Chase is revamping its Sapphire Reserve card. It’ll be more expensive, and the earning and redemption proposition will be different. There are a lot more credits than before. So what’s the next effect on cardmembers – are the changes to Sapphire Reserve good or bad?
- There will no longer be a 1.5 cent per point value floor, with the elimination of elevated flat redemption value for travel bookings made through Chase’s portal.
- Occasionally there will be even greater value – ‘Points Boost’ can give you up to 2 cents per point on The Edit hotel bookings and some airfares. Think of this as being like unicorn saver awards with an airline – no more fixed value points, but redeem occasionally for outsized value. With airlines, most members prefer this model provided that saver awards have reasonably good availability.
Andaz 5th Avenue Bookable Through The Edit - More points-earning where it matters (air/hotel goes up from 3x to 4x, and consider that you can now get 8x even on airfare booking tickets through their portal). Booking premium hotels through Chase’s The Edit offers real stackable value – 8x points plus status credit/benefits double dip using the hotel chain’s loyalty program, along with Edit benefits like breakfast and upgrade… and pay with the card’s $250 x 2 statement credits and potentially 2 cent a point redemptions using Points Boost.
Andaz Scottsdale Bookable Through The Edit - The increased fee is covered many times over by increased credits… but risks Amex Platinum coupon book syndrome.
Chase sees these changes as more profitable for them so it’s probably not more profitable for the rest of the world but it should be more profitable for savvy cardmembers who pay attention.
I’d say that Chase was spending a lot of money on Reserve, but in some ways spending it badly. They’re targeting their spend more now, and those who fall into the target for the product are going to reap some pretty rich rewards. But you have to make sure you’re squarely in that camp because $795 is a lot of money to get the card and not play it strategically.
The “other travel” category goes from 3x points to 1x. That IMHO is a dealbreaker. Cruises, Vacation packages, tours, vacation rentals not to mention Taxis and Ubers go to 1x. I spend thousands of dollars a year on that and I’m sure I’m not the only one. If nothing changes, when my renewal comes up next December, this card is gone from my wallet.
Since you seem to value this Point Boost so highly, please elaborate on the specifics of how we’re to garner outsized value. Lacking your erudition while being the simple rube I am I fail to see much value to be had for myself. I also detest coupon book benefits where I have to act like a trained seal, jumping through hoops in order to get good value because that premise insults me and the value of my time.
This is a complete failure of Chase distinguishing themselves in the marketplace because they “bought” or have “deep relationships” with a bunch of lifestyle companies that they can leverage for pretend “benefits”. The question Chase has to ask itself is not whether it is making money on the card, but what its goals are with the card.
Chase is the largest US bank by far and largest in the world by market-cap. Amex… 16th. Capital One… 11th.
The next largest banks (BofA, Citi, Wells) are not in the lounge game and have second-tier credit cards.
Chase executed a too-brilliant strategy 9 years ago with the Reserve. It was a viral card with KISS (keep it simple stupid) mechanics that became overwhelmingly popular. Some Chase execs didn’t like how much money they lost on the card side with all of the sign up bonuses, etc. and customers that came running through the door to get value from the card. Except… they had so many customers coming through the door, who either a) were new Chase customers that could be targeted or b) were existing Chase customers who could deepen their relationship with Chase. Good problem to have.
They started opening lounges a few years ago, almost a decade after Amex started their lounges, and they are great. And… now what? This?
What are the goals with this card? Enticing people to spend $75,000 so that they can get a $500 Southwest credit? Status with IHG so they can get an upgrade at a Holiday Inn Express?
If they don’t want this card as their premium loss-leader anymore, that’s fine. But they better have something else up their sleeve, because folks initially got this card to feel premium, not to clip coupons. Amex has never lost its premium feel (everyone is just one step away from the Black Card and that hard to get reservation at the Centurion at One Vanderbilt, right?) and Chase just handed Amex a golden (dare I say Platinum) opportunity to poach customers back. Plus, if the “Delta/Amex more premium than the Reserve card” rumors are true, add two more premium points to Amex’s tally board.
Between mortgages, car loans, other credit cards and… you know… wealth management, the goal of the premium Chase card should be to attract people into its ecosystem and deepen relationships. I’ve always been shocked that there are not bankers from Chase Private Bank sitting at every Chase lounge. There should be. That’s something that Amex, Capital One, etc. can’t offer at their lounges. Keep bringing people into the fold and make them feel premium, and stop pushing them away with coupon books.
