Chase’s Sapphire Preferred and Sapphire Reserve cards are super popular travel rewards cards with a lot in common. Both earn Chase Ultimate Rewards points which are transferrable to multiple hotel and airline partners. Both earn bonus points for travel and dining. Both can be used to pay for travel with points at better than 1 cent per point value. Both offer excellent travel protections and no foreign transaction fees. And both can make points earned on Chase Freedom cards and select Chase Ink cards more valuable because you can move those “cash back” points to your Sapphire Preferred or Sapphire Reserve card in order to book travel for better than 1 cent per point, or to transfer points to airline and hotel partners.
Which card is best for you? Each card has its own pluses and minuses along with the wildly different annual fees ($550 vs $95). In this post, you’ll find a side by side comparison of each card’s benefits, perks and travel & purchase protections in an attempt to help you sort that question out.
Before diving into the details of each card, it’s important to mention that the best card for you right now is almost certainly whichever one offers the better welcome bonus. Later, you can always call Chase to ask about product changing to the other card. At the time of this writing, there’s no question that the Sapphire Preferred card is the better starting point because Chase is offering an amazing 100,000 point offer (please check the offer here to see if it is still available).
Overview
If there is such a thing as a “classic” credit card, the Chase Sapphire Preferred card is it and it’s not hyperbole to say that it changed the world of credit card rewards when it was originally launched in 2009. Not only was it novel for having multiple spending category bonuses, it also offered the ability to earn flexible Chase Ultimate Rewards points, allowing cardholders to transfer earnings to hotel and airline loyalty programs.
However, when the Sapphire Reserve card first debuted several years later, it was clearly a better choice than the Sapphire Preferred for most folks who travel. It sported 3X rewards on travel and dining compared to the Preferred card’s 2X earnings in both categories at that time. The Sapphire Reserve offered (and continues to offer) cardholders 1.5 cents per point value towards travel booked through Chase vs. the 1.25 cents per point that the Preferred card provides. The Reserve also had a slew of benefits not available to Preferred cardholders, including a Priority Pass membership.
Initially, the Sapphire Reserve cost $450 per year, but the automatic $300 yearly travel credit that the card comes with made it seem more like a $150 card. In this light, the $95 Sapphire Preferred card didn’t fare well by comparison. After all, with only a net $55 per year extra, you could get better perks, better point earnings and better value for your points.
Things started changing when Chase increased the Sapphire Reserve annual fee to $550. Now, the Sapphire Reserve is like a $255 per year card after the $300 rebate, making it substantially more expensive than the Sapphire Preferred. Then Chase increased the Sapphire Preferred card’s dining earning to 3x, equaling the dining earnings that the Reserve card offers.
Given all these changes, is the Sapphire Reserve still worth the premium? Or, are we now better off with the Sapphire Preferred?
Sapphire Reserve and Preferred Current Welcome Offers
| Card Offer | Base Earning Rate | Annual Fee Ongoing | welcome bonus min spend or expected spend | Bank | Network | Consumer or Business Card | Foreign Xchange Fee? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 ⓘ $1360 1st Yr Value Estimate$50 prepaid hotel credit valued at $35 Click to learn about first year value estimates 100K Points ⓘAffiliateThis is an affiliate offer. Frequent Miler may earn a commission if you are approved for this offer 100K after $5K spend in 3 months$95 Annual Fee | $0.0150 | $95 | $5,000 | Chase | Visa | Consumer | No |
 ⓘ $555 1st Yr Value Estimate$300 travel credit valued at $285 Click to learn about first year value estimates 60K Points ⓘAffiliateThis is an affiliate offer. Frequent Miler may earn a commission if you are approved for this offer 60K after $5K spend in 3 months$550 Annual Fee Alternate Offer: 70K after $4K spend showing on some accounts when logged-in to Chase Recent better offer: Expired 12/1/22: 80K after $4K spend | $0.0150 | $550 | $5,000 | Chase | Visa | Consumer | No |
If you’re looking for a new card you should start with the one that offers the best welcome bonus. In most cases you can later product change from one to the other.
Annual Fee & Statement Credits
| Sapphire Reserve | Sapphire Preferred | |
|---|---|---|
| Annual Fee | $550 | $95 |
| Authorized User Fee | $75 | $0 |
| Annual Travel Rebate | $300 | $50 towards hotels booked through Chase. |
The Sapphire Reserve card’s annual $300 travel rebate is super easy to earn each year. In fact, it’s hard not to earn it! Each year, all travel purchases put on the card are automatically rebated up to $300 in total. Note that you don’t earn points on that $300 of spend, so the rebate is arguably worth slightly less than $300.
