Citi Prestige and US Bank Altitude Reserve take on Chase to provide more COVID-19 relief

As covered in a previous post, we praised Chase Sapphire Reserve for offering powerful temporary COVID-19 related benefits such as reduced annual fees, 5x points on groceries, enhanced flexibility for $300 annual travel credit, and enhanced flexibility in points redemption.  Now Citi and US Bank are following Chase to offer some great temporary benefits for Sapphire Reserve's two major competitors.

• Citi Prestige: (1) earn 5x points on online purchases, up to $1,500 spent in this category (in addition to the regular 5x on airlines | travel agencies | dining, 3x on hotels | cruise lines), from 6/2/2020 through 8/31/2020; (2) as previously announced, the annual $250 travel credits can be used towards groceries and dining, from 5/1/2020 through 12/31/2020.
• US Bank Altitude Reserve: (1) the annual $325 travel credits can be used towards dining, from 6/1/2020 through 12/31/2020; (2) earn 3x points on dining (in addition to the regular 3x on travel and mobile wallets), from 6/1/2020 through 12/31/2020.

So with all these, which card is the "king of credit cards" during this pandemic?  Obviously it depends on your spending patterns.  In our opinions, as most consumers have been cutting down on travel and dining while increasing online and grocery purchases, who offers the most for the latter two categories will win.  In this way, we have to choose between Sapphire Reserve and Citi Prestige: the former offers 5x on groceries for two months (capped at $1,500 spent per month) and allows points to be redeemed for groceries | dining | home improvement in addition to travel at the impressive 1.5 cents per point value for seven months, and the latter offers 5x on a arguably wider category for three months but capped at $1,500 spent total.  Due to the higher spending cap as well as the enhanced flexibility of redemption, we think Sapphire Reserve is still the best card during the pandemic.