Chase Sapphire Reserve® review: Chase’s premier credit card

What’s more, you can get even more value from your rewards through certain redemption options. The Chase Sapphire Reserve earns Chase Ultimate Rewards points, one of the most flexible and valuable credit card rewards on the market. These points are more flexible than typical frequent flyer miles since they can be redeemed for a wide variety of options without losing value, such as gift cards, merchandise (including shopping with points on eligible Amazon and PayPal purchases), travel experiences, cash back or statement credits. 

However, one of the main draws of the Sapphire Reserve is that your points receive a 50-percent value boost when redeemed for travel through Chase Ultimate Rewards. Otherwise, your points are worth 1 cent when you redeem for cash back, travel, gift cards and merchandise through the Ultimate Rewards store. Paying with rewards on Amazon.com slightly devalues your rewards to 0.8 cents per point, so you might want to use your rewards another way.

To get the best value for your points, take advantage of the 50 percent boost by booking travel through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal, where each of your points will be worth 1.5 cents. Or you can transfer your points to Chase travel partners. Based on the latest valuations by Bankrate, the right transfer partner could boost the value of your points to about 2.0 cents per point on average. These options make the Chase Sapphire Reserve one of the best cards for rewards value, and excellent for maximizing your spending with any other Chase rewards card.

Perks: Valuable travel benefits could outweigh the annual fee

As a top-tier travel credit card, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a better collection of travel perks than the Sapphire Reserve benefits. The most notable feature is the up to $300 in annual statement credits on qualifying travel purchases, which can automatically cover anything that falls within your travel bonus category. These credits can offset airfare, hotels, ride-shares, vacation packages and more — which makes this perk more flexible than many rival cards’ travel credits since the credits often just include flights, airline fees or hotels. Just remember: You won’t earn 3X points on general travel purchases until you’ve collected the full $300 travel credit.

Then, you can make up for the remainder of the annual fee with travel perks like the complimentary Priority Pass Select membership (a $299 value) and up to a $100 application fee credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck, although this latter perk only applies once every four years. Although these two features are a bit more commonplace among high-tier travel cards, they can go a long way toward expediting your airport entry and making the experience a bit more peaceful.

On the flip side, the Sapphire Reserve card’s limited-time memberships and annual credits with food delivery and rideshare partners like Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart and GoPuff are valuable perks that many other competing cards don’t carry. However, these usually only last through your first year.

Although they don’t carry a monetary value, the comprehensive roster of travel protections sets the Sapphire Reserve sets itself apart from the crowd. The Sapphire Reserve goes toe to toe with the Amex Platinum as one of the best cards for travel insurance thanks to its coveted trip cancellation/interruption insurance, emergency evacuation and transportation coverage, trip delay reimbursement, lost luggage reimbursement and more. Few cards protect your travel plans like the Sapphire Reserve, and emergency evacuation and transportation coverage is an incredibly rare safeguard.

The Sapphire Reserve brings plenty of reward opportunities and valuable perks to the table, but the hefty $550 annual fee, weakened sign-up bonus and limited luxury-grade travel benefits might push some cardholders to alternative cards.

Rates and fees: One of the highest annual fees

Many of the Sapphire Reserve card’s rates and fees are typical of a premium travel card: no foreign transaction fees, no intro APRs and an ongoing APR on par with the current average interest rate. The $550 annual fee is probably one of the most eye-catching aspects of the card, and it might seem intimidating at first glance.

Since the Sapphire Reserve is one of the highest-caliber premium travel rewards cards, its annual fee is similarly one of the highest you’ll find. It sits right in the middle of the top three luxury-level cards, between the Amex Platinum Card ($695 annual fee) and the Capital One Venture X ($395 annual fee -See Rates and Fees). 

