Chase Sapphire Reserve Review

Written By Ketu Shah

Disclosure: None of the links are affiliate or referral links. The author does not earn any commission from any of the links on the website. All the links are unpaid links. This is the author’s personal blog and hobby. The author is expressing their opinion, it should not be taken as financial advice. None of the content on this blog is sponsored by any entity including but not limited to airlines, hotels, credit card companies, etc.

Sign-Up Bonus: Earn 60,000 Bonus Miles when you spend $4,000 within 3 months of account opening

Chase came out with Chase Sapphire Reserve in August 2016. The card became an instant success with the large sign up bonus and the plethora of perks which it provided with reasonable annual fees and ease of credits it provided to offset the fees. It has reigned the premium card market by competing with American Express Platinum and now discontinued Citi Prestige Card. With the annual fee hike last year, and the arrival of Capital One Venture X the card is getting serious competition and reconsideration from loyalist who used to vouch for the card.

With the annual fee of $550, this Visa Infinite Card comes with host of travel benefits and very flexible Travel Credit. The card is ideal if you have large spend on any form of travel as the multipliers don’t require you to book through only chase portal to get higher earnings, however you do get more points when you do so. Currently, the Reserve product seem to be overshadowed and often seemed to be ignored by Chase which seems to be far more focused on making their Sapphire Preferred product better. Let’s dive deeper into the Chase Sapphire Reserve and its perks.

Here’s what you need to know before you apply for Chase Sapphire Reserve.

Apply Now for Chase Sapphire Reserve by clicking here.

The Basics

In this section, we cover the basic information like bonus categories, credits, and annual fees related to this card.

Points Earning:

  • 10X Ultimate Rewards Points per dollar spent on Car Rental and Hotels through Chase Travel Portal

  • 5X Ultimate Rewards Points per dollar spent on Flights Booked through Chase Portal

  • 3X Ultimate Rewards Points per dollar spent on all travel including public transit, ride share, airfare, hotels, car rental.

  • 3X Ultimate Rewards Points per dollar spent on dining worldwide including takeout and select delivery services

  • 10X Ultimate Rewards Points per dollar spent on Chase Dining

  • Limited Time: 10X Ultimate Rewards Points per dollar spent on Lyft (Until March 2025)

  • 1X Ultimate Rewards Points per dollar spent on all other purchases

P.S. : Your points are worth 50% more when you redeem them on Chase Travel Portal or Pay Yourself Back categories.

Credits:

  • $300 Annual Travel Credit

    • The biggest credit to offset the annual fee amount is extremely simple to use, unlike American Express Platinum. Each account year, you get $300 back in statement credit whenever you purchase any form of travel i.e. Car Rental, Hotel, or Flight regardless the purchase destination.

    • This gives even greater flexibility than Capital One Venture X credit where you need to purchase through their Portal. Chase Sapphire Reserve has the most flexible Travel Credit where any form of travel purchase will qualify for the annual travel credit. Hotels, Car Rentals, and Flights booked directly with the respective companies or any other form of OTA (Online Travel Agencies like Expedia, Kayak, SkyScanner, Hotels.com, etc.) as well as RideShare and public transit purchases qualify for this credit.

  • $100 TSA PreCheck and Global Entry Credit

    • Every 4 years, you are eligible to receive statement credit of up to $100 for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck Application.

    • The important thing to note is that you must pay the application fees with the Chase Sapphire Reserve card directly, purchase made through PayPal will not be eligible.

  • NEW $180 Instacart Credit ($15 per month) Limited Time Until July 2024

    • Chase introduced in Summer 2022 new $15 per month Instacart credit for Chase Sapphire Reserve.

    • You also get 1 year of Instacart+ membership for free for the first year (It auto-renews so turn the auto renewal off if you wouldn’t be needing it)

Benefits:

  • No Foreign Transaction Fee

  • Lounge Access (More Details Below)

  • Additional Authorized Card Members

    • Chase Sapphire Reserve lets you add additional authorized card members for $75 each per year.

Annual Fee: $550

  • Chase Sapphire Reserve has an annual fee lower than American Express Platinum and higher than Capital One Venture X.

Lounge Access:

  • Chase Sapphire Reserve provides you with complimentary Priority Pass Select Membership giving you access to over 1300 airport lounges across the globe.

  • Chase Sapphire Reserve also provides you with access to Chase’s proprietary lounges, named The Chase Sapphire Lounge. 6 lounges are expected to open some time in 2022 at these airports:

  • All of these lounges will be available through Priority Pass so you may not need to have Chase Sapphire Reserve to access these.

  • You and 2 guests accompanying you are allowed to access lounges.

It is also important to note that each additional card member gets their own Priority Pass Membership. The Priority Pass Select Membership with Chase Sapphire Reserve also gives you access to participating restaurants. This makes this card stand out from its competitors American Express Platinum and Capital One Venture X both of which provide priority pass which does not have access to restaurants..

