Chase Ritz-Carlton Visa Infinite Review – Three Free Nights + $300 In Airline Credits ($450 Annual Fee Not Waived)

It looks like the Chase Sapphire Reserve is not the only Visa Infinite card Chase will be issuing with the release of the Chase Ritz-Carlton Visa Infinite card. It’s important to remember that the other Ritz-Carlton card Chase offers isn’t affected by the Chase 5/24 rule. Let’s take a look at the new card:

The Basics

This card offers the following features & benefits:

• Receive three free nights at participating Tier 1-4 Ritz-Carlton properties after you spend $5,000 or more within the first three months of account opening 
• Receive 10,000 Ritz-Carlton points when you add an authorized user and they make their first purchase within 3 months of account opening
• Annual fee of $450 is not waived the first year
• $300 airline credit (incidentals only)
• $100 hotel credit, can be used towards dining, spa or other hotel recreational activities on paid stays of two nights or longer
• Save $100 on multi-passenger ticket purchases. This benefit can be redeemed at: http://visadiscountair.com/ritzcarltoncard (can be used unlimited times)
• Card earns at the following rates:
  • 5x points on Ritz-Carlton & partner hotel stays
  • 2x points on travel & restaurants
  • 1x points on all other purchases
• Global Entry or TSA Pre Check credit
• Automatic Gold Elite Status in the first year, you can maintain this by spending $10,000 on purchases your first account year and each account year there after.
• Platinum Elite status when you spend $75,000 on purchases each account year
• Priority pass select membership
• J.P Morgan Premier Concierge Service
• No foreign transaction fees

New Product?

Unfortunately this is being considered the same product as the old Ritz-Carlton card (no longer available either sadly). This means you can’t have received a sign up bonus within the last 24 months on the Ritz-Carlton card, or you won’t be eligible for this card.

Existing Cardholders

Existing cardholders can be upgraded, but they need a minimum credit line of $15,000 to do so. Somebody also said they’d receive an additional free night (category 1-4) for doing so. This might be because the person had Chase Private Client though.

Additionally all existing cardholders will keep the old annual fee of $395 (at least for now) and will be automatically converted if they haven’t been already. The minimum credit limit of $15,000 will not apply to them. They will also keep the club level upgrades.

Redeeming Points & Certificates

You can view the award chart for Ritz-Carlton here (you can also view all the properties by Tier). You’d need an additional 5,000 points (you’d get at least 5,000 for the minimum spend an additional 10,000 points for adding an authorized user) for a free fourth night.

Our Verdict

Three free nights is a pretty good deal, just keep in mind you won’t be able to use it on the Tier 5 luxury properties. The annual fee of $450 is quite high (old card was $395) but offset by the $300 in airline credits (you should be able to get this twice, as it’s based on a calendar year). I’d personally be picking this card up if I hadn’t gotten the bonus on the previous card within the past 24 months.

One downside to this card compared to the old card is that it doesn’t come with the three club level upgrades anymore.

 

Big hat tip to /r/churning and all of the readers that let me know about this new card (really guys, thanks a lot!)