Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card review 2024
Updated 8:40 AM EDT, Wed November 15, 2023
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.
The Chase Sapphire Reserve® is a great credit card for those who travel often, as it offers luxury travel perks such as airport lounge access and strong travel insurance protections, plus a number of statement credits. Even better, new Chase 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. With Chase Travel℠ points worth at least 1.5 cents apiece when you have this card, those 60,000 points are worth at least $900 toward your next vacation.
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Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. That’s $900 toward travel when you redeem through Chase Travel℠
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.
But this card doesn’t come cheap — it has a $550 annual fee, plus a $75 fee for each authorized user. Fortunately, the Chase Sapphire Reserve® offers many opportunities to earn bonus points, plus lots of credits and benefits to help offset the fee. Add them all together and this is a card that could be well worth the cost if you value luxury travel benefits.
Current welcome offer: Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. That's $900 toward travel when you redeem through Chase Travel℠
Digging into the Chase Sapphire Reserve card
The Chase Sapphire Reserve® is the big sibling to the popular Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, but it comes with a higher annual fee and more benefits. But with the ability to earn extra points and a ton of statement credits, the Chase Sapphire Reserve® could be the better option for you, depending on your spending habits and travel needs.
The Chase Sapphire Reserve® offers 3 points for every dollar you spend on all dining and travel purchases (after the annual $300 travel credit), but if you book through Chase Travel℠, you’re able to earn even more points, such as 10 total points on dining, hotel stays and car rental and 5 total points on flights. Through March 2025, you’ll also earn 10 points per dollar on Lyft rides.
The card also comes with $300 in annual travel credits, statement credits for purchases at DoorDash and a complimentary DashPass subscription for at least 12 months when you activate it by Dec. 31, 2024. You’ll also get a Priority Pass Select membership that will allow you to relax in over 1,300 airport lounges worldwide. And Reserve members have access to “Reserved by Sapphire” which will feature exclusive opportunities to book reservations at some of the most sought-after restaurants.
While the Chase Sapphire Reserve® is clearly a desirable card with many benefits, it doesn’t come cheap. You’re looking at a $550 annual fee per year. But don’t let the sticker price scare you — we’ll dive into the details to show how the annual fee looks significantly more reasonable if you can take advantage of the card’s many credit opportunities.
Advantages of the Chase Sapphire Reserve card
Right now new card holders can earn 60,000 bonus points after spending $4,000 on the card within the first three months after you open the account.
The Chase 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 your traditional sit-down restaurants as well and also includes coffee shops, bars, vending machines and most food delivery services.
Once you’ve earned points with the card, there are many ways to use them. With the Chase Sapphire Reserve®, you can redeem points for travel through Chase’s own travel portal at a rate of 1.5 cents per point. That means the 60,000 points earned from the welcome bonus are worth a minimum of $900 toward travel.
But if you’re experienced in redeeming points and miles using airline and hotel loyalty programs and want to get the most value out of your points, your best bet is to transfer your points to one of Chase’s 14 airline and hotel partners. Because of this flexibility, frequent flyer website The Points Guy values Chase Travel℠ points as high as 2 cents apiece.
Here’s a complete list of Chase’s 14 travel partners, all of which transfer at a 1-to-1 ratio (meaning for every 1,000 Chase points, you’ll get 1,000 airline or hotel points or miles when you transfer them):
Airlines
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
|
Hotels
World of Hyatt
| IHG Rewards Club
| Marriott Bonvoy
|
Depending on where you’re looking to travel, you could consider redeeming using either of these options. When utilizing the travel portal, there are no blackout dates or capacity controls on award tickets. You’re booking travel just like you would at an online travel agency such as Expedia and just paying for the flight or hotel with points instead of cash, 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, but you can also get the room through the chain’s World of Hyatt program for 25,000 Hyatt points. Booking that room through Chase’s travel portal would require a much larger 40,000 points, since you’re only getting 1.5 cents per point when redeeming that way.
So you’re better off transferring your Chase points to Hyatt and then booking the hotel reservation directly with Hyatt, since you’ll save yourself 15,000 points. The key is that the airline or hotel has to be offering award availability on the dates you want in order to be able to book it using transferred points.
The $300 annual travel credit that comes with the Chase Sapphire Reserve® can be used for anything that falls into the same broad “travel” category. You don’t have to use the entire $300 in one transaction — you can split it up over multiple purchases throughout the year. That makes using the credit quite easy, so you shouldn’t have a problem earning the entire $300 each year. And once you take that $300 into account, it effectively brings your $550 annual fee down to a more palatable $250.
On top of the annual $300 travel credit, Chase Sapphire Reserve® card holders get $5 in monthly statement credits on DoorDash purchases. If you can take advantage of all of these credits, that’s another $60 back, effectively bringing your annual fee down to just $190 for this year.
Plus, the Chase Sapphire Reserve® offers a complimentary annual Priority Pass Select membership. This gives you and two accompanying guests access to over 1,300 airport lounges around the world, so you’ll have a place to get away from the bustle of the terminal whenever you’re on the road.
Some airport restaurants and cafés also participate in Priority Pass — for these establishments, you’ll get a credit to spend on any menu items. Typically the credit amount is $28 per registered guest, but many restaurants cap the credit at one guest per card holder.
Another benefit of the Chase Sapphire Reserve® is up to $100 in credits for a Global Entry, TSA PreCheck or NEXUS membership. You can get this credit every four years, which further offsets the card’s annual fee.
Other Chase Sapphire Reserve® benefits include a complimentary DoorDash DashPass membership, which offers unlimited deliveries with a $0 delivery fee, for at least 12 months when you activate it by Dec. 31, 2024.
