U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve Now Open For Applications

The U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve is now available for online (and presumably in branch) applications. You can apply online by clicking here. Remember that you must be an existing U.S. Bank consumer customer  for at least 35 days to be eligible (best ways to become eligible here). You can get around this requirement if you’ve been a customer for less than 35 days or if you’re a business customer by applying in branch.

us bank altidude reserve

Contents

Card At A Glance

  • Sign up bonus of 50,000 points after $4,500 in spend within 90 days of account opening.
  • Points are worth 1.5¢ each towards flights.
  • Card earns at the following rates:
    • 3x on mobile payments (including LoopPay/MST transactions)
    • 3x on travel purchases made directly with airlines, hotels, car rental companies, taxis, limousines, passenger trains and cruise line companies
    • 1x on all other purchases
  • Annual fee is $400 for the primary cardholder and $75 for authorized users. You can offset the annual fee with 35,000 points (1.14¢ per point)
  • $325 annual travel credit. Can be used against purchases made directly from airlines, hotels, car rental companies, taxis, limousines, passenger trains and cruise lines. This is per cardmember year, not per calendar year.
  • Priority Pass Select Membership. Limited to four visits and four guests visits each membership year.
  • Gogo Pass. 12 complimentary passes each membership year (same as what is offered on other U.S. Bank cards)
  • Visa Infinite Benefits. Does not come with $100 saving on round trip flight
  • TSA PreCheck/Global Entry Reimbursement once every four year.
  • Silvercar discount. Rent an Audi A4 with no lines or paperwork from airport locations in select cities and receive a discount of up to 30%  on rentals of two days or more.
  • GroundLink Black Car Service. 15% discount and $30 off first ride
  • Metal card.
  • No foreign transaction fees

Our Verdict

Is this card worth applying for? I think it is and here is why:

  • Annual fee is easily covered by the sign up bonus and travel credit (at worst you can use 35,000 points to offset the annual fee and be left with $150 in cash and $325 in travel credits)
  • It earns 3x on mobile payments (huge for some people)

Rest of the benefits and features are relatively lackluster. I suspect that 3x on Mobile payments will be nerfed at some point but existing customers are usually grandfathered in for the first year. I’m not sure if U.S. Bank do any sort of annual fee waiving for military members, but I guess we will find out soon enough. As always make sure you read these things everybody should know about U.S. Bank before applying.

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48 Comments
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JC
JC (@guest_402795)
May 7, 2017 11:36

I was really looking forward to having the altitude reserve be my primary spend card but after reviewing the guide to benefits I am shocked at how weak some of the travel related benefits are considering this is a premium card related to travel.

For instance:
* There is no baggage delay protection with both the Citi Prestige and Chase Sapphire Reserve Offer
* The Trip Cancellation Policy is $2000 per trip versus $5000 per person on the Citi Prestige or $10,000 per person and $20,000 per trip for the Sapphire Reserve. This is clearly way to low for many trips and thus will necessitate the cardmember to purchase travel insurance whereas they likely would not with the Prestige or Reserve
* Medical Evacuation is set at $10,000 while the Sapphire Reserve and Citi Prestige offer $100,000. From the few people I know who have needed this benefit evacuations are are much higher than the protection offered by the Altitude Reserve.
* The card has no Emergency Medical benefits while the Chase Sapphire Reserve does at up to $2500 with a $50 deductible.
* The car rental insurance protection is secondary while the Chase Sapphire Reserve offers primary car rental protection
* The travel accident insurance is up to $500,000 while the Sapphire Reserve and Citi Prestige are up to $1,000,000. While I hope no one needs to take advantage of this benefit it is still nice to know that your loved ones will receive something if you happen to be injured or die in a common carrier accident.
* The card offers no road side assistance benefit while both the Chase Sapphire Reserve and Citi Prestige do.

Bo
Bo (@guest_403209)
May 8, 2017 08:36
  JC

According to the Benefit Administrator, car rental CDW coverage is primary for both domestic and international, with rental periods not to exceed 15 days for domestic and 31 days for international rentals vs CSR’s 31 days for either.

Zubair
Zubair (@guest_399644)
May 2, 2017 17:36

If I pay rent my rent on my landlord’s website using my mobile phone (no Apple Pay or Samsung Pay), does it still count as mobile payment?

Prasanna
Prasanna (@guest_398892)
May 1, 2017 18:00

Can the travel credit be also used by the authorized user as well? That makes this card worth a bit more…

Derp
Derp (@guest_398884)
May 1, 2017 17:55

here are the promo materials: http://www.derpreport.com/?p=2745

foxea
foxea (@guest_398836)
May 1, 2017 16:10

Instant approval. 11k credit line. Has checking and two flexperks credit card from US Bank for about one year.

Lrdx
Lrdx (@guest_398813)
May 1, 2017 15:12

Charles, can you add the point redemption options (was it 1.5c / point for flights?) to the at a glance list?

KG
KG (@guest_398771)
May 1, 2017 13:39

Useless DP:
From CA. Applied with the small bureaus they love to check frozen and also EX frozen (since everyone loves to pull EX in CA, I keep it frozen to block BofA and others). US Bank insists on having all 3 major reports unfrozen, saying its a random pick, but 90% CA apps are EX pulls for them. Meh, might or might not go for this one.

Lrdx
Lrdx (@guest_398810)
May 1, 2017 15:10
  KG

90% – 5% – 5% chances for the 3 bureaus can be still random 🙂

Gerald
Gerald (@guest_398764)
May 1, 2017 13:28

Cannot get clear answer on number of visits to Lounge….called rep and she said unlimited for Cardholder and 4 visits for guests at no charge….description says 4 visits period…..anybody else get clarification on this??

Hotdog
Hotdog (@guest_398929)
May 1, 2017 19:25

Directly from their website:

“One Cardmember per Account may be enrolled as the member in the Priority Pass Select program, and their first four visits and four individual accompanying guest visits are waived each Priority Pass Select membership year (not Cardmember year). Per person lounge visit fees will apply after free visits have been used. After the free visits have been used, the member’s Card will be charged a lounge visit fee of $27 per person per visit for the member and each guest”.

jim
jim (@guest_398725)
May 1, 2017 12:33

i don’t trust US BANK after what they did to club carlson cards repeatedly for months making it useless.

I wanted to apply for the amex hilton card but no way for any MS technique, sucks!

Elmer
Elmer (@guest_398733)
May 1, 2017 12:51

If i were a US Bank executive (such as the head of the cc division who came from Amex), then I’d say I just succeeded…. I want to get the MSers and the churners away from my card.

Patrick
Patrick (@guest_398845)
May 1, 2017 16:32

Except that USBank have nerfed every single card they’ve ever released.

So… yay?

Elmer
Elmer (@guest_399051)
May 1, 2017 22:16

Not sure what that has to do with the bank wanting to keep churners away? In the past, too many churners gaming the Club Carlson rewards caused them to change the rewards. They will likely pull the 3x on all mobil payments at some point, but if it gets them enough new customers that move money over, they may keep it. Who knows, the additional rewards on mobil payments may be enough to actually convert the typical millennial, vs Chase which may lose them after first year. Time will tell… but for a first realistic goal of not getting too many churners initially, perhaps they’ll get that. Certainly not getting someone of “jim”‘s profile to apply is likely a win for them.

Hotdog
Hotdog (@guest_398715)
May 1, 2017 12:00

Instant approval for 25K. I have checking, savings and a credit card account with US bank for 1 year.