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Chase Sapphire Reserve® (See rates and fees) now has a biggest-ever 150,000 point initial bonus after spending $6,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
American Express is the best coupon book. This is a great card for actual spending (and comes with strong benefits). American Express has the most bank lounges. I like Chase’s lounges better (and the food at Capital One’s Landings best). And this initial bonus offer is huge.
This Is A Strong Card For Spending
Sapphire Reserve is rewarding for actual spend. It’s not just a benefits and lounge card.
- 8x points on all purchases through Chase Travel (including flights, cruises, short-term rentals, etc.)
- 5x points on Lyft through 9/30/27.
- 4x points on flights and hotels booked direct. In my view that’s better earning than any airline or hotel credit card given the value of the points, and only matched with flights by Amex Platinum (which earns 5x).
- 3x points on dining
- 1x points on all other purchases
Use your points to pay for travel through Chase’s portal or transfer to travel partners including:
- Star Alliance: United MileagePlus, Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer, Air Canada Aeroplan
- oneworld: British Airways Executive Club, Iberia Plus
- SkyTeam: Air France KLM Flying Blue, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
- Non-alliance: Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards, Aer Lingus AerClub, JetBlue TrueBlue
- Hotels: World of Hyatt, Marriott Bonvoy, IHG One Rewards, Wyndham Rewards
Park Hyatt St. Kitts
You should only put airfare spending (and rebated spending for statement credits) on Amex Platinum. This card is good for spending in the categories that matter most for many travelers.
And if you spend $75,000 on the card in a calendar year you also earn: Southwest Rapid Rewards A-List status; IHG Rewards Diamond status (the card comes with Platinum for everyone); World of Hyatt Exlorist status; $500 Southwest Airlines travel credit for use at Chase Travel; $250 Shops at Chase credit (I used mine towards a new Tumi roller bag).
Another reason it’s a great card for spending is because Sapphire Reserve is among the very best for purchase and travel protections like roadside assistance; primary rental car collision; purchase, extended warranty and return proteciton; lost luggage and baggage delay; trip delay and cancellation; and more.
Benefits Worth More Than The Annual Fee
Chase Sapphire Reserve has a $795 annual fee. That comes with benefits including:
- $300 annual travel credit that can be used broadly for thins like airfare, hotels, rental cars, rideshare, cruises, and more.
- $300 dining credit ($150 in statement credits every six months) for restaurants that are part of Sapphire Reserve Exclusive Tables. My daughter loves Kemuri Tatsu-Ya here in Austin and we used my credit and my wife’s credit here this year.
- $750 in hotel credits: 2 annual $250 credits for minimum two-night stays at The Edit hotels (which comes with benefits like an upgrade, free breakfast, and $100 food and beverage credit plus early check-in and late check-out if available) and for 2016 a $250 credit on prepaid 2+ night Chase Travel bookings for IHG Hotels & Resorts, Montage Hotels & Resorts, Pendry Hotels & Resorts, Omni Hotels & Resorts, Virgin Hotels, Minor Hotels, and Pan Pacific Hotels and Resorts.
What I like about The Edit is that stays are eligible to earn hotel loyalty points, elite status credits, and elite status benefits as well.
You can stack the $250 Edit credit and 2016 $250 hotel credit by booking, for instance, an Intercontinental or Pendry hotel through The Edit, and even stack that with the $300 annual travel credit.
- $300 Stubhub or viagogo credit ($150 each January – June and July – December) for event and concert ticket purchases.
- $120 in annual Lyft credits, $10 per month through 9/30/27.
- Complimentary Doordash DashPass, $5 monthly restaurant credit and (2) $10 monthly non-restaurant credits. Link your DashPass with Lyft for ride savings, too.
- $10 monthly Peloton credit
- Apple TV+ and Apple Music Subscriptions at no cost (‘$250 annual value’ but if you weren’t already subscribing you may not value it at that).
- Up to $120 towards Global Entry, NEXUS, or TSA PreCheck® every 4 years.
I use the DoorDash food credits and Lyft credits because I’m spending that money anyway. The $300 travel credit is as good as cash to me, and I value this year’s $750 in hotel credits at at least $500. The dining credits genuinely work for me as real $300, but for someone that doesn’t live in a city with an eligible restaurant or wouldn’t eat at those restaurants it’s $0. I don’t value Stubhub.
I’m ‘making money’ on these credits and getting great lounge access and a very strong points-earning card in the process. Not everyone will do as well as I do with the credits, while others will do better.
Getting the card seems like a no-brainer given the first-year initial bonus, then see how the credits work for you in the year to decide whether it makes sense as a keeper.
