Chase/CNET
The Chase Sapphire Reserve®* is well-known among travel enthusiasts and average credit card users as a great travel credit card. However, its accessibility to the former crowd is likely to change.
The Sapphire Reserve was an expensive card before Chase's recent update at $550 annually, but it now costs $795, which is even more than its top competitor, The Platinum Card® from American Express.
Aside from the higher fee, the biggest changes to the card are a greater emphasis on annual credits and a larger welcome offer. Chase is also changing how much your points are worth, but more on that later.
The card issuer is adding several new annual credits, elite memberships and subscriptions to its list of benefits. This sounds great on paper, but personally, it makes the card even less attractive. I don't want my credit cards to require a ton of legwork to get the greatest value from them.
In my mind, a credit card should make it easier to spend and earn rewards, not have several hoops to jump through to get the maximum value. You shouldn't need to redeem dozens of credits, sign up for several complimentary subscriptions, only book flights and hotels when your points are boosted and feel like you have to buy a Peloton to make sure you're getting enough value to justify a card's annual fee.
I have no doubt that some travel experts and credit card aficionados will disagree and could happily squeeze oodles of value from this card, but for credit cardholders like myself who would rather have a more automated, streamlined experience, it just doesn't seem worth the effort.
Anyway, here's what's changing.
What does the new Chase Sapphire Reserve look like?
Chase has changed the card's rewards and how much they're worth when it's time to redeem.
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