Meanwhile, the Sapphire Preferred $50 hotel rebate isn’t nearly as easy to earn. To earn this rebate you must book a paid hotel stay through Chase Travel. Note that when booking chain hotels this way, you do not earn hotel points or elite benefits. Worse, the rates found through the portal may not be nearly as good as what you can obtain through other means such as with member discounts, AAA discounts, etc. And, finally, when booking hotels through Chase Travel, you can’t earn extra rewards by starting in an online shopping portal.
Card Perks
Below we’ve listed the perks for each card that we think are the most valuable. For complete details about card perks and more, see our guides to the Chase Sapphire Reserve and Chase Sapphire Preferred.
| Sapphire Reserve | Sapphire Preferred | |
|---|---|---|
| No foreign transaction fees |
Yes | Yes |
| Transfer points to partners: Transfer points 1 to 1 to a variety of airline and hotel programs | Yes | Yes |
| Point value towards travel: When booking travel through Ultimate Rewards, points are worth more than 1 cent each. | 1.5 cents per point | 1.25 cents per point |
| Point earnings for travel spend |
3X | 2X |
| Point earnings for dining spend | 3X | 3X |
| Point earnings for streaming services | 1X | 3X |
| Point earnings for online grocery | 1X | 3X |
| Anniversary point bonus* | N/A | 10% |
| Priority Pass & Chase Sapphire Airport Lounge Access: Free entry for cardholder and up to two guests. This version does NOT include Priority Pass restaurants. | Yes | N/A |
| Global Entry, TSA Pre✔® or NEXUS Fee Credit: Receive a statement credit of up to $120 every 4 years as reimbursement for the Global Entry, TSA Pre Check, or NEXUS application fee charged to your card. | Yes | N/A |
Travel Protections
Both cards offer very good protections for paid travel. However, the Sapphire Reserve is clearly superior:
| Sapphire Reserve | Sapphire Preferred | |
|---|---|---|
| Primary Car Rental Coverage1 | Yes | Yes |
| Roadside Assistance | Free 4 times per year | Requires paying fee for each service |
| Trip Cancellation and Interruption Coverage | Up to $20K per trip | Up to $20K per trip |
| Trip Delay Insurance | 6 hour delay | 12 hour delay |
| Lost Luggage |
Yes | Yes |
| Baggage Delay |
Yes | Yes |
| Travel Accident Insurance | Yes | Yes |
| Emergency Evac & Transport | Up to $100K | N/A |
| Emergency Medical & Dental |
Up to $2,500 | N/A |
- Rental car insurance is not primary for residents of New York state that also have a personal car insurance policy.
Purchase Protections
Here are the highlights of the purchase protections that both cards offer. Again, the Sapphire Reserve is clearly superior:
| Sapphire Reserve | Sapphire Preferred | |
|---|---|---|
| Extended Warranty: Extends the time period of U.S. manufacturer’s warranty by an additional year, on eligible warranties of three years or less. | Yes | Yes |
| Damage, Theft, Loss Protection: Covers your new purchases for 120 days against damage, theft or accidental loss. | Max $10K per claim | Max $500 per claim |
| Return Protection: You can be reimbursed for eligible items that the store won’t take back within 90 days of purchase. | Max $500 per item, $1,000 per year | N/A |
Chase Sapphire Reserve vs Preferred Summary
| Sapphire Reserve | Sapphire Preferred | |
|---|---|---|
| Annual Fee |
$550 | $95 |
| Authorized User Fee |
$75 | $0 |
| Travel Rebate |
$300 | $50 Hotel |
| Point value towards travel |
1.5 | 1.25 |
| Point earning for travel |
3X | 2X |
| Point earning for dining | 3x | 3x |
| Point earning for online grocery and streaming services | 1x | 3x |
| Anniversary point bonus* | N/A | 10% |
| Perks | Better | Limited |
| Travel protection |
Best | Good |
| Purchase protection |
Better | Good |
Tim’s Conclusion
I used to be a defender of the of the Sapphire Reserve vs the Sapphire Preferred, despite declining enthusiasm for the Sapphire Reserve in the world of points and miles. That has changed.
Let’s assume that we value the $300 travel credit at face value (which we probably shouldn’t) and factor in the Sapphire Preferred card’s hotel credit at $45, just for convenience’s sake. That would make the yearly difference in annual fee between the two cards ~$200.
The travel and purchase protections on the Reserve are great, but I can have them with the better-value Ritz Carlton card for $100 less per year, along with a similar version of Priority Pass. That leaves the 3x earning on travel and 1.5 cents per point redemption through Chase Travel as the primary advantages that it has over the Preferred.
In order to break even on the additional $200 that I’m spending each year, I’d have to redeem ~80,000 points annually on travel through the Chase Portal.
