Tag: US Bank Altitude Connect Card

US Bank Improves Altitude Connect Card

Posted on by David Cox

I got the US Bank Altitude Connect card about a year an a half ago and I viewed it as basically a cash back card. At the time, the card came with a $95 annual fee and required $2,000 in spending over 4 months to earn the $500 signup bonus. Technically, they advertise this as 50,000 points with each point being worth 1 cent each, but since there aren’t any transfer partners, that meant it was just 50,000 pennies. Recently, US Bank made some changes to this card that I think actually make it a better credit card.

Earning Rates For the Altitude Connect Card

Something that didn’t change with this credit card is the earning rates for its bonus categories. It actually has some pretty good earning categories, they include:

  • 5x on hotels and car rentals booked through the Altitude Reward Center
  • 4x on travel
  • 4x on gas station and EV charging (up to $1,000 per quarter)
  • 2x on dining, streaming services, and grocery stores
  • 1x on everything else

I almost Canceled it Before it Renewed

When the annual fee was coming up for renewal, this was one I considered canceling. It had a $95 annual fee, and frankly I just wasn’t using it. Yes, it does have some pretty good earning potential in some categories, but typically outside of signup bonuses, I don’t get that excited about earning cash back.

However, there was one particular reason that I did keep it and that is because it comes with 4 annual passes to Priority Pass airport lounges. According to the Priority Pass website, there are over 1,600 Priority Pass lounges and experiences. In my experience, it’s not difficult to find a Priority Pass lounge when you need one, as long as you’re in a major airport.

My experiences with Priority Pass lounges haven’t been phenomenal, but its been pretty good. Typically I’ve managed to get basic buffet style food, a beer or two, as well as a place to charge a phone, and open my laptop. For the most part, I’ve enjoyed relaxing in their lounges. They haven’t been as good as my experiences in United Lounges, but it sure beats waiting in the airport terminal.

Recent Changes Made to the Altitude Connect Card

I think US Bank originally saw this card as being something that would compete with mid-level travel cards from major banks, like the Citi Strata Premier card or the Chase Sapphire Preferred card. Unfortunately, with US Bank lacking transfer partners for those points, I don’t think they really competed well in this space. Recently, US Bank made some changes to the Altitude Connect card that made it a more interesting card, in my opinion.

The first change is that they have dramatically reduced the signup bonus on this card. The typical signup bonus used to be 50,000 points ($500) after spending $2,000 in 4 months. However, this has now been dropped to a 20,000 point bonus ($200) after spending $1,000 in the first 3 months on the card. That’s not a great change, but the lower spending requirement does make it more accessible to people who don’t spend as much on credit cards.

The second change is that they eliminated the $95 annual fee. That’s a great change!

At first glance, that doesn’t make this card much more attractive than a lot of no annual fee cards. There are a lot of no annual fee cards that have some good bonus categories and a whole lot of them have signup bonuses of $200. That seems pretty typical. What isn’t typical of no annual fee cards is the benefits that are included.

Surprising benefits of the Altitude Connect Card

Since the US Bank Altitude Connect Card is a no annual fee card, it is surprising that it kept some pretty good benefits that typically come with cards that have at least $95 annual fees.

  • 4 annual passes to Priority Pass Lounges
  • No Foreign Transaction Fees
  • $100 credit for TSA or Global Entry application fee
  • Trip Cancellation/ Interruption Protections

The $100 credit for TSA or Global Entry application is something that you can get once every four years, which is a nice benefit, but to me the big one here is the 4 annual passes to Priority Pass Lounges. Yes, it’s only 4 passes, and if you are flying with a family of 4, that means one trip. However, anyone who eaten at an airport restaurant knows how easy it is to drop well over $100 for a family of 4.

The fact that just having this credit card means that I can take the family into a Priority Pass lounge and relax rather than paying through the nose at an airport restaurant and then being uncomfortable in the terminal is a huge bonus to me. Its almost guaranteed to save me over $100 once a year.