This is pathetic. Any credit card that requires an excel spreadsheet to track coupons; coupled with travel portal requirements is not worth it.
As it now stands, we will be dropping Sapphire Reserve.
Tell your readers what you really think of them Gary! I’m sure “my readers are idiots” will do wonders for your relationship with affiliates.
I’ve realized over time the Amex Uber benefit actually has negative value.
@Peter – 100% agree on the critiques.
However, I have a bone to pick about the AmEx positioning. They’re a coupon book, like my grandparents had at Myrtle Beach. Too much effort for too little savings at places that are already a rip-off. The #1 reason I used to like the Centurion lounges was the food, and that’s not great these days.
I canceled my Platinum card this year and kept the Reserve and Venture X cards because Platinum’s value is in the toilet. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone beyond the sign-up bonus.
$200 off FHR with a 2 night minimum on hotels I otherwise would never stay at and that will cost at least $500? No thanks. Flight credits that are getting harder to use every year? Nah. Uber credits? Uber adds a 30% markup to begin with, so while useful, it has very limited value. Digital entertainment credit? OK, I use this one… for now. Walmart+? DYKWIA? I don’t futz around with the proles at Walmart. Clear PLUS? In 10+ years of having the option, I’ve just never seen the value over Pre-check. Saks credit? Not super useful to start with, but completely useless since they upped order minimums for free shipping.
No, thank you. FWIW, I do also mark down the value of Venture X credits by like 25% because pricing is always too high through their portal. What makes up for is that sweet 2 points per dollar on unbonused spend. Wife keeps that card, I keep Reserve, and we swap points as needed for redemptions. AmEx just doesn’t fit into the equation unless you’re buying a TONNNN of 5x travel with the card and don’t mind the fee or comparatively poor lounges.
Air/Hotel going up from 3x to 4x is a degradation when redemption goes from 1.5x to 1.0x.
And what kind of premium customer is flying Southwest and staying at IHGs?
Christopher Raehl – Chase had a budget. IHG sells cheap and Southwest is desperate.
@Christopher Raehl – as I say, if you redeemed at 1.5x through the portal, this is not good, if you only transferred to travel programs the changes may be net positive
@Andy – my readers are mostly the high-IQ ones who if they hold this card will win. chase will do well against many folks who pay far less attention, pay the fee and don’t maximize the value proposition.
I think the winning combo is downgrade the CSR, I will be getting the Ritz which will cover lounge access and still have Ink Preferred for 3x travel or use the AMEX for 5x on airfare. I never book hotels with cash as it’s a transfer from UR or I just use the points that I get from chasing Globalist to book. Funny enough Ritz + Ink Preferred annual fee is $545 which is about what the reserve currently is.
@Peter, what great points, but I have to partially side with @jamesb2147 on one- the Amex has certainly lost its premium feel, especially now that every wannabe DB poser has one … And that it really gets you no vastly better or special treatment.
I also dumped the Amex ecosystem recently. Even with a net positive “coupon buck” value, the return is only a few hundred lousy bucks, and the benefits were no longer good enough to miss….
I have some old “Green Stamps” books. Can I use then at the Andaz?
“High IQ”?? Oh dear. More like scroungers who have nothing better to do but track coupons on a credit card… wouldn’t anyone with a High IQ be smart enough to not need to optimize a restaurant credit, or spend their lives screwing around on various “deal” websites?
Anyone who values their time would get 2% cash back, forget about credit cards, and focus on the things that matter.
“My readers are mostly high-IQ” *Takes a bow* (no follow-ups, please!)
Thanks Gary in general for being very responsive to all the questions and comments on all the threads today. I don’t have a CSR but have been able to relay a lot of information to my friends and family that do. And being a fan of the credit card game, no doubt it’s a watershed day in the industry.
Anyone else finding making a spreadsheet tracking all the perks, dare I say, fun? I do that with all my cards already, although it’s a bit overkill because there aren’t nearly as many things to keep track of as this.
@ Gary — The overarching problem with these cards is that they are too complicated. I really HATE spending 10 minutes of my time everytime I sumon an Uber or lyft, going through literally 20 options to save $10-$15. It is infuriating and does not make me feel like a valued customer.
