We’ve had some nice occasions touring the world collectively, and your smooth steel exterior has at all times caught my eye. However out of nowhere, you bought difficult and costly, and it’s time to say our goodbyes.

I feel you understand what you’ve completed, however for anybody who doesn’t:

• You’re growing your annual charge to $795, a forty five% hike.

• You’re including a bunch of credit. And no, they’re not automated or simple to make use of.

• You’re axing journey as a bonus class, changing it with solely direct bookings with the airline or resort. 

This can be robust to listen to, however your substitute has already been in my pockets for the previous few months. It might lack all of your new-found bells and whistles, however I by no means requested for these to start with. As an alternative, I’m choosing a card that’s half your age and drips with simplicity whereas principally paying me to carry it.

I’ve jumped by each hoop you possibly can think about to optimize worth from bank card rewards and advantages. However as life will get busy, the attract of simplicity is tough to disregard.

After I first noticed the listing of recent advantages for Chase Sapphire Reserve® cardholders, it made me dizzy. Month-to-month credit for this, semi-annual credit for that. Most significantly, they’re credit to locations I must exit of my approach to make use of, like an annual $500 credit score for pay as you go reservations by The Edit, Chase’s curated luxurious resort program. I don’t do pay as you go reservations, and extra so, I often use factors for resort stays.

Your $300 eating credit score at Sapphire Reserve Unique Tables eating places is one other instance. I like a pleasant meal as a lot as the subsequent man, however the eating places are in choose cities that I don’t reside in.

That’s not price a $795 annual charge to me. I used to be keen to pay the previous annual charge of $550 to realize entry to a best-in-class $300 journey credit score (which is not altering) and 1.5 cent per level redemptions by Chase’s journey portal, however these redemptions have been changed with Chase’s roulette wheel of “Points Boost” redemptions, the place you’ll get 2 cents per level of worth. For all different journey portal redemptions not labeled “Points Boost,” you may solely get 1 cent per level of worth (a 33% devaluation).

In distinction, the Capital One Enterprise X Rewards Credit score Card has a decrease annual charge of $395, however comes with an annual $300 journey credit score for any journey booked by Capital One’s journey portal. That mixed with the ten,000 anniversary miles (price not less than $100) I get yearly means the cardboard has a destructive annual charge for me.

On the similar time, the Chase Sapphire Reserve® can be altering its bonus classes.

The brand new model will earn 4 factors per greenback spent on direct bookings with an airline or resort, however only one level per greenback on different journey spend, like automobile leases, trains and on-line journey businesses (like Expedia or Accommodations.com). I spend some huge cash on “other travel,” and often e book flights and accommodations with factors, so this can be a large hit to the cardboard’s worth proposition for my spending habits.

The Capital One Enterprise X Rewards Credit score Card, in the meantime, earns a no-fuss 2 miles per greenback on all purchases that aren’t booked by Capital One Journey. (Capital One Journey bookings earn between 5 and 10 miles per greenback.) For my part, that is a simple win for the Capital One Enterprise X Rewards Credit score Card.

Possibly it’s a scorching take, however airport lounges are usually not that nice. Nearly all of my time in lounges have been by the Precedence Go membership that comes with many bank cards, and people areas are constantly underwhelming.

Then I gained entry to Capital One Lounges by my Capital One Enterprise X Rewards Credit score Card — I’ve been to most of them, and love each one. They’re fashionable, nice and constantly have the very best meals and drinks of any home lounge community. They’re the one lounges I really sit up for visiting.

Positive, the lounge footprint is proscribed. However they occur to be in areas I fly by usually, like Washington D.C., Dallas and Las Vegas. I may be a part of the waitlist for the lounge the second my aircraft lands, which makes overcrowding kind of a non-issue.

The Chase Sapphire Reserve® gives entry to Chase Sapphire Lounges by The Membership. Don’t get me unsuitable, these areas are nice and sometimes extra fashionable AmEx’s Centurion Lounges. However I merely desire the atmosphere and experiences I’ve had in Capital One lounges over the experiences I’ve had in Sapphire Lounges.

As a perpetual destroyer of telephones, I really like the mobile phone insurance coverage that comes with my Capital One Enterprise X Rewards Credit score Card. I automate my month-to-month mobile phone invoice cost to the cardboard, and growth, I’m coated.

I just lately used the insurance coverage to switch a Google Pixel I dropped in a puddle. The telephone additionally had a cracked display screen, so it was toast. I submitted a declare on-line, and inside 48 hours obtained the funds to switch my telephone. It was a quite simple course of. The insurance coverage additionally contains theft and loss safety, making the protection fairly sturdy.

Sadly, the Chase Sapphire Reserve® doesn’t supply mobile phone protection. My observe document says I’ll break a telephone about yearly and a half, and I’d be out tons of of {dollars} every time I want to switch a telephone if I paid my invoice with the Chase Sapphire Reserve®.

The one potential hang-up to me parting methods with the Chase Sapphire Reserve® is entry to sure Chase journey companions. I really like World of Hyatt, and with the ability to switch factors from Chase to Hyatt has supplied me with extra worth through the years than another associate.

World of Hyatt isn’t a associate with Capital One, so that may be a giant loss. Happily, I even have an Ink Enterprise Most popular® Credit score Card, so I can transfer the Chase Final Rewards® I’ve earned from the Chase Sapphire Reserve® to that card earlier than my break-up and nonetheless have entry to Chase’s journey companions.

Positive, Capital One is mild on home airline and resort switch companions and is extra geared in the direction of worldwide journey. However that’s okay, since I discover a ton of worth on worldwide itineraries booked by transferring miles to Air France-KLM, Air Canada and Singapore Airways. These airways all associate with Capital One, so I’ll nonetheless discover outsized worth for my factors, even when the Capital One Enterprise X Rewards Credit score Card doesn’t give me entry to World of Hyatt transfers.

Possibly I’m getting previous, however in a life that’s always pulling me in several instructions, simplicity helps me sleep. I’ve liked you for lots of years, Chase Sapphire Reserve®, however you determined to go rogue and emulate the coupon e book “value” you get from many American Specific playing cards.

That worth is now comically difficult, and the modifications come at a time when you understand I want fewer distractions. I do know I’m transferring on quick, however you compelled my hand. I’ll always remember the nice occasions we’ve had, however for now, I’m off to catch a aircraft with my Capital One Enterprise X Rewards Credit score Card.