Chase Sapphire Reserve in 2026: Keep or Downgrade? | Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast with Justin Vacula & Hunter Threadgill
Join host Justin Vacula and special guest Hunter Threadgill of Professor of Points as they take a deep dive into whether the Chase Sapphire Reserve is still worth keeping in 2026.
They walk through the new and existing benefits, including the $300 travel credit, dining and hotel perks, StubHub credits, and other lifestyle benefits, and weigh them against the rising annual fee.
Justin and Hunter also talk through advanced credit card strategy, including when it makes sense to upgrade or downgrade, how to stack benefits with creative spending, and ways to use the card to help earn and maintain elite travel statuses.
Along the way, they highlight upcoming travel events, new card applications, and year-end status goals.
Stay tuned for practical tips to maximize your Chase Sapphire Reserve benefits and decide whether it deserves a long-term spot in your wallet.
Timestamps
00:00 Introduction to Travel Rewards
00:44 Guest Introduction: Hunter Threadgill
01:56 Chase Sapphire Reserve Benefits Overview
02:57 Travel Credits and Real World Value
04:58 Hotel and Dining Credits Discussion
14:53 StubHub and Other Lifestyle Benefits
20:38 Meditation, Peloton, and Wellness Perks
21:21 Lounge Access and Travel Protections
24:03 Advanced Tactics: Upgrading and Downgrading
24:18 Announcements and Upcoming Events
25:50 CardPointers and Monthly Meetups
28:58 Is Chase Sapphire Reserve a Keeper?
36:40 Upcoming Travels and Status Goals
43:10 Frequent Traveler Education Foundation
45:04 Closing Remarks and Social Handles
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Rough Transcript:
Theme Song: [00:00:00] Travel at low cost with points and miles. Credit card rewards bring the smiles. Many adventures tales to be told, make and save money, the world will unfold.
Fight the war on happiness. Pick up the gold. Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast breaks the mold.
Justin Vacula: You’re listening to the Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast. I’m your host, Justin Vacula, here to help you make money, save money, and travel the world at next to no cost with credit card points, miles, benefits, and loyalty programs. Hunter Threadgill of Professor of Points returns to the show to chat about why he will keep the Chase Sapphire Reserve card in 2026, even after the annual fee has increased.
As usual, we’ll have a fun America Loves Math moment this time [00:01:00] surrounding the Chase Sapphire Reserve. Visit meetup.com/philly miles and points to RSVP for monthly Greater Philadelphia Travel Credit miles and points meetups I host in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania. The next meetup is December 21st, 2025.
Find a link in the show notes for more content between episodes, follow Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast on Facebook and x. Follow Justin Vacula on Instagram. Subscribe to Hurdy Gurdy Travel podcast on YouTube for daily content, including travel videos, podcast clips, and posts, find more information including select episode transcripts at HurdyGurdyTravel.com
On with today’s episode recorded, November 24th, 2025. Welcome back to the show, hunter. Thanks for having me, Justin. It’s good to be back on the Hurdy Gurdy Travel podcast. Thanks for coming back on. I recently had a guest discussing about while she’ll be downgrading. The Chase Sapphire Reserve in 2026. So we’re having you [00:02:00] on today to discuss a different perspective and why you want to keep the card.
Hunter Threadgill: Yeah. For me, I think the math works. The math maths, Amer, as we all know, America loves math. I think for me it’s just something that fits my lifestyle as I go about my
Justin Vacula: day-to-day. The numbers don’t lie. So we’re seeing with these benefits, with many of these premium cards, annual fees have gone up. Benefits have been added.
Some will value the benefits highly, others will not. So it’s a, your mileage may vary situation. So let’s break it down and talk about some of the changes and the benefits we have. The current annual fee is $795 up from the old $550 CSR. The Chase Phi Reserve lost the three x travel. There are several new benefits.
What remains is the $300 travel credit. I’d value that the same as cash. I suppose you would be the same on that one.
Hunter Threadgill: I would. And what makes the Chase Sapphire [00:03:00] Reserve credit even more valuable than credits through Amex or Capital One with their Venture X Card is the fact that you don’t have to go through their portal.
You just use it and then it subtracts it automatically, which for me, I take a lot of Lyft car rides. So, you know, I was charging it to my Chase Sapphire Reserve ’cause it gets 10 x at Lyft and it would automatically deduct that from that $300 travel credit. So it’s a very, both, both. It works for not having to go through the portal
Justin Vacula: and it has a very broad definition and we’re using the card anyway for Lyft because we get the monthly credits with Lyft.
So there’s a little bit of extra, usually if we’re getting $10 off. With Lyft, well, maybe the ride will be something like 13, $14, somewhere around there. So I think that’s nice. And the $300 travel credit, probably we don’t even have to keep track of it if we’re traveling often, especially if we’re using the Chase Reserve to book flights [00:04:00] and we have to pay that $5 $10 in taxes and fees.
Hunter Threadgill: Absolutely. I mean, I think it’s a no-brainer. It’s basically as good as cash. If you’re in the game looking to travel, that’s good as cash.
Justin Vacula: I think in the past this qualified for tolls as well. Have you put that on an easy pass or a similar device?
