Ritz Carlton Credit Card
Recently, I made a little change to my credit card setup. The Ritz Carlton credit card is a premium Marriott credit card that was discontinued to new applicants in July 2018. I got it yesterday, and I’ll explain later in the post how I did that.
Overview
I believe this is one of the best, if not the best, Marriott credit cards out there. First, let me go over the benefits and earnings.
The earnings are as follows:
6X points for every $1 spent at over 7,000 hotels participating in
Marriott Bonvoy. It also gives 10X additional points for being a Marriott Bonvoy member, a 25% bonus (because of the automatic Gold Status), and that gives a total of 18.5X points for purchases at Marriott properties.3X points for every $1 spent on dining, car rentals and airline purchases.
2X points for every $1 spent on all other purchases.
This list of benefits is not exhaustive but includes:
No foreign transaction fees.
Lost luggage reimbursement.
Primary CDW on rental cars.
Trip cancellation and interruption insurance.
Trip delay reimbursement.
Extended warranty protection.
Return protection.
Purchase protection.
Emergency evacuation and transportation.
Roadside assistance.
Emergency medical and dental coverage.
Travel accident insurance.
Baggage delay insurance.
$300 travel credit.
Priority Pass Select membership.
Chase Sapphire lounge access.
Global Entry fee credit.
85,000 free night award on account anniversary.
Car rental privileges at National, Avis, and Silvercar.
How Did I Get It
As I mentioned in the introduction, this card has been closed to new applicants since July 2018. However, there is a backdoor method for people to still get this card. You apply for another one of Chase Bank’s Marriott credit cards: Marriott Bonvoy Bold, Marriott Bonvoy Boundless, or Marriott Bonvoy Bountiful. You hold onto that card for at least a year. Then you call into Chase customer service and request that they product change it to the Ritz Carlton card. The Ritz Carlton card is a Visa Infinite card which has a minimum $10,000 credit limit, so before you can do the product change, your initial Marriott card has to have a $10,000 limit on it. I applied for the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless card in April 2024 with the intention of product changing later. I was not given a $10,000 limit. Chase makes it easy to reallocate credit from one card to another, so about a month ago I sent a secure message to Chase asking them to reallocate some of my credit line from my Freedom unlimited card to the Boundless card. This bumped up my credit line on the Bondless card to $10,000.
Making the change did not go as smoothly as I hoped. Initially, I thought I could do the product change through secure messages in my Chase account. The customer service rep told me I would need to handle it by calling in. As an AAC user, talking to an unfamiliar person on the phone is not my favorite thing to do. However, I eventually worked up the courage to make the attempt. Last year, I signed up for an IP relay service which is basically a modern version of the TTY. I dial the number I want to reach, and a communication assistant (CA) acts as an intermediary. The CA transcribes everything the person on the other end says as well as giving other information like pauses, music playing, etc. It took about 30 minutes for me to complete the process, whereas it would have taken most people about half that time. It was slightly annoying, but that’s to be expected with that type of communication. Next time I need to call in, I might request a Hearing Carry Over call which allows me to directly hear what the person on the other end is saying. (I’m think this might be an interesting topic for another post. Maybe you can leave a comment and let me know if you’re interested).
After I hung up, I logged in to my Chase account, and the Ritz card was right there.
Why Did I Get It?
I am a big fan of Marriott properties. They have a large footprint, and I’ve always been satisfied with the quality of the brand. Many credit card enthusiasts will diversify their earnings with multiple hotel programs. That strategy does not make sense for my situation. I’m not a big spender, so it makes more sense to centralize my hotel points. I’ve gone all in on Marriott. It makes it easier to reach Platinum Status which is my goal this year.
I would consider myself a semi-frequent traveler. I fly 6-8 times a year for my job, drive to locations for my job within my region about 5 times a year, and I usually stay at hotels for all those trips. Having a premium hotel credit card seems reasonable and justifiable.
The $300 travel credit (for airline incidentals) and the 85,000 point free night award are big selling points for me. I can easily spend $300 for airline incidentals, since I often travel with checked bags. A room at the 85,000 point level is easily worth $500+, so the combination of these two benefits alone more than make up for the $450 annual fee.
I listed several different travel insurances and protections in the above list. A lot of people don’t think about them, but they are a major consideration for me. I am an anxious traveler even when everything goes smoothly. However, traveling doesn’t always go smoothly: planes get delayed or cancelled, people get bumped from flights, luggage gets lost, damaged, or delayed, people get injured, cars break down, cars have accidents, cars can get stolen, etc. All these unexpected hiccups can be annoying, stressful, and very costly. A few possible examples might be:
If I use this card to pay for a flight, it’s delayed or cancelled, and I have to stay overnight in a hotel, this card will reimburse me for my hotel, meals, and other reasonable out of pocket expenses.
Every time I’m at baggage claim waiting for my suitcases to come down the carousel, I feel very tense. I’m always afraid that it got lost somewhere. Having a card like this that would pay me for lost luggage and its contents makes me feel a bit better.
Another protection I find very useful is the primary CDW coverage for rental cars. If I buy CDW coverage from the rental agency, it costs $20+ per day. That adds up quickly, so using this card for my rental cars saves me a lot per year.
Suffice it to say, it’s a good card for a worrier like me.
I’m Thinking of Changing up My Premium Travel Setup
Probably the most important reason why I got this card was because I’m planning to change up my premium travel card setup. Some time ago, I talked about how I hold the American Express Platinum card. It’s been a good card in the two years I’ve had it. In the not-too-distant future, American Express will refresh this card. That means there will be an increase in the annual fee, which is already quite high, and the credits are likely to increase in number. The increase in the number of credits will probably make it more complicated to manage. I’ve gotten a little tired of managing the coupon book. The Ritz Carlton card is so much simpler, and it’s so much easier to get value from it. I’m going through a period where I’m wanting greater simplicity, and saving on annual fees is certainly nice too.
For these reasons, I’m considering transitioning to using the Ritz Carlton card as my sole premium travel credit card. It has all the travel protections I want as well as decent lounge access, which is one thing I really like about the Amex platinum card. There are two other options I’m considering adding to the Ritz Carlton card:
Product change my Chase Sapphire Preferred to the Chase Sapphire Reserve. This one is more useful for everyday spending. The 50% points boost in the Chase travel portal could also be very useful.
Citi is supposed to release a new premium trave card, but the exact date is unknown. If it is similar to their discontinued Citi Prestige card, then I would seriously consider it.
As I write this, I’m still waiting on the new card in the mail. After I get some use out of it, I expect I’ll write some updates.
If you’re interested in more detailed information about the Ritz Carlton card, you can go to the landing page here.
This post is written for information purposes and is not financial advice.