Chase Sapphire Reserve® (See rates and fees)

The relaunched Chase Sapphire Reserve is now available. Those applying today get the new card value proposition right away. Here’s what I really think about the new card – as a standalone proposition, and about the changes for current Sapphire cardmembers. Should you get the card? Should you keep it?

Basics Of The New Sapphire Reserve Card

Here are the costs and benefits to the new Chase Sapphire Reserve Card.

• Initial bonus offer: earn 100,000 bonus points + $500 Chase Travel credit after $5,000 in purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.

• Annual fee: $795

• Earning: 8x Chase Travel purchases; 4x points on flights and hotels booked direct; 3x points on dining; 1x on all other purchases. The card earns Chase Ultimate Rewards points that can be redeemed through Chase Travel (either at 1 cent per point, or on Points Boost airline itineraries and eligible hotels for up to 2 cents per point) or transferred to a number of airline and hotel partners.

  

  • 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, Emirates Skywards
  • Hotels: World of Hyatt, Marriott Bonvoy, IHG One Rewards

  

• Airport lounge access: Priority Pass Select and access to Chase Sapphire Lounges plus two guests (generally requires same day boarding pass, within 3 hours of scheduled departure).

  

• Statement credits: $300 annual Travel Credit (no change); $500 Edit hotel credit ($250 twice semi-annually, applies to two-night minimum stays); Global Entry / TSA PreCheck / NEXUS credit (no change); $300 Annual Dining Credit ($150 twice semi-annually for “Sapphire Reserve Exclusive Tables”); $250 combined Apple TV+ & Apple Music subscription credit; $300 StubHub/viagogo ticket credit ($150 twice annually); $120 Lyft credits (no change, $10 monthly, plus 5x earn on Lyft through September 30, 2027); $300 DoorDash credits and one year of DashPass (up to $25 monthly between delivery and grocery credits); $120 Peloton Membership credit (no change, $10 monthly).

• Additional benefits: IHG Platinum through December 31, 2027 and travel protections like trip delay and cancellation and primary collision damage waiver on car rentals.

  

• Unlocked after $75,000 in annual spend: Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards A-List status (first checked bag free, priority check-in and boarding; when Southwest moves to assigned seating, A-List members get preferred seats at booking and extra-legroom seats within 48 hours of travel); $500 Southwest credit on bookings made via Chase Travel; IHG One Rewards Diamond status (top tier, 100% bonus on base points earned at IHG properties, complimentary upgrades up to suites if available, free breakfast); $250 Shops at Chase credit.

  

Here’s How Existing Cardmembers Will Experience These Changes

Existing cardmembers get immediate access to ‘Points Boost’ where pointed redeemed through Chase Travel can be worth up to 2 cents apiece. Current cardmembers also keep 1.5x on all Chase Travel redemptions for points earned by October 26, 2025 until October 26, 2027. (Until then the best offer – 1.5x or Points Boost – will be auto-applied for Chase Travel bookings.) And the rest of the cards benefits will come October 26.

You’ll see the new, higher annual fee with your next card removal that happens October 26 or later. So some of you will have the new benefits, grandfathered 1.5x redemptions with your existing points, at the current fee for awhile.

Meanwhile, IHG and Southwest status and Southwest credit are potential wins with the card for heavy spenders. There are a lot of credits for all cardmembers with this card. And points will go farther for some redemptions. Points-earning for airfare and The Edit collection hotels booked though Chase travel will earn more points, and so will direct airfare and hotel purchases.

What Existing Cardmembers Are Losing

There are three major losses in the refresh of Chase Sapphire Reserve,

• 50% bonus on redemptions You could spend points at 1.5 cents apiece on their portal. At some level this represented a ‘floor’ to the value of their points. However it’s about the minimum I’d ever redeem my points for, I shoot to do better, and almost always transfer points to airline and hotel programs instead. 1.5 cents per point just wasn’t enough to get me to use an online travel portal.

  But will I use it now? The card is going to give me $250 credit twice each year booking ‘The Edit’ hotel stays of 2 nights or longer. It’ll also provide up to 2 cents apiece in redemption value through Points Boost. That’s booking through Chase Travel, but these redemptions generally work like book direct when redeeming for major chain properties. That is, you get hotel points and elite status credit in addition to full elite benefits. And paid portions of The Edit hotel booking earn 8x on the card (up from 3x).

  Earning 8x on airfare when booking through their portal is also interesting, especially since Chase offers unmatched travel protections when paying with the card. I’m not sure yet whether it’ll be enough to draw me away from booking direct and not dealing with their agents in the event of needing to make a change.

  Bottom-line: Redemptions at 1.5x through the portal is the biggest loss for the card, but it is not a loss at all for me since that just wasn’t a good enough redemption in the first place in my opinion. Others will disagree! And redemptions of The Edit hotels and some airline itineraries will even be better than before to soften the blow.

