The Altitude Reserve Card is a premium luxury card offered by U.S. Bank. This card is exclusive to U.S. bank customers so you will not be able to grab up the Altitude Card unless you bank with them. It offers a great deal of travel parks that are similar to other luxury cards such as the AMEX Platinum Card and Chase Sapphire Reserve Card including GoGo Wifi passes, annual travel credits, and other elite benefits.
Do note that points earned with the Altitude Connect and Altitude Go cannot be combined with the points earned using the Altitude Reserve Card.
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Bonus Categories
The U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve Card features four bonus categories that will earn additional Altitude Points. Those categories are pre-paid car rental and hotel purchases made through the Altitude Rewards Center portal, mobile wallet purchases, and travel purchases. There's no limit to the amount of Altitude Points you can earn spending in these categories and no limit to the amount of Altitude Points you can earn with the card overall.
- 5x Hotel/Car Altitude Rewards Center
- Applies to pre-paid hotel and car rentals through the portal.
- The Connect Visa also earns 5x, but points can only be redeemed for 1 cent each thus giving you a lower return.
- 3x Travel
- U.S. bank considers travel purchases to be:
- Airlines
- Hotels
- Car Rental Companies
- Taxis
- Limousines
- Passenger Trains
- Cruise Line Companies
- The Connect Visa earns a higher 4x, but again, the points earned with that card can only be redeemed for a max of 1 cent each.
- U.S. bank considers travel purchases to be:
- 3x Mobile Wallet Spending
- Mobile Wallet spending counts as purchases made with mobile device such as:
- Apple Pay
- Samsung Pay
- Android Pay
- Microsoft Wallet
- Earning 3x travel is superb, but this category is the bread and butter of this card and what you should focus on.
- Mobile Wallet spending counts as purchases made with mobile device such as:
- 1x Non-Category
The Mobile Wallet Spending category is the big category on the card and the one you should primarily focus on. Mobile pay can be used at grocery stores, gas stations, fast food establishments, inside mobile apps (such as Fandango when buying movie tickets), hardware stores, department stores, and so forth. How much you spend you spend using mobile wallets should be the deciding decision on whether you pick up this card or not.
Perks & Benefits
The Altitude Reserve offers a bunch of travel benefits such as annual credits, complimentary Wi-Fi passes, lounge access, and more.
- Annual $325 Travel Credit
- Triggered by airlines, hotels, car rental companies, taxis, limousines, passenger trains and cruise lines purchases.
- Credit is once per card member regardless of which (authorized user) cards are used to trigger the credit.
- Complimentary GoGo Wi-Fi Passes Annually
- 12 passed per year valid from the date the card is registered with GoGo.
- Single pass costs around $19, so this is about $228 in value.
- Increased Point Value For Travel Redemptions
- Redeeming points for travel will give your points 1.5 cents in value via Real-time Rewards.
- Travel counts as airfare, hotel, car rentals, and more.
- Priority Pass Select Membership
- Global Entry or TSA PreCheck Credit
- Global Entry is for speeding through customs when re-entering the states; also grants TSA PreCheck if approved.
- TSA PreCheck is for expedited screening through TSA checkpoints.
- 15% Off GroundLink
- Discount is on the base rate of GroundLink Black Card Services booked and paid with the Altitude Reserve Card.
- One-time $30 promotional credit will also be offered to be used towards a GroundLink reservation that is booked and paid for using the Altitude Reserve Card.
- Silvercar Benefits
- Audi benefits with special rental privileges and discounts.
- VISA Infinite Benefits
- Relais & Châteaux Boutique Luxury Hotels
- VIP welcome and complimentary breakfast when hotel is booked at least 72 hours in advance.
- Complimentary breakfast is valid for a max of seven consecutive nights.
- Visa Infinite Concierge and most other standard VISA benefits apply.
- Relais & Châteaux Boutique Luxury Hotels
Sign Up Bonus
The standard US Bank Altitude Reserve card sign up bonus is 50,000 bonus points after spending $4,500 on the card within the first $90 of account opening. This has an easy value of $750 since points are worth 1.5 cents when used towards travel. The sign up bonus alone can be worth picking up the card if you're a U.S. Bank Customer.
Fees
Annual Fee
The Altitude Reserve annual fee is $400 which is lower than most luxury cards which tend to hover around $450 to $550. Since the Altitude Reserve card comes with $325 in annual travel credits, you're really looking at an annual fee of only $75. If you do any decent spending in any of the Altitude Reserve's bonus categories, this card is easily worth the fee.
Authorized User Fee
The authorized user fee for the U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve Card is $75 annually per additional card issued. $75 is equal to about 5,000 Altitude Reserve Points which is what your authorized users will need to generate in order to make up for the fee. Luckily, 5,000 points is pretty easy to obtain with this card. This can be either through $1,000 in spend on pre-paid hotel or car rental bookings made through the Altitude Reserve portal or $1,667 per year ($139 per month) in either mobile wallet or travel purchases made by your authorized users.
Foreign Transaction Fee
The Altitude Reserve does not have a foreign transaction fee which makes this card a great option for international spending and international travel.
Rewards Calculator
You can use the rewards calculator to calculate how many points, miles, or cash back you can earn based on your spend per category. This calculator will also give you the dollar value of the card based on the value of the rewards earned and how much each benefit is worth to you, minus the annual fees. You can click the Compare A Card button to compare this card side by side any other card featured on the site within the same calculator.
Note! All category spend entered in the primary card's column (first column when comparing cards) will carry over to all credit card calculators on the site. This means you will not have to re-enter the same information again and again when browsing during the session.
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