U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve review: The ultimate contactless payment credit card

The U.S. Bank Altitude® Reserve Visa Infinite® Card is a premium credit card with a solid set of benefits. These make it easy for you to justify paying the annual fee, and few cards are as rewarding for mobile wallet purchases. However, it lacks a few key perks (like unlimited airport lounge access) which keep the Altitude Reserve from soaring to the top of our list of premium cards.

Still, if those perks aren’t ones you particularly care about, then this card is definitely worth serious consideration. Below, CNBC Select shares the details on the Altitude Reserve’s intro bonus, benefits and rewards structure to help you decide if it’s right for you.

Earn 50,000 bonus points (worth $750 in travel) after spending $4,500 in your first 90 days of account opening.

The Altitude Reserve card’s most valuable benefit is its annual travel and dining credit of up to $325. Using this credit is as easy as charging eligible travel or dining purchases — including takeout and restaurant delivery — to the card.

You’ll also have access to these perks and protections:

Earning

The U.S. Bank Altitude® Reserve earns:

• 5X points on prepaid hotels and car rentals booked directly in the Altitude Rewards Center
• 3X points on eligible travel and mobile wallet spending on Apple Pay^®, Google Pay™ and Samsung Pay
• 1X points on all other purchases

Redeeming

With the Altitude Reserve card, you can redeem each point for 1.5 cents worth of value when you book travel expenses through the Altitude Rewards Center. You can also use points in a variety of ways at a value of one cent each, including cash back, gift cards, Amazon and Paypal. Cardholders have the option of paying the $400 annual fee with 35,000 points (roughly 1.14 cents per point value).

You can also easily redeem points through U.S. Bank’s Real-Time Rewards, which allows you to use points for any qualifying purchase, as long as you have enough points to offset the purchase. Once you’re enrolled in Real-Time Rewards, you’ll receive a text anytime you make an eligible transaction, you can respond with “REDEEM” and your points will automatically be used to pay for the purchase.

With Real-Time Rewards you can set the categories of purchases you want to be alerted for and you can set a minimum redemption amount. One big advantage of Real-Time Rewards is that it allows you to redeem your points for travel purchases made outside of the Altitude Rewards Center. This means you have more options to get the most value (1.5 cents) from each point.

Compared to the Altitude Reserve, the Chase Sapphire Reserve® has a larger annual fee ($550) and a smaller annual travel credit of up to $300. However, those numbers don’t tell the whole story.

That’s because the Sapphire Reserve earns transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards points, which can be redeemed for exceptional value. For example, you could transfer 30,000-45,000 points to Hyatt and book a night at the Park Hyatt Maldives Hadahaa. Rooms there can easily cost $1,000 or more, which nets you a value of 2.22-3.33 cents per point.

Chase points also transfer to excellent airline programs such as Singapore Krisflyer, United MileagePlus and Air Canada Aeroplan. And Sapphire Reserve cardholders receive a Priority Pass membership with unlimited lounge visits.

U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve vs. Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card

The Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card (see rates and fees) has an annual $300 travel credit for booking through Capital One Travel and a 10,000-mile anniversary bonus (worth $100 in travel). With just these two benefits, you’ll more than offset the Venture X’s $395 annual fee. This makes the Capital One Venture X a potentially more affordable option than the Altitude Reserve.

Cardholders also receive unlimited lounge access to Capital One lounges and Priority Pass lounge locations. Capital One miles are also easy to redeem for travel purchases. After you make a travel purchase, you can use miles to cover the charge at any time within 90 days.

While that’s a more flexible option than what the Altitude Reserve offers, Capital One miles are only worth one cent per point toward travel (compared to 1.5 cents per each for Altitude Reserve points). But what makes Capital One miles ultimately more valuable is the ability to transfer them to airlines such as Emirates, Air Canada, Turkish Airlines and others. You could transfer 70,000 miles to Aeroplan and book a one-way business-class flight from North America to Europe (under a 6,000-mile distance) and add on a stopover in a connecting city for only 5,000 additional miles. This type of flight could easily cost several thousand dollars.

The Altitude Reserve has a lot going for it. However, it lacks the punch of the best luxury credit cards. It doesn’t earn transferrable rewards and its lounge access isn’t unlimited. It has an expensive annual fee ($400), but its annual $325 travel and dining credit is incredibly easy to use. If you spend around $27 a month on dining and travel, you’ll max out the $325 credit and effectively only pay $75 of the annual fee.

It’s better to think of it as an excellent mid-tier travel credit card because for $75 you’re getting basic airport lounge access. That’s a perk you rarely find on a card with a sub-$100 annual fee. On top of that, you can earn 3X points on mobile wallet purchases. Each Altitude Reserve point is worth 1.5 cents in travel giving these transactions a 4.5% return toward travel expenses. The Altitude Reserve also has better insurance coverage than most mid-tier cards.

It’s easy to justify getting and keeping this card, just don’t expect to receive all the best aspects of a top-tier rewards credit card.

At CNBC Select, our mission is to provide our readers with high-quality service journalism and comprehensive consumer advice so they can make informed decisions with their money. Every business card review is based on rigorous reporting by our team of expert writers and editors with extensive knowledge of credit card products. While CNBC Select earns a commission from affiliate partners on many offers and links, we create all our content without input from our commercial team or any outside third parties, and we pride ourselves on our journalistic standards and ethics. See our methodology for more information on how we choose the best credit cards.

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