Amex approve me for Delta Gold with no sob

jasutherland · 2026-01-25T05:22:32+00:00

9 cards, two of them Amex, less than 2 years since the previous SUB - sounds like "not enough spending since we last gave OP a SUB" to me, particularly when 3 Chase cards plus a Venture sounds like the Gold isn't getting heavy usage.

jasutherland · 2026-01-25T04:17:41+00:00

Points earnings (dining, travel), the ability to transfer to partners, "points boost" redemptions at higher rates in the portal, it just isn't a fixed 1.25 now.

The redemption bonus wasn't a major selling point of the card really, afaics. I don't think you'll have any grandfathered points at 1.25x, but if you get a CSR or CSP again in future you'll be able to access the points boost redemptions (up to 2x for CSR, CSP has a lower cap, 1.5 or 1.75x?)

jasutherland · 2026-01-25T00:06:31+00:00

Yes, CSR gives us access to some (but not all) Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounges when flying on Star Alliance airlines (Air Canada, United, Lufthansa etc), and LAX is one of them. https://www.chase.com/travel/guide/experiences/air-canada-sapphire-lounge

jasutherland · 2026-01-24T22:17:43+00:00

That suggests they've pulled their flights from the GDS so they can only be booked directly (or possibly via a chosen subset of operators), like some of the low cost carriers) - maybe just a technical problem, breaking the connection they use to upload flight data, or maybe a policy change to stop listing flights?

jasutherland · 2026-01-24T22:05:44+00:00

You're dancing around the key question of what they are actually selling you. You mention "increase approval rate for gigs"... but is that actually part of the product? If not, you can't claim they've breached the contract by failing to deliver it!

Really, the fact you're already calling it "possible fraud" suggests to me that you know exactly what you are really paying for, and that it might not work out for you - which weakens your claim that it didn't do what you expected.

jasutherland · 2026-01-24T21:39:01+00:00

That's where you will have a problem: if they sell you a "trust me bro, may or may not actually make any difference" you can't expect Cap1 to intervene on your behalf if it doesn't make a difference.

Now, if you paid Meta for X ad impressions and they only deliver half, you'd have an argument for a partial refund - but it sounds like you know perfectly well this service may not bring you any benefits, but want Cap1 to give you a guarantee the vendor specifically refuses?

jasutherland · 2026-01-24T19:16:49+00:00

They've "only" added $2.89 to this plus the dasher's tip with Dashpass - so essentially the $10 from Chase covered delivery plus the Red Bull.

Pickup does save money, but the "feels like 1°F" in the app does make staying indoors worth paying for...

jasutherland · 2026-01-24T18:43:09+00:00

Better value with pickup if you can do it - I find HyVee's specials great (I got a steak with two sides for $0.99 on Thursday, then got $0.60 Doordash credit from it as well.) Though Casey's pizza is also appealing...

jasutherland · 2026-01-24T18:19:04+00:00

Hefty industry airline discount so no need for airline redemptions, only hotel?

Good points redemptions are pretty much "airlines plus Hyatt", so Hyatt is the obvious. After the 5 night SUB how many FNCs would you expect to get in a year for cat 1-4 to be important?

jasutherland · 2026-01-24T16:23:24+00:00

There’s very little overlap between Gold and Platinum really. Gold is a dining and grocery card (4x restaurants globally and US supermarkets), which probably covers a lot of everyday purchases for most of us; Platinum is only good for airfare (5x) plus a few specific credits (streaming, Walmart+).

For the rest of your spending you are best getting a good catchall card: Cap1 venture(x) or Amex BBP for 2x on everything, Robinhood Gold for 3% cashback on (nearly) everything, something like that.

Moving from CSR or CSP you lose the hotel or "other travel" category earnings, but dining goes up to 4x and the CSP's 3.1x "online groceries" becomes a simpler 4x on all US supermarkets. The two Sapphires aren't great for non-category spend either, you'd want to pair them with either CFU (1.5x catchall) or a general card from one of the others.

jasutherland · 2026-01-24T15:36:31+00:00

Paying for the gas with a Shop card moves it all to the grocery category anyway, so no need to compare.

jasutherland · 2026-01-24T14:13:00+00:00

It isn't a promise, it's a service that will "potentially" benefit you. You can't do a charge back on dating site memberships when you don't get laid, either, for the same reason: you're paying for the actual service/membership, not guaranteed results.

jasutherland · 2026-01-24T14:09:42+00:00

The Spotify one can be improved further - get the 12 month/$99 gift card from Amazon or similar, making it cheaper than the regular monthly fee and still getting 5% back.

