A New Chase Sapphire Reserve is Coming
Story of the week: Chase Sapphire Reserve refresh
Hot on the heels of the massive Sapphire Preferred bonus, Chase just confirmed to TPG that the Sapphire Reserve will be getting a refresh “this summer.” These updates usually come with juicy welcome offers—but the rumored changes are a mess for anyone seeking lazy, high-value travel.
According to Doctor of Credit, the refresh will entail a higher annual fee and more complicated bonus points and a mishmash of credits mostly focused on luxury purchases.
The current card has a $550 fee, comes with an extremely easy-to-use $300 in statement credits toward any travel, and offers triple points on travel and dining (plus some portal bonuses). The high net fee—the massive $250 gap between the annual fee and offsetting travel credits—keeps it from being a LazyPoints favorite, but it's simplicity made it a great fit for certain upscale sloths.
Now? It’s getting complicated. Flight and hotel bookings will earn 4x (an improvement!), but everyday travel like subways, taxis, tolls, and Airbnb drops to just 1x—down from 3x across the board today. The annual fee is skyrocketing to $795, offset by over $2,000 in eight different statement credits. Sounds promising, but here’s the rumored list:
• $500 Edit Hotels credit ($250 every 6 months)
• $300 Chase Tables fine dining credit ($150 every 6 months)
• $300 StubHub credit ($150 every 6 months)
• $300 DoorDash credit ($25/month)
• $120 DoorDash DashPass membership
• $250 Apple Music + Apple TV+ credit
• $120 Lyft credit ($10/month)
• $120 Peloton credit ($10/month)
Most of these are going to be low-value for most people, even if fully utilized. For example, Edit hotels—Chase’s fancy hotel program—are generally so expensive that using the credit is more like an upgrade; you’ll be paying the same or more out of pocket than if you booked an affordable hotel, it’ll just be nicer. That’s a nice perk, but it isn’t real cash value—the kind that offsets an annual fee—unless you would have booked the expensive hotel anyway. Likewise, the Tables credit might net you a nice meal, but unless you’re regularly paying for fine dining, it’s not really saving you any money.
The other credits are more spending dependent. I attend roughly one concert or sporting event per year, so the semi-annual StubHub credit would be nice, but not valuable. I get free Apple TV+ with my T-Mobile subscription, so that doesn’t do much for me. But others might be able to glean more value from those perks.
Overall, the potential to get good value from the Sapphire Reserve seems to be going up. If your spending matches those categories and you can afford the annual fee, you’ll likely come out ahead. But it’s a lot harder to recommend such a complicated product, and it’s definitely going to take more work to get full value for your money.
This new Reserve might offer more perks on paper, but if you’re after simplicity and every-day value, it’s probably a downgrade. Unless you dine like a Bond villain and stream Apple TV religiously, this one probably won’t be a keeper.
Sign-up bonus of the week 🎯
Amex and Delta are now offering bonuses of 80k, 90k, and 100k Skymiles on their co-branded Gold, Platinum, and Reserve cards, respectively. This is a repeat of a recent offer, so I’m not going to redo my analysis. What I said last time still holds. The Platinum is one of my top cards, but I recommend starting with the Gold for the waived first year fee and upgrade potential.
These are excellent cards that provide a great deal of value for Delta flyers and those using Delta or Amex points to fly economy across the world, so if that describes you, this might be a great time to pick one up.
Other great current bonuses
50k points on the Mesa Homeowner’s Card
5 free nights with the IHG Premier
175k on the Hilton Aspire
Quick Points of the Week ⚡
Special offers ✨
If you’re hungry, we’ve got some deals for you! We love grabbing extra points and miles via dining programs, and two big ones are offering elevated bonuses for signing up.
Delta dining and more. Delta Skymiles Dining is offering 1,500 miles for joining and completing some initial requirements including spending $30+ at a linked restaurant. You can also link your Delta and Starbucks account and earn 100 bonus points for loading $50+ onto your Starbucks account. You can also earn 1,000 miles by booking a $400+ rental car (excluding taxes and fees) via Delta. Do all 3? You’ll get a $50 Delta gift card. Register at the link above.
MileagePlus Dining bonus. If United is more your speed, you can earn 1,500 miles by signing up, spending $50 or more in one sitting, and reviewing the restaurant.
Note that I generally recommend sticking with one program, in case you dine enough to earn “VIP” status, earning 5x miles instead of 3x. But these elevated offers are somewhat rare, I’ve never seen a better offer from either, and Delta and United miles don’t expire, so I recommend doing both if possible, then sticking with your favorite for subsequent dines.