Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card review 2024
Published 1:56 PM EDT, Fri May 31, 2024
The CNN Underscored Money editorial team has developed a star rating so you can see the best card for specific categories. While we believe this card excels in this category, its overall star rating may differ.
CNNU Money editors awarded this card 4.8 stars as the best travel credit card for travel spending.
If you’re an avid traveler, the Chase Sapphire Reserve? should be on your credit card short list. As one of Chase’s top credit cards, it offers airport lounge access, heavyweight travel insurance, impressive earning rates and a range of valuable statement credits.
Even better, new Sapphire Reserve card holders can earn 60,000 bonus points after spending $4,000 on purchases within the first three months after opening the account. This limited-time Sapphire Reserve offer is 15,000 points higher than the card’s standard welcome bonus.
But this card doesn’t come cheap — it has a $550 annual fee, plus a $75 fee for each authorized user. That said, the Sapphire Reserve can be worth it if you spend a lot in its bonus categories and make the most of its benefits.
Current welcome offer: 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first three months from account opening.
Digging into the Chase Sapphire Reserve card
The Sapphire Reserve is the big sibling to the popular Chase Sapphire Preferred? Card, with a higher annual fee and more benefits.
The Sapphire Reserve is ideal for travel spending, offering 10x points on hotels and rental cars and 5x points per dollar on flights booked through Chase Travel?, plus 3x points on other travel purchases. Those earn rates apply after you’ve spent at least $300 on travel in a year. Sapphire Reserve card holders receive up to $300 in travel statement credits each year, which offsets more than half of the annual fee.
The card also performs well as a dining credit card, earning 3x points at restaurants and on takeout and eligible delivery services, and a whopping 10x points on Chase Dining purchases. Monthly statement credits for Instacart purchases can help justify the card’s cost, too. You’ll also receive a year of Instacart+ when you activate by July 31, 2024, and a DashPass subscription for at least 12 months when you activate by Dec. 31, 2024 (including $5 in DoorDash credit per month).
Finally, you can get two years of Lyft Pink All Access when you activate by Dec. 31, 2024. Through March 2025, you’ll also earn 10x points on Lyft rides.
Frequent flyers can get even more value from the Sapphire Reserve’s Priority Pass Select membership that comes with access to over 1,300 airport lounges worldwide. These and other perks make the annual fee look significantly more reasonable — as long as you take advantage of them.
Advantages of the Chase Sapphire Reserve card
Welcome bonus worth over $1,000 in travel
For a limited time, new card holders can earn 60,000 bonus points after spending $4,000 on the card within the first three months of account opening. Because Chase Ultimate Rewards? points are worth 1.5 cents apiece toward bookings made through Chase Travel when you have this card, you can get at least $900 in value from this welcome offer.
Strong bonus categories for ongoing rewards
The Sapphire Reserve’s bonus categories can make it easy to rack up points, especially since the travel and dining categories are very broad. Travel includes not only airfare, hotels and rental cars but also cruises, mass transit, tolls, parking and even ride-shares. Dining goes a step beyond traditional sit-down restaurants and also includes coffee shops, bars, fast food and most food delivery services.
Flexible redemption options and transfer partners
Once you’ve earned points with the Sapphire Reserve, you’ve got many ways to use them, including redeeming them for cash back at 1 cent per point, or for travel through Chase Travel at a rate of 1.5 cents each.
But if you’re ready to level up your travel rewards game, you could get even more value from your points if you transfer them to Chase’s airline and hotel partners. It’s possible to get a value of 2 cents per point or more when you use Chase points this way — especially if you book luxury hotels or fancy first-class flights.
Here’s a complete list of Chase’s travel partners, all of which transfer at a 1:1 ratio (meaning for every 1,000 Chase points, you’ll get 1,000 airline miles or hotel points):
Chase airline partners
Aer Lingus AerClub
| Air Canada Aeroplan
| Air France-KLM Flying Blue
|
British Airways Executive Club
| Emirates Skywards
| Iberia Plus
|
JetBlue TrueBlue
| Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
| Southwest Rapid Rewards
|
United MileagePlus
| Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
|
Chase hotel partners
World of Hyatt
| IHG Rewards Club
| Marriott Bonvoy
|
Depending on where you’re looking to travel, you could consider redeeming using either Chase Travel or a transfer partner. With Chase Travel, you won’t have to navigate blackout dates or capacity controls as you might with award tickets. You’re booking travel just like you would with an online travel agency such as Expedia, so the sky’s the limit as far as availability.
But for a very expensive flight or hotel room, you might find that transferring your points to an airline or hotel loyalty program will give you the biggest bang for your buck.
For instance, let’s say you want to stay at a Hyatt hotel that costs $600 a night. Say the World of Hyatt program charges 25,000 Hyatt points for that room, so you could transfer 25,000 Chase points to Hyatt to make an award reservation. Booking that room through Chase Travel would require 40,000 points, since you’re only getting 1.5 cents per point when redeeming that way.
So you’ll save yourself 15,000 points by transferring your Chase points to Hyatt, then redeeming Hyatt points for an award night. But this only works if Hyatt (or any other airline or hotel program you transfer Chase points to) has award availability on the dates you want.
Airport lounge access
Relaxing in a comfortable lounge with free food and cocktails before your flight can transform your airport experience. The Sapphire Reserve ranks highly on our list of the best cards for airport lounge access not only for the Priority Pass Select airport lounge membership it confers, but also for the access it grants to Chase’s proprietary Sapphire Lounges.
You’ll find Chase Sapphire Lounges at Logan International Airport (BOS), LaGuardia Airport and John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York (LGA and JFK), and Hong Kong International Airport (HKG), with new locations planned in Las Vegas, Philadelphia, Phoenix and San Diego. When you have the Sapphire Reserve, you’ll also get access to the Chase Sapphire Terrace at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS) and the Etihad Lounge at Washington Dulles International Airport (IAD).
If you regularly travel through airports with Priority Pass or Chase Sapphire lounges, this could be a priceless perk — and potentially a money-saving one, as you may not have to spend cash on airport food and drinks.
Annual travel credit
The annual travel credit that comes with the Sapphire Reserve is worth up to $300, and can be used for anything that falls into the same broad travel category. It’s automatically applied to the first $300 in eligible travel purchases you make each year (with years measured from your account opening anniversary). You don’t have to spend $300 in one transaction — the credit can apply to multiple purchases throughout the year. That makes using the credit quite easy. As long as you spend at least $300 on qualifying travel each year and don’t run a balance on your card, it effectively brings your $550 annual fee down to a more palatable $250.
Dining and grocery delivery credits
Until Dec. 31, 2024, Sapphire Reserve card holders who’ve activated their DashPass subscription get $5 per month in DoorDash credits, which can be redeemed at checkout. If you’ve activated the card’s one-year Instacart+ membership, you’ll also receive up to $15 per month in Instacart statement credits through July 2024.
Global Entry, TSA PreCheck or NEXUS fee credit
The Sapphire Reserve offers up to $100 every four years to reimburse a Global Entry, TSA PreCheck or NEXUS application fee. These trusted traveler programs can save you time at the airport.
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Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Credit Score ranges are based on FICO? credit scoring. This is just one scoring method and a credit card issuer may use another method when considering your application. These are provided as guidelines only and approval is not guaranteed.
Top-notch travel and purchase protections
When you use the Sapphire Reserve to buy an eligible item, you’ll receive protections that can give you a little extra peace of mind. This includes coverage against damage or theft for up to 120 days after purchases (up to $10,000 per claim and up to $50,000 per year), an additional year on eligible manufacturers warranties of three years or less, and return protection worth up to $500 per item and $1,000 per year if a merchant won’t take back an item within 90 days of your purchase.
When you purchase qualifying travel with the Sapphire Reserve, you’ll receive trip interruption and cancellation insurance. That means if your trip ends for a covered reason (such as sickness or extreme weather), you’ll get non-refundable travel costs refunded — up to $10,000 per person and $20,000 per trip.
Plus, you can get reimbursed up to $500 per ticket for food, hotel stays and other out-of-pocket expenses if a trip delay is at least six hours or forces you to book an overnight stay. Many other travel credit cards provide travel delay insurance, but it typically doesn’t kick in until the 12-hour mark.
