WWYD: airline-branded credit cards with annual fees

[shaynaatl]

DH and I both have our own Delta Platinum AMEX credit cards. The annual fee used to be $200 but was moved to $250 recently. We mainly have the card for the free companion certificate. We save those for expensive round trips so the annual fee is definitely worth it to us. And we like the free checked bag and early boarding for flights.

We also sometimes use the AMEX offers that save you money here and there. 

However, we have no idea when we'll be able to travel again. But I also don't want to cancel the cards and take credit hits. Another option would be downgrading to the free version, and then upgrade when we start flying again. But I'm not sure if that affects your credit. Thoughts?

[sacattack]

I just cancelled my JetBlue card because of this exact reason, I just didn't want to pay all that money for no usable benefit. I wasn't too worried about the credit it. They did try to get me to to downgrade, but I wasn't interested. My guess is they just change something on their end, like your number stays the same but the benefits get cut.

[wanderingback]

I don't know, I should probably address this.
I have the Amex platinum. I loved it because of the free airport lounge access, which I obviously haven't used in awhile and won't be used to the same level for awhile (I was using it about once month before). But I think it's $700 a year, so definitely a waste of money right now.

Are you planning to make any big purchases soon?
I don't think downgrading them to the free version would affect your credit score, but I'm not expert. But if you're not planning to make any big purchases anytime soon, then it's probably not a huge deal if your credit score goes down a little bit.

[sandandsea]

We have the southwest card and just let the points keep growing. We will use them all eventually so I’m not too worried about it since they don’t expire.

[Deleted]

Downgrading cards usually won't affect your credit. It's just a product change where they move your credit line from one card to another.

[Deleted]

Feb 2, 2021 14:50:55 GMT -5 shaynaatl said:

DH and I both have our own Delta Platinum AMEX credit cards. The annual fee used to be $200 but was moved to $250 recently. We mainly have the card for the free companion certificate. We save those for expensive round trips so the annual fee is definitely worth it to us. And we like the free checked bag and early boarding for flights.

We also sometimes use the AMEX offers that save you money here and there. 

However, we have no idea when we'll be able to travel again. But I also don't want to cancel the cards and take credit hits. Another option would be downgrading to the free version, and then upgrade when we start flying again. But I'm not sure if that affects your credit. Thoughts?

I would also contact them to see if they have any retention offers. You may be able to get some sky miles out of them in exchange for not downgrading.

[steamboat185]

We’ve canceled a few airline specific cards in the last few months I don’t think the “hit” was noticeable maybe 5-10 points?

[Susie]

I just saw the $95 fee in Mint today for my Chase Sapphire Preferred.  At this point the dollar value of the points I've already accumulated exceeds the $95 annual fee many times over, so that was my rationale for keeping it.  I guess what I should have done, is transfer the points to my Chase Freedom card, cancel the CSP, reopen a new CSP card when travel is a thing again, enjoy the bonus, and transfer the points back to the new CSP from the Freedom card.  But, hindsight is 20/20.  Plus, we are house shopping, and although the CSP is not my oldest card, it has a high limit which helps my utilization, and it has a number of years' history.  Plus, taking the time to execute all the changes, and changing all my recurrent charges, isn't free either.

All in, I'm ok with keeping it for now. 

[gt7301b]

I'd call and ask them if they could wave/reduce the fee due to travel restrictions. I did this with my Southwest card and it took very little effort to get them to wave the fee.

[lolalolalola]

We cancelled ours in June 2020. We have >$3000 in flight credits to use just from cancelled flights, so no need to be accumulating more miles. They did switch to a cash back option in order to keep customers, but we already have a cash back card that we like so didn’t bother

[keweenawlove]

Our compromise was my H canceled his Delta card but I kept mine. I think the annual fee is actually coming up pretty soon. I've currently got one comparison certificate that's good until 12/2021 and I'm relatively optimistic that we'll have a chance to use it this fall (I say that now, who the heck actually knows). It does seem like they're getting harder to use though with less tickets available on each flight so I question how much it's worth it every year though even pre-COVID.

My CSR even with the annual fee has been worth it to keep. Between 3x points on groceries, travel credit being able to be used on groceries/gas, and the combo H and I have with the freedom/freedom unlimited, we're usually able to get $100+ in points/month for restaurant purchases.

[keweenawlove]

Feb 2, 2021 21:06:36 GMT -5 mofongo said:

We have the chase sapphire reserve and I think we pay $525/year, I’m the add on person. They started something since covid called “pay myself back” or something like that.

It’s a lot more money than doing cash for points, but it can only be used to put towards certain credit card charges. We ended up doing that with a lot of points and it was a pretty good payback since we can’t travel but still use our card for everything.

I hope they keep this feature post-COVID. It's so much easier than redeeming points for flights/hotels. They always seemed to be a little higher "priced" than buying right from the airline.

Not sure if you've figured out this "hack" yet but we got the Freedom Unlimited which gives you 1.5x points on everything so we us it for everything that the Reserve doesn't have 3x points on, then transfer them to Reserve account to do the "pay myself back".

[noodleoo]

We have a Delta card that we upgrade and downgrade as we need it. We upgrade it before a trip to get free checked bags, etc and then downgrade it after the trip. They only charge us a fraction of the yearly fee then. So far Delta hasn't caught on. I would downgrade it now and then upgrade again when travel is safe again.

[shaynaatl]

Delta Platinum AMEX is now offering a $15 monthly dining credit for the rest of the year. That's a nice perk!

A few AMEX cards with annual fees are doing the same deal, so check your AMEX offers.

slickdeals.net/f/14810947-amex-offer-spend-10-15-20-at-restaurants-get-10-15-20-back-once-a-month-through-2021?v=1