The Chase Sapphire Reserve is Chase’s ultimate travel experience card. While the card carries a $550 annual fee, you can easily make that money back as long as you travel at least once or twice a year.

Please review the Chase Ultimate Rewards Points overview before applying.

Sign Up Bonus + Annual Fee

The Chase Sapphire Reserve typically offers a signup bonus of 50,000 Chase Ultimate Reward points (UR) after spending $4,000 over the first 3 months. However, the card is currently increasing their offer to 60,000 points for the same minimum spend.

Review

The Chase Sapphire Reserve is my go-to card for food and travel. It has great earnings on travel and dining purchases, lounge access and discounts to over 1,300 airport lounges and restaurants, and plenty of other premium benefits. It also comes with some temporary benefits and memberships to add to the value of the card.

Who is this card for?

I wouldn’t recommend this card to someone who doesn’t fly at least once or twice a year. You get the most value from this card when you fly into airports with Priority Pass Lounges, fly internationally to use your Global Entry credit, use rental cars to take advantage of the card’s rental car benefits, and/or have high airline/hotel spend. While there are plenty of non-travel related benefits to the card, you get the most value from the card if you happen to travel more.

The Chase Sapphire Reserve has several downgrade options. You could downgrade to the Chase Sapphire Preferred card, which has more benefits than Chase Freedom cards, but still carries a $95 annual fee. Other downgrade options include the Chase Freedom Unlimited or Chase Freedom Flex cards, which have no annual fee.

Multipliers

• 3x on travel purchases (flights, cruises, hotel stays, etc.)

• 3x on dining (restaurants, bars, delivery services, etc.)

• 1x on everything else

$300 Annual Travel Credit

While the $550 annual fee may initially sound intimidating, the effective annual fee is almost instantly brought down to $250 with the $300 annual travel credit. This $300 credit can be used for almost any time of travel, including airfare, hotels, car rentals, cruises, trains, buses, taxis, tolls, parking lots, and more.

The Chase Sapphire Reserve is often compared to the American Express Platinum due to their similar premium benefits, and the Platinum also provides some credits. However, in my opinion, the Platinum’s credits are more niche and difficult to use compared to the Chase Sapphire Reserve. For example, the American Express offers an annual $200 airline incidental credit. However, to use this credit, you must commit to a US-based airline by January 31st, and can only use the credit for the entire year on that one airline. The credit is also only applicable for seat assignments, extra-legroom seats, bag fees, onboard drinks or food. Considering roundtrip baggage fees are only approximately $60, you will likely need to specifically fly that particular airline at least 2-3 times to fully utilize the benefit. While you might be saving $60 on baggage, the price of the flight may have been more expensive than a similar flight with a different airline, meaning you may not be saving as much money as you would think.

Meanwhile, as mentioned above, the Chase Sapphire Reserve’s credit applies to any sort of travel, not just airline incidentals.

Priority Pass Select Membership

One of the best benefits of the Chase Sapphire Reserve is access for you and two guests to the huge selection of Priority Pass lounges, which are located across the world. Priority Pass is comprised of over 1,300 lounges, spread across 600 airports in about 150 countries. Each Priority Pass lounge varies in size, quality, and hours, but most of them provide some level of food, beverages, wifi, showers, conference rooms, kids area, and other features. As mentioned above, Priority Pass typically only allows access for the cardholder and two guests, and any additional guests will have to pay an entrance fee, typically around $30.

Some of the Priority Pass lounges are operated by an airline, such as the Turkish Airlines Lounge at Dulles International Airport. This lounge is typically regarded as the best Priority Pass lounge in the United States, and comes with a buffet, cocktail bar, several rooms to spread out to relax before your flight, showers, a prayer room, and views of the runway. Some of the Priority Pass lounges are operated by a group, such as the collection of The Club lounges, which are spread across the United States and United Kingdom. The Club lounges are typically fairly standard across all of their locations, and are more limited in features as compared to some of the airline branded lounges.