Hunter Threadgill: Oh, I haven’t used it for that kind of thing. Um, now I did up my toll tag before they lost at three x travel benefits on it, but I’d already used up all my credits, so might need to try that in the new year once my annual fee, my travel credit re-ups in the future.
Justin Vacula: All right, so with a $300 travel credit, the annual fee’s 7 95. So this would take the annual fee down to effectively 495. So we have to determine then the Chase Sapphire Preferred. We’d pay the $95 for that card. So we have to overcome $400 in benefits to break even on the annual fee. Ideally, we’d want to be much better than $400.
So let’s start [00:05:00] with the Chase Travel portal and the edit credit. Now we get eight x points on booking with the Chase Travel portal and the edit. Are you using the edit for cash rates? We have a $250 credit twice per year that was added to the card. So we get the $250 twice a year and the eight x, but for the edit credit, you have to stay two nights in order to redeem this benefit.
Hunter Threadgill: Yeah, the two night thing is really killing me on this one. I actually don’t really predict that. I’ll use the edit. I don’t pay cash days for luxury hotels. If I’m paying a cash day, it’s typically for a cheap hotel, um, like a hundred to $125 a night. And that’s only when there’s, um, points are, are just too much to justify spending an on a hundred dollars hotel.
But generally speaking, I don’t actually plan on using the edit. Now, the one thing that did catch my mind is the Aex Chase travel [00:06:00] portal, uh, earnings. Um, and the reason why is so. As you mentioned in your last episode, if you have reimbursed travel, perhaps for business, it makes sense. I travel for work at least once a quarter and um, the way it works for me is I book my own travel and then I get reimbursed for it.
Obviously if I’m booking a, a hotel, I’m gonna book direct if where possible, just I get my loyalty program, uh, elite Night Credits, but for flights itself, eight x on the Chase Travel portal. It’s a pretty good deal for me particularly ’cause it’s gonna be reimbursed anyways and I’m not going outta my way to find the most expensive flight and take advantage of everything.
But I am going to use the portal that gives me the most number of points and for me with my current credit card lineup, eight x on airlines through the Chase Travel portal works for me. I don’t know why I’d choose anything else particularly ’cause I do fly internationally as well. With those flights being a bit more expensive,
Justin Vacula: flying over to Europe.
One problem is booking through the portal. You might not [00:07:00] have the best level of support should things go wrong with the carrier, and you might not be getting some status benefits if you have it.
Hunter Threadgill: I’ve often found that when it comes to like the airline status credits, it really doesn’t matter where you book it through.
No, it’s not. It’s very different from hotels. So hotels other than Rove and built at this point, you don’t get your high, your, uh. Your elite night status, your elite night points, or your, uh, reward points for booking through a portal. But airlines are pretty good actually about giving you your status benefits when you book through a portal, predict that it’ll eventually change.
Then, I mean, obviously they much rather you book direct, but generally speaking, when you book through a portal or through a online travel agency. If that online travel agency actually isn’t making much from the booking anyways, like $5 on a $500 ticket, as opposed to a hotel where they might be paying out 30% commission rate, so they still honor it.
That I don’t think is a huge issue. Now, the support issue [00:08:00] is definitely something that could be a concern. Again, because I’m doing it for work travel. If something goes wrong, work pays for it. I’m not super worried about that. But if it was all personal travel, I definitely need to think hard, long, and hard about whether I actually would want to book through the Chase Travel portal.
Justin Vacula: Okay, so maybe use the portal just for flights, but not hotels, especially if it’s something like a hide or a Hilton, and you have status with those programs. Now, the edit credit I mentioned, I booked it in the last episode. $800 for two nights with Park MGM, and since I was looking a little bit deeper and I can use a hundred dollars free play with the MyVegas app, so that’s getting about a hundred back, so that brings it down to $700.
And if MGM rebates or refunds, my resort fees that they charged on that, I have the MGM status. So I’m not sure why I would still be charged the resort fee, even though I used my number. My MGM rewards number, so maybe that’ll take it down to $600 for two nights and then I’m [00:09:00] getting breakfast credit, dining credits, room upgrades and more.
So maybe there’s some hope, but it’s still seeming quite wanting. I think the fix to the edit would be if they just allowed it for one night stays similar to American Express Fine Hotels and resorts.
Hunter Threadgill: Yeah, I’d have to agree with that too. And, and I really struggle with these hotel credits regardless of what card they’re from, because.
I think you also have to take into account the opportunity cost. Like you say, you’re gonna, you paid $800 for two nights at Park mgm, but like could you have found a cheaper hotel that you would’ve stayed at and paid for if you didn’t have the edit credits?
Justin Vacula: Yeah, then I’d be using MGM comps probably.
Going elsewhere. Although in this case, I had another reservation at Park mgm. Mm-hmm. That was two comp nights, so I couldn’t book a comp stay next to a comp stay. Mm-hmm. And I don’t have to hotel hop, so there’s a little bit of a lifestyle enhancement. So it’s like, yeah. Just on that level of passing. [00:10:00] But if it were 900 or a thousand, then I, I probably wouldn’t do it at that rate.
Hunter Threadgill: Yeah.
