U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve Visa Infinite Review
Updated September 3, 2024.
The Facts
The Math
Even though Altitude Reserve is branded as a high-end card with a hefty $400 annual fee, after you make use of the $325 annual travel & dining credit (which shall be very easy as expense such as restaurants, takeout, food delivery, airfare, hotels, car rentals, public transportation, parking, etc. will all qualify), the effective annual fee becomes $75 which is even less than what most premium travel cards charge ($95 is a current industry standard).
While some customers might find 5x points on prepaid hotels and car rentals useful, many would never book prepaid travel and several major hotel programs don't allow points earning and status recognition for third party bookings, so for these reasons, we will not consider this feature in our analysis. More and more brick and mortar stores accept mobile wallet in the U.S. (POS systems that support "Tap to Pay" will accept mobile wallet), such as restaurants, fast food, grocery stores, wholesale stores, drug stores, retail stores, gas stations, and so on. Thus Altitude Reserve's 3x bonus categories can be extremely lucrative.
Altitude Reserve vs. Fidelity Visa: Let's say your annual spending on the 3x categories is $A and the total annual spending is $B - in order to beat the annual fee and 2% cashback on Fidelity Visa which carries no annual fees, you will need 3 x 1.5% x A +1.5% x (B-A) - 75 > 2% x B, i.e., 6A - B > 15,000. For example, if your annual spending is $30,000, you will need to spend $7,500 on the 3x categories to beat the $75 effective annual fee and 2% cashback. On top of that, you receive additional travel perks such as airport lounge access, hotel privileges, primary rental car insurance, waived foreign transaction fees, and so on.
Altitude Reserve vs. Chase Sapphire Reserve: There is no doubt that U.S. Bank designed its Altitude Reserve to challenge the popular Sapphire Reserve. Let's see how they compare. (1) After considering their annual travel credits, Altitude Reserve is $175 cheaper in annual fees than Sapphire Reserve. (2) Sapphire Reserve has a 10-5-3-1 earning structure covering travel and dining, while Altitude Reserve has a 5-3-1 earning structure with travel and mobile wallet as bonus categories. While Sapphire Reserve offers 2 additional points for airfare (booked through Chase), Altitude Reserve's mobile wallet could cover much more than Sapphire Reserve's dining category. (3) Even though when redeemed for travel at fixed value, points in both programs are worth 1.5 cents a piece, Sapphire Reserve does offer a lot of flexibility and potentially more lucrative value when you transfer points into frequent traveler miles/points. (4) Both offer similar travel perks with few differences, such as 8 free Priority Pass Select visits provided by Altitude Reserve vs. unlimited free access provided by Sapphire Reserve. (5) The last thing to note is that Sapphire Reserve offers a higher level of travel and consumer protection in general. The bottom line: while Altitude Reserve is cheaper in annual fees and might potentially offer more rewards, Sapphire Reserve' flexibility in redemption and better protection will need to be considered.
To see how U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve competes with other cards with similar annual fees, please check out our featured review Comparing High-end Cards covering Amex Platinum Card, Amex Delta Reserve, Amex Hilton Aspire, Amex Marriott Brilliant, Chase Sapphire Reserve, Chase United MP Club, Citi Prestige, Citi AA Executive, U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve, CNB Crystal, and MasterCard Black Card.
The Conclusion
In designing Altitude Reserve, US Bank has successfully copied several wining features from its archrival Chase Sapphire Reserve but still offers a different product in general. We welcome the competition it brings to the already heated high-end card market and only hope that US Bank won't drastically devaluate this product in the future. As the #5 Credit Card for Rewards and with pretty strong performance in signup bonus, travel perks and consumer protection, US Bank Altitude Reserve is #2 Best Credit Card by Dr. Credit Card.
© 2011-2024 DrCreditCard.net All rights reserved.
The Facts
- Annual Fee: $400 for primary cardholder; free additional cards.
- Signup Bonus: 50,000 points ($750 in travel) after you spend $4,500 within 3 months of new account opening. The bonus is not available to applicants who have this card or received a signup bonus for this card in the last 5 years. Historical best bonus: 50,000 points since introduced in 2017.
