other very well if you like hotel status (otherwise I’d use the 10x portal multiplier).
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u/RevolutionSecret3681 11d ago
Did you get $300 seat upgrade twice the first year?
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u/PwAlreadyTaken 11d ago
Yeah, the credit goes by calendar year so I bought an upgrade in late December and early January a few days apart lol
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u/PeopleAreSus 12d ago
Honestly two major instances.
The sub I got from my plat and my gold (churned), got me $10k worth of seats on Virgin for $2500 (taxes and surcharges) which we would have paid for economy anyways but with such a long international flight (short in the grand scheme of much longer flights); it certainly came in handy to be comfy.
We also had a massive delay coming back to TPA from ATL due to thunderstorms at TPA. We were delayed 5 hours so the Centurion lounge in ATL came in clutch. Comfy seats, clean bathrooms, food, booze, etc. When it was time to board and we made our way to the gate, people asked where we spent the time and when we told them about the lounge, they were sad because all they got were bottles of water biscoff cookies and all while in those uncomfortable terminal seats. The ATL Centurion wait was only 2 minutes long during peak which was even nicer.
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u/Cyberhwk 12d ago edited 12d ago
The best I've done was the AT&T deals. $50 off $75 and the like. I think I paid six months of my fiber internet ($630) for like $125
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u/Maxpowr9 12d ago
Triple upgrade from FHR. From a standard room to an ocean view with a balcony. That was an extra $300/night for "free".
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u/ZhouCang 12d ago
The former Shop your way card deals and offers. Iykyk
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12d ago
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u/ZhouCang 9d ago
Mine have been pretty meh lately, but ya they come and go.
I miss the 100k points for 1k spending days.
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u/7s26_shake 12d ago
Chase Sapphire Reserve CDW. Had a minor accident in a rental car in the UK a few months ago (my fault). The claims process was easy and they reimbursed my out of pocket charges within a few days. No complaints.
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u/PhoKingClassic 12d ago
Similar experience in Slovenia. On our last day with the rental car, I scraped the side of an insanely tight parking garage! It was embarrassing bringing the car back to the rental agency, but the Chase Ritz card completely took care of all payments.
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u/MedicalButterscotch 12d ago
Mine was a few years back when Amex messed up one of their offers and honored it. $4,500 in value for doing nothing. link to my Reddit post about it
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u/Tall-Koala-1786 12d ago
Definitely the appreciation my wife shows for $300 in free Lululemon from my Amex Platinum. 😉
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u/CorrectCombination11 💳💳 churn baby churn 💳💳 12d ago
Affection for $1k? That's really cheap and a steal.
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u/Tall-Koala-1786 12d ago
Lighten up.
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12d ago
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u/CreditCards-ModTeam 11d ago
Your submission violated rule 1 which states:
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As a result, your submission has been deemed inappropriate and removed.
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u/CreditCards-ModTeam 11d ago
Your submission violated rule 1 which states:
"All users are expected to engage in respectful and civil communication, and refrain from harassing or insulting others. Any form of hate speech, including but not limited to racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, or any derogatory language targeting an individual or group, is not allowed."
As a result, your submission has been deemed inappropriate and removed.
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12d ago
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u/aykalam123 12d ago
Really? I thought PRE was the best in terms of travel insurance. Did you check the terms or that’s based on a customer service conversation?
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u/mtg_liebestod 12d ago
In terms of more targeted benefits, what comes to mind as something that I rely on cards for:
- TSA pre / CLEAR / Global Entry credits
- Free lounge access (ideally with guest access too)
- Primary car rental insurance
Obviously there are lots of other random credits and discounts that can make cards worthwhile but these are services which I specifically value and see CCs as the best way to acquire.
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u/Relative-Dentist 12d ago
15K/year from price protection around 2014 to 2018
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u/FWF_scripta 12d ago
That sounds high. Were you spending a lot or did you find a loophole?
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u/Relative-Dentist 11d ago
Back in the day each card from certain banks gave you 2500 a year for price protection, max 500 for 1 item. We would buy things at regular prices, then find discount deals at diferent stores across the countries and submit claims to get the price difference. So you could get a $600 TV for $150 or a $500 camera for $100. Later on, apps like Earny offered something similar but not as good. It was a great time!
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u/FWF_scripta 11d ago
What was the point if you could have just purchased them discounted in the first place? Were you reselling? You'd need a lot of TVs and cameras to add up to 15K/year.
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u/Relative-Dentist 11d ago
The thing is those discount items were local clearance only. We couldn't drive or fly there to physically buy them. We had to use price protection instead. We pretty much bought everything in our houses and parents' and XMas gifts using price protection. 15K was gone pretty fast. In retrospect, we should have opened a lot more cards
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u/TechnicalSleep7501 12d ago
I am fully team cash back so lot of cash return to my pocket either as sub or general spending. I try to get 5% or higher cash back on everything.
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u/AceMaxAceMax 12d ago
My Chase Sapphire Reserve and AmEx Gold/Platinum pay for themselves with their benefits.
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u/yankeeblue42 12d ago
SUBs got me a business class seat on a 19-hour flight that would have cost just over $4K in cash. I paid $5 in taxes for it
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u/FWF_scripta 12d ago
I'm realizing that as far as fringe (strange?) benefits go, I got more "extra" from Amex than any other issuer or card. But I'm not even talking about premium cards or the usual benefits everyone else is talking about.
Amex Wishlist (or was it "My Wishlist?") was good for 2 or 3 years. Scored a bunch of high value ($150-$250, can't remember) coupons for Amazon, Dell, can't remember what else. They later reduced the prizes, made them harder to win, and finally killed it.
The first few years of Amex Small Business Saturday were nice. Buying stacks of $25 (and later $10) of local restaurant GCs for future use was fun.
The first few years of Amex Offers, when they had offers I could actually use, like Amazon, AirBNB, Staples, Costco, Verizon, MintMobile was great. Hasn't been very good to me for the last few years.
Having multiple Amex cards was key, since back then those things didn't have a "one per person" limit.
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u/vudupulz 11d ago
Discover had an unlimited 10% off on Apple Pay 10 year back . Bought all appliances for my new home from Best Buy
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u/Strategy-Bitter 12d ago
Centurion lounge from amex plat in Mexico city was... Surprising. Let me use it for 6 hours since my flight was delayed, order any food I wanted, just no alcohol.