Justin Vacula: So,
Hunter Threadgill: and I’m
Justin Vacula: gambling on the resort fee refund.
Hunter Threadgill: The edit is just so difficult to use. ’cause there’s also just as compared to the fine hotels or resorts or the hotel collection, it’s just a smaller number of hotels and they’re traditionally more expensive, particularly, you know, with fine hotel and resorts, which are typically more expensive than the hotel collection.
But you can use it on a single night. But with the edit, it’s. Same caliber is fine hotels and resorts, but you have to stay for two nights. So I’m not gonna spend a thousand dollars on two nights at a hotel, like that’s just not gonna happen. Even if I got two 50 pack, I think it’d be hard pressed to spend seven.
I think it’d be hard pressed to spend seven $50 on a two night hotel stay without a very
Justin Vacula: specific reason. So we’ll put the edit at zero for you, I imagine. Yeah. What about the new benefit? The Chase Sapphire Reserve exclusive tables, so these are $250 dining credits, so 300 a year. I found many [00:11:00] places that participate in this program in Las Vegas, and I go there often, but I wouldn’t value it at one 50, maybe 30 or $40 because I otherwise wouldn’t spend that much.
And I have a lot of other things like MGM comms, Caesars comps. And so on. But what about you? What’s your value on the exclusive tables benefit? So
Hunter Threadgill: remember I live in DC so I’ve got I think eight Sapphire Reserve exclusive tables in DC itself. And then I travel regularly. So let’s say I get access to 30 or 40 restaurants, we’ll put that conservative.
So for me, and this is my lifestyle. I about once a month, my wife and I like to go out and have a nice dinner, try out a new restaurant, whether we find it on something like Open Table or Resi. So we’re, we’re gonna be eating at a nice restaurant at least once a month. I probably value this dining credit at about a hundred dollars a piece.
And the reason why is I would spend a hundred dollars to $150 at a restaurant that I wanted to try it. Here’s the thing too. We are the people who, if [00:12:00] it has good reviews, let’s go try it. You know, it doesn’t, we are very much foodies. We love to try all different kinds of food and so, you know, looking at the Sapphire Reserve exclusive tables, for me personally, in DC alone, we’d try about two thirds, 75% of them.
So I value these for me, at about a hundred dollars a piece. This because. I would pay a hundred dollars to get $150 credit at any of these restaurants.
Justin Vacula: Okay, so we’ll give that 200 for you. So if we were needing to overcome the $400, then we’re 200 down. So we’re at 200 remaining. We’ll move on to the next benefit.
DoorDash, two $10 a month. Convenience store credit. So that’s 20 a month and a $5 credit at restaurants. I think this is okay. I’m only using it because I have. The benefit. I’ve been going to Subway getting a flatbread. It’s about a dollar 50 after the credit, and I could get grocery items or [00:13:00] food at Wawa.
So what would you value these DoorDash credits?
Hunter Threadgill: So for the convenience store ones, I have tried high and low around where I live to make this easy to use, I can’t, it just doesn’t work for me. So I value the convenience store credits at zero for me and the $5 a month restaurant credit. It’s really weird like.
I probably use DoorDash like maybe every other month to to eat, like to get delivery from a restaurant. So that would say six months, $5 a month, that’s 30 bucks. But like that’s more of a, it just exists as opposed to like I would go outta my way to look for a restaurant on, on DoorDash specifically, ’cause I got that $5 credit.
Justin Vacula: So what about pickup? Have you tried using this for pickup at all? Maybe somewhere like a Subway or a place that has some cheaper items.
Hunter Threadgill: Oh, I am far too lazy and use it for a convenience factor. Um, so it’s definitely just something that I just get with it. I mean, I’d probably pay like [00:14:00] 15 bucks for $30 in credits.
But other than that, particularly, ’cause you can get a lot of discounted cards at Costco, for example, you can get a hundred dollars worth of credit of DoorDash for 80 bucks at Costco and they sometimes have those online. Why would I pay? $5 when I could save $20 on a hundred dollars order.
Justin Vacula: Yeah, the fi, the $5 discount doesn’t make much sense on a larger purchase.
So it sounded like these are zero for you, it just hasn’t worked. Maybe you haven’t been able to use these at somewhere like a seven 11, some other convenience stores.
Hunter Threadgill: Yeah, I mean, I’d probably put it at like 10 bucks for me just because I do use it. And that’s not zero. Like it’s 10 a month. 10 a year. 10 a year.
Justin Vacula: 10 a year. Yeah. So it’s not really. Moving the needle that much. Yeah. So that brings us down to 190 to overcome the annual fee. Mm-hmm. We’ll move on to the $300 StubHub credit. So this is $150 credit twice per year. I’ll be [00:15:00] seeing Wizard of Oz at Sphere. Going to see the Wizard, the Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
I found a ticket $159, so I’m paying $9 after the discount. I’m definitely a buyer at $9 for a show. But I probably wouldn’t go, I wouldn’t spend $159 for this, but I’m happy to go using the credit. So I value these at almost
Hunter Threadgill: face value actually for me. I love going to concerts. I go to one about every other month, typically.
