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The two versions of the Chase Sapphire card have helped catapult travel rewards into a mainstream obsession. The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is still one of the most popular rewards credit cards despite debuting more than a decade ago, and the Chase Sapphire Reserve® was so in-demand that Chase ran out of metal cards when it launched in 2016.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and Chase Sapphire Reserve® got makeovers last year, adding new or improved bonus categories and additional benefits. Plus, the Chase Sapphire Reserve® currently has an increased limited-time welcome bonus offer. Neither card got an annual fee increase: You’ll still pay Chase Sapphire Reserve® per year for the Chase Sapphire Reserve® and Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card for the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card.
Chase Sapphire Preferred and Chase Sapphire Reserve welcome bonus offers:
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card: Earn Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (worth Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card in travel, based on Insider’s valuations)Chase Sapphire Reserve®: Earn Chase Sapphire Reserve® (worth Chase Sapphire Reserve® in travel, based on Insider’s valuations) (elevated offer)
Chase Ultimate Rewards points are some of the most valuable credit card rewards around, so having either the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card or the Chase Sapphire Reserve® is a smart move, especially if you want to use points to travel. But while it used to be relatively easy to make a case for the Reserve’s higher fee, the pandemic travel downturn changed the equation a bit.
Let’s dig into the Chase Sapphire cards’ biggest differences — including the newest updates — to help make your choice easier.
We’re focused here on the rewards and perks that come with each card. These cards won’t be worth it if you’re paying interest or late fees. When using a credit card, it’s important to pay your balance in full each month, make payments on time, and only spend what you can afford to pay.
Chase Sapphire card benefits and rewards
Aside from the annual fee and welcome bonuses, the biggest differences are their earning rates, and that the Chase Sapphire Reserve® comes with up to a $300 annual travel credit, access to more than 1,300 airport lounges through the Priority Pass network, a trip delay insurance policy that takes effect after shorter delays, elite benefits with a few car rental agencies, and access to new Chase Sapphire airport lounges (when they open) and Reserved by Sapphire restaurant reservations.
Meanwhile, the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card recently added up to $50 per year in statement credits for hotels booked through the Chase Travel Portal. Cardholders will also receive an anniversary bonus equal to 10% of all purchases made in the previous year.
Read Insider’s guide to earning and redeeming Chase Ultimate Rewards® to find out how to maximize your points.
Both the Chase Sapphire Reserve® and Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card cardholders also get a complimentary DashPass membership, which waives delivery fees on orders of $12 or more (activation required, through December 31, 2024). The Chase Sapphire Reserve® also offers a $5 monthly DoorDash in-app credit from April 2022 to December 2024.
Also, both Sapphire cards get Instacart and Instacart+ benefits. With the Chase Sapphire Reserve®, you’ll get a complimentary free year of Instacart+ membership (usually $99 annually) — including benefits like free delivery and up to a $15 statement credit towards Instacart purchases each month. And with the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, you’ll get six months of Instacart+ membership and benefits — including up to $15 statement credits per quarter (available through July 2024).
Through March 2025, the Chase Sapphire Reserve® offers 10x points on Lyft rides — a great return on spending — while the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card offers 5x points. Both cards also offer $10 per month in Gopuff credit through December 2023.
Chase only allows you to have one Sapphire card at a time, so if you already have one of these cards, you won’t be approved for the other.
You also aren’t eligible if you’ve earned the bonus on any Sapphire card in the past 48 months, or have opened five or more cards (from any bank) in the past 24 months. The latter restriction is known as the Chase 5/24 rule, and it applies to most Chase cards.
Redeeming Chase Ultimate Rewards points
Chase offers cardholders great options for redeeming points, including several that don’t involve travel. You can exchange them for cash back at 1 cent per point, or use them to purchase travel through the Chase Travel Portal — with a 25% bonus for Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card cardholders. Best of all, you can transfer points to Chase’s airline and hotel partners.