If you’re concerned about the annual fee, you certainly get what you pay for. The Venture X strips away most luxury perks to be more cost-effective, and the Sapphire Reserve adds more hotel privileges, reward opportunities and partner perks with rideshares and delivery services. The Sapphire Reserve doesn’t have as many annual credits and luxury travel benefits as the Amex Platinum, but the Sapphire Reserve card’s more focused features can be well worth the price tag compared to these other two cards if you’re focused on travel rewards and enough perks to make your frequent travels more comfortable.

However, you’ll also need to look out for the $75 fee each authorized user adds to your account. This may be quite a disadvantage, as there are plenty of travel rewards cards that don’t charge for additional users (such as the Venture X, See Rates and Fees). If you have family members who use the card often, these yearly fees can be worthwhile since their travel and dining purchases could help you rack up points faster. But each user you add increases the fees you owe, which makes it difficult to offset what you’re paying with what you’re earning with rewards. The initial annual fee might be a hard sell if you’re an occasional traveler who isn’t concerned with airport lounges and the like, and the authorized user fee may make the card less affordable in this case.

Welcome offer: Solid bonus but not as strong as previous iterations

Chase updated the Sapphire Reserve card’s bonus in February 2023, and unfortunately, it’s a bit of a downgrade: You can currently earn 60,000 Ultimate Rewards points after spending $4,000 in your first three months as a cardholder — a 20,000-point decrease to the card’s previous offer, which came with 80,000 points after the same spend during the same timeframe.

That said, this bonus is still very valuable. Since the Reserve card boosts the value of your Ultimate Rewards points to 1.5 cents each when you redeem for travel with Chase, this bonus can be worth $900 for Chase travel bookings. You may even be able to get a higher point value with the right transfer partner. Based on Bankrate’s latest point valuations, which give this card’s points a value of 2.0 cents each on average when transferred to a top travel partner, this bonus could be worth $1,200 or more.

If you’re comparing luxury travel cards and looking for the highest sign-up bonuses available, however, this card may not be the best fit at the moment. We estimate its bonus value falls short of the value offered by rival cards and even lower-tier premium travel cards.

However, long-term value is likely a bigger draw at this caliber of premium travel cards — and is the Sapphire Reserve card’s biggest strength. In fact, the Sapphire Reserve offers one of the better sign-up bonuses available, but it isn’t often the biggest on the market. The lower-tier Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card often features either a matching offer or perhaps the largest available bonus.

Luxury: Not as many hotel and airport perks as rival cards

The Sapphire Reserve is one of the best cards for travel features, but some competitors have a stronger selection of luxury perks when it comes to airports and hotels — or at least a few similar parks for a much lower annual fee, in some cases.

For example, the Sapphire Reserve card’s Priority Pass Select airport lounge access is quite valuable. However, the Venture X also provides Priority Pass Select membership, plus Plaza Premium lounge access, Premier Collection hotel perks (including experience credits) and Hertz President’s Circle® status for rental cars.

The Amex Platinum charges a higher $695 annual fee, but this card provides complimentary access to Priority Pass Select lounges, plus access to Plaza Premium, Delta Sky Lounges, Escape Lounges and Select Virgin Clubhouses that Sapphire Reserve cardholders don’t have. The Sapphire Reserve also doesn’t offer membership credits for the CLEAR security screening service, which the Amex Platinum and a few other cards carry.

However, it’s worth mentioning that the Amex Platinum is naturally the better choice if you prefer stacks of annual credits, premium hotel perks and airport privileges. The Sapphire Reserve’s card structure focuses on providing higher-caliber rewards over the competition in addition to its solid perk roster.

The most intimidating aspect of the Chase Sapphire Reserve is its $550 annual fee. You’ll need to take advantage of as many of the card’s features as possible to help offset its yearly cost, but you could earn stellar potential rewards value if you squeeze enough value from the card perks to recoup the fee without relying on your rewards spending.

Maximizing the card’s offers shouldn’t be a problem in the first year. The 60,000-point sign-up bonus alone is worth $900 toward Chase travel, which more than makes up for the annual fee in the first year.