I love punk music. I love Americana and folk music. I’ve been to a few rap shows, saw Beyonce in July. That was pretty great. And so. The StubHub credit is really just money back in my pocket. Now, I could qualify that. I wouldn’t value this at 300. I’d probably value this at about two 50. And the reason why it is, is twofold.
So first of all, when you purchase through StubHub, it’s very different than Ticketmaster in the sense that, at least in the [00:16:00] shows I’m looking at or the basketball games I’m looking at, you can’t choose your seat. It’s like you will have a seat. Or if I’m going with my wife, two seats on this row, I like to control what seat I’m in.
I’m very much, it’s like choosing an airline seat. I have opinions on it, but so that, that’s kind of a downer, which makes it a little bit more difficult to use. But then the other thing too is if you actually compare StubHub prices to maybe ticket Ticketmaster or some other site. There is somewhat of a chance that you’re gonna see about a 10% increase in prices as compared to other sites.
Now clearly you, half the time it’s gonna be the same no matter what, but sometimes that does happen. And so, you know, I could spend, let’s, I’m making these numbers up. I could spend $75 for two tickets on ticket Ticketmaster that I find comparable tickets on StubHub for a hundred dollars. Typically I would just value this at the ticket master price, but because I have the StubHub credit, I’m gonna go ahead and use that.
’cause I’m still [00:17:00] saving $75, even though I’m spending a hundred dollars at StubHub. So I’m really saving $75. So I put this about $125 each so that I value that at $250. For me, that’s just because I go to a lot of shows. I live in dc, there’s a show every night that I could conceivably go to. For bands that I actually want to go to, or basketball games that I actually want to go to probably once every other month or so.
Justin Vacula: Okay, so we were at $190. If you’re getting $250 in value out of this, you’re up $60. So let’s continue and see if we can get it more than that. Apple TV and music. Personally, I don’t use this. I have a YouTube premium. I’ve been using that and I’m not much of a TV watcher. Any value for you? Apple TV and music.
Hunter Threadgill: Not for me. I have HBO Max. We have Netflix. We use Sling tv and uh, I think I have Peacock Premium through [00:18:00] my Walmart plus subscription that I have. It’s all the relationships of my Amex Platinum card. So it’s like one of those things where it’s like we could probably use it, but we have no need for it.
Oh yeah. And we have Disney Plus. So. Um, that covers everything for me. And then in terms of music, I listen to Spotify. I’ve always used Spotify. The system knows me really well and knows what to give to me and what to suggest to me. So, um, to make a change to Apple Music, I could do it and use this credit, but it would also require me to really change everything up as I already have it.
Eh, I’m just like, eh, whatever. I also have a droid, so it makes it a lot harder to actually seamlessly put that into my systems.
Justin Vacula: Sounding like zero on that benefit. What about the Lyft credit? So this is $10 a month Lyft credit, and I believe the Lyft Pink membership is included as well. So I, I’m probably putting this around $60 in value because I won’t be using this every month.
[00:19:00] Sometimes I’m taking Lyft to the airport and it’s more expensive than that $10. So it doesn’t make as much sense to use that. Usually I’m using Uber. Buying 20% off Uber gift cards from Costco, and then I’m getting a lot of Amex cards giving me Uber benefits, and these all stack, but you can’t stack, as far as I know, the Lyft $10 credit with Lyft gift cards.
What about you? I like this for shorter rides, but not for the longer ones.
Hunter Threadgill: Yeah, I’d probably valued it about 60 bucks. I valued it more when my wife and I only had one car and she was going into the office two or three days a week. I would need to lift to the gym and I could, and that’s like a 10 do.
That was like a $10 ride. So it was definitely something I used every month. Now that we got a second car, which was just really necessary for us, I probably valued at about 60 bucks for when I’m traveling, if I try to use these credits up when I’m on work trips. So that way, you know, those credits can’t get used up and I can get reimbursed by my company ’cause I’d used them anyways.
And so it was like, might as well, I’d use Uber. I’d use Lyft anyway. Might as well [00:20:00] use these credits up to make it easier for me. So I probably valued about 60 bucks
Justin Vacula: just like you. Okay. So we’re up about 120 at the moment. What about Peloton? I’m not a Peloton user, but you are.
Hunter Threadgill: Oh, yes. I, I value this at the full value.
I’m gonna spend it anyways. I used to have the bike, which was like $50 a month. We got rid of our bike ’cause we needed to downgrade some space. I still use the app and now people might be like, why do you use the app? So I’m training for a marathon, doing that next Saturday. I use their, their training programs.
I love using it for outdoor runs, being outdoors. And then additionally, Justin, you and I, we both have advanced degrees and mental health fields. We know the value of meditation, and Peloton has a excellent meditation platform, whether it’s just for calming effects for sleep. And I use that almost every day.
You know, I could go and buy another meditation app or use YouTube [00:21:00] meditations, but I really like the ones that Peloton have. I use them all the time. And so I spend $13 a month on my app, so that’s just $10 back in my pocket that I was gonna spend anyways.
Justin Vacula: All right, so that’s 120 a year then. Yep. So now we’re up 240 and finally, I think the bigger benefit.
