US Bank Altitude Reserve added a new rewards category: 5x on prepaid hotels and car rentals booked directly in the Altitude Rewards Center.
- 5x on prepaid hotel and car rentals booked in the Altitude Rewards Center
- 3x mobile wallet
- 3x travel purchases
- 1x everywhere else
Altitude points are worth 1.5 cents each with real-time rewards, so this option essentially gives you 7.5% back on all prepaid hotel & car rental bookings. Assuming the Altitude Rewards Center works well it could make sense, but you could be losing out by using this platform versus others platforms which have shopping portals, gift cards, etc.
Fine Print:
You will earn four (4) additional bonus Points for every $1 in eligible Net Purchases spent on prepaid car and hotel reservations purchased in the online Altitude Rewards Center using your U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve Card. Prepaid car and hotel reservations in the Rewards Center are not classified as a travel category merchant transaction and are not eligible to receive the additional points for that category. Please allow 1-2 statement billing cycles for your bonus Points to appear on your credit card statement. Refer to the Rewards Center for full details.
The new benefit is showing on the US Bank Altitude Reserve landing page. We’ll update our review on the US Bank Altitude Reserve card.
The same 5x prepaid hotel + car category has been added to the lesser-known US Bank Business Leverage card according to the information we’ve received, though I don’t see it showing yet on the landing page there.
Hat tip to reader Matthew and TJ
One thing about the 3x travel, it’s only valid when booking directly with the airline, hotel, cruiseline, etc. It does not include travel agencies. It’s only mentioned at the benefits page for current card holders (https://benefits.usbank.com/personal/benefits/benefits-us-bank-altitude-visa-infinite.html) and not the page where you apply. It is not even mentioned in the fine print when you applied. I found out about it when one of my purchases through a travel agency didn’t get 3x. I raised a stink about it through both the CS number on the back of the card and Twitter. They claimed they “escalated it to the office of the president,” whatever that actually means. In the end, they gave me 5k points and said they’ll look into making the restriction more clear but they clearly haven’t done anything.
Sitting on the fence, trying to decide if it would make any sense to pay the hefty AF for this card.
Can anyone direct me or share why booking through the rewards center on usb website isn’t the best idea as opposed to…? What are other options to max points and get best discounts?
Official websites from hotels might have a better rate actually. Also when you book from a third party (OTAs like the ones US Bank is using), it’s not guaranteed that you’ll get membership benefits and points/stays/nights. Also if you could find lower prices on OTA you could always go to the hotel website or call them for a BRG.
Cj if booking for flights better to use book direct with airline and then use RTR at 1.5x (they send you a text for the charge and you verify it’s offered at 1.5X rate (discount amount not 1:100 pts) if not cancel flight within 24 hr window – then reassess options.
note: Airfare/hotels/rentals all have minimum dollar charge thresholds to qualify for 1.5x thru portal or RTR
Also I think FM has DP on what has worked for different travel i.e. Intl Intl airlines.
Cj
Airfare only has a $10 minimum. Lodging is $500 and Car Rentals are $250 for RTR.
Thanks…so I’m prob better off bookin hotels directly from websites and get 4.5% back plus the points of hotel than getting 7.5% ( 1.5 x)
Most of the time yeah,
Just for clarification – on my prior comment was for point redemption vs CC booking for example if you had say 100K of US points (worth $1,500 thru portal or RTR ) is that I would do a test booking to make sure that the RTR was redeeming at 1.5x.
For booking your almost always better off booking direct vs OTA – as all changes have to be made thru OTA rather than with hotel/airline/car rental locally or on phone or chat – and usually you can get Airlines /hotels match – online fares/pricing and earn nights or free breakfast/room upgrades with status.
Not useful in practice. 5% for prepaid hotels on bank’s own portal? I can easily beat that by big margin with hotels.com orders through cash back portals.
And I can easily beat that by booking direct with hotels and leveraging status. Soooooooo……
We’re overlooking rental cars. I don’t see any other card offering 7.5% effective return on that category, and the USB AR has pretty solid insurance. Unless you find a cash back portal stacking >3% on the company you want, this is excellent. I don’t typically even factor in the company’s own rewards because they’re not worth much.
As for hotels, status is great to get a fancier room at an urban center or airport. It’s less helpful finding a cheaper basic room near where I typically want to be. I find the best rate direct maybe 1/3 of the time, including matching/haggling. Hard to argue with the points back, though; Hilton Aspire can get a 20% yield.