After the first year, it will take a bit more work to ensure the card’s long-term value. But if you’re a frequent traveler, you should have no problem. Benefits like the $300 annual travel credit and complimentary memberships alone can nearly recover the cost, and the card’s rewards program gives you plenty of chances to make up the rest.

Since your points are worth 1.5 cents when redeemed through the Chase Ultimate Rewards program, you would need to spend about $1,019 per month in your 3X-point categories to break even at $550 in rewards. Taking advantage of the higher bonus categories can greatly reduce that spending to just $612 in monthly flights or about $306 per month across hotel stays, car rentals and Chase Dining purchases instead.

To make your research easier, we’ve estimated the Sapphire Reserve card’s first-year and ongoing value based on our card scoring formula, a $22,500 annual spend and a 1.5-cent-per point redemption value (assuming you redeem toward Chase Ultimate Rewards travel).

Credit card expert Holly D. Johnson has been using the Sapphire Reserve since it was introduced in 2016, and she feels it carries even more value nowadays.

For a long time, I’ve used a combination of Chase credit cards known as the “Chase trifecta” for all my family’s spending. However, my favorite rewards credit card of the bunch by far is the Chase Sapphire Reserve.

Although it does have a $550 annual fee, both my husband and I each have this card, and we come out way ahead considering all we get in return. It comes with a slew of luxury benefits, and Chase’s boosted rewards for travel purchases through the Ultimate Rewards portal is icing on the cake. I use each card strategically to earn as much in rewards as possible on all our personal and business spending, then I pool them in my Sapphire Reserve account to redeem them for airfare, excursions, hotels and more.

We mostly travel internationally to the Caribbean and Europe, and Chase transfer partners work splendidly for our goals. Specifically, we transfer a ton of Chase points to the Air France / KLM Flying Blue program for cheap flights to Europe as well as to the Southwest Rapid Rewards program for cheap flights to Mexico and the Caribbean. In my opinion, Chase Ultimate Rewards has the best airline and hotel partners.

— Holly D. Johnson, Bankrate contributor

The Sapphire Reserve is a standout option for frequent travelers looking for top-of-the-line perks and rewards value. But depending on your spending habits and the features that matter most to you, it may not be the best option. Here’s a look at how the Sapphire Reserve stacks up against its more cost-effective counterpart and its rival, higher-fee, luxury travel card.

The Sapphire Reserve card works best with other Chase credit cards. Since many earn Chase Ultimate Rewards points, they can all be channeled into one pool and redeemed at a higher value with your Sapphire Reserve. In fact, the Sapphire Reserve and several no-annual-fee Chase cards can form some of the best credit card combinations for category diversity and rewards value.

As Chase’s premier travel credit card, the Chase Sapphire Reserve delivers the best the issuer has to offer for frequent jet setters. Its rewards on travel, dining and transit set up fantastic reward-earning combos, not to mention luxury travel benefits and top-of-the-line travel protections.

Despite its perks, the card still might not be the best fit for everyone. If you don’t travel much, the $550 annual fee is steep and could be hard to recoup if you won’t max out the card’s perks. However, if you do take several trips a year or you’re a fan of the Chase credit card portfolio, this card should definitely be on your list of considerations.

The information about the Chase Freedom Flex℠ and Chase Freedom Unlimited® has been collected independently by Bankrate.com. The card details have not been reviewed or approved by the card issuer.

Dig deeper: Is the Chase Sapphire Reserve worth it?

We rate credit cards using a proprietary card scoring system that ranks each card’s estimated average rewards rate, estimated annual earnings, welcome bonus value, APR, fees, perks and more against those of other cards in its primary category.

Each card feature is assigned a weighting based on how important it is to people looking for a card in a given category. These features are then scored based on how they rank relative to the features on other cards in the category. Based on these calculations, each card receives an overall rating of 1-5 stars (with 5 being the highest possible score and 1 being the lowest). 

We analyzed over 150 of the most popular rewards and cash back cards to determine where each stacked up based on their value, cost, benefits and more. Here are some of the key factors that influenced this card’s overall score and how the score influenced our review: