Review: Chase Sapphire Reserve

The Chase Sapphire Reserve is Chase’s premium card in their portfolio. Designed for the traveler, there are a lot of great perks and benefits. Chase recently refreshed this card on June 21st, 2025 with a higher annual fee but also a lot more benefits to use.

Apply here: Chase Sapphire Reserve

Quick Facts

Signup Bonus: Up to a 125,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards Points after spending $6,000 in 3 months.

Eligibility: The card is not available to those who currently have it. You may not be eligible for the sign up bonus if you currently have any other Sapphire card open, previously held this card or previously received a new cardmember bonus for this card. There is now a popup after you apply to let you know if you are eligible for the bonus.

Points Earned: Chase Ultimate Rewards which you can use for 1.5 cents each toward travel or you can transfer them on a 1:1 basis to their 13 airline and hotel partners.

Earnings Structure:
8x points on Chase Travel Portal booking.
5x points on Lyft rides
4x points on direct flight and hotel bookings
3x points on dining
1x points on everything else

Foreign Transaction Fees: None

Annual Fee: $795 and $195 per authorized user

Annual Travel Credit: $300

When this card was first introduce 6 years ago, it was the ultimate travel card out there. It was even offering 100,000 point signup bonus and Chase didn’t have enough metal cards in stock to keep up with the demand. Earning 3x points on dining was unheard of at the time. This card is chock full of benefits and statement credits.

8x Points When Booking Through the Chase Travel Portal

While this may sound enticing, there are some drawbacks to booking this way. There’s an opportunity cost to not booking directly and going through the portal. Not only is it much easier to deal directly with the company who is actually providing that travel but you also will earn points with their loyalty program and have your elite status recognized. Additionally, you’ll generally find prices are better when booking directly. That is not the case when booking through Chase’s or any other travel portal. If you have to change your plans or need to rebook, you must reach out to Chase which can be a pain especially when you’re pressed for time. They’re acting as a liason between you and the travel provider. Its much easier to go straight to the source.

Ability to Redeem Points for up to 2 Cents Per Point for Travel

You’ll normally be able to redeem Ultimate Reserve points for a minimum of 1 cent per point value toward your travel purchase. However, Chase now has a new “Points Boost” feature where the redemption rate can increase to anywhere from 1.25 cents to 2 cents per point. This could be a good deal depending on the redemption.

$300 Travel Credit

While this card has a hefty $795 annual fee, it does offer a $300 travel credit which brings the annual fee down to an effective $250. Any purchase that is coded as travel will be credited back to your account. It doesn’t have to be in the same transaction either. This is based on your cardmember anniversary year, not the calendar year.

Chase Sapphire Lounge Access

There are now 7 airports with Chase’s new and incredible lounges that can be used by Sapphire Reserve cardmembers. There are lounges at the following airports with 3 coming soon to DFW, LAS, and LAX:

Chase Sapphire Lounge at JFK

• Boston (BOS)

• New York City (JFK)

• New York City (LGA)

• Philadelphia (PHL)

• Phoenix (PHX)

• San Diego (SAN)

• Hong Kong (HKG)

Priority Pass Membership

This is another great perk of the Reserve. Priority Pass is a huge global lounge network with over 1,300 lounges worldwide. Some are great and some are just ok. But again, any lounge access is better than sitting in the terminal before a flight. You get to bring two guests with you and also have access to airport restaurants that participate in Priority Pass as well.

$500 in Hotel Credits

The Sapphire Reserve offers up to $500 in credits when booking hotels through The Edit by Chase Travel. You can earn up to a $250 credit twice per year when booking a minimum of a 2 night stay through The Edit.

$300 in Dining Credits

The Sapphire Reserve offers up to a $300 annual dining credit in the form of up to a $150 credit twice per year when dining at select number of restaurants mainly limited to 31 large cities in the US. The first credit is available between January 1st and June 30th with the second available between July 1st and December 31st. Click the links below to see which restaurants are eligible.