Trip Cancellation coverage for this card will pay up to $2,000 for non-refundable common carrier tickets paid for with this credit card. This can be triggered by the death, injury or illness of a person or family member that causes a trip to be canceled.

Trip delay coverage covers up to $300 of expenses like meals or lodging when a trip is delayed, as long as that trip was paid with this credit card. This benefit kicks in if you paid for the ticket with the Altitude Connect card and the delay is more than 12 hours. It only covers what the airline does not cover.

Smart Delay coverage is a new concept I had never heard about. According the information at the Smart Delay webpage, if you register your flight on this website 2 hours prior to scheduled departure and your flight gets delayed by over 2 hours, you will be immediately issued up to 4 passes for Priority Pass lounges to use during the delay. Considering my luck with flight delays, I will definitely be using that.

Foreign transaction fees are annoying. Normally I’ve paid attention to what credit card I was using out of the country. Unfortunately, I forgot to check the credit card I was using in Canada and came home to a series of foreign transaction fees. It didn’t exactly bankrupt me, but who wants to pay those fees? This is a nice benefit if you plan to use this card outside of the US.

Who Should Get the Altitude Connect Card?

Honestly, I’m not sure if I hadn’t already signed up for this card when the bonus was $500, that I would now. A $200 signup bonus isn’t that interesting to me with so many huge bonuses out there. But a no annual fee card with 4 annual one-time Priority Passes? That’s pretty tempting.

The amount of spend required to earn the signup bonus is the only $1,000 over 3 months, so if you’re someone without a ton of credit card spend, this is intriguing.

Honestly, I think this is be perfect for my daughter. She doesn’t have the credit card spend necessary to chase the big bonuses, but a $200 cash back bonus would be pretty nice for her. Getting a good, no annual fee card, would allow her to keep this card for a long time and build her credit age which is a big part of her credit score. In addition, gas, EV charging, groceries and dining are bonus categories that should get used frequently by young adults.

Aside from that, this card would give her some pretty good benefits, such as the trip protections and Priority Passes that she wouldn’t have access to without going to a card with an annual fee.

Over the summer, she went with three of her friends on a trip to California. If she had this card at the time, she could have treated everyone to a trip to a Priority Pass lounge. That may not seem like a big deal to someone who is older, but if you’re 19, that’s a pretty baller move.

Also, I think if you are the type of person who flies once or twice a year, having a handful of Priority Passes really enhances those trips. Lounge access is one of those things that lowers the stress of being in an airport. With that access provided on a no annual fee card, even if you don’t use the passes, it’s not costing you anything.

Will US Bank Get Rid of These Benefits?

I think the benefits of this card is remarkable for a no annual fee credit card, so I do have to question whether US Bank will continue to offer the level of benefits this card provides at no annual fee. To be honest, I don’t know, it really all depends on whether this stays profitable for them. If at some point they realize that the amount of money that they are spending on these benefits isn’t worth the amount of revenue that the card generates, then it could easily disappear or get altered into something less valuable.

I do think it’s worth it to anyone who flies occasionally and wants to have a handful of Priority Pass lounge visits in their pockets to sign up for this card. It also makes a really nice starter card for someone who might struggle to meet the minimum spend requirements to earn the signup bonus on a mid-range travel card that has similar benefits.

What US Bank has done is create a different kind of product, it’s a entry level, no annual fee travel credit card with many of the benefits of a mid-tier travel credit card. I hope that it stays the way it is, because it turns out to be a really interesting product that I think a lot of customers will really enjoy.

Points Check March 2023

Posted on by David Cox

March was a month where we didn’t finish any of our spending requirements to hit bonuses, but we did apply for a few cards. Jenn’s focus has been on diversifying our points and mine has been to accumulate some cash back to help with our spending for our July trip to Europe. With diversifying our points, the idea was that we would try to accumulate transferable points when possible as well as get some points in specific programs so that we would have the most flexibility to take advantage of any flash sales or sweet spots when they become available.

