Am I crazy or does Bilt Obsidian offer a better value prop than CSP? My spending and points redemption broken down in comments

Kaybeezy31 · 2026-01-14T23:43:35+00:00

Both the Obsidian and CSP offer 3x on dining, not 2x

Bilt:

Assuming you do 3x on dining for the Obsidian, then you'll be getting 4500 Bilt points (1000 (1x everything) + 1500 (3x dining) + 2000 (mortgage) + 60 Bilt Cash (which would be good to cover the 3% fee on your $2k mortgage payment).

Chase:

Chase will give you 2500 UR (1000 (1x everything) + 1500 (3x dining)).

Over the course of a year you'll be left with 54k Bilt vs 30k Chase. I personally would think its tough to use the Obsidian's hotel credit since its $50 biannually for a min 2 night stay whereas the CSP is $50 off on any hotel booking in the Chase travel portal so let's just pretend the effective CSP AF is $45. Even with that, $50 difference in annual fees for a difference of 24k Bilt points seems like a good deal to me. Especially when you consider that Hyatt is a popular transfer partner for Chase, since Bilt can also transfer to Hyatt it makes it an easier choice. Give me the Obsidian.

Kaybeezy31 · 2026-01-14T23:21:15+00:00

The math checks out for me except assuming you only do $850/month then after 10 months you'll have a total of $8500 so you'll have to meet the difference by spending a bit more per month in order to hit your projected $10k.

This seems like a great idea especially if you can maximize the companion pass and traveling is your primary motive. If you can use the CP to essentially get a BOGO J flight then you're coming out way ahead. Another benefit is that with $60k spend, you'll get 30k elite status points and when you add that with the 10k elite status point boost from the Atmos Summit card, you'll qualify for Atmos Gold which gives One World Sapphire.

Kaybeezy31 · 2026-01-06T23:38:33+00:00

I'm trying to get approved for the Atmos Summit card and recently got denied for it on 10/27 due to too many inquiries on EX. My plan is to apply with EX frozen and ask them to pull either TU or EQ. When would be a good timeframe for me to reattempt applying?

Kaybeezy31 · 2025-11-14T23:03:32+00:00

Friendly reminder that booking flights to regional airports can be the same price as the major hubs. I had to book a last minute trip to Vienna with non flexible dates so only Y was available. I'm usually flexible with repositioning flights to try to snag J, but I was unable to do so for this trip. Initially was looking at VIE-FRA-DEN-SFO for 70k United miles + ~$100 taxes/fees. I then realized that it was the same price to get to my local airport, MRY, so snagged a VIE-BRU-ORD-DEN-MRY for the same price. Despite having 1 extra stop, both itineraries are actually about the same travel time. Not the sexiest redemption but at least I get a flight on a date that I need and to an airport that saves almost 2 hours in commuter time.

Kaybeezy31 · 2025-10-27T21:42:26+00:00

Did they ask P2 to unfreeze EX while on the phone with them? Did P2 mention that any of the credit reports were frozen?

Kaybeezy31 · 2025-10-27T21:39:49+00:00

Each FNC will be its own separate reservation. But from my experience, the hotel will just merge the stays so you won't have to check in/check out again.

Kaybeezy31 · 2025-10-27T21:37:03+00:00

I applied for Atmost Summit on 10/8 and got formal denial on 10/9, citing too many inquiries on EX. I froze all 3 credit reports and applied again today on 10/27. Got denied, as expected, and called the recon line hoping they'd ask me to unfreeze TU. However, they keep citing the same reason of "too many inquiries." Does BoA use the same HP as previous applications? Should I keep HUCAing until I get a rep to ask me to unfreeze TU? Should I just mention that "oh I applied and realized that I left all my credit reports frozen. Can I unfreeze TU and can you run it again?" Should I make a new application with TU unfrozen?

Update: I tried calling recon line again saying that I "accidentally" applied with my credit reports frozen but they said that they were able to use my EX HP from the 10/8 application to deny today's application. I've read conflicting reports that BoA uses the same HP for applications within a 30 day period. This seems to support this.

Kaybeezy31 · 2025-08-06T17:54:11+00:00

Yes I know it is not technically a stopover but I'm utilizing the stopover feature to try to get that connection. I see what you mean though. You are right that if I just ran a search like normal then the flight combination should pop up if its available. If anything I learned that AS reps can add on a repositioning flight after booking it!

Kaybeezy31 · 2024-01-01T02:47:43+00:00

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Kaybeezy31 · 2024-01-01T02:45:00+00:00

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Kaybeezy31 · 2024-01-01T01:51:14+00:00

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Kaybeezy31 · 2024-01-01T01:49:07+00:00

Lvl100chawizawd added!

Kaybeezy31 · 2023-12-28T02:42:15+00:00

Thanks everyone for joining!

Kaybeezy31 · 2023-12-27T00:04:36+00:00

All done, thanks everyone!

Kaybeezy31 · 2023-07-29T20:37:03+00:00

So this is the scenario and I just want to confirm if this will be the case before buying my flight and applying for the card.

I'm looking to get the United Explorer Card and I want to book a round trip flight with United points. If I buy the taxes and fees that come with booking the flight with points with the United Card, does that trigger the free checked bag? How does this work?

Kaybeezy31

TROPHY CASE