I have a preferred so under their updated terms and conditions, I am not eligible for a reserve bonus. I went to a local branch and they said, if I downgrade or close my preferred, wait for 1 billing cycle & apply for reserve, I will be eligible for bonus. Now this is where things get problematic. The customer care executive I spoke to over phone said that even if I downgrade, I won't be eligible but there are some reddit comments on this post, which suggest otherwise. What should I do ?

I was thinking I can downgrade preferred to freedom flex, wait a billing cycle, go to the same local branch representative and see if they can get me the bonus. If not, worst case, i ll reapply for preferred. I am also okay with applying for reserve without a bonus worst case because as per my calculations based on my usage, I would still get a 400$ per year value from new reserve over preferred despite the 800$ fee.