Something like a Delta super-premium card is much more enticing because it focuses the customers’ energy on a singular goal — obtaining better status and travel experiences on Delta. I don’t want that combined with dining discounts at places I don’t eat, hotel discounts at places I don’t stay, and shopping discounts for things I don’t buy. Make it simple. Give me status credits, first class discounts (upgrade certs), unlimited lounge access, and top-notch phone service.
I wish I could see a list of The Edit properties somewhere. If all the properties are Ritz Carlton/Four Seasons type that cost $700+ a night (places that I’d never spend cash on—that’s why I’m in the points game after all), then the real cost to using the $250/6 month credits becomes untenable. I’m not spending $1500 plus the $795 AF to use $250 of credits twice a year.
Gary, I have to say I’m with you: this is a high spend card for high spenders…or savvy gamers. And it’s aiming for a specific demo quite clearly.
Someone mentioned the “great” job Chase did rolling out the CSR, but if you look from the bank’s perspective, it was iffy at best. They paid a lot for those new customers, but they only have value if they can be rolled into long-term relationships across multiple platforms. I think the tea leaves told us that the PBs in branches weren’t converting at a rate high enough to justify the huge cost, but it wasn’t a complete bust given the marketing they got and increased credit spend. Yet, over the years they saw AMEX eating into the CSR’s demo with the Platinum, a notably sup-optimal card that could be couponized/weaponized for spend by younger affluent customers. Now they’ve rolled out a card that provides the clear possibility of “paying for itself” (something the CSR never did), but mainly through high-end spending at Chase-marketed hotels (The Edit) and restaurants (Reserve Tables). Those synergies alone will save the bank millions in marketing.
A lot of people are angry and dropping the card, and let me be clear: CHASE IS OKAY IF YOU LEAVE. I worked at a major bank, and changing the internal mindset from “most customers” to “most profitable customers” is hard but, once the light clicks on, they can be pretty clear (or ruthless, if you feel you’re on the wrong side). They want people who drop $500 at dinners or $500/nt for hotels; they are actually happy if people who gain little from the card choose another. It’s a win for them and, honestly, a win for customers.
But if you’re a gamer, this card has absolutely massive appeal compared to the old, barely gameable CSR. They’re okay with us edge case gamers with the personal card but not the biz CSR, as shown by the specific bonus categories. So for us who “have nothing better to do” than to gain thousands of dollars in cash plus incredible value in travel, it’s a winner.
Regardless of all these recent posts ‘selling us’ on the potential benefits of these changes are objectively bad for most of us, namely the loss of 3x travel, down to 1x. That’s undeniable and nothing so far makes up for it.
However, I didn’t expect Gary to call us all dumb (directly or indirectly), but, whatever. We can take it (you know, because we’re mostly too stupid to realize he just called us dumb.) As @Christian said, we’re ‘simple rubes’ here. @Andy and @Roy get it.
In the past, some of the right-wingers on here like to use the phrase ‘low-I.Q.’ when referring to races and ethnicities they think are inferior. Where’s @Walter Barry when you need him. I don’t condone this, but then again, we can take the insults, because, we’re all just so darn ignorant here, supposedly.
I’m with @ron IB as I spend tens of thousands of dollars on the CSR specifically for the 3x Travel and this change will reduce my point earnings to 1X because the new category will not cover rental cars, cruises, or third party travel companies like safaris, non-Chase hotels, etc.
And, yes, @L737, apparently, you are indeed high IQ because you have the CSP, which is not yet screwed and will at least keep 2x Travel for now, better than the revised CSR. Yeesh.
Gary, is there a list of which Edit Properties earn hotel loyalty points? Right now it’s only visible to current CSR holders.
If that’s too much, can anyone say whether Andaz 5th Avenue, Thompson Central Park, Hyatt Regency Churchill allow for double dipping? Those might be my biggest three $ expenditures on hotel (given that I’m a Hyatt loyalist)l
I see a ton of venture X sign ups coming.
795 for a card is just insane.
Reserve has gone to the coupon book.
At least my venture x is simple and decent value with a straightforward easy to use benefit over an entire year.
I dont think this is such a big deal. If you do a 2 night stay in a big city at a nice hotel and have a nice dinner with the credits. You’ll just about recoup your AF. These changes are to sift out the maximizers spending 20k on cruises and Airbnbs. They’re aiming up market. If you’re someone who is loath to ever spending $500 a night on a hotel or $200 for a dinner. This wont be for you.