With the Chase Sapphire Reserve®, you can redeem points the same way as with the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card — with one difference. When using them to purchase travel through Chase, you’ll get a 50% bonus, instead of 25% with the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and Chase Sapphire Reserve® cardholders can use points toward eligible purchases through Pay Yourself Back and get the same bonus value as when they redeem through the Chase Travel Portal.
Which Chase Sapphire card should you get?
Along with the perks, though, the Chase Sapphire Reserve® comes with a higher annual fee. While the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card costs only Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card a year, the Chase Sapphire Reserve® has an annual fee of $550.
Chase Sapphire Reserve® cardholders receive up to $300 in statement credits toward travel purchases each cardholder year — effectively reducing the net annual cost to $250.
So what, if anything, makes the Chase Sapphire Reserve® worth the higher annual fee compared to the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card? Which one is right for you?
Here are a few questions to ask yourself when deciding between the two cards.
How much do you spend on travel, dining, and other bonus categories?
To start, let’s keep it simple and focus on the points earning.
Without considering any other perks or benefits, the deciding factor between the two cards should be your spending habits. Each card offers bonus rewards in different categories, but if you spend enough in categories where the Chase Sapphire Reserve® earns more points (for example, hotels and car rentals purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards), it may be worth paying a higher annual fee.
Keep in mind the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card offers a couple of categories that aren’t available on the Chase Sapphire Reserve® at all — 3x points on online grocery purchases (excluding Target, Walmart, and wholesale clubs) and on select streaming services. If you spend a lot in these categories, you’ll likely do better with the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card fee is Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, while the Chase Sapphire Reserve® fee is $550. However, if you factor in the $300 travel credit that the Sapphire Reserve includes each year — which is good on everything from taxis, parking, tolls, and subway fares to flights, cruises, and hotels — the card’s fee is effectively only $250.
With the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, you can effectively pay only $45 a year when you factor in the $50 hotel credit (Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card – $50). So the difference between the Preferred’s fee (effectively $45) and the Reserve’s (effectively $250) is $205.
For argument’s sake, let’s assume you value your points at 1.5 cents each (that’s the value of points used to purchase travel through Chase or for paying yourself back for eligible purchases, with the 50% bonus if you hold the Sapphire Reserve). You would need to earn an additional 13,667 points per year ($205 / $0.015) to make up for the effective annual fee difference between the two cards.
The amount of spending required to generate that difference in points depends on whether or not you’ll be able to take advantage of the Chase Sapphire Reserve®’s higher bonus categories. For example, if you spend a lot on hotels and car rentals booked through the Chase Travel Portal, you’ll earn 10x points with the Reserve on these purchases, versus 5x points with the Preferred.
If you value Chase points higher because you transfer them to partners like British Airways, Hyatt, Marriott, and United to book higher-value redemptions, simply substitute your valuation of Chase points for $0.015 in this equation to find your breakeven point.
Insider values Chase Ultimate Rewards points as worth 1.8 cents apiece on average, because you can often get a higher rate of return by transferring points to partners and booking award travel.
Of course, this will still require you to pay the $550 annual fee every 12 months. Even though you’ll get the travel credit applied to the first $300 of relevant spending each cardmember year, that can be a lot of money to pay upfront.
Whether you want to front $550 is a personal decision, so make sure you weigh the cash outlay against the higher earning potential.
Moving on from points earning …
Will you use the Chase Sapphire Reserve’s benefits?
In exchange for a higher annual fee, the Chase Sapphire Reserve® offers the following benefits that you won’t find on the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card:
Access to Chase Sapphire Lounges by The Club (when open)Access to Reserved by Sapphire restaurant reservationsPriority Pass Select airport lounge membershipGlobal Entry, TSA PreCheck, or NEXUS application fee credit
If you can make use of these perks, the higher annual fee could be worth it.