Is Lounge access, the Chase Sapphire Reserve Lounge. I use the Chase Sapphire Reserve Lounge in Philadelphia, but I also have other options including the Centurion Lounge and the AA flagship lounge. When I’m flying AA and I have status with Qatar, I have the Privilege Club Gold status from a credit card.
So I like the Sapphire Lounge in Philadelphia, but I have other lounge options, so I don’t put a huge value on this. What about you?
Hunter Threadgill: So for me, I’m primarily flying out of Reagan National. So the Chase Lounge in the DC area is out of Dulles, never actually used it. I [00:22:00] see no value there when I fly for work.
Work pays for me to go up about once a quarter, but given that I have over half a million Alaska miles to get from DCA to Boston is 4,500 Alaska miles each way. So 9,000 miles. I try to go up about once a month, do the first flight out, last flight in on my own dime. But part of that is also using lounge access.
So for breakfast, I’m flying out of Reagan National. I’m using the Capital One lounge, eating that excellent breakfast and getting ice coffee to go. Or on the way back, I take the last flight out to pay for dinner. I just go to the Chase Lounge, um, up in Boston. So outta my own pocket, I’d say conservatively six times.
I probably use it a few more times than that, but I’d say about six times a year at a minimum. And with that saving, actually saving me from having to buy dinner in the airport itself. So if I was gonna put a number on and what I would actually [00:23:00] value each visit at, I would probably say about 20 bucks.
’cause that would cover the cost of a meal with a Maine and a side and a drink, even like a Coke or a bottle of water. So that’s what I would value that one at. So if let’s, if I do it six times a year. 20 bucks a, a pop. It’s $120. I value that at about conservatively $120 a year. Probably not much more than that.
The lounge up in Boston is absolutely gorgeous. It, it’s really great to get some work done for the Frequent Traveler Education Foundation. ’cause I can go into one of their, um, relaxation pods. Truly relax while sending emails. Said no one ever except for right now. So that, that’s how I value the lounge.
But again, that’s a product of my unique situation of needing to go up to Boston once a month on my own dime and using it to actually save me money as opposed to paying for dinner.
Justin Vacula: All right. We are at $240 up. If you’re adding 120, you’re up [00:24:00] $360 on the year after the. Annual fee. So for you, it seems like this is a keeper card, we’ll take a short break with announcements, talk about some more advanced tactics with the card, like upgrading and downgrading, and whether that makes sense for you.
We’ll go into the announcements. Zork Fest 2025 will be in Las Vegas, December 5th through the seventh at M Resort casino Hotel. Zork Fest combines miles points and gambling content all in one weekend. I’ll be there speaking and connecting with podcast listeners. Buy your ticket at ZorkFest.TravelZork.com. Use promo code Hurdy Gurdy to support the show.
Chicago Seminars Hyatt Regency O’Hare recently concluded. Stay tuned for announcements of dates for 2026, the event formerly known as Chicago Seminars, heritage Edition at Holiday Inn was renamed as the Chicago Points Travel Festival. This will take place October 16th through the 18th, [00:25:00] 2026. Use promo code Hurdy Gurdy.
Join the wait list if you can, because the event is already sold out. Will you Hunter be at Zork Fest or Chicago Seminars Heritage Edition?
Hunter Threadgill: I will not be at Zork Fest. That is the weekend of my marathon. I’ve already told Trager that I’m gonna try and make it next year. I love being out of Vegas, so I think it’d be really fun.
And then I was not able to get a ticket for the Chicago Points Travel Festival, the Heritage Edition. They sold out literally as soon as the conference this year was already uh, done. And I was like, well, I guess I missed out on that one for this time being, war on happiness there, but the wait list still possible, I would think for sure.
I definitely will try and get on the wait list and hopefully maybe get in, get a ticket to it.
Justin Vacula: And this episode is supported by card pointers. If you have multiple credit cards like me, card pointers helps you automatically activate bank offers, knows which card to use for maximum [00:26:00] rewards card pointers, saves me time and money.
Use my link CardPointer.com/HurdyGurdyTravel for discount and annual and lifetime plans. We’re recording on October 24th. There’s currently a Black Friday deal and I believe that will still be on when this episode goes live. You’ve been a card pointer’s user as well, hunter.
Hunter Threadgill: Yes, I’ve used it to save a ton of money.
Um, with the ability to get all of my Amex and Chase offers onto my card in a single swipe, saves me a ton of time and be able to save a lot of money at the same time.
Justin Vacula: Yeah, very easy. I log in once a week to pay all my bills, and while I’m logged into Chase, Amex and other sites, it’s just activating those offers rather than me going through offers and manually clicking things.
I like that feature.
Hunter Threadgill: It’s a great feature and, and I, I’m really glad that someone’s figured out how
Justin Vacula: to make that happen for us. Next, I host monthly travel and points meetups in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania. Next [00:27:00] meetup is December 21st, 2025. If you’re local or wanna make the trip, it’s a fun, casual way to talk points, strategies, meet like-minded travelers and share ideas.