I love the changes. I’ll easily recoup the $795 annual fee from the $300 travel credit and the two $250 The Edit credits . . . there is nothing better than getting the luxury hotel room for free by redeeming Chase URs and still earning hotel points and nights! All other benefits are gravy including the supposedly easy to use two $150 dining credits.
I’ll end up dumping a number of hotel credit cards and giving up on Hilton Diamond and Hyatt Globalist given the Edit benefits.
Aside from lounge access which I generally don’t have time to access or I can’t enter due to overcrowding, what value does the American Express Platinum card provide given the enhanced earnings rates on the CSR?
Now thru late October, most of our spend will go on Chase credit cards to maximize the optionality of getting the higher of 1.5 cents per point or the points boost.
@1990 — Yeesh indeed. I appreciated your “This is Fine” meme reference in another thread, can’t keep track of all of them today, ha. Very fitting. Re: CSP, key word being not “yet” screwed 🙁 SUBs for the win though.
@Isaac – the best lounges too (imho)
The thing is that – once the typical middle-class person like me – cancels this card, we effectively exit the Chase travel rewards ecosystem as a whole.
And once that is gone, there isn’t any Chase moat against, not only competitors banks’ credit cards, but competitors banks themselves.
Once I “evacuate” my Chase points to the transfer partners, I will be not only canceling the CSR but looking for another bank altogether for all my financial management needs. Including my investment account, which is not much but a half-million…. Good luck Chase, and don’t let the door hit you on the way out.
@Marco – your point was the point I was trying to make.
I’m not saying Amex is phenomenal. I think Chase has / had / still may have a better product. They certainly have better customer service.
I am saying that Chase is playing by the Amex coupon book rules. Chase doesn’t need to play by Amex’s rules. Chase should be writing its own rules. It’s the market leader.
If the goal is to keep enough people around its ecosystem to make its terrible travel portal profitable where it also doesn’t have to allow 1.5cpp redemptions because they’ll have a few 2.0cpp redemptions among a sea of 1.15cpp redemptions – great changes to this card!
If the goal, on the other hand, is to keep people engaged in the Chase ecosystem, this does not accomplish that goal. The timing reads like a Friday afternoon news dump – let’s make these changes right before everyone goes on summer vacation and forgets about us. So, that creates an opportunity for Amex. Having announced that they are going second, they get to spend all summer refining the new Platinum card for a splashy fall launch. Maybe it will be more of the same and they’ll double down on Walmart+ credits. Or, maybe not. We will see, and Gary will probably know first!
@L737 — Can’t stop, won’t stop.
@Marco — I’ve been saying, this is a real opening for Well Fargo (BILT 2x Travel, similar transfer partners), and even Citi (if they’d ever bring back Prestige, or whatever they wanna rebrand it as, Strata Elite, etc.) Shoot, even BofA could win if they actually pursued transfer partners; their 75% bonus for $100K+ is excellent. 2x Travel becomes 3.5x, which would be better than the old CSR, if only could then transfer to Hyatt, United, etc., instead of just cash-out, which isn’t necessarily bad either. Thinking!
@Christopher Raehl IHG owns Intercontinental which is the target demographic. Since Diamonds get free breakfast which and can often exceed $50pp in Europe this is nice alternative for someone who stays in their luxury properties but not enough to earn status that way.
The alternative would be to charge $40k on an IHG card but the opportunity cost is significantly higher assuming the majority of the charging on the CSR is bonused spend.
Chase should hire Peter. For example his comment about Chase not having representatives in their clubs. It really is crazy not to have people available to a customer base which is well heeled and often has nothing better to do than chat with someone who has an enticement to get their business. Chase already has these but isn’t leveraging them where they have a great point of contact.
In my case I use Chase for all my bill pay and changing to another bank would be a horror show given all the cards and such I’d have to move over. But using bill pay means keeping enough money in my Chase accounts, at zero interest, to cover the auto debits plus a buffer since I don’t want to constantly be monitoring my credit card statements.. Getting CSR customers to make Chase their prime bank would bring in a ton of deposits for which Chase would have to pay nothing.
Peter has nailed that Chase doesn’t seem to realize, or perhaps care, that they could use the CSR to expand their relationship with cardholders by doing nothing more than letting people know about their other services including not only banking but brokerage.
Maybe they are so compartmentalized that, for example, there is no way for the brokerage side to compensate the credit card part of the banking half for bringing in customer’s portfolios even if that would be a profitable endeavor.