But if you don’t want to travel right now or aren’t interested in ordering food delivery through DoorDash, these perks won’t move the needle much — and you’ll still have to pay $550 a year. In that case, it really comes down to how much you spend in each card’s bonus categories, and how you value the extra Chase points you’ll earn with either card.
You’ll also want to evaluate the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card’s new benefits — including the 10% anniversary points bonus and $50 hotel credit — because you won’t receive those on the Chase Sapphire Reserve®. Again, depending on your travel and spending habits, these perks could be more worthwhile to you, and for a much lower annual fee.
How do you value the Sapphire Preferred’s welcome bonus offer?
Normally, the welcome bonus on the Chase Sapphire Reserve® is less valuable (despite the higher annual fee) than the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card. But right now the Chase Sapphire Reserve® is offering an increased bonus (but only for a limited time) that easily surpasses Preferred’s bonus.
New Reserve cardholders now earn a whopping Chase Sapphire Reserve®. That’s worth $1,200 in travel booked through Chase, and potentially even more when you transfer rewards to airline and hotel partners.
Still, the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card offers a significant bonus of Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card. That’s worth $750 when redeemed through Chase Travel, and you’d only have to pay a Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card annual fee.
How do you value the trip delay insurance?
A lot of discussion around the Chase Sapphire Reserve® focuses on the points and more obvious perks, like lounge access, but personally, I think the trip delay insurance is one of the most valuable features. I live in New York, where delays are fairly frequent, whether because of mechanical issues, intense weather, or other problems.
That’s why I like the extra layer of security added by the Chase Sapphire Reserve®. The card’s trip delay coverage becomes effective after just six hours, or if you end up stuck overnight. Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card coverage is also activated when there’s an overnight delay; if the delay is entirely during the day, the coverage takes effect after 12 hours.
If the trip delay insurance activating sooner is worth the higher annual fee, then you should consider the Chase Sapphire Reserve®. After a seven-hour delay on a trip, I was able to submit a claim for expenses including lunch, a phone backup battery, and even a pair of headphones I needed. However, any stay that incurs major expenses, like a hotel room and a change of clothes, would probably involve an overnight stay and therefore be covered by the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card insurance.
Will you use the airport lounge access?
The Chase Sapphire Reserve® includes a complimentary Priority Pass Select membership for as long as you have the card. Priority Pass is a network of more than 1,300 airport lounges around the world. A Select membership grants access to member lounges for you and up to two travel companions.
Having the Chase Sapphire Reserve® will also get you access to the new Chase Sapphire Lounges by The Club, which are slated to begin opening later in 2022 at airports like New York-LaGuardia and Las Vegas.
While amenities vary by lounge, most of them tend to offer private Wi-Fi, free hard and soft drinks, snacks, and comfortable seating. Some lounges also feature heartier food options, sometimes included or sometimes for an additional charge.
You can take a look at Priority Pass’s full network of lounges by clicking “Find a Lounge” on the upper-left corner of this page to gauge whether the membership will be useful for you. The network is more robust abroad as the number of US locations is relatively limited and they tend to be found in international terminals, so you may not always be able to access lounges before domestic trips.
Several airports also have restaurants that are part of the Priority Pass network. At these restaurants, you’ll get a certain amount credited on the bill for you and each guest. For example, at Houston George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH), two restaurants — Landry’s Seafood and Cadillac Mexican Kitchen and Tequila Bar — participate in Priority Pass.
If you don’t think you’ll have much use for the Priority Pass membership, you might prefer the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and its lower annual fee.
Do you already have Global Entry/TSA PreCheck?
If you don’t have Global Entry and TSA PreCheck, you should really get it. With PreCheck, you can use special security lines at most US airports. In those lanes, you can keep your shoes, belt, and light jacket on, leave your laptop in your bag, and only go through a metal detector instead of a full-body scanner. The process is much quicker than regular security, and it’s much less uncomfortable.
