In the past year, card issuers made major moves to attract and retain high-value customers by introducing or refreshing premium card products. American Express and Chase raised the annual fees ($895 for Amex, $795 for Chase) and overhauled the reward and benefit packages associated with the Platinum and Sapphire Reserve cards, while Citi entered the premium card market with the Citi Strata Elite (annual fee of $595). Among firm-branded premium cards, only Capital One’s Venture X (annual fee of $395) remained relatively stable.
Increased competition and higher annual fees mean firms face more pressure than ever to demonstrate card value. Extensive reward and benefit packages are rightly the focus of firms looking to offer value at this price point, but reward points and benefit packages are only as good as the digital platforms used to discover and use perks or track and redeem points. If users can’t figure out how to maximize their benefits, they’ll look to other cards with better digital platforms.
What can firms do better to showcase card value? In our July Credit Card Monitor report on Premium Card Mobile Reward and Benefit Platforms, we combined a survey of premium card holders with behind-the-login looks at the premium card digital experience to see where firms are meeting and falling short of user expectations.
We found clear opportunities for firms to better meet customer expectations around reward and benefit information, redemption, travel booking, and exclusive experiences. Below we preview one of the key findings from the report. (Want more? Credit Card Monitors can access the full report in the CI client portal. Not a subscriber? Contact us to learn how to access our competitive intelligence and benchmarking research.)
Premium Card Travel Portal Experiences
In our survey, 71% of premium card holders selected travel benefits as the reason they chose their card—something of an expected result given the emphasis premium cards place on these benefits. Reflecting this preference, 57% said the premium statement credit they used most recently fell into the travel category, and 58% chose travel booking as their preferred redemption option. This alignment of a preference for travel benefits with redemption behavior marks the travel portal as a key location for issuers to promote card value and exclusive benefits.
Despite this opportunity, few firms offer tailored travel portal experiences for premium customers. American Express and Chase do well to surface travel benefits on the travel portal landing screen, but Amex’s personalization stops there. The firm instead elects to promote certain premium perks on the travel portal regardless of the card customers have. Capital One and Citi decline to surface premium tier perks at all on the landing screen, with Citi waiting until after card holders have performed a hotel search to show results related to the client’s premium card.
Chase stands out for tailoring its travel portal experience to premium card holders. The firm offers a Your Statement Credits slideup on the landing screen that lists remaining credit amounts and renewal dates. It also promotes its exclusive hotel collection benefit, The Edit by Chase Travel, in multiple locations, explicitly labeling it as a Reserve Benefit and directing clients to helpful informational screens with benefit details. The firm also highlights its personalized travel planning offering—Reserve Travel Designer—through a CTA directly on the landing screen.
Chase’s approach may serve as an example for other premium card issuers going forward, but one opportunity area where all firms fall short comes in the premium-exclusive event and experience space. Capital One and Chase are currently the only firms to offer exclusive travel experiences, but neither firm promotes these within the travel portal. Given the popularity of travel with premium card holders, firms that lack these offerings may want to add them, and those that already offer them may want to consider cross-promoting these experiences in a location where premium card holders are primed to make travel plans.
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Neil FitzPatrick
Neil FitzPatrick is a senior analyst on CI's Bank, Credit Card and Lending research team.