Beautiful Airport Lounges
Chase has lounges at Boston, New York JFK, New York LaGuardia, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Diego, and Washington Dulles. Dallas – Fort Worth and Los Angeles are expected to open this year.
Chase Sapphire Lounge, New York LaGuardia
Chase Sapphire Lounge, New York LaGuardia
Chase Sapphire Lounge, Washington Dulles
Chase Sapphire Lounge, Philadelphia
In addition the card offers a Priority Pass Select membership, which covers over 1,300 airport lounges worldwide. That includes places like The Club lounges and I’ve used it at places like the Virgin Clubhouse New York JFK and Virgin Clubhouse Washington Dulles (the Air France lounge and Turkish Airlines lounge in that same terminal as well).
Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse New York JFK
Sapphire Reserve lounge access includes the cardmember and two guests, whether at Chase’s own lounge or via Priority Pass. Authorized user accounts are $195 per year and also eligible. There is no spend requirement for complimentary guests (as there is with Amex and Capital One).
Apply Even If You Have Another Sapphire
Chase’s rules now allow you to apply even if you have a Sapphire, Sapphire Preferred or J.P. Morgan Reserve card (but not if you already have Sapphire Reserve open).
You may not be eligible for the initial bonus if you’re a current Sapphire family cardmember, but you can apply and they will tell you – there’s a pop up during the application process that will tell you, and you can cancel the application if you’re not going to be eligible before they pull your credit. So even if you’re a past cardmember, there’s no downside to apply.
Chase 5/24 May Apply
For the past several years Chase hasn’t approved customers for many of its cards who have had 5 or more new card accounts opened in the past 24 months. That’s not always the case. So you may want to apply anyway.
Better burn those ultimate points now. Amazes me how people publicize these big sign up bonuses and don’t understand they inevitably lead to lower value for each point. It is called inflation people and eventually leads to what you call a devaluation. Simple economics
Why fix the card when you can just raise the SUB. It’s the Chase way. Points are losing value everyday anyway..
On the heels of the big Hyatt devaluation. SUB is now good for 2 Cat 8 nights, almost as good as before. But that annual fee is hard to swallow. You start out so far in the hole.
With the most valuable transfer partner committing a bloodbath on awards in a few weeks and Hyatt promising lots more of the same for 2027, Chase points are worth less than ever.
@nsx at FlyerTalk — That’s a bingo! RIP Chase/BILT to Hyatt pipeline.
I think this is the correct analysis, Gary. Chase has better lounges than Amex and more lounges than C1. This is ultimately a travel card, and the reason to get the card is for the lounges and travel spend. 8x on the portal can be somewhat useful (but in an age of 10%+ bonuses on Rakuten, or even 7% back with Gondola, often better to book direct). The 4x direct hotel is legitimately useful – but that’s really the only spend category that matters. 3x dining is ubiquitous these days (including on the $0 Chase Freedom Unlimited). So the reasons to get this card, for me, boil down to the Chase lounges and 4x direct hotel spending.
In all of this, let’s not lose sight of the fact that Chase is the market leading bank in this country, many HNWIs bank with Chase, and for those folks they just get this card and don’t think about it all that much. But then there’s the rest of the country. What Chase has done is continue to make it harder to actually use the coupons they provide (it’s much harder than Amex) and to get value from their ecosystem. Folks notice. A Chase point is simply worth less than it was 1 year ago.
And, so, they’re increasing the SUB to try and get more customers. The problem is that they’ve already gone to the well multiple times, and I suspect folks are simply cancelling their cards owing to the mostly negative changes they’ve made. And this SUB can’t “win them back” because it only targets new customers, not customers who may want to give the card a second try.
Is it still worth interacting with the Chase ecosystem? It’s still a part of a diversified tool kit for me. Aeroplan provides an excellent way to get across the pond and Chase provides regular bonuses on transfers to Aeroplan. That’s valuable to me, even with the recent Aeroplan devaluation (which wasn’t all that bad). And, I still like the lounges.
But, for most people, is this worth it? Non-hobbyists who take a couple of trips with the family a year? Absolutely not. Those folks should get the Amex Plat and move on with their lives. And that’s, ultimately, the problem here for Chase. I said it at the time, but heads should be rolling at Chase for nerfing this card – because the market leading bank actively put itself in a poor position compared to Amex at a time when it’s main business goal was to expand its travel portal offering. It didn’t understand it was still in customer retention and acquisition mode, and decided to scare people away while at the same time trying to direct them to Chase Travel. Just silly – but somehow I suspect Chase as an institution will survive this misstep.
I applied with your link, Gary. Thank you so much for all of the valuable information over the years.