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 to offset the high annual fee. Is it better than the Sapphire Preferred though? Spoiler: probably not, unless you spend a lot on travel or don’t have airport lounge access from another card.
Apply here: Chase Sapphire Reserve
Quick Facts
Signup Bonus: 60,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards Points after spending $4,000 in 3 months.
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:
10x points on hotels and car rentals booked through the Chase Travel Portal.
10x points on Lyft rides.
5x points on flights booked through the Chase Travel Portal.
3x points on dining.
3x points on travel. This includes everything from airfare to hotels to taxis, parking and cruises.
Foreign Transaction Fees: None
Annual Fee: $550
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. At a minimum the 60,000 point signup bonus is worth $900.
10x Points on Hotels and Car Rentals Booked 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.
You will earn 3x points on all other travel not booked through Chase so this is still a great card for those purchases and what I would prefer.
Ability to Redeem Points at 1.5 Cents Per Point for Travel
A huge benefit to the Sapphire Reserve is the ability to redeem your points for travel at a value of 1.5 cents per point. If you have the Sapphire Preferred or the Business Ink Preferred, you only get 1.25 cents per point towards travel purchases. Anything bookable on Chase’s travel portal is eligible to be paid for with points. Other credit card points will at best offer you only 1 cent per point booking through their travel portal. While I prefer to transfer my points to partners to get outsized value, this is still a great way to use your points. It is nice that there are no blackout dates and it’s pretty simple to just search for travel and book it. I would caution you to always check other options to maximize your points before blindly booking with your Chase points.
For example, I would rather transfer 40,000 Chase points to Hyatt for a free night at the Park Hyatt Paris Vendome that normally costs over $2,000. Booking with points through Chase would cost 133,333 points.
$300 Travel Credit
While this card has a hefty $550 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. The one quirk to this is that it is based on your cardmember year. So you can use this credit at anytime within the first 12 months and then resets every anniversary. They have an easy tool online to track this and when the credit will be available again. Note: Points are not earned until after the first $300 is spent annually on purchases in the travel category. The first $300 spent goes towards the $300 Annual Travel Credit.
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.
Lyft Pink All Access Membership
You will get two years of membership with Lyft Pink All Access. This is similar to Uber One where you get priority pickup, discounts on select rides, cancellation forgiveness, complimentary classic bike rides, ebike and scooter unlocks, and more. To buy this outright it would normally cost $199 a year but I’m not sure if it is something I would outright pay for unless I was a heavy user of Lyft. Couple this with 10x points on Lyft and you could earn a ton of points.
TSA PreCheck or Global Entry Fee Credit
TSA PreCheck and Global Entry are easily what I value most when traveling. This credit is worth $85-100 depending on which route you go.
TSA PreCheck is a much less painful security check at airports where you don’t have to take your shoes and belt off, don’t have to remove your laptop, and you don’t have to go through the body scanner while holding your hands above your head.
Now, Global Entry is one of the unsung heroes of travel that a lot of people probably haven’t heard about. Not only does this allow you to skip the immigration line when returning home and just use a self service kiosk, it also comes with TSA PreCheck!
The Chase Sapphire Reserve offers a TSA PreCheck or Global Entry fee credit every 5 years which is how long each program is valid for. All you have to do is charge the fee to your card and it will get reimbursed.
Door Dash Dash Pass and Credits
The Chase Sapphire Reserve offers a complimentary Door Dash Dash Pass. 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.Each month you will also receive a $5 Door Dash credit. This can be carried over for 2 months. Essentially, you are able to use $15 every 3 months. If you order a lot of delivery from restaurants or grocery stores, this could be extremely rewarding.
Instacart+ Membership and Instacart Credits
This perk requires enrollment but the Chase Sapphire Reserve offers a 12 month Instacart+ membership, which comes with perks like waived delivery fees on most orders of over $35, reduced service fees, and 5% back on eligible pickup orders.
On top of that, through December 31st, 2027, the Chase Sapphire Reserve offers a $15 monthly Instacart credit. This expires after three months, meaning you can accrue them and could use a single $45 credit every three months. Much like the Door Dash credits, this could be useful for those who get delivery regulary.
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.
Sapphire Preferred vs. Sapphire Reserve
When the Sapphire Reserve came out six years ago, it was much more compelling than the Sapphire Preferred. The annual fee was $100 lower at $450 per year and the Sapphire Preferred still only offered 2x points on dining. After the benefits were refreshed two years ago, the benefits of the Reserve over the Preferred weren’t as clear.
To decide if it makes sense to have one vs. the other boils down to a number of factors. If these are your only two cards, then the Reserve probably make sense. I’m going to analyze this based on full utilization of the Reserve’s $300 travel credit. Afterall, if you’re reading this, you better be spending at least $300 a year on travel.
If you travel with any regularity, you’ll find serious value between the Global Entry/TSA PreCheck Credit and Priority Pass membership. Depending on your delivery habits, you could also come out ahead with the DoorDash and Instacart credits as well as getting twice as many (10x vs. 5x) points on Lyft.
If you’re playing this game to its fullest extent, and take my advice, you’ll learn that having multiple cards are hugely valuable and can not only increase your credit score but also more than outweigh any annual fee.
Let’s look at how the two compare just on points earning, excluding the fact that the Preferred offers 3x on online grocery purchases and select streaming as most aren’t probably putting a ton of spending on those two categories. They both offer 3x on dining now.
Sapphire Preferred- $95 Annual Fee
Travel: 2.1x (with 10% anniversary bonus)
Sapphire Reserve- $250 Annual Fee ($550 minus $300 travel credit)
Travel: 3x
Annual Fee Difference: $155
With a $155 annual fee difference and realistically only earning an additional 0.9 points per dollar on travel, you would have to spend a whopping $10,130 a year on travel to earn enough points to make up for the difference in the annual fees based on my value of Chase points at 1.7 cents per point. While I took into account the 10% anniversary bonus on travel, this doesn’t factor it in on all other purchases earned through the Sapphire Preferred.
Now, if you spend more than $1,823 on Lyft each year then the 10x vs. 5x points on Lyft would offset the higher annual fee.
With so many other cards out there offering great perks like a Priority Pass Membership, Global Entry or TSA PreCheck credit, I just don’t find the Chase Sapphire Reserve to be worth it for the annual fee. You can pick up the Citi Strata Premier and earn 3x points on dining and travel, just like the Reserve but for only $95 a year.
Is it Worth It?
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but for most people I don’t think so. Unless you spend a lot of money on travel, then it does. There are a lot of cards out there that offer the same if not better perks for a lower annual fee. If this is your only travel card, it definitely makes sense for the benefits, but if you have other cards that give you access to things like Priority Pass, your best bet will still be the Sapphire Preferred. The one reason it would make sense to get this card is to unlock the ability to redeem Chase points for 1.5 cents per point for travel which is far better than any other card out there.
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