The reduction to 1 cent redemptions is how they are saving money. All the other one’s except the travel credit are done thru partnerships where it costs them a lot less than stated value.
Math for me …where I can get the value without jumping thru hoops or spend where I normally would not.
300 travel anything ..check
200 Apple Music check (just family music cost)
100 Lyft. Most months not all
150 dining. Probably remember to do this once per year
150 stub hub. Again prob once per year if I remember
900 bucks.
I don’t like the move to couponing. But the card still makes sense
Of course my anniversary date is Nov 1 – so no free trial period of the new benefits for me. I’ll be hard-pressed to justify the latest increase.
When I first got SR, the $300 travel statement credit made it pretty easy to extract another $150 of value in points alone when the fee was $450. Well, now it’s $550 and I need $250 of value. Still pretty attainable.
My questions:
1) will that statement credit at least stay as generous?
2) will the new dining credit be scoped to any restaurant spend? Or do I need use these Chase-curated dining deals to get that?
It seems if the answer to these questions is the same, at least then I only need to get $195 in value from points to break even again under this new system.
Almost nothing besides the raw return on spend makes me want this card, even if I use some of the other perks. I wouldn’t use DoorDash if I didn’t get the membership from SR. I didn’t think I cared about lounge access, but I kind of like it and on a few occasions it has even been a huge life-saver. What I really don’t care about is Apple streaming, Peloton, StubHub, etc.. I’m not sure I could reliably use The Edit or Chase’s premium dining options.
It seems very clear that a lot of my formerly 3x spending will now be 1x. And plain not getting as much for my points kind of hurts, and I’m more than a little suspicious that the “points boost” is never going to make up for the loss of my 1.5x return. And Chase Travel rarely has the best prices on travel items anyway, even with 8x points.
I might just see how this goes in 2026, but I’d like this a lot more if they kept 1.5x redemption and the general travel category.
Overall a disappointment. And we’ll see even less value as more restaurants add credit card surcharges to the bill, a trend that seems to be growing quickly in certain parts of the country.
We are rapidly approaching the point at which a cash back or no fee card becomes the most logical option for the high IQ traveler. After all, there is a reason some people are classified as “dumb money.”
Definitely confirms my choice was right to avoid this card and stick with the Ink Preferred, which is easy to use and come out way ahead on. I still value Chase points and keep the Freedom and Freedom Unlimited too, but this card in its current form is a joke. I think the real winner here is Capital One with Venture and Venture X, while Amex and Chase fight out the coupon book wars. Based on the Amex Gold which I use heavily, I slightly prefer Amex to Chase now, where as I used to push a ton of spend to Chase 5 years ago.
My knee jerk reaction was to cancel the card, as I already have the Ritz. However, I live in a major city (with some good restaurants in the list), and a cursory search in Chase travel showed me some $350-$400 a night Edit stays in different major cities. I have some time until my renewal to see how this plays out. I did just get this card for my wife last year, but I’ll either downgrade or cancel hers outright due to these changes.
@Marco totally agree.
I never spent more time on credit card deals since got the CSR and almost all my spending are on freedoms or sapphire. I don’t use all the benefits but the UR system is simple enough use it as 1.5x is all I need. Now I’m looking for alternative not just for CSR but looking for empty the UR points and switching away from the UR system. With the CSR changes I’m not optimistic on CSP.
Does anyone know when the non-flight or hotel travel spend will change from 3x points to 1x? I have a $15k payment coming up for my honeymoon in August booked through a travel company and if I’m only going to get 1x points for that, I want a different card.
@Andie – for existing cardmembers, october 26
I’ve become a fan of the WF Autograph Journey. 5x hotels, 4x airfare, 3x dining and some others. I don’t trust travel portals (I prefer a Virtuoso, etc. TA for perks) and don’t need a card for lounge access. Very low AF. Travel insurance seems good enough. Not many transfer partners, but it seems to cover all of the major airline alliances.
It’s not worth keeping the CSR in hopes of some great deal through its portal or for the coupons.
Ugh. I can’t even understand the points boost thing, maybe because I refuse to believe that Chase thinks we’re going to sift through looking for things with boosted points — randomly. What a time waster. I’ve had the CSR since 2017, but my husband just got the Preferred, so hmmm. The only saving grace is that we already do pay for Apple TV and Apple Music.