In addition to the lounges, your Priority Pass Select membership comes with dining credits at about 30 US airport restaurants, and about 20 international airport restaurants. Each restaurant is slightly different, but the typical credit is $28/person at one of these restaurants. Additionally, Priority Pass Select members can register a guest visiting with them to receive an extra $28 discount. Just remember to tip on the pre-discounted food price! Restaurants vary from casual food, such as Johnny Rockets at Syracuse International Airport, to steakhouses, such as Bobby Van’s Steakhouse at JFK International Airport. This dining credit also extends to other unique locations, such as Minneapolis International Airport’s PGA restaurant and indoor golf experience, and Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport’s video game lounge.

Besides the lounges and restaurants, the Priority Pass Select membership also includes discounts to other select airport purchases and experiences. For example, Minute Suites is a private suite brand located at at airports across the United States, with most suites having a desk to work at and pullout-couch to sleep on. Priority Pass Select typically gives you a 1 hour stay for free, and charges a reduced rate for every additional hour. Additionally, the Priority Pass Select membership will give small discounts at airport stores such as InMotion.

Global Entry / TSA PreCheck

The Chase Sapphire Reserve also comes with a Global Entry / TSA PreCheck credit every 5 years. This is for either $85 for TSA PreCheck or $100 for Global Entry. Both Global Entry and TSA PreCheck last for 5 years. Global Entry allows you to re-enter the United States at an expedited rate. Global Entry also comes with TSA PreCheck included, so you might as well sign up for Global Entry. To use this credit, simply purchase either using your Chase Sapphire Reserve card.

Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection

The Chase Sapphire Reserve has great benefits when it comes to elite hotel offerings. The card comes with benefits of the Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection, which is a grouping of over 1,000 hotels, resorts, lodges, and spas across the world. Benefits of booking a stay at a resort through the Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection is similar to having high status at one of the main hotel groups, such as Hilton, Marriott, Hyatt, or IHG.

Booking at a location at the Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection gives you daily breakfast for two, a unique gift worth up to $100, free wifi, a room upgrade based on availability, and early check-in and late check-out. The unique gift varies based on resort, but is typically one of the following: a resort credit, dinner for two, a spa treatment, golf fee waivers, a welcome gift, or airport transfers. Besides the special gift, these benefits are similar to having high status at Hilton or Marriott, meaning this free benefit is a great way to have “status” without actually staying at a particular hotel brand for multiple weeks a year. As shown below, when searching for a room via the Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection, you can see all of the benefits you will receive when using your Chase Sapphire Reserve at the hotel.

Keep in mind that a resort at the Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection is typically not the least expensive option at your destination, but could be worth it if you are looking to splurge on accommodation for a day or two, it’s a special occasion, or if the above benefits outweigh the additional cost. Considering the special gift worth up to $100 is a per-stay benefit and not a per-day benefit, you can get the most value from the Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection by staying at the resort for shorter stays rather than longer stays.

50% More Redemption Value on Travel

Once you accumulate some Ultimate Rewards points, you’ll likely want to start using them. There are several ways to use them, although one of the best and easiest ways to use them is through Chase’s Travel portal. Using the portal, you can book travel without having to transfer points to a partner airline or hotel first. A benefit to booking directly through Chase’s Travel portal is the fact that you receive 50% additional value on your points. The 50% additional value can be used on Chase’s Travel portal for flights, hotels, vacation rentals, rental cars, cruises, and tickets (including theme parks, tours, specialty dinners, and experiences).

For example, on the flight shown below, the cash price is $222.81. Typically, the amount of points you would need to use to buy the flight would be 22,281, or a 1:1 value. However, with the Chase Sapphire Reserve’s 50% additional redemption value on travel, you only need 14,854 Ultimate Rewards points, a savings of 7,427 points as compared to purchasing the flight without Chase’s Travel portal.

Booking with Chase’s Travel portal to receive 50% bonus is not always the best method in terms of value, but considering the ease of use and extra value, is the go-to method for many people. Another popular method for redeeming Ultimate Rewards points is through transferring to airline or hotel partners, and is described in the below section.

