Ritz-Carlton: Worth the buzz or no?

I just wanted to take a quick moment to write about a new(ish) card that just came out. The card itself isn't new, but the rewards are completely different. I'm talkin about the new Ritz-Carlton Visa Infinite card from Chase.

Link (this is not an affiliate link and I receive no compensation if you choose to apply)

Now let me start by saying this is a premium card, meaning there is an annual fee of $450 which is NOT waived. Why would you pay $450 for a piece of plastic (actually metal in this case, similar to the Chase Sapphire Preferred card)? Because that $450 can easily be recovered if you know how to do it.

Benefits

1. $300 yearly credit for airline incidentals.
   
   This is typically for airline baggage fees, lounge access, etc. So say you really wanted to eat a lot of airline meals, you could get up to $300 worth of meals reimbursed over the course of the year. Supposedly this cannot be used for gift cards, but you might be able to get away with it if you don'd do it all at once. My strategy will be to purchase a $150 American Airlines gift card, get it reimbursed, and then sell that gift card for around $120 to Cardpool.com. Doing this twice will leave you with $240 cash back.
   
   Plus, since this is a yearly benefit, starting in January you could do it again to get another $240 before your annual fee is due. Right off the bat you are up $30 ($480 - $450 from the annual fee) We can now look at the rest of the benefits as completely free.
   
2. Three Free Nights at any tier 1-4 Ritz-Carlton hotel
   
   Considering a tier 4 Ritz costs around 60k Marriott/Ritz points, that means you are getting 180k points with one card!
   
3. 10,000 points for adding an authorized user. Easy points, no explanation needed
   
4. Global Entry/TSA-Precheck reimbursed. If you don't already have Global entry, it is normally $100 fee to skip the lines at customs and TSA security. I already have this benefit from other cards, but hey, there's $100 if you don't already have it
   
5. Save $100 on multi passenger flights
   
   This is a new benefit so I don't know a lot about it, but from the looks of it anytime you purchase at least 2 round trip tickets, you get $100 knocked off the total price, regardless of how much it was.
   
   Imagine the following situation: You are flying from LAX to Chicago O'hare. Round trip costs $80, but if you book two tickets your total cost is $60 ($160 - $100). Book an extra ticket, save $20. Even if you were flying alone, that is still reducing your ticket price! Thanks /u/aqwertyyii for the screenshot.
   
   
   
   
6. Gold Elite Status
   
7. Priority Pass Lounge Access

Conclusion

Overall, this looks to be an excellent card. I put the value of the three nights around $1000. I plan to use them for 3 nights at the Ritz-Carlton in Maui next year, which if I paid in cash would be well over $2000. I applied today and was approved, so you definitely do not need to worry about Chase's 5 card per 24 months rule. I plan to keep it for 1 year until the annual fee hits and then close the card. Definitely not worth spending an additional $450 each year.

Disclaimer: As I do not have the card yet I do not know if every single one of these benefits will work as expected. I completely believe they will, but there is a chance that they could discontinue or modify any of these benefits at any moment. Please remember that if you do decide to apply for the card, you will be on the hook for that $450 without a manner of possibly recouping it if my gift card purchase method does not work for some reason.