With Global Entry, you can skip the immigration line when returning from the US and scan your passport at an unmanned kiosk instead. It prints a receipt you bring to the customs stop after baggage claim, and just like that, you’re good to go.
Keep in mind there are plenty of other cards that offer reimbursement for the Global Entry or TSA PreCheck application fee, and some of them have much lower annual fees.
You can apply to either program, but Global Entry usually includes TSA PreCheck and the $100 application fee is only a bit more than the $85 you’d pay to just apply for PreCheck. Plus, the Chase Sapphire Reserve® offers a credit for either program (or NEXUS, which includes expedited customs and immigration into Canada). If you aren’t enrolled in one of these programs yet, you may want to consider the Chase Sapphire Reserve®. Otherwise, the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card might be your best bet, unless you’re due to renew your membership soon.
Will you add any authorized users to your account?
If you’re looking to add authorized users, like a spouse or child, keep in mind that the Chase Sapphire Reserve® charges an annual fee of $75 to add anyone to your account.
Each authorized user gets his or her own Priority Pass Select membership at least. There’s no fee to add an authorized user to your Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card account.
Comparison: Chase Sapphire Preferred vs Chase Sapphire Reserve
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Chase Sapphire Reserve®
Annual fee
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Chase Sapphire Reserve®
Rewards rate
5x points on travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards
5x points on Lyft rides through March 2025
3x points on dining
3x points on online grocery purchases (excluding Target, Walmart, and wholesale clubs)
3x points on select streaming services
2x points on all other travel purchases
1 point per dollar on all other purchases
5x total points on air travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards (after earning the $300 travel credit)
10x total points on hotels and car rentals purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards (after earning the $300 travel credit)
10x points on Lyft rides through March 2025
3x points on other travel (after earning the $300 travel credit) and dining
1 point per dollar on everything else
Welcome bonus
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Chase Sapphire Reserve®
Card benefits
10% anniversary point bonus
Primary car rental insurance
Trip interruption/cancellation
Trip delay insurance
Baggage delay insurance
Lost luggage reimbursement
Extended warranty
Purchase protection
Access to Chase Sapphire Lounges by The Club (when open)
Access to Reserved by Sapphire restaurant reservations
Priority Pass Select airport lounge membership
Global Entry, TSA PreCheck, or NEXUS application fee credit
Primary car rental insurance
Complimentary elite status with Avis, National, and Silvercar car rental agencies
Emergency medical/dental
Medical evacuation/transportation insurance
Trip interruption/cancellation
Trip delay insurance
Baggage delay insurance
Lost luggage reimbursement
Extended warranty
Purchase protection
Statement credits
Up to $50 in statement credits toward hotel stays booked through Chase each year
Complimentary DoorDash DashPass membership when you activate through December 31, 2024
$10 per month in Gopuff credit through December 2023
Six-month complimentary Instacart+ membership (activate by July 31, 2024)
Up to $15 per quarter in Instacart credits through July 2024
Up to $300 in statement credits each cardmember year toward travel purchases
Complimentary DoorDash DashPass membership when you activate through December 31, 2024
$5 monthly DoorDash in-app credit from April 2022 to December 2024
$10 per month in Gopuff credit through December 2023
One-year complimentary Instacart+ membership (activate by July 31, 2024)
Up to $15 per month in Instacart credits through July 2024
Points value through Chase Travel Portal and Pay Yourself Back
1.25 cents per point
1.5 cents per point
Authorized user fee
$0
$75
Foreign transaction fee
No
No
Review
Chase Sapphire Preferred card review
Chase Sapphire Reserve card review
Bottom line
Ultimately, the two biggest things to consider when deciding between the cards are whether you’re willing to pay the higher annual fee for the Chase Sapphire Reserve®, and whether the card’s additional benefits and bonus categories make it worth that higher fee.
Beyond that, take a look at the difference in perks and see which is best for you.