- Application Landing Page (for existing U.S. Bank customers with accounts opened at least 35 days prior to application; for new customers please see a banker)
- Rewards: 5x prepaid hotels & prepaid car rentals through U.S. Bank, 3x other travel & mobile wallet (Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, Google Wallet), and 1x everywhere else
- Best Use of Altitude Rewards points: You may redeem the points for gift cards, merchandise, cash back, magazines, etc., at up to 1 cent per point (cpp). However, there are three better options: (1) You may redeem 35,000 points to offset the cost of your annual fee, including the $400 annual fee for the primary cardholder and any additional card annual fees ($75 per card). If you don't have any additional card, the redemption value is 1.14 cpp; if you have one additional card, the redemption value is 1.36 cpp; if you have two additional cards, the value is 1.57 cpp; obviously, the more additional cards you have the better value you will achieve. (2) You may redeem points for airfare, hotels, car rentals at fixed value of 1.5 cpp via US Bank's booking portal. Unlike Chase Ultimate Rewards' fixed value travel redemption where you have great flexibility in using points towards a part of your travel expense, US Bank requires that you have sufficient points to cover the entire expense of your travel. (3) Instead of going through the booking portal, you may also redeem points for travel as statement credits at 1.5 cpp once you enroll your cellphone number for the "real-time rewards" feature in your online account. Once enrolled, whenever you use this card to pay for travel, you will receive a text message from US Bank asking you if you want to redeem your points for that specific transaction. The minimum for triggering this feature can be set at $10 per transaction by cardholders; however, hotel transactions have a fixed minimum of $500 and car rental transactions has a fixed minimum of $250. Most travel category transactions above the minimum will automatically trigger this feature; however, there are also quite a few reported failures. This certainly provides much better flexibility and benefits than the 1.5 cpp redemption option via the booking portal, as you may continue to use your preferred booking channels in order to, for example, use coupons, trigger discounts, save time entering frequent traveler membership numbers, earn miles/points (certain programs won't allow points earning via third party booking), earn shopping portal rewards, etc. Finally, note that the points can't be transferred into frequent traveler miles/points.
- Annual $325 travel & dining credit each membership year. Any travel or dining (including takeout and food delivery) expense is automatically reimbursed as statement credits, up to $325 per membership year. When utilized, this essentially reduced the effective annual fee to a mere $75.
- Access to over 1,500 airport lounges worldwide via a complimentary Priority Pass Select membership for one cardmember per card account (primary cardholder or authorized user). The first 8 visits will be free, and visits thereafter will be $27 per person per visit. Please see our featured review All About Airport Lounges to learn more.
- Hotel Privileges: (1) Visa Infinite Privileges at Relais & Chateaux (a collection of 500+ high-end luxury boutique hotels worldwide): a VIP welcome at all hotels (unique to each property) and complimentary breakfasts at 120+ participating hotels. Visit relaischateaux.com/visainfinite-us for details. You will also be accelerated to its Club 5C status after staying 2 nights in a 12-month period. Relais & Chateaux's Club 5C is by-invitation only if you don't have a Visa Infinite and normally requires staying 15 nights per year; perks include room upgrades upon availability, and "Discovery Privilege" unique to each property. (2) Visa Signature Luxury Hotel Collection which offers perks including daily complimentary breakfasts for two, room upgrades upon availability, late checkout upon availability, $25 food and beverage credit per stay, free room wi-fi, and VIP amenities, at over 900 luxury hotels and resorts worldwide. You may book a hotel on VisaSignatureHotels.com and the rates are the same as Best Available Rate (BAR). (3) Visa Infinite Luxury Hotel Collection which covers a subset (200+) of Visa Signature hotels but offers an extra property specific perk like a $75 food and beverage credit or a $100 spa/hotel/rate credit per stay. You may book a hotel a VisaInfiniteHotels.com, and the rates are the same as BAR.
- Other Visa Infinite Benefits: (1) Visa Infinite 24/7 Concierge Service. (2) Visa Infinite Car Rental Privileges at Avis, National, and SilverCar.
- Other Benefits: (1) Waived foreign transaction fees, with an embedded EMV chip. (2) Primary rental car collision coverage - note while most credit cards provide rental car insurance, they are secondary, meaning your personal insurance's collision damage coverage kicks in before the credit card's. Please see our featured review on credit cards that come with primary rental car insurance for details. (3) Reimbursement for Global Entry ($100) or TSA PreCheck ($85) application every four years.
- Travel and Consumer Protection: as the first Visa Infinite card offered by U.S. Bank, Altitude Reserve offers the highest level of credit card protection among U.S. Bank cards - benefits including Travel Accident Insurance, Trip Cancellation / Interruption, Trip Delay Reimbursement, Lost Luggage Reimbursement, Purchase Security, Return Protection, Extended Warranty, Emergency Evacuation and Transportation, Identity Theft Coverage, etc.