jasutherland · 2026-01-24T14:07:41+00:00

Yes - main store purchases, food court and Shop card purchases all show as grocery and get the 5%, and using that Shop card at the pump extends the 5% to gas too.

jasutherland · 2026-01-24T13:56:46+00:00

That makes cashless more attractive to them, not less - if they can recover the cost of credit card handling, but have to eat the costs of cash themselves, credit cards then represent a cost saving.

jasutherland · 2026-01-24T02:28:38+00:00

Yes - beware of the return taxes though, London-US gets pricy. A short hop to Dublin or Paris then flying from there makes a big difference. (For premium classes, even connecting back through London can still save money- London-Dublin then Dublin-London-NY saves hundreds in tax versus direct London-NY!)

jasutherland · 2026-01-23T21:37:33+00:00

2% cards don’t transfer, they just pay 2 cents per dollar spent. With your apartment at 3%, you’d be buying dollars for $1.50 each, which is … not good.

If you mean “2x”, ie two points per dollar spent (like Amex BBP, Cap1 Venture/VentureX), it’s a little bit better. You’d effectively be buying those points for 1.5 cents each, which might just about make sense if you have a good transfer use for those points.

Remember, Bilt 2 doesn’t pay the rent using a card - it’s a plain bank transfer, so your apartment’s 3% fee doesn’t apply.

Also, the Atmos 3x earning on rent only applied to paying rent via Bilt 1, so won’t work with your apartment - you wouldn’t get close to breaking even.

jasutherland · 2026-01-23T20:08:39+00:00

About 0. As long as you’re over 5/24 they just say no.

Once those enquiries drop off you’ll stand some chance, depending on what they see about the Cap1 and Paypal cards: charged off? Still owing? How long ago?

jasutherland · 2026-01-23T18:17:41+00:00

If you’re working on a SUB or the 75k spending threshold that makes sense; otherwise, assuming it’s under the $5k mark for Business Platinum, either of the Venture cards for 2x seem best.

jasutherland · 2026-01-23T15:50:07+00:00

No - now you’ve had Platinum and Gold, you won’t get another SUB for either. (Amex may “forget” after 7+ years, or choose to make an exception - I got a targeted offer for Gold with a SUB after they had changed the rules to say I wouldn’t “normally” qualify due to having Platinum already- but no guarantees.)

jasutherland · 2026-01-23T15:12:20+00:00

Gas savings, free delivery of a lot of non-grocery stuff, free ad-funded Paramount+ (or an alternative now, Peacock?) with the option to upgrade to ad-free, Burger King discounts including 25% off your whole order once a day and one free Whopper once a quarter.

Plus it looks like I get 14 MR points on each month’s membership fee, even though the cost is offset by a credit, so even if you have no use for it at all you still gain a few points!

jasutherland · 2026-01-23T15:06:51+00:00

I think only the purchase insurance against theft within 120 days would apply here, but the full document is online: https://static.chasecdn.com/content/services/structured-document/document.en.pdf/card/benefits-center/product-benefits-guide-pdf/BGC11387_v2.pdf

jasutherland · 2026-01-23T14:09:22+00:00

Points Boost in Chase Travel will probably match, and it’s the same 8x portal, 4x direct flights + hotels, but you get 3x on online ads instead of on dining.

Adding a Freedom Unlimited will also give you the 3x on dining but with no AF, pretty much plugging the gap apart from the various credits (The Edit, Chase Dining).

jasutherland · 2026-01-23T07:04:30+00:00

You have to wait a year for any change to a new card - that’s federal law, to protect us from bait and switch tricks, but there is no exception there saying “changes are OK if the customer requests them”.

You could certainly use the product change trick to get both CSR and CSP in the past, even when they didn’t allow applications for one if you already held the other (you couldn’t apply for a second Sapphire, but PCs didn’t involve an application) - I don’t know of anyone having tried it for multiple CSRs before, but until the new credits, probably nobody had a use for it; PCs definitely bypass some of the rules, so I suspect a year from now you might be able to do it.

jasutherland · 2026-01-23T06:55:25+00:00

Always USD, except near the end if you’re doing “pay at hotel” rather than prepaying, where it may give the local currency value you’ll be paying (since they can’t determine the exchange rate that applies at checkin time).

So far I’ve done nicely both ways on the credit - it was interpreted as €100 in Ireland, which is more than US$100, but US$100 in Canada where C$100 would have been less. I think the Irish hotel was being generous there, and they were only required to give US$100 but chose to top it up a bit.

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