RSVP at meetup.com/philly miles and points in addition to meetings, check for new social events. I put one up for the night before Zork Fest meeting at Vanderpump Paris, a meeting at Encore Boston Harbor, using fine hotels and resorts credits and monthly meetups at Kalaya or Kalaya for Thai food using Resy credits.
So we’ve built this community in the area and the last meetup had about 15 to 20 people. So it’s growing and the Chicago events definitely boosted the attendance. I’ll be speaking and helping organize for Frequent Traveler University in Irving, Texas, near DFW Airport from May 1st through the third 2026 at the Nylo Las Colinas Hotel by Hilton.
Join me and community members for social events and educational sessions. Ticket sales are [00:28:00] live, $200 for FTU members, 249 for non-members. You can also grab an FTU annual membership for online courses. Seminars, member perks, event discounts, and more. The signup link for membership and FTU Dallas is in the show notes.
And Hunter, you’re helping organize, you’re the chair for the event.
Hunter Threadgill: Yes, I’m the chair. We’ve been spending a lot of time these past few weeks getting our speakers organized, making sure that we have a high quality, top-notch group of speakers that are gonna come and speak. I’m really excited. So I sent out a Google form to start collecting topic ideas that people would wanna be interested on, and I actually looked at it right before this podcast interview, and there’s some really fascinating sessions that are gonna be coming up, and I’m really looking forward to hearing these sessions and connecting with other travelers, encouraging and supporting each other and the world of points and miles.
Justin Vacula: All right. Very good. We’ll return to the show. We’re talking about the Chase [00:29:00] Sapphire Reserve, keeping the card in 2026. If the benefits are valuable enough to justify that Hunter wants to keep the card as it looks like he’s coming ahead, $360 after paying the annual fee. So one counter argument to this would be what if you use the bigger benefits in January, like the StubHub credit, for example.
Downgraded the card in February and then maybe upgraded again in November. Since these, some of these bigger benefits are based on the calendar year, what do you think about upgrading and downgrading, especially the dining benefit you could use in January as well? So if the stub hub and the dining benefits are used in January, what about downgrading the card in February?
Hunter Threadgill: I think that’s definitely an option. I just don’t see it being as a long-term solution, so I definitely don’t think Chase would be cool with me. Downgrading in [00:30:00] February, upgrading in November, downgrading in February, upgrading in November, year after year. I also try to keep things simple. You know, I have 50 active credit cards at this point in time.
It is one of those things where like if I have to manage all of them. It takes a lot of my time, a lot of my energy, and for me, knowing that I’m gonna get value out of this card as is exactly how it is made, I’m fine with just leaving it as it is. It keeps, it allows me to focus on the other cards that I have, whether I should just outright cancel cards.
I’m no longer using focus on hitting signup bonuses and finding crafty ways to generate more spend. And so just by using it just for the discounts. For me, it just works as is.
Justin Vacula: And do you like the lounge access? You’re gonna be using that frequently, you don’t have the other lounge options where you’re traveling out of?
Hunter Threadgill: Yeah,
Justin Vacula: the lounge
Hunter Threadgill: access is really great. So like I said earlier, the AT DCA Reagan National, I’m gonna use my Capital [00:31:00] One card to get into Capital One landing. But at Boston it’s, they don’t have an AMEX lounge that I’m aware of at least. And I don’t have access to the American Admirals Club. So it’s definitely one of those things where, and to be blunt, I could fly Delta, but the problem is that I just don’t fly Delta enough.
I have status with Americans, so why wouldn’t I fly American Airlines? So it’s like one of those things where it’s like it just makes sense for me to use it for that specific lounge. Now, let’s say American Express opens a lounge that’s accessible to walk to in Boston. That creates another option. I have to revisit how I would actually value the Chase lounge access ’cause I could then use my Amex ’cause I’m also gonna keep my Amex platinum card.
It’s one of those things where if I could get rid of one of them, I would, because I’d rather have a hundred [00:32:00] dollars in my pocket. But because it works from my specific situation at this point in my life right now, I see no reason to get rid of it.
Justin Vacula: And some of these things you said you’re spending on anyway, like the Peloton membership lift and otherwise you’d probably be spending money in the airport on food, which is not fun ’cause it’s quite overpriced.
So the lounge access is nice. Having the quieter spaces in the lounge, unlimited food and drinks is pretty nice. And
Hunter Threadgill: to put it bluntly, I’ve eaten at a lot of the restaurants on the Admiral at the American Airlines and United Side of Boston Airport. The restaurants just. They’re really not as good as the Chase Lounge.
The Chase Lounge is, has a higher quality food. Higher quality drinks. Not that I really drink alcohol much, but definitely is. It’s just something about the quality of the food being better that makes it actually easier to justify holding onto it as opposed to getting like crappy sandwich at another restaurant.
Justin Vacula: You mentioned [00:33:00] crafty spend, or I use the term creative spend a lot. There is a perk on the card as well. Spend 75,000 in a year for status with IHGA $250 shops at Chase Credit, a $500 Southwest travel credit and status. Personally, my credit limit isn’t very high on this card, so I won’t be able to do the 70 5K.
I’ve opened a lot of cars of a chase and they told me that I had to reallocate credit limit, so I don’t have much credit limit on the Sapphire Reserve. Unfortunately, but maybe this could be an argument for keeping the card. If you have tons and tons of spend, you’re only getting one X on most of your spend.