Conversely, we value Chase Ultimate Rewards points at ~1.5 cents each. Using that (admittedly conservative) number, I’d have to spend ~$13,000 on travel using the card each year to earn enough points at 3x to offset $200.
Spoiler Alert: I don’t do either one of those enough for the Sapphire Reserve to make sense for me.
I had been a Sapphire Reserve cardholder for years, but no more. I no longer see the (significant) benefits of the card outweighing the $550 annual fee when I compare it with the $95 Sapphire Preferred (or the $95 Ink Business Preferred). When I last did this analysis, I downgraded my Sapphire Reserve to a Sapphire Preferred card and I still firmly believe that was the right move.
Greg’s Conclusion
Tim estimated a $200 difference in annual fees between the two cards after taking into account their travel rebates. I think the difference is a little bit smaller than that, but not enough to be worth coming up with my own estimate. I’ll roll with Tim’s $200. So, the question is whether, for me, the Sapphire Reserve is worth $200 more than the Sapphire Preferred?
I already get a slightly better version of Priority Pass from my Ritz-Carlton card, so that Sapphire Reserve perk doesn’t add to the card’s value… for me. Instead, the main advantage of the Sapphire Reserve card for me is that it earns 3x valuable Ultimate Rewards points for travel spend while also providing best-in-class travel protections (see this post for details about the latter).
Last year I spent $6,400 in travel purchases on my Sapphire Reserve card. At 3x, that spend generated 19,200 points. If I had put that same spend on a Sapphire Preferred card at 2x, I would have earned 2 x 6400 = 12,800 points plus 640 more points thanks to the Sapphire Preferred card’s annual 10% bonus (which is based on the spend amount not the 2x amount). So, the Sapphire Preferred card would have earned 13,440 points. That’s only 5,760 points fewer than I earned with the Sapphire Reserve card.
But if I didn’t have the Sapphire Reserve card, I wouldn’t put my spend on the Sapphire Preferred card. Instead, I’d put my spend on my Ritz-Carlton card since it offers the same excellent travel protections as the Sapphire Reserve. The Ritz card earns 3x Marriott points for travel spend. True, both the Sapphire Reserve and the Ritz card earn 3x for travel, but I value Ultimate Rewards points at least twice as much as Marriott points. So, in terms of value earned from travel spend, the Sapphire Reserve is twice as good. With the Sapphire Reserve, I earned 19,200 Ultimate Rewards points last year from my 3x spend. At the current Reasonable Redemption Value of 1.5 cents per point, that comes to $288 in redemption value, or about $144 more value than I would have received from spend on the Ritz card. That doesn’t get me to the $200 in value I’d want to keep the Sapphire Reserve card.
Based on this analysis, my Sapphire Reserve card isn’t worth keeping. If my spend patterns hold from year to year, the savings from downgrading my Sapphire Reserve card would more than compensate for the loss of earned rewards. Even better, I could downgrade my Sapphire Reserve to a no-annual-fee Freedom card. Thanks to my Frequent Miler business, I have an Ink Business Preferred card that I plan to keep long term. I could move my points from other cards to that one in order to make all of my points transferrable.
Based on the above analysis, my plan is to downgrade my Sapphire Reserve card to a no-annual-fee Freedom card and start putting my personal travel expenses on my Ritz card. I’ll continue to put business travel expenses on my Ink Business Preferred card since that card earns 3x Ultimate Rewards for travel (but with lesser travel protections). I’ll also see if I can get approved for a new Sapphire Preferred card while the 100K offer in effect. Why not?
Final Word
Even though both of us (Tim and Greg) concluded that, for us, the Sapphire Reserve card’s benefits don’t justify the annual fee, many people will reasonably decide otherwise. For me (Greg) the difference comes down to the fact that I have the Ritz card. If I didn’t have the Ritz card, my conclusion would be different.
Here are some reasons where it would make sense to choose the Sapphire Reserve over the Sapphire Preferred:
- You spend a lot on travel and value earning 3x Ultimate Rewards points for that spend
- You want to redeem a lot of points for 1.5 cents per point value through Chase Travel
- You value the Sapphire Reserve card’s Priority Pass benefit (and its ability to get you into Chase Sapphire Lounges)
- You value the Sapphire Reserve card’s travel protections
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I could maybe justify the annual fee difference if the points earning was as good. But getting 3x streaming and 3x online grocery (I can pay in app and it codes as online) far more than offsets the 1x difference in travel.
I have other cards with Priority Pass and now that Chase doesn’t cover restaurants, the value proposition, unless you have a Ritz card, comes down to whether you would use a Chase lounge regularly.
