My thoughts on...

The New Chase Sapphire Reserve card just got announced with all of its benefits. Read our take below. 

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Buckle in - many of you have asked about my thoughts about the new Chase Sapphire Reserve card, so here we go. 

1) The Chase Sapphire Reserve was due for a refresh. 

Released in 2016, slight changes in 2020, the card had become stale compared to new entrants and refreshed competitors. Most travel hackers recommended getting the Chase Sapphire Preferred instead. I recommended grabbing the CSR for one year then downgrading after double-dipping the travel credit. Either-way it lost favor over time of being a keeper card - only held onto by some for the Sapphire Lounge access in recent times. 

Chase needed to do something with the card, and American Express already had a proven strategy - high annual fee, recurring credits, and elevated experiences. 

2) The annual fee vs. credits isn't actually that bad for the average traveler.

 For $795, Chase markets you get over $2,000 in credits with their various partners. While I doubt most people will utilize all of them, it's okay because they don't need to at all. 

Like the old card, you get $300 in flexible travel credit bringing the effective annual fee down to $495. While still pricey, that means you "only" need to utilize some of the available credits at the combination that fits your lifestyle. For example, I only use points for hotel stays, so I wouldn't use the $500 hotel credit (if I did, I would cover my annual fee already). 

But maybe a user would likely use the $300 Stubhub credits and $300 Doordash credits. Heck, those prices are also inflated, so let's say in reality those credits are only worth 80% - that's $480 still in value for the cardholder (assuming they have concerts/sports games they planned on going to anyways and order on Doordash). 

The remaining $15 can be recouped by a $10 Lyft credit here and there or of course the Sapphire lounge access. 

Point is, don't freak out about the $795 annual fee. 

3) ON THE FLIP SIDE - you. need. a. credit. card. strategy. no. matter. what.

Disregarding the likely high promotional sign-up bonus coming up, getting the card to get "free" things means you're falling for the Amex/Chase playbook. 

If the bonus is not lucrative enough, I will not be getting the card simply because the benefits don't align with my lifestyle. 

• $500 (2x$250) Edit hotel credit? Nope - I always redeem Hyatt points for hotels or use my Capital One Venture X travel portal credit for boutique hotels, so the 

• $300  (2x$150) Dining credit? Nope - now that I have a kid, we rarely go out to eat at nice restaurants. Even if we did, I'd be choosing higher-end restaurants that would make me spend more money that I otherwise would have. (this is one of the reasons I cut my Amex Gold with the $50 Resy credit)

• $250 Apple TV+ and Music? Nah - Sarah did have Apple Music for a time, but we cut that out. If we did get the card, I would consider this a bonus and not a true credit to reduce the annual fee

• $300 Doordash credit? Ehh - I would use it because it's easy to recoup the annual fee, but I'd be feeling forced to use it and get inflated dining/groceries

• $120 Lyft? Maybe - I probably wouldn't be able to use this every month, just when I'm traveling

• $120 Peloton? I guess - I would use the credits to the max just to get the subscription, but I doubt I'd use the product enough to call it a true credit

• $300 (2x$150) Stubhub? I might - Not sure if I'd use the full credits, but we like to go to concerts/games every once in a while

• IHG Platinum Status? #TeamHyatt - Not useful for me since I just stay at Hyatts

With that said, I always need Chase points (to transfer out to Hyatt) so having an additional product to get COULD make this card lucrative. It seems like you can get this Reserve while having the Preferred, so no longer are you locked out of one over the other. So for me, the deciding factor will be the bonus. For YOU it may be for totally different reasons why you do/don't need this card. Think it through (or chat with us).

4) While controversial, I think the portal point boost is a positive 

Chase is cutting the 1.25 and 1.5 point boost on the CSP and CSR when redeeming through the portal. I actually think this is a GOOD thing because now it discourages people from using the portal. Booking with 3rd parties just isn't worth the extra squeeze of points, so I'm glad people won't be falling for that. At a baseline 2x redemption for SOME hotels and flights makes weighing the pros/cons of 3rd party bookings more of a gray area. I could see great value in using your Chase points now for non-Hyatt properties that usually get terrible redemptions. 

However, a huge issue is the lean towards luxury travel - think nicer hotels and business class. This definitely hurts the budget traveler or parents trying to stretch out points for travel, and don't know or aren't able to research award travel. But... I think at that points you'd be better off with the CSP anyways. 

5) Oh the irony of high spenders wanting budget airline status

I can't take credit for this thought, but it stuck with me the past few weeks. The new card has a spending threshold where if you put $75,000 on the card per year, you get $500 Southwest credit, Southwest A-list status, IHG One Rewards Diamond Elite Status, and $250 Chase Shops credit. 

If you're able to put that much money on the card (and aren't working on SUBs) do you really need Southwest credit and status? It seems like Southwest was the only airline Chase could really negotiate things with, and it's not an airline high spenders usually fly. Plus, if you consider the $750 in credits after $75,000 spend... that's only 1% back in value. You literally can get way more value by even putting just a little bit of that $75,000 spend on SUBs or towards Southwest cards to earn more points and free flights. 

Just doesn't make sense. On the bright side, Chase didn't copy Amex and Capital One's strategy to limit lounge guests unless you met the spending threshold. 

What you should do if...

You're close to the end of the 48-month clock for Sapphire bonuses

• You can get a new Sapphire card/bonus every 48 months, but it seems that this new Reserve does not include this stipulation. 

• If you're close to renewal, downgrade your current Sapphire to a "Chase Freedom with Ultimate Rewards" 

• Then apply to the Chase Sapphire Preferred to get the 60,000 point bonus. If you like the new CSR, you'll be able to get it later. 

You already have the Chase Sapphire Reserve

• Keep it the card until after October 26 AND after you next renewal date. From now until October 26, 2025, your card doesn't change and your annual fee will remain $550. After October 26, you get ALL the new credits and your next anniversary date will have the updated annual fee. 

  • This means, for a $550 annual fee you can get a lot of value in the first year of product change

• Once your new $795 annual fee hits, you can either keep the card if it makes sense, or downgrade it to the Chase Sapphire Preferred

  • If you really want Sapphire lounge access, but don't value any of the new credits, get the Ritz Carlton card using our strategy here. 

You have the Chase Sapphire Preferred

• You can keep or downgrade depending on the value you get from this card and IF you decide to apply for the new CSR

• Now that they're two separate cards for you to evaluate, you need to do the math - just make sure you have at least one card that can transfer to travel partners

You don't have either card and haven't had it in the past 48 months

• Similar to the first scenario - get the Chase Sapphire Preferred now, then evaluate whether it's worth getting the new CSR