Chase Sapphire Reserve benefits guide

The Chase Sapphire Reserve is one of the most popular travel credit cards on the market—especially for people who travel frequently and are looking for an elite credit card that comes with top travel benefits.

If that’s you, then you might already know that the Chase Sapphire Reserve benefits deliver. From an annual $300 travel credit to complimentary airport lounge access, the Chase Sapphire Reserve travel benefits give you the opportunity to travel in style and save money on every trip.

However, these aren’t the only benefits that come with the Chase Sapphire Reserve. Many prospective cardholders aren’t aware of the Chase Sapphire Reserve hotel benefits, for example—or just how valuable the Sapphire Reserve’s welcome bonus can be.

We’ve got a complete guide to the benefits of the Chase Sapphire Reserve to help you understand everything this card has to offer—and decide whether the card should be your newest travel companion.

Chase Sapphire Reserve benefits at a glance

Here’s a quick overview of the Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card:

Tip: While the Chase Sapphire Reserve benefits are extensive, the card’s $550 annual fee might make a few potential cardholders nervous. Not sure whether the Chase Sapphire Reserve is worth it? Try comparing it to the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card to see which best fits your lifestyle.

Earning rewards

The Chase Sapphire Reserve benefits start with the card’s extremely high rewards rate. In fact, the Sapphire Reserve offers some of the highest rewards-earning opportunities in the travel rewards credit card market.

You’ll start off with a $300 annual travel credit, which can be redeemed for statement credits toward travel purchases charged to your Chase Sapphire Reserve.

After you’ve spent your first $300 on travel purchases, you’ll earn 5X total points on air travel booked through Ultimate Rewards, 10X total points on hotels and rental cars booked through Chase Ultimate Rewards and 3X points on general travel purchases. Additional rewards categories include 10X points on Lyft rides through March 2025, 10X total points on Chase Dining purchases through Ultimate Rewards, 3X points on restaurant purchases and 1X points on everything else.

The Chase Sapphire Reserve also offers a sign-up bonus of 60,000 Ultimate Rewards points to qualifying cardholders who spend $4,000 in the first three months after opening their account. This welcome bonus can be worth as much as $900 when redeemed for travel through Chase Ultimate Rewards.

This brings us to a significant benefit of earning Chase Sapphire Reserve rewards—the ability to increase your rewards by 50 percent when redeeming them for travel purchases made within the Ultimate Rewards portal.

You can also boost the value of your rewards through Chase’s Pay Yourself Back program—a feature that’s been extended for use through March 31, 2022. Pay Yourself Back gives Chase cardholders the opportunity to increase the value of their Ultimate Rewards points by redeeming them for statement credits toward select categories. Currently, Reserve cardholders can redeem points toward statement credits for Airbnb and Away purchases (through awaytravel.com), as well as Chase Dining purchases, at an extra 50 percent value. Once again, this offer is valid through March 31, 2022.

Travel benefits

In addition to earning high-level rewards with every purchase, Chase Sapphire Reserve cardholders can take advantage of high-level travel benefits. Here’s a quick overview of the Chase Sapphire Reserve benefits you can receive on air travel, ground travel and hotels:

Air travel benefits

TSA PreCheck/Global Entry

Start with a TSA PreCheck/Global Entry membership credit in the form of either a $100 statement credit to cover the Global Entry application fee or up to an $85 credit for the TSA PreCheck application fee.

Priority Pass Select membership

Then, add a complimentary Priority Pass Select membership, which offers access to more than 1,300 luxury airport lounges worldwide. Plus, Chase Sapphire Reserve cardholders can transfer their Ultimate Rewards points to leading airline loyalty programs at a 1:1 value.

Ground travel benefits

Your Chase Sapphire Reserve travel benefits include a complimentary Lyft Pink membership (for cardholders who activate their membership before December 31, 2024). With Lyft Pink, you get up to 15 percent off every Lyft ride, plus priority airport pickups, relaxed cancellation options and opportunities to take advantage of member-only savings. This membership has a minimum value of $119, and the value only increases the more often you use Lyft.

Plus, cardholders can earn 10X points per dollar on all Lyft rides taken through March 2025.

Hotel benefits

Chase Sapphire Reserve hotel benefits include access to the Luxury Hotel and Resort Collection, a hand-selected group of hotels and resorts that offer special benefits such as complimentary room upgrades, Wi-Fi, early check-in, late check-out, daily breakfast for two and a special benefit at each resort worth up to $100.

Plus, you can transfer your points to leading hotel loyalty programs at a 1:1 value.

Dining benefits

Not only will you earn 3X points on general dining purchases, but you can take advantage of complimentary access to DoorDash’s subscription service for one year, DashPass (when activated before March 31, 2024). The DashPass subscription offers unlimited deliveries with no delivery fee as well as reduced service fees on orders over $12.

Travel insurances and protections

• Trip cancellation: Get reimbursed for up to $10,000 per traveler (up to a maximum of $20,000) for any nonrefundable travel expenses.
• Trip interruption insurance: Reimbursement for up to $20,000 ($10,000 per traveler) for nonrefundable travel purchases.
• Emergency evacuation and transportation: Receive up to $100,000 worth of medical and transportation expenses for you or an immediate family member.
• Primary car rental collision damage waiver: Get up to $75,000 worth of primary car rental insurance.
• Roadside assistance: Receive as much as $200 worth of roadside assistance protection ($50 per incident) within a year.
• Baggage delay insurance: Get as much as $500 worth of baggage delay insurance ($100 per day for essential purchases for up to five days).
• Lost luggage reimbursement: Get up to $3,000 per each covered traveler for any lost valuable items.
• Trip delay reimbursement: Receive up to $500 in lodging and food reimbursements for you and a co-traveler (up to $1,000 total).
• Travel accident insurance: In the event you die or lose a limb/sense in a travel accident (plane, bus, cruise or train), you or your beneficiaries will be entitled to up to $1,000,000 in insurance benefits.
• Travel and emergency assistance: Gain access to a special hotline if you need a medical or legal referral during a trip.
• Emergency medical and dental coverage: Get up to $2,500 for emergency medical or dental expenses for you or an immediate family member while traveling 100 miles or more away from home.

Additional general benefits

• Purchase protection: Receive reimbursement for up to $1,000 per item (maximum of $50,000 per year) for stolen or damaged new purchases.
• Return protection: Get reimbursed for up to $500 per item (that a retailer won’t accept a return on) within 90 days of your purchase, up to a maximum of $1,000 per year.
• Extended warranty: Get an additional one-year extension of a manufacturer’s warranty of three years or less.
• Visa Infinite Concierge: Receive help through Visa Infinite’s concierge hotline when it comes to booking reservations and event tickets, choosing restaurants and activities and gaining access to other personal services.

Other perks

Want even more Chase Sapphire Reserve benefits? Try earning 10x total points on each Peloton Bike and Tread purchase over $1,400, with a max earn of 50,000 total points. Now through March 31, 2022. You can take advantage of Peloton’s workout classes (which include yoga, cardio, strength and more) even if you don’t have a Peloton Bike.

Maximizing your rewards

To maximize your rewards on this card, start by taking advantage of your welcome bonus. If you miss the opportunity to earn 60,000 bonus points as a new cardholder (by spending $4,000 in your first three months), you’re also missing the opportunity to redeem those points for up to $900 in travel bookings through Chase Ultimate Rewards.

Prefer to transfer your Ultimate Rewards points to a participating airline or hotel loyalty program? Check out Bankrate’s guide to Chase transfer partners to get the best value out of every transaction.

It’s also a smart move to combine your Chase Sapphire Reserve with another Chase credit card that earns Ultimate Rewards points. If you have multiple Chase cards that earn Ultimate Rewards, you can transfer the value of your rewards to a single Chase card. If you transfer your rewards to the Chase Sapphire Reserve, in particular, you can increase the value of those rewards by 50 percent—either by booking travel through the Ultimate Rewards portal or by redeeming your rewards for statement credits through the Pay Yourself Back program.

If you really want to conquer pooling Chase Ultimate Rewards points, consider the strategy of using the Chase trifecta—that is, strategically combining the Chase Sapphire Reserve, Chase Freedom Unlimited and Ink Business Preferred Credit Card to take serious advantage of everything Chase Ultimate Rewards has to offer.

The bottom line

Interested in making use of the Chase Sapphire Reserve benefits? Ask yourself whether you travel often enough to enjoy all the perks of the card. If you are a frequent traveler who is ready to make the most of your credit card rewards, you might find that the Chase Sapphire Reserve travel benefits more than outweigh the card’s $550 annual fee—especially when you use the $300 annual travel credit, complimentary Lyft Pink membership and opportunity to increase the value of your points by 50 percent when you redeem them for travel through Chase Ultimate Rewards.