But if you have enough spend that you’re running out of other cards, like 2% cards or maybe like 1.5 x type cards, it could be worth spending on this card, especially if you’re valuing the ultimate rewards at 1.5 to 2 cents per point if you’re getting this big bonus at the end of the rainbow. I think that can be an argument for.
[00:34:00] Keeping it, especially if you’d fly Southwest, that’s a $500 travel credit. The shops at Chase Credit probably not too valuable, but there are some benefits here for high spend and argument for keeping the card if you have high spend.
Hunter Threadgill: Yeah. At this point in time, it’s not really per me IHG status. It’s platinum status.
You get that from holding the IHG card and I have the, the super exclusive $49 IHG card that I will. They’ll have to pry outta my dead hands asphalt to get rid of that one. Gotten so much value out of that $250 shops at Chase. I haven’t really looked into it. I don’t, I’d probably value that at like what, a hundred bucks probably that I haven’t even really looked at what’s offered.
No, I actually think the $500 Southwest travel credit and status is actually quite interesting if you actually fly Southwest with any regularity but not enough to gain status naturally. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think there’s a way to earn status very easily with the [00:35:00] Southwest cards. I know you can get the companion pass, um, with creative spend, but I don’t believe you can get status very easily.
No. I actually think the 75,000 spend goal with Creative Spend to get that $500 Southwest travel credit and status actually could make sense for a lot of people who have that ability to find ways to meet that spin goal. $500 with Southwest is $500. Like if you’re gonna Flos Southwest regularly makes complete sense.
And then if you can use the status to now get free checked bags so they’re no longer offered or extra leg room seats for free, I actually think there might be a bit of a case for doing that particularly. ’cause you know, you see people who would spend like $50,000 on an American Airlines card to get status.
If you’re gonna hit $50,000 and you know you’re gonna apply to Southwest a lot, why not spend another 25,000 and get that $500 Southwest travel credit and status, particularly when the American Airlines card only gets $1 [00:36:00] spent, or uh, one loyalty point per dollar spent, regardless of how you do it, I think it actually might make sense for a Southwest loyalist who is loyal enough to.
Be actually be able to use the status and the credit, but not fly enough naturally to get the status via flying.
Justin Vacula: All right, sounds good. So even if you’re not going to do the 70 5K spend, you’re still keeping the card with StubHub, a lounge access, the Peloton app, lift credits, the dining benefit and more.
So it’s a, your mileage may vary situation and you are in the keep category for 2026 and beyond. Absolutely wrapping up any upcoming travels,
Hunter Threadgill: you know, um, I’m currently in Boston for Thanksgiving, visiting my in-laws heading to Memphis next weekend for the St. Jude Marathon, which will be really fun. I’m gonna stay at one of my low key favorite hotels, the Hyatt Centric on [00:37:00] Bee Street, um, which has beautiful views at the Mississippi River.
Then nothing else until February when we head down to St. Lucia to stay at the New Secrets Resort by Hyatt. Will you be riding
Justin Vacula: the MBTA while in Boston? Absolutely. I always do. Nice. You could say hi to Purple Princess Perry, past podcast guest, follow her on Instagram. She was on the show Love on the Spectrum, and now she’s working with MBTA.
Any particular lines that you’ve taken with MBTA or any favorites?
Hunter Threadgill: So I have a soft spot for Blue Line heading straight from the airport to where my office is on under State Street, going right under the river. It’s just so great to be up from the airport to downtown Boston in less than five minutes.
Justin Vacula: Nice. And I arrived at the airport. I took a bus that went to the airport station from what I remember. So that was nice that they had that. It was a free transfer, so [00:38:00] definitely saving money on. Ride share. And I took the T as well when I stayed at a Hyatt property that was near Medford. Oh, very nice. Yeah.
And any upcoming credit cards, new applications to start the new year, many people will be celebrating, the ball will drop. But will you be applying for a new credit card on January 1st or second?
Hunter Threadgill: Currently working on my Chase Inc. I lobbed in a signup bonus before that No. Or before that Lifetime.
Lifetime language. Yeah. Yeah. Lifetime Language popped in. So working on that right now, I’m gonna really take a good look at all my credit cards in January. I fall under 5 24 at that point in time. So it’s definitely something where I’m gonna reevaluate and see is there a personal card that I’d like to aim for?
Really looking at that Arrow plan card, I can always use more Air Canada miles, but yeah, I, I’m not a hundred percent sure at this time I really need to take an audit. Like I said earlier, I have like 50 cards, so I’m like, okay, I need to get my annual fees under control and. [00:39:00] Make sure I’m getting the proper value doing this exercise that we did today to make sure that everything is actually meeting me where I need to be met.
Oh, we did some help for you today and hopefully some
Justin Vacula: help for others.
Hunter Threadgill: Oh, absolutely. It’s been super helpful. The Chase Sapphire Reserve is definitely a keeper in my wallet.
Justin Vacula: Any status aspirations for 2026? We’re coming to a close. I got my Hyatt Globalist status. I just reached Delta Diamond. I have MGM Platinum.