Jenn has been racking up Ultimate Reward Points and has been within striking distance of her 90,000 point bonus on her Ink Cash Card, so she decided to go for a Delta Business Gold Card. Delta is an interesting choice for us, since their main hub is in Atlanta and our closest main airport is Chicago, but I do think we will find a use for these points. The welcome offer when she signed up was 75,000 Delta Miles after we spent 3,000 in 3 months. This card recently added the benefit of a 15% discount on reward travel if you hold this card which makes those points worth a little bit more. It’s not a great card to rack up points on spend, however, with just 2x on Delta purchases, restaurants, shipping and advertising, and 1x points on everything else. It has a $95 annual fee, waived for the first year.

Jenn also signed up for the Wyndham Earner Business Card. This is an oddly interesting card. So Wyndham isn’t really known for their top of the line hotels, and it certainly doesn’t seem like a super sexy choice, but it is a weirdly good credit card. The bonus is 45,000 after a spend of $2,000 in the first 3 months, which isn’t super interesting, but I’ve heard an awful lot about Vacasa which allows you to book a vacation rental with Wyndham points. It’s not easy to book vacation rentals with points, so if Wyndham has figured it out, I’m on board. The pricing on these rentals is weird too, where any 1 bedroom is 15,000 points per night, a 2 bedroom is 30,000, so if you are choosy, you can get some pretty good value for those points, since there are some pretty nice rentals going for just 15,000 points per night. Also, there is a goofy status match situation where you automatically earn Wyndham Diamond Status with this card and you can match it to Ceasars Diamond Status. Then you can match to Carnival with their Carnival Players Club Fun Match Program and get a free cruise, apparently. Upgraded Points gives some details. I’ll give it a shot, why not? On top of all of that, it offers really high returns on some categories. The highlights are 8x on gas stations and 5x on utilities. I did the math on this, and if we just used this card for our gas station visits and our gas and electric bill we would earn over 45,000 points per year, that’s enough for 3 nights in a one bedroom Vacasa, not including the signup bonus. The card has a $95 annual fee, but you get 15,000 points every year when you pay that fee, meaning you are buying those points for a little over .6 cents per point, and a lot of people are reporting that they are getting value of up to 3 cents per point when they redeem with Vacasa. I’m strangely excited about racking up some Wyndham points.

I signed up for the US Bank Altitude Connect Card. Technically this is a travel points card, but there doesn’t appear to be any reason to redeem the points for travel directly, so my plan was to use it as a cash back card since the points are worth 1 cent per point as cash back. This card offers a 50,000 point bonus when you spend $2,000 in the first 4 months. It has a $95 annual fee, waived for the first year. It also offers fairly solid cash back in certain categories – 5x hotels and car rentals booked through the rewards center, 4x on gas stations, travel and EV stations, and 2x on groceries, dining and streaming services.

This actually left us with 5 open cards that we were working on bonuses for, which seems like a bit much. That being said, by the end of the month 2 were almost completed and the other 3 meant that we were going to need to spend about $7,000 over about 3 months, and I don’t see that as a problem. I’m expecting those bonuses will balloon our point totals over the next few months.

Anyway, on to the points check!

I spent around $900 on my Bank of the West card and earned $20 in cash back. I also spent around $100 on my Citi Premier Card and earned around 300 Thank You points. Jenn spent a little over $300 on her Ink Unlimited card and earned around 500 Ultimate Reward points. I spent $600 on my US Bank Altitude Connect card earning $13 cash back. Jenn spent around $2,700 on her Chase Ink Cash card earning 3,600 points.

That left us, at the end of the month with 24,000 Citi Thank You Points, 40,700 United Miles, 51,300 Marriott Bonvoy points, 1,500 Hyatt Points and 176,700 Ultimate Reward points. Using the valuations published by The Points Guy at https://thepointsguy.com/guide/monthly-valuations/, these points and miles are worth over $4,900.