Maximizing the Altitude Reserve Card's Mobile Wallet Rewards (2021)
From Travel Strategies
Easily Earn Points for Free Travel, Optimize Rewards by Using Different Cards for Different Purchases
The Altitude Reserve card earns 4.5% cash back, when you use it to make a mobile wallet payment (with Apple Pay, Google Pay, or Samsung Pay).
By changing your behavior to use your mobile wallet (when possible), instead of pulling out a credit card, you can increase the rewards you earn every year.
Here are some tips:
- Getting started is easy, just add the Altitude Reserve card as your “default” mobile wallet payment instrument. And keep your eyes out for opportunities to use your phone, instead of your card. You can check to see if a specific retail location takes Apple Pay, by opening the store’s information page in Apple Maps.
- You should be able to use your phone to pay at most contactless credit card terminals, even if the merchant doesn't explicitly take mobile wallet payments. The phones simulate the same behavior as "tapping" a contactless credit card. But it doesn't work 100% of the time.
- Depending on your device, Samsung Pay can be used at most credit card terminals. Like magic, many Samsung devices can simulate the magnetic fields that happen when you swipe a traditional credit card. As a result, they work at almost any swipe-based credit card terminal, not just those that explicitly support the Mobile Wallet services. If you have a Samsung device with "Magnetic Secure Transmission" (MST), you’ll be able to earn 4.5% at almost any place where you would swipe your card.
- If you have an Android Phone that doesn’t support Samsung Pay, you can pair it with the Gear S3 watch, to pay at most credit card terminals. If you are hardcore about earning points, and you don’t have (or don't want to switch to) a Samsung Phone, you can spend $150 to buy a Samsung S3 watch. Then you can use your watch to activate the terminal. Other Samsung watches don't have this capability.
- You can use Apple and Google Pay on some websites. You’ll sometimes be given this option, if you have set up the Mobile Wallet on your phone and you visit the store's website in Safari or Chrome. Apple and Google are hoping many websites will support this capability, by the pickings are pretty thin right now.
- When regular online payments aren’t available, you can sometimes use your wallet to make a payment from the merchant’s app. Mobile Apps are much more likely to support Mobile Wallets. So, you can train yourself to start using the app, rather than the website.
- Sometimes, you are better off using another credit card that earns bonus rewards on that purchase. While 4.5% is a better reward rate than you can get from any general-purpose reward card, some credit cards can earn higher rewards, when you use them for certain categories of spending. For example, the Sapphire Reserve card earns 5.1 cents per dollar on travel and restaurants, the Chase Ink Cash card earns 8.5 cents per dollar at Office Supply stores, and the Amex Blue Preferred earns 6 cents per dollar at grocery stores.
- If you highly value premium-cabin award tickets, and have had success booking them with frequent flyer miles, you shouldn’t use the Altitude Reserve card. You are better off earning 1.5x Ultimate Rewards, or 1.5-2x Membership Rewards points, with the Freedom Unlimited, Ink Unlimited, Amex EveryDay Preferred, or Amex Business Blue Cards, then getting 4.5 cents per dollar in travel credits from your Altitude Reserve.
This capability should be available with virtually all Samsung phones released between 2016 and 2020. Starting with S21 series, Samsung has stopped incorporating it into its phones.