Other protection benefits that you hope to never have to use but which will come in handy if the situation arises are primary auto rental collision damage insurance, baggage delay insurance, roadside assistance, lost luggage reimbursement, travel and emergency assistance services, travel accident insurance, emergency evacuation and transportation, and emergency medical and dental coverage.
Disadvantages of the Chase Sapphire Reserve card
High annual fee
Although the Sapphire Reserve is loaded with perks, you’re paying for them with the annual fee. Beginners may understandably be deterred by this high cost and might prefer to stick with a starter travel credit card such as the Sapphire Preferred before diving into a card that costs such a large chunk of change.
It’s also important to keep in mind the $75 annual fee for adding an authorized user to the account. Some other popular travel credit cards don’t charge an additional fee to get an extra card on your account — though in this case, Sapphire Reserve authorized users also get a Priority Pass Select membership. $75 for the year is less expensive than purchasing a membership, so this could actually be a good deal if you were planning to purchase another Priority Pass membership.
Low base earning rate
While you’ll earn at least 3x bonus points on your travel and dining purchases and 10x points on eligible Lyft purchases, you’ll only earn 1 point per dollar on everything else. That means you’re best off pairing the Sapphire Reserve with a no annual fee card like the Chase Freedom Unlimited?, which has a trio of bonus categories and also earns 1.5% cash back on all other purchases.
Since the rewards from the Chase Freedom Unlimited can be combined with the points you earn on the Sapphire Reserve, this two-card combo might be all you need to earn as many rewards as possible on everything you buy each day.
Application restrictions
Chase has an unpublished restriction colloquially known as the 5/24 rule, which means if you’ve opened five or more personal credit cards across all issuers in the previous 24 months, your application will likely be denied for the Sapphire Reserve or any other Chase card.
In addition, if you’ve received a welcome bonus on either the Sapphire Reserve or Sapphire Preferred in the past 48 months, you can’t get another Sapphire card bonus. You also can’t have both cards at once — you’ll need to choose one or the other.
Credit cards similar to the Chase Sapphire Reserve
The Sapphire Reserve falls into the high-end luxury credit card market, and one of the most well-known cards in that segment is The Platinum Card? from American Express (terms apply, see rates and fees).
You’ll pay a higher $695 annual fee for the Amex Platinum, but it gives you access to many more airport lounges around the world, and offers statement credits that can help offset its cost. The Amex Platinum’s purchase and travel protections are similar to the Sapphire Reserve’s — although not identical.
The two cards are also similar in that both allow you to transfer your points to airline and hotel partner programs. The two cards’ lists of partners overlap, but aren’t the same, so you might ultimately decide which points you prefer to earn based on which partners you’re more likely to use.
The Amex Platinum also offers cell phone protection, and elite status at select hotels and car rental loyalty programs when you activate — two benefits that you don’t see with the Sapphire Reserve. And the card is offering an impressive welcome bonus: 80,000 points after you spend $8,000 in your first six months after opening the account.
That’s a slightly better welcome bonus than the Sapphire Reserve’s, but at the end of the day, both cards provide great rewards programs and high-end benefits. It ultimately comes down to your preferred transfer partners and the slight differences in perks.
Should you get the Chase Sapphire Reserve card?
Perhaps the real question is “Should you get either the Sapphire Preferred or the Sapphire Reserve?” The Chase Ultimate Rewards points earned with either card are extremely valuable, and the points from either welcome offer alone can offset a nice portion of your next vacation.
If you want to redeem your points through Chase Travel, the points are worth slightly more with the Sapphire Reserve (1.5 cents apiece) than the Sapphire Preferred (1.25 cents apiece).
If you need better travel insurance and lounge access, you may want to choose the Sapphire Reserve. While the Sapphire Reserve also comes with a higher annual fee, you’re getting a ton of benefits that can make the cost worth it, but only if you’ll use those perks on a regular basis.
If you’re well-versed in loyalty points and miles and see yourself traveling regularly, then the Sapphire Reserve is a card to consider. With its welcome offer of 60,000 bonus points after spending $4,000 on purchases within the first three months, its many travel perks and enough statement credits to offset much of the annual fee, this card can get a lot of use in your wallet.
To view rates and fees for The Platinum Card? from American Express, please visit this page.
