Chase Ritz-Carlton Terminates the $100 Visa Infinite Airfare Benefit Without Notice

Visa and Chase have suddenly removed the Visa Infinite $100 airfare benefit when buying 2+ tickets effective immediately on the Ritz-Carlton Visa Infinite card.

See: Visa Infinite Benefit: Save $100 On Round Trip Domestic Airfares 

On the Visa Infinite site it shows “Visa Discount Air Benefit will no longer be available to cardholders after 12/31/2019” and on the dedicated Chase Ritz-Carlton page of the site it shows:

Effective 1/15/20, your Ritz Carlton Visa Infinite card no longer offers the Visa Discount Air Benefit. Air itineraries booked via the Visa Discount Air Benefit prior to 1/15/20 will still be honored and valid for travel. For full Terms & Conditions and FAQs please visit www.visa.com/discountair. If you need servicing on your existing Visa Discount Air itinerary, please contact the airlines directly for assistance as Concierge will no longer have access to your itinerary. Thank you

The benefit was removed from the City National Bank Visa Infinite card effective 1/1/20 – they gave us advance warning on that. They’ve now suddenly removed the benefit on the Chase Ritz card as well effective 1/15/20.

There were some other Visa Infinite cards which had the bonus, including the UBS Visa Infinite and SunTrust Private Wealth Visa Infinite. The UBS card is showing as not having that benefit any more (I’m unsure when that change went into effect), while the Suntrust card seems to still have the benefit. 

It’s really surprising that they removed this benefit without notice. This is a big hit to the value of the Ritz card.

Hat tip to readers Kuku and Hari

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Parkerthon
Parkerthon (@guest_879710)
January 17, 2020 16:41

Figure there’s two trends going on here that’s hurting us all… economy is doing well and I think large businesses are getting better at pushing down or capping swipe fees. Everyone root for a recession! Kidding of course. 🙂

sam
sam (@guest_879624)
January 17, 2020 15:10

So I assume VISA removed it and Chase was forced to remove it (why take a hit and pay money when there is nothing coming from VISA?)

MAMAIPI
MAMAIPI (@guest_879596)
January 17, 2020 14:33

PAID MY ANNUAL FEE LAST DEC. CALLED CHASE THIS MORNING COMPLAINING ABOUT THE NO NOTICE CHANGE. RECEIVED 300 USD CREDIT AFTER THREATENING TO CLOSE ACCOUNT.

aubergine
aubergine (@guest_880753)
January 18, 2020 19:17

more people should be doing that

James
James (@guest_881001)
January 19, 2020 01:38

were you able to get credit i called chase and they didn’t offer any credit or anything

Daniel
Daniel (@guest_882402)
January 20, 2020 11:51

Same. Called this morning and the rep understand my frustration, but was firm Chase didn’t remove the benefit Visa did so they couldn’t offer any compensation. He did add that Chase was hopeful Visa would replace the benefit because they had many calls from angry clients.

tom
tom (@guest_879594)
January 17, 2020 14:31

Its gone everywhere at the end of Jan per Visa….so anyone with a card that still has it better get booking fast
https://usa.visa.com/pay-with-visa/cards/visa-credit-cards/discount-air.html

Jason
Jason (@guest_879587)
January 17, 2020 14:25

If anyone PCed recently and wants ammunition for PCing back/filing a CFPB complaint, the Chase listing for the card still shows this as a benefit: https://creditcards.chase.com/marriott/cardmember/ritz-carlton/travel_benefits

JD
JD (@guest_879574)
January 17, 2020 14:12

Unfortunate to see this go without notice, I’ve easily saved over $1000 from this perk alone. I will keep my card as I get value from the $300 airline credit and the free night cert. Even 1 month heads up would have been great, I would have purchased all my flights for the year had I known this was going away

aubergine
aubergine (@guest_880748)
January 18, 2020 19:12
  JD

That is exactly why VIsa/Chase did the ‘no knock’ benefit removal. They didn’t want to fund a a years worth of VADB trips if they gave people 4 weeks or so notice.

Pretty crappy all around. Hope a few people get their AFs rebated and/or CPFB claims get filed.

Quango
Quango (@guest_879553)
January 17, 2020 13:45

UBS removed it too 🙁 That was my next card to get as I make SFO->LAX trips so often

reventon04
reventon04 (@guest_880028)
January 17, 2020 23:56

My friend abused the shit out of discount air benefit on his CNB card for this route

Phil
Phil (@guest_879513)
January 17, 2020 13:07

Is there any particular recourse or anything we can do due to the sudden removal of this? I’m 6 months into my last AF and this was a main selling point of me keeping the card. It’s incredibly shitty for them to remove without notice.

Steve L.
Steve L. (@guest_879520)
January 17, 2020 13:19

Don’t blame you one bit. I wanted to get this card after what they did to the Reserve but found out it is closed to new accounts. Now Chase has devalued two top cards in a matter of days…..good going Chase.

Jayson
Jayson (@guest_879924)
January 17, 2020 21:01

I tried. Talked to them for 30 minutes, but no dice. I also have 6 months into my last AF.

Sevillada
Sevillada (@guest_879534)
January 17, 2020 13:28

Talk to them. Else, file complaints

Geo
Geo (@guest_879708)
January 17, 2020 16:40

Tell them, and see if they actually listen. My bet is they don’t care. Chase has been voted Least Likely to Give Out a Retention Bonus for 3+ years running.

aubergine
aubergine (@guest_880750)
January 18, 2020 19:13

Yup, that’s one reason why I think there effective annual fees are much higher. Citi and Amex you typically can get something back, or a discount, assuming you use the cards a little.

reventon04
reventon04 (@guest_879441)
January 17, 2020 12:06

UBS Visa Infinite cardholder here. They gave out notice in 08/2019 and terminated discount air around 10/2019 for the reason, “Not many clients were using this benefit”.

It sucks big time. Visa Infinite cards now are much less powerful. When can they reduce annual fee as well?

aubergine
aubergine (@guest_880751)
January 18, 2020 19:14

I think more accurately, a small subset of clients were cleaning them out, and the airlines and VISA were sick of it. They figured the average cardholder didn’t understand the benefit or wasn’t positioned to maximize it. (Not in a hub city, solo traveler, not domestic cheap shorthopper etc.)

lenin1991
lenin1991 (@guest_879410)
January 17, 2020 11:32

I particularly enjoy how they posted it in future tense — “will no longer be available” — making it sound like they gave notice ahead of time, despite using a date two weeks past.

Sevillada
Sevillada (@guest_879532)
January 17, 2020 13:27

Well, it won’t be available in the future (or in the present (. Technically correct