Atlanta • Austin • Boston • Charleston • Chicago • Dallas • Denver • Detroit • Hawaii • Houston • Las Vegas • Los Angeles • Miami • Milwaukee • Minneapolis • Nashville • New Orleans • New York City • Oklahoma City • Philadelphia • Phoenix • Portland • Raleigh • Rhode Island • Richmond • Salt Lake City • San Antonio • San Diego • San Francisco • Seattle • Washington, DC

$300 in Stubhub or viagogo Credits

You can earn up to $300 in statement credits with Stubhub or viagogo for concert or event tickets. This is also in the form of two semi annual $150 credits with the first available between January 1st and June 30th and the second between July 1st and December 31st.

Door Dash Dash Pass and Credits

The Chase Sapphire Reserve also offers a complimentary Door Dash Dash Pass for at least one year. Just place an order totaling at least $12 from an eligible restaurant or $25 from an eligible grocery store, and you’ll get a $0 delivery fee and a reduced service fee.

You can also receive up to $300 in statement credits in the form of $5 per month in credits for restaurants and $10 twice per month in credits for non restaurant spending.

Apple TV+ and Apple Music Membership

Cardmembers also receive a complimentary Apple TV+ and Apple Music membership. This is valued at $250 per year.

TSA PreCheck or Global Entry Fee Credit

The Chase Sapphire Reserve offers a TSA PreCheck or Global Entry fee credit every 4 years . All you have to do is charge the fee to your card and it will get reimbursed.

Chase Offers

Similar to Amex Offers, Chase has certain deals you can enroll in at various places to get cash back. While not as many or as exciting as Amex Offers, there are still some additional savings to be had.

Primary Car Rental Insurance

This is another great benefit with the Sapphire Preferred. Chase offers primary rental car insurance when booking a rental car with your card. As long as you decline the CDW when you rent Chase will cover any damage up to the value of the car. Certainly check the exclusions as I’ve seen it won’t cover a rental like a Tesla but it can still be incredibly useful especially if you rent cars regularly.

Travel Protection

Here’s another reason this card is so useful for travel. The Sapphire Reserve offers many great travel and purchase protections which can take the sting out when things go wrong on a trip.

Trip Cancellation/Interuption Insurance: If your trip is canceled or cut short by sickness, severe weather and other covered situations, you can be reimbursed up to $10,000 per person and $20,000 per trip for your pre-paid, non-refundable travel expenses

Baggage Delay Insurance: Reimburses you for essential purchases like toiletries and clothing for baggage delays over 6 hours by passenger carrier up to $100 a day for 5 days.

Lost Luggage Insurance: This will reimburse you for up to $3,000 per person per trip for a lost or stolen bag.

Trip Delay Reimbursement: If your travel is delayed more than 6 hours or requires an overnight stay, you and your family are covered for unreimbursed expenses, such as meals and lodging, up to $500 per ticket. This is huge and what I’ve used most in the past.

Benefits When Spending $75,000

Each year you spend more than $75,000 per year on the card you will unlock a number of new benefits. It probably isn’t worth spending $75,000 a year just to get these benefits, but if you naturally do, it is a nice bonus.

• IHG One Diamond Status which is the hotel groups highest status level

• Southwest Airlines A-List Preferred Status which offers free checked bags and priority seating

• A $500 Southwest Airlines credit when booking through Chase Travel

• A $250 Shops at Chase credit valid for select luxury brands.

Sapphire Preferred vs. Sapphire Reserve

Before this recent refresh of the Sapphire Reserve, it only made sense to get the Reserve if you spent over around $11,000 a year on travel and/or valued the lounge access. However, now with all the new benefits and credits, the Sapphire Reserve can make sense for you even if you don’t travel a lot. You can actually make money on this card if you use every credit!

Wrapping Up

The Chase Sapphire Reserve is one of the best ultra-premium credit cards out there. Not only can you earn a ton of points between the sign up bonus and with travel and dining spend but you also get tons of great benefits and statement credits that can more than pay for the massive $795 annual fee.

Is it right for you? It could be depending on what you spend your money on and how you travel!

Chase Sapphire Reserve

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