1:1 Transfer Partners

Besides using Chase Travel portal’s 50% additional redemption value for travel, the other popular method for redeeming your Ultimate Rewards points is to transfer directly to an airline or hotel partner. This does require some extra work on your end in order to make sure you are receiving the best value for your points. When you see the words “1:1 transfer partner”, you might initially think that this is a worse deal than the Chase Travel portal, but you will need to do some basic math to make that determination for yourself. Check out the Ultimate Rewards points guide for an example of using transfer partners.

Chase will allow you to transfer your Ultimate Rewards points directly to one of the above airlines or hotels at a 1:1 rate, meaning transferring 60,000 points to Emirates will give you 60,000 Emirates Skywards miles. Transfers to one of the partners typically happens instantaneously, although it is good to double check this if you are looking to book a flight or hotel really quickly.

In order for transferring to a Chase travel partner to be worth it compared to booking through the Chase Travel portal, you need to get at least 1.5 cents per point when comparing a particular flight or hotel from its cash price to points price. You can find this out by doing two searches for a flight on a the airline’s website: one using cash, and one using miles/points. Typically the cash price will be one amount, which includes the base price of the flight/hotel and any additional fees or taxes. Meanwhile, the miles/points price will typically show a miles/points amount in addition to a separate cash amount for fees or taxes. Using the below formula will separate the cash amount and miles/points amount, which makes it easy to calculate the Cents per Point. If the Cents per Point value is about 1.5, then it is worth it to transfer to the airline or hotel to book your flight or stay. Otherwise, using the Chase Travel portal is the better deal.

In the below example, the United flight would cost either $346.80 using cash, or 33,000 miles + $11.20 using United miles. The Cents per Point value is calculated by subtracting the cash portion of the miles flight ($11.20) from the cash flight ($346.80), which comes out to $335.60, and dividing this value by the mileage portion of the miles flight (33,000). This comes out to $0.0102/point, or 1.02 cents per point. Since this is less than 1.5 cents per point, it is preferable to use the Chase Travel portal to book this flight, which would only cost 23,120 Ultimate Rewards points.

This does take more time than simply using the Chase Travel portal, but can save you lots of money if you put the effort in. Typically, the Cents per Point value is highest on business/first class airfare and higher-end hotels, but this isn’t always the case. Because of this, it is worth it to double check each time before booking.

Visa Infinite Concierge Service

DoorDash DashPass Membership

Lyft Pink Membership

Peloton Credits

Car Rental Status and Insurance

The Chase Sapphire Reserve also gives you Avis Preferred and National Car Rental Emerald Club Executive statuses, and discounts at Silvercar by Audi by having the Chase Sapphire Reserve. You must enroll in these benefits from the card benefits page.

In addition to the car rental statuses and discounts, you also receive free auto rental collision protection. At the time of renting the car, simply decline the rental company’s collision insurance (even if they strongly suggest you don’t do this), and have the entire purchase charged to your Chase Sapphire Reserve. Doing this will give you primary coverage and provide theft and collision damage insurance for rental cars worldwide.

Authorized User Benefits

Chase Sapphire Reserve cardholders can add an authorized user to their account for $75 per year. In addition to the spending multipliers and collection of insurances, authorized users can also have their own Priority Pass membership and receive their own Lyft Pink membership. Adding an authorized user is a great way for the user to build their credit history.

Travel Insurance

If something happens while you are on a trip it is good to have travel insurance. If it falls under the category of covered instances you would be covered by simply using your Chase Sapphire Reserve for your purchase.

Before you go on a spending spree for lost luggage or one of the items that appears to be listed here or on the benefits page, please call Chase customer service to be sure that your situation will be covered.

Summary

The Chase Sapphire Reserve is Chase’s premier personal credit card, and offers a great variety of benefits. These include Global Entry credits, Priority Pass lounge access, Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection access, Lyft Pink membership, DoorDash DashPass membership, car rental benefits, transfer partners, access to the Chase Travel portal, great multipliers on travel and dining, and a variety of insurances and protections. While the card comes with a $550 annual fee, the benefits outweigh the cost as long as you travel once or twice a year.

If you think this card would be a good fit for you please consider using our referral link below.