Hotels.com gets, say, 4% back through a portal, stacked with the 11th night free, plus whatever your card earns (5% on the Citi Prestige for OTAs) or about 10% off buying as gift cards and whatever that card earned (5% grocery?) but losing the portal. That’s 14-18% net without juggling loyalty/status.
Does the 4-time PPS from this card include restaurant visits? I only have Amex PPS currently so 🙁
Yes it does. You also get one guest per visit, so you can treat a guest to a meal as well.
Thanks! I’d assume the lounge limit will be shared with restaurant visits, meaning if I used at some restaurant once, I only have 3 more to visit either lounges or restaurants?
Yes.
Bob
My eldest used it with her sister last month at Capers cafe in Portland.
Thanks! I’d assume the lounge limit will be shared with restaurant visits, meaning if I used at some restaurant once, I only have 3 more to visit either lounges or restaurants?
USB AR is my go to for everywhere else &M payments with S-Pay (i.e. Dentist, Convenience store, KP, etc)
But 5X -portal meh
I can’t see this being better than Hotels.com wi/10% off with HotelGC and 10% off with reward nights – if you status you have book direct -for upgrades, breaky, and to earn points/nights.
Rental –
Unless i can book Avis and get my free upgrades and still use AWD# for discounts -not worth the extra few pennys per dollar
Nothing to get overly excited about this but unlike other cards mostly picking up negative changes, this is welcoming.
Don’t get me wrong the USB AR is a great card – the GoGo passes are great when I’m not flying on SW (Chase biz card) .
I gifted the PP to my college age daughter (she used it with her sister flying to Orlando) we have CSR I’m an AU (worth $75 for PP @ PDX and 2 solo RT).
You can gift 4 passes that come with USB AR? How?
When you fill out/sign up for the PP thru USB AR website – you fill giftee name and adress (or yours) instead of your own. (you also setup UN and PW at same time). Card mailed to address used for signup.
But your still on the hook for more than the four visits/uses (perfect for family or SO that flies occasionally).
Pointz
What do you mean on the hook for more than 4 visits? You mean I can use the PP for more than 4 visits? Terms say 4 visits
5th visit and/or person would be charged the $15-28 for the visit to the USB AR card ( its a total of four free visits for 1 person).
If PP is the only interest, look at UNFCU Elite Visa, 50$ AF provides 5 visits each year
USB needs to make it easier to get approved. No more than 3 HPs in 12 months is a … challenge to say the least.
HPs are never the real issue here. Just an excuse to deny your application. It’s the relationship with the bank. Have a checking account with them and throw money in it and they will be happy to approve a cc application for you.
This benefit has been added I guess for a while (at least a few days ago I could see it). Unfortunately only prepaid hotel/car rental etc. Unless the price is competitive, I doubt it could be useful to anyone as one can always book by using a portal that can earn cash back which is more than the extra points.
If your cash back posts, and you don’t have to chase it down. And rarely – at least on the Citi TYP portal – there can be deals there that sometimes are not available on Expedia/Orbitz etc. Last fall they had a $75 off promotion for example.
I will check out the AR portal a bit. I suspect its the same thing as TYP/UR or PenFed or CNB etc.
Since it requires going through their portal I bet this will translate to pretty much nothing in real life.
Right, booking through priceline or similar is probably going to be cheaper on net.
And here comes the annual fee hike… Great benefit though.
Wow. Way to go US Bank. They saw a void in the premium card market and jumped in. It seems like they want this card complementing Amex Platinum which has flights at 5x and decent lounge access (vs 4 times with Altitude)
not 5x flights though sadly
If they really wanted to compete they’d open this card up to everyone like those of us that aren’t in their footprint and don’t want to get one of their lesser credit cards.
Keeping who can get the card tightt is one of the reasons the card is still around IMO.
If you want it that badly sign up for one of their checking accounts next time a $300 offer shows up.
If you’re out of their footprint you can’t get a checking account. I’ve tried several times. If it was that easy I’d have gotten a checking account even without the bonus.
You can open one of USBank’s consumer products such as loans or other credit cards online even when you are not in their footprint. After 5 business days, you become eligible to apply for this one.
I am not in their footprint, but went into a branch while traveling and was able to open an account.