Does anyone going on a cruise not take the trip insurance?

[KirkNC]

1 hour ago, chisoxfan said:

I was a big Chase Reserve fan and they offer 100k evac.  and a minimal medical (2,500).

Unfortunately they informed me the annual fee would be raised to 550 (from 450). You have to keep in mind that they credit 300 of travel against this so the current 'net' is 150 and will become 250.

As much as I like this card I think I will bail when it expires. 250-500k evac insurance and some medical is peanuts when purchased from 3rd party. Trip cancellation is pretty much the same as Sapphire Preferred (10k I believe).

Anyway, Preferred has many of the same Reserve benes (you lose the Priority Pass which is interesting but not alot of value IMHO). I suggested my wife get the Preferred with 100k bonus points and we should survive nicely with this.

I dumped the AMEX Platinum years ago because of the expanding fees -decreasing value of points.

Chase leads the way with point value and flexibility but maybe stretching with new Reserve fees. JMHO.

We will also review it next time around.  We aren’t traveling much and am not sure if we will ever get back to the pace of travel ore-pandemic where we cruised 250+ days a year.

[Hlitner]

1 hour ago, KirkNC said:

We will also review it next time around.  We aren’t traveling much and am not sure if we will ever get back to the pace of travel ore-pandemic where we cruised 250+ days a year.

We are in a similar "boat" having downgraded our AMEX Platinum Card (about 3 years ago) in favor of getting a Chase Sapphire Reserve.  We actually started out with the Chase Preferred but upgraded after about a year because we wanted some of the perks once we gave up our AMEX Platinum.  We do travel enough that the airport lounge option is nice and the extra points (we have quickly accumulated over half a million points) are quite nice for booking hotels (others tell us it is also great for air).  Chase also made a lifelong friend (that would be me) when they paid us $10,000 for a trip interruption claim.   Is the Reserve worth the extra money over the Preferred?  Assuming they keep the Preferred at $95 it means that we would be paying $455 more for the Reserve.  But the reserve quickly gives us $300 back (the travel credit) so the incremental cost is $155 a year.  Since it covers one Global Entry fee (every 5 years) that is also worth $20 (on an annualized basis) so our incremental cost is actually $135 a year.  The extra points (3X on some things vs 2X on the Preferred) and the airport lounge access does cover a good part of that cost.

 

Hank

[Himself]

I think it is wise.

[chisoxfan]

3 hours ago, Hlitner said:

We are in a similar "boat" having downgraded our AMEX Platinum Card (about 3 years ago) in favor of getting a Chase Sapphire Reserve.  We actually started out with the Chase Preferred but upgraded after about a year because we wanted some of the perks once we gave up our AMEX Platinum.  We do travel enough that the airport lounge option is nice and the extra points (we have quickly accumulated over half a million points) are quite nice for booking hotels (others tell us it is also great for air).  Chase also made a lifelong friend (that would be me) when they paid us $10,000 for a trip interruption claim.   Is the Reserve worth the extra money over the Preferred?  Assuming they keep the Preferred at $95 it means that we would be paying $455 more for the Reserve.  But the reserve quickly gives us $300 back (the travel credit) so the incremental cost is $155 a year.  Since it covers one Global Entry fee (every 5 years) that is also worth $20 (on an annualized basis) so our incremental cost is actually $135 a year.  The extra points (3X on some things vs 2X on the Preferred) and the airport lounge access does cover a good part of that cost.

 

Hank

Agree the 'extra cost' of Reserve vs. Preferred is not that much. That said, with the 100k bonus currently for Preferred, I suggested my wife get this card again which makes me think continuing the Reserve at 450 is not that attractive.  I refuse to do the TSA non sense covered by Reserve and while I have used lounge access it is not a big deal to forgo especially since we are travelling less.  Taking these two items out of the scenario, the 100k evac insurance is OK but extra coverage can be bought cheaply per trip.

If we had one card for the family I would agree the  Reserve would make sense overall- with a Preferred in house I don't think there is a need to keep Reserve.  Obviously the equation is different for everybody and my takeaway is that both of these cards have great benefits and the Chase points are very valuable so would recommend they be looked at.  Maybe like you I personally felt the AMEX Platinum value was very marginal although they 'finally' stepped up their game a bit.

[DaveOKC]

Chase Reserve - I feel that it is worth the money.  We use Hyatt points for rooms often when cruising, the $300 travel credit helps on the cost, the travel insurance coverage is nice, and I do use the airport lounges a fair amount since almost all of our airflights require a connection.  The aiport lounges are generally very nice and provide food and drinks at most of them.