Other Benefits:

Chase Sapphire Reserve comes with a host of other benefits which you may find useful.

Lyft Pink Membership (Until March 31, 2025):

  • Chase and Lyft have teamed up to provide Lyft Pink All Access membership to cardmembers, a $199 value according to Lyft.

  • Lyft Benefits for Chase Sapphire Reserve Cardmembers as follows:

    • Earn 10x total points on Lyft rides 

    • 2 years of complimentary Lyft Pink All Access including:

    • Free Priority Pickup upgrades to get picked up faster 

    • Member-exclusive pricing including 10% off all Lux rides

    • Cancellation forgiveness, cancel up to 3 times per month for free

    • In-app roadside assistance for your own car, free up to 4 times a year

    • Free Grubhub+ for one year

    • Free SIXT car rental upgrades

    • Free, unlimited 45-min classic bike rides

    • Free unlimited ebike and scooter unlocks

    • Discounted ebike and scooter rates

    • 3 bike or scooter guest passes per year

    • A 50% discount off their 3rd year of Lyft Pink All Access membership

  • More details can be found here: lyft.com/chase 

Travel Protection:

  • Trip Cancellation and Delay Insurance:

    • Up to $2000 per person for you and your immediate family members when you purchase your travel using Chase Sapphire Reserve

  • Trip Delay Reimbursement:

    • Up to $500.00 for each purchased ticket, for reasonable additional expenses incurred when a Covered Trip You purchased with Your eligible Account and/or rewards program associated with Your covered Account, is delayed for more than 6 hours or requires an overnight stay.

  • Primary Rental Car Collision Damage Waiver:

    • Up to $75,000 primary coverage for your rental car in the event of it being damaged in a collision or getting stolen when you pay for the rental with Chase Sapphire Reserve

  • Lost Luggage Reimbursement:

    • Up to $3,000.00 per Covered Trip (for New York residents, coverage is limited to $2,000.00 per bag), provided the Checked Luggage and/or Carry-on Baggage and/or its contents were lost due to theft or misdirection by the Common Carrier.

Purchase Protection:

  • Purchase Protection:

    • Up to $10,000 per claim and Up to $50,000 per account when an item purchased with Chase Sapphire Reserve is damaged or stolen within 90 days.

  • Extended Warranty:

    • Additional 1-year warranty for items having manufacturer warranty of 3 years or less

  • Return Protection:

    • If unsatisfied with an item purchased within 90 days from the date of purchase, and the retailer will not accept a return, You can be reimbursed for the purchase price, up to $300.00 per item of personal property, and an annual maximum of $1,000.00, per Account.

  • Cell Phone Protection:

    • Every time you pay your bill with your Chase Sapphire Reserve card. If your cellphone is stolen or damaged, you’ll get reimbursed up to $800.

Other Visa Infinite Benefits:

Chase Sapphire Reserve is a Visa Infinite Card and comes with some really great perks like Visa Infinite Luxury Hotel Collection, Concierge Services, etc. You can get more details here. Some of the benefits may not be available for this card like Airline Incidental credit.

Points Redemption:

  • Chase Ultimate Rewards Points are valued at 1.5 cents per point when redeemed for travel on Chase Travel Portal and Pay Yourself Back categories.

  • You can also redeem for gift cards

  • You can redeem your miles for statement credit on other purchases at select retailers like Apple, Amazon, etc.

  • Chase Ultimate Rewards Points can also be transferred to the travel partners which can help you get even greater value for your redemption.

  • Transfer Partners (All 1:1):

    • Aer Lingus

    • Aeroplan/Air Canada

    • British Airways

    • Emirates

    • Flying Blue AIR FRANCE KLM

    • Iberia

    • JetBlue

    • Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer

    • Southwest

    • United

    • Virgin Atlantic

    • IHG

    • Hyatt

    • Marriott BonVoy

Bottom Line:

Chase Sapphire Reserve seems to be losing its steam with annual fee hike and no new reasonable perks being added which can help justify the out of pocket fee of $250 (not considering Instacart credit). While the card provides you with a lot of protection and benefits, they all are now easily accessible through Capital One Venture X. The edge Sapphire Reserve has now is with the transfer partners but given the current scenario, I would not recommend Chase Sapphire Reserve for a premium credit card, rather Venture X.

The Reserve doesn’t have high Sign Up Bonus either, hence I would recommend the lower tier Sapphire Preferred and combine it with Venture X for lounge access, if you do not feel comfortable to pay hefty annual fee American Express Platinum comes with.

The card makes a perfect choice for international travel as well with its zero foreign transaction fees.

For me personally, I have this card and I was able to get a retention offer for the first time in 4 years since I have had the card, but I will be downgrading this card unless major improvements are made next year.

You can read more about my credit card strategy for Summer 2022 here.

Click here to apply for Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card.

Ketu Shah
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