• Loss of 3x on ‘other travel’: Going forward Sapphire Reserve will earn 4x on airfare and 4x on hotels booked direct, instead of 3x. It loses earning 3x on non-direct booking air and hotel. So you lose 3x on cruises and short-term rentals, 3x on online travel agency spend that’s coded as an OTA charge rather than travel provider charge, and 3x on things like Uber, parking and tolls. This is a win for me (my travel spend on the card was largely in the categories going to 4x) but if you were using the card for cruises and Airbnb you’re facing a loss. And of course if you book any of your ‘other travel’ through the Chase portal that earns 8x and in some cases additional benefits.

  Bottom-line: Whether you win or lose with this change depends on how much you spent on different kinds of travel.

• Increased annual fee: The fee goes from $550 to $795. That’s a lot! If you already had the card, you presumably valued it at $550. The question is whether the piling on of statement credits (‘coupons’) makes that extra $245 worth it or not?

  That depends, I think, on how much you discount the new ‘coupons’ in the form of: $500 Edit hotel credit ($250 twice semi-annually, applies to two-night minimum stays); $300 Annual Dining Credit ($150 twice semi-annually for “Sapphire Reserve Exclusive Tables” restaurants); $250 combined Apple TV+ & Apple Music subscription credit; $300 StubHub/viagogo ticket credit ($150 twice annually).

  Those dining credits are easy to use for some customers in some cities (some of my favorite local restaurants are included!) and tough to use for others and in different locations – it depends on your dining habits and whether you live in or regularly travel to covered cities.

  But I’ll genuinely get close to $1,000 of real value in these new credits, so I’m good with the changes – it’s enough headroom above their ‘cost’ that it’s worth the attention I’m forced to pay to these benefits. And that’s much of the real cost of the trend towards credit card couponing.

  Bottom-line: Chase knows what they’re doing here – that the fee increase, which drives a lot of the new card economics, needs to be seen as delivering value. Coupons from partners are notoriously difficult to maintain but the Edit credit and dining credit are essentially coupons for their own platforms. I think it’s easy to make the case that the annual fee ‘works’ here but it will not work for everyone (and not everyone should think that it works).

Is The New Sapphire Reserve Card Worth It?

Let’s leave aside the changes at the margin and ask whether the card is ‘worth it’ overall?

• There’s no question that this card should be worth acquiring the first year. I don’t believe I’ve seen a 100,000 point offer since launch in 2016, and this offer is even bigger than that. Plus, while I would discount the ‘$2,700’ that Chase marks the value of their credits at, given the $300 travel credit and a bit of effort to use $500 in Edit hotels, $300 in dining, et all the annual fee shouldn’t be too hard to pay for.

• On an ongoing basis, I think whether or not you value the card is going to depend a lot on how much you value their lounge network, or whether you’re exactly the customer these benefits hit a sweet spot for – a traveler who books premium hotels and eats out at the sort of restaurants that are part of the dining benefit.

If You Don’t Like The Changes Where Should You Look?

I find it really interesting that so many commenters are negative on the changes. I have written about the economics of the product and these changes – they’re designed to make Chase more money! – but some consumers will win and others will lose, it’s not so easily pigeonholed as ‘good’ or ‘bad’. The ones disappointed in the changes will naturally be the most vocal.

This would have been a great time for Capital One to capitalize on discontent, since their premium Venture X travel card has an annual fee that’ll be less than half of Chase’s, but people are mad at them now too for limiting guest lounge access and authorized cardmember access, or rather putting a price on both of those things. Still amazing value, and I enjoy their lounges most out of the card issuer offerings – there just aren’t enough fo them.

A surprising winner in these changes probably should be Wells Fargo Autograph Journey which offers 5x on hotels; 4x on airlines; and 3x on other travel and restaurats. It gives you better than the old Sapphire Reserve earn structure, at a $95 annual fee (offset by $50 annual statement credit against a $50 minimum airline purchase). The card earns transferable points, though the scope of their transfer partnerships remains limited.

Eligibility For Sapphire Reserve And Its Big Bonus Offer

A 100,000 points plus $500 in Chase Travel credit for meeting required spend is an incredible offer that makes applying for this card a no-brainer if you’re eligible, I think. You’ll just need to pay attention to get the most out of the credits that come with the card.

Chase used to deny card applications from those who had 5 or more new cards in the past 24 months (‘5/24’) already. Sapphire products have transitioned to a new system where they will warn you if you are ineligible for a bonus offer before proceeding – but will potentially approve you even if you exceeded 5/24.

They also used to deny you the card if you had it within the last 48 months. That’s because approvig you for the card meant allowing you to earn the bonus. Now they’ve moved to a once in a lifetime bonus rule, so past cardmembers can still be approved for the card but without the bonus. They’ll also now allow you to hold both a Sapphire Preferred and Reserve as well as Sapphire Reserve for Business, but won’t give a bonus to a current Sapphire product cardmember.

However if you have held a Sapphire card in the past and are applying for a different Sapphire product you’ve never had before then you would be eligible for the bonus offer.

On net this is a negative for folks who would have gotten multiple bonuses in the past, but positive for someone who genuinely just wants to get approved for the card but couldn’t in the past because they weren’t eligible for the bonus. I tend more towards the first camp, but there are some in the second.

Chase Sapphire Reserve®