Aside from all these benefits, the Chase Sapphire Reserve® also offers outstanding protection on the purchases you make with it. This includes protection against damage or theft for up to 120 days after you buy an item (up to $10,000 per claim), an additional year on eligible manufacturer warranties of three years or less and the ability to return an item within 90 days of your purchase (up to $500 per item).
We receive compensation from our partners for Featured Offer placements, which impacts how and where their offer is displayed.
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. That’s $900 toward travel when you redeem through Chase Travel℠
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.
With the Chase Sapphire Reserve®, you’ll also be covered when you’re traveling. The card includes trip interruption and cancellation insurance, which will cover you if your trip is cut short by sickness, severe weather or other covered situations — up to $10,000 per person and $20,000 per trip.
You’ll also be covered by the card’s trip delay reimbursement protection. If your trip is delayed by six hours or more, or requires an overnight stay, you’ll be reimbursed up to $500 per ticket for your out-of-pocket expenses, such as meals and lodging. This is significantly better than the insurance that’s provided with many other travel credit cards, which 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 include primary auto rental collision damage insurance, baggage delay insurance, roadside assistance, lost luggage reimbursement, travel and emergency assistance, travel accident insurance, emergency evacuation and transportation and emergency medical and dental coverage.
Disadvantages of the Chase Sapphire Reserve card
Although the Chase Sapphire Reserve® is loaded with perks, you’re paying for them with your annual fee. Beginners may be deterred by this understandably high cost and might prefer to stick with a starter travel credit card such as the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card 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. With many other popular travel credit cards, there’s no additional fee to get an extra card on your account — though in this case, Chase Sapphire Reserve® authorized users also get a Priority Pass Select membership, so this could actually be a good deal, as $75 for the year is less expensive than purchasing a membership.
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 Chase 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 cash back from the Chase Freedom Unlimited® can be converted to Chase Travel℠ points and combined with the points you earn on the Chase Sapphire Reserve®, this two-card combo might be all you need to earn as many rewards as possible on everything you buy each day.
One other downside of the Chase Sapphire Reserve® pertains to the application process, and it applies to all Chase credit cards. Chase has an unpublished restriction colloquially known as the “5/24” rule, which means if you’ve gotten five or more credit cards across all banks in the previous 24 months, your application for a new card from Chase will be automatically denied.
In addition, if you’ve received a welcome bonus on either the Chase Sapphire Reserve® or Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card in the past 48 months, you can’t get another Sapphire card bonus. Given these restrictions, it’s important to apply for the Chase Sapphire Reserve® or Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card early on.
Other credit cards similar to the Chase Sapphire Reserve
The Chase Sapphire Reserve® falls into the high-end luxury credit card segment of the market, and one of the most well-known cards in that segment is The Platinum Card® from American Express * The information for the The Platinum Card® from American Express has been collected independently by CNN Underscored. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer. (terms apply, see rates and fees).
All information about The Platinum Card® from American Express has been collected independently by CNN Underscored.
You’ll pay a higher $695 annual fee for The Platinum Card® from American Express * The information for the The Platinum Card® from American Express has been collected independently by CNN Underscored. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer. , but The Platinum Card® from American Express * The information for the The Platinum Card® from American Express has been collected independently by CNN Underscored. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer. gives you access to many more airport lounges around the world, and offers statement credits that can help offset the card’s cost. The Platinum Card® from American Express * The information for the The Platinum Card® from American Express has been collected independently by CNN Underscored. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer. also offers similar — although not identical — purchase and travel protection benefits.
All information about The Platinum Card® from American Express has been collected independently by CNN Underscored.
The two cards are also similar in that both allow you to transfer your points to airline and hotel partner programs. But the list of partners between the two cards is different, and while some partners overlap, you might ultimately decide which points you prefer to earn based on which partners you’re more likely to use.
The Platinum Card® from American Express * The information for the The Platinum Card® from American Express has been collected independently by CNN Underscored. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer. also offers cell phone protection and elite status at select hotels and car rental loyalty programs — two benefits that you don’t see with the Chase Sapphire Reserve®. And the card is currently offering an impressive welcome bonus: 80,000 points after you spend $8,000 in your first six months after opening the account.
All information about The Platinum Card® from American Express has been collected independently by CNN Underscored.
Although a slightly better welcome bonus than the Chase Sapphire Reserve® and 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 Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card or the Chase Sapphire Reserve®?” The Chase Travel℠ points earned with either card are extremely valuable, and the points from either welcome offer alone will help offset a nice portion of your next vacation.
If you want to redeem your points through the Chase travel portal, the points are worth slightly more when you have the Chase Sapphire Reserve®, since you can redeem them at 1.5 cents apiece — whereas points on the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card are only worth 1.25 cents apiece through the Chase travel portal.
And, if better travel insurance and lounge access are needed, you may want to consider the Chase Sapphire Reserve® instead. While the Chase 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 Chase Sapphire Reserve® is a card to consider. With its current welcome offer of 60,000 points, its many luxury travel perks and enough statement credits to offset most of the annual fee, this card can get a lot of use in your wallet.
*The information for the following card(s) has been collected independently by CNN Underscored Money: The Platinum Card® from American Express * The information for the The Platinum Card® from American Express has been collected independently by CNN Underscored. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer. . The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
All information about The Platinum Card® from American Express has been collected independently by CNN Underscored.
To view rates and fees for The Platinum Card® from American Express * The information for the The Platinum Card® from American Express has been collected independently by CNN Underscored. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer. , please visit this page.
All information about The Platinum Card® from American Express has been collected independently by CNN Underscored.
All information about The Platinum Card® from American Express has been collected independently by CNN Underscored.