I’m going to be aiming to requalify for these next year. What about you?
Hunter Threadgill: So funny. I’m actually gonna roll into my Hyatt globalist status with a checkout date of December 31st for my 60th night of the year. Living on the edge. Living life on the edge, and it’s one of those things that I’m definitely gonna have to make sure that.
Everything follows up correctly. I, I always try to have it done by like mid-December so I can follow up or necessary and if I need to get an extra night, I can [00:40:00] do that. But you know, this year it just kind of worked out where I’m gonna have to live life on the edge, work on my American Airlines. I’ve already got gold status.
I’d like to get the platinum status so that way when I take those work trips to London, I can access the Cafe Pacific or Qantas Lounge at London Heathrow, as well as be able to pick the extra leg room seats at time of booking. Other than that, I, I’m strongly considering for next year actually switching my loyalty to the Alaska program, even though I’m booking via American Airlines to fly out of DCA to actually enter my Alaska, uh, my Alaska number after I reach status via credit card spin on the summit card, which gets one elite mile per every $2 spent because I think it’ll just be easier on the credit card front.
And also considering that I do travel internationally on paid tickets. It often can be easier to actually get those credit card or those elite miles that way, given that it’s by distance travel. We’ll see what happens on that front. I need to run [00:41:00] the math and do that, but the big one is making sure I requalify for high globalists by the skin of my teeth.
Justin Vacula: Will you be having both Hyatt credit cards in 2026? The personal and the business?
Hunter Threadgill: So I currently do, so I use the personal for the free night certificate, spend $15,000 and get a second free night certificate. And then I do my creative spending on the Hyatt Biz card because as opposed to the Hyatt personal card, which gets four nights for every $10,000 spend, I get five nights for every $10,000 spend.
So that allows me to not have to use as much spend to get globalist, um, as compared to using it strictly on the personal card.
Justin Vacula: Nice and I’m looking here. I do have Advantage Platinum Status American Airlines. I recently hit 82,000 loyalty points, so that took me to the next status level. I changed some credit limits around, I had a lot of credit limit on the Wyndham Business card, [00:42:00] but I moved the credit off that to the American card with Barclays.
So we’re gonna see what happens when American moves away from Barclays into city. Perhaps I’ll have an American card with Citi and then be spending on that to get status. And a lot of American miles, I’m flying outta Philadelphia, so there’s often a lot of good deals with American Miles.
Hunter Threadgill: Absolutely. I feel the same way with DCA.
And one thing I’ve also noticed too is that there is often quite a lot of availability to Europe, uh, with American miles, particularly in premium cabins. I’m often finding there’s a lot more, at least from the east coast to Europe. If you fly through Charlotte or JFK as compared to my typical routes of Air Canada and near France.
Um, while both of those still do exist, I find a lot more flexibility with the American era by, uh, redeeming American airline miles, which I find to be nice. Alright, anything else you’d like to add at the end? Nope. Thank you for having me. Uh, if any of your listeners [00:43:00] would like to connect with me outside of this podcast, you can gimme a follow over on Instagram at Professor of Points.
Justin Vacula: And Frequent Traveler University. We’re both board members with the Frequent Traveler Education Foundation, so tell us more about that.
Hunter Threadgill: Yes. The Frequent Traveler Education Foundation is the oldest and largest organization dedicated to training travelers on how to use points and miles, as well as how to, as well as raise some money for some amazing nonprofit charities.
In terms of, we, we focus a lot at, uh, different events for the consumer, the traveler. As well as working with the loyalty programs to run the Frequent Traveler awards for the consumer facing side. We have our flagship frequent traveler university in Dallas, which is gonna be amazing, as well as our monthly virtual seminars, which we’ve had amazing attendance at these past two months.
And I’m looking forward to the amazing work that we’re gonna see coming up in Dallas, I mean, uh, on the virtual seminar in a few weeks [00:44:00] in December.
Justin Vacula: Yes, Dallas coming in May. And the seminars are a good way to connect with others is there’s a chat, so you can talk about what’s on your mind, what you’ve been up to, and connect with other people virtually.
I’ve been doing the in-person meetups in Willow Grove, pa, and people ask, oh, do you have any online meetups for people that aren’t local or can’t make it? So this could be a good alternative for those that aren’t in the Willow Grove area, and you can do both as my meetups are usually on Sundays and these are on Saturdays.
Hunter Threadgill: We meet on the second Saturday of every month at a 8:15 AM Pacific Time, 11:15 AM Eastern Time. It goes for about two
Justin Vacula: hours. Alright, and that’s Professor of Points on Instagram. Any other social handles?
Hunter Threadgill: No other social handles, but I’m also riding over at the Points analyst doing airline lounge and hotel reviews.
All right. [00:45:00] Thank you for joining me today.
Justin Vacula: Thanks for having me, Justin. Really appreciate it. Thanks everyone for listening and stay tuned for future episodes. For more content between shows, follow Hurdy Gurdy Travel podcast on Facebook and x. Follow Justin Vacula on Instagram. Subscribe to Hurdy Gurdy Travel podcast on YouTube for daily content, including travel videos, podcast clips and posts.
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