- Other Facts: (1) This card is exclusive to the existing U.S. Bank customers. (2) It has a metal design and weighs about 15 grams, three times as heavy as regular plastics.
- History: US Bank went into the high-end credit card market with the introduction of Altitude Reserve in 2017. In March 2020, US Bank added prepaid hotels & car rentals via US Bank's travel portal as 5x bonus categories. In February 2021, US Bank made the $325 annual travel credit also applicable to dining including takeout and food delivery permanently (instead a COVID-19 related temporary benefit) and reduced the annual fees on authorized users from $75 to none. In April 2022, the card lost the 12 GoGo inflight Wi-Fi passes feature.
The Math
Even though Altitude Reserve is branded as a high-end card with a hefty $400 annual fee, after you make use of the $325 annual travel & dining credit (which shall be very easy as expense such as restaurants, takeout, food delivery, airfare, hotels, car rentals, public transportation, parking, etc. will all qualify), the effective annual fee becomes $75 which is even less than what most premium travel cards charge ($95 is a current industry standard).
While some customers might find 5x points on prepaid hotels and car rentals useful, many would never book prepaid travel and several major hotel programs don't allow points earning and status recognition for third party bookings, so for these reasons, we will not consider this feature in our analysis. More and more brick and mortar stores accept mobile wallet in the U.S. (POS systems that support "Tap to Pay" will accept mobile wallet), such as restaurants, fast food, grocery stores, wholesale stores, drug stores, retail stores, gas stations, and so on. Thus Altitude Reserve's 3x bonus categories can be extremely lucrative.
Altitude Reserve vs. Fidelity Visa: Let's say your annual spending on the 3x categories is $A and the total annual spending is $B - in order to beat the annual fee and 2% cashback on Fidelity Visa which carries no annual fees, you will need 3 x 1.5% x A +1.5% x (B-A) - 75 > 2% x B, i.e., 6A - B > 15,000. For example, if your annual spending is $30,000, you will need to spend $7,500 on the 3x categories to beat the $75 effective annual fee and 2% cashback. On top of that, you receive additional travel perks such as airport lounge access, hotel privileges, primary rental car insurance, waived foreign transaction fees, and so on.
Altitude Reserve vs. Chase Sapphire Reserve: There is no doubt that U.S. Bank designed its Altitude Reserve to challenge the popular Sapphire Reserve. Let's see how they compare. (1) After considering their annual travel credits, Altitude Reserve is $175 cheaper in annual fees than Sapphire Reserve. (2) Sapphire Reserve has a 10-5-3-1 earning structure covering travel and dining, while Altitude Reserve has a 5-3-1 earning structure with travel and mobile wallet as bonus categories. While Sapphire Reserve offers 2 additional points for airfare (booked through Chase), Altitude Reserve's mobile wallet could cover much more than Sapphire Reserve's dining category. (3) Even though when redeemed for travel at fixed value, points in both programs are worth 1.5 cents a piece, Sapphire Reserve does offer a lot of flexibility and potentially more lucrative value when you transfer points into frequent traveler miles/points. (4) Both offer similar travel perks with few differences, such as 8 free Priority Pass Select visits provided by Altitude Reserve vs. unlimited free access provided by Sapphire Reserve. (5) The last thing to note is that Sapphire Reserve offers a higher level of travel and consumer protection in general. The bottom line: while Altitude Reserve is cheaper in annual fees and might potentially offer more rewards, Sapphire Reserve' flexibility in redemption and better protection will need to be considered.
To see how U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve competes with other cards with similar annual fees, please check out our featured review Comparing High-end Cards covering Amex Platinum Card, Amex Delta Reserve, Amex Hilton Aspire, Amex Marriott Brilliant, Chase Sapphire Reserve, Chase United MP Club, Citi Prestige, Citi AA Executive, U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve, CNB Crystal, and MasterCard Black Card.
The Conclusion
In designing Altitude Reserve, US Bank has successfully copied several wining features from its archrival Chase Sapphire Reserve but still offers a different product in general. We welcome the competition it brings to the already heated high-end card market and only hope that US Bank won't drastically devaluate this product in the future. As the #5 Credit Card for Rewards and with pretty strong performance in signup bonus, travel perks and consumer protection, US Bank Altitude Reserve is #2 Best Credit Card by Dr. Credit Card.
© 2011-2024 DrCreditCard.net All rights reserved.