Can you explain why a bank headquartered in NYC excludes the primary auto rental coverage for residents of NY? (Its the reason I just cancelled my Reserve after 8 years- plenty of other cards have the secondary rental coverage).
No I can’t explain it but maybe someone else here can?
Is there some state law issue involved?
I really love this post and the discussion. One thing I am curious about is if I downgraded to Freedom, applied for preferred, and was declined, how soon could I upgrade back to a CSR?
I’m not certain but I think you could upgrade right away.
Great insights and analysis. I completely agree with where you both landed on your decision. I used to hold the Reserve when it was $450 and when the Preferred had no $50 credit. But now with the Reserve at $550 and me finding it much better to transfer points to partners such as Hyatt rather than redeem the points at 1.25 or 1.5 through the Chase portal, it makes the Preferred the clear choice.
I”ve been on the fence about downgrading my CSR but now with the new lounge open in San Diego (and Phoenix) , I’ll see how many times I take advantage of that Before making a decision.
I just called Chase about downgrading my CSR to a Freedom card. They said that I would have to wait at least one billing cycle to apply for the CSP, and that if later on I want to upgrade to a CSR, I have to wait a year for that. She also said that the travel I have paid with CSR, which is coming up in July, would not be protected by the CSR benefits anymore. I know it is 100K but who knows it it will be available in two months? Decided to keep my CSR.
Reps don’t always give the correct info. If you downgrade, a week should be more than enough time before you apply for the CSP. The referral links are saying to have friends apply by May12th, but some say that could be extended.
Great analysis. I am downgrading.
Chase Sapphire Reserve – a person can pick and choose what works for them from the items below.
$300 Travel Credit
$300 DoorDash Credit ($25/month as noted by Lang)
$200 up to via DoorDash discounts on gift cards
$120 up to Lyft credit ($10/month)
10X versus 5X on a single travel portal booking is worth something
$2000 * 5X extra = 10,000 * 1.25X transfer bonus * 2cpp at the airline = $250
See Miguel’s comment below for an out-of-the-park example.
1.5cpp versus 1.25cpp on a single travel portal redemption is worth something
$500 / 1.5cpp = 33,333 points
$500 / 1.25cpp = 40,000 points
6,666 points * 1.25 transfer bonus * 2cpp at the airline = $167
If the answer comes out to the Sapphire Preferred, then get a Bilt card.
Agree with this. Bilt is a great card with many valuable partners ( better than chase at this point ) with very similar points multipliers as the preferred. I do not do online groceries, and streaming is negligible . Plus one could use the cap one savor for those purchases which is also a $0 AF card. I may dump chase long term and just keep their hotel and airline cards and use bilt.
How do you use the CSR to buy gift cards at Doordash and get refunded for them? thanks.
FYI- My annual fee just came due- I called recon and without much discussion they gave me 150 dollar credit toward annual fee
Recon? Or the customer service department?
I called the number on back of card and just said the annual fee has become prohibitive and directly asked if there was anything they could do or i may have to cancel.
Thanks. That’s what I figured you meant.
For me, the DoorDash credits are the deciding factor in this comparison. I rarely used the CSP hotel credit so the card cost a full $95/year. Thanks to plenty of nearby convenience stores and restaurants, the CSR DoorDash credits are easy for me to use for pickup and are a bit better value than the old Instacart credits: the two $10 non-restaurant credits satisfy my monthly snack cravings in 2 simultaneous orders while the $5 restaurant credit provides a paltry discount on the inflated DoorDash prices. I value these DoorDash credits at 50%, or $150/year. Combined with the $300 travel credit and the CSR’s other advantages, my vote goes to the CSR, but I couldn’t justify the card without convenient use of the DoorDash credits.
Yes, I also use the 2x $10 a month door dash for pickup at a Kwik trip close to my house. I also use the $5 for a favorite restaurant. I don’t have the Ritz card or any others for lounge access, so I do use it for that, also.
I recently upgraded to the Reserve so that I could use my Chase points to pay for a $10,000 Safari + Kilimanjaro climb for 3 people. With the Preferred, it would have cost me 800K points, but with the Reserve it only cost me ~667K pts. I can regularly get at least 2 cpp out of Chase points (the above was an exception to avoid having to shell out $10K), so the value of 133K Chase points to me is about $2600, far more than the additional annual fee. If I don’t continue to value the card, I’ll just downgrade back to the Preferred.
Plan to downgrade to Preferred when my annual fee renews in December. Until then the Reserve will be very useful for some international travel in the works this fall.
I also value the small but useful DoorDash credit that’s on the CSR but not the CSP. At $5/month, I think it’s fair to value at half, so $30/year. If you do non-restaurant orders, it’s an extra $10 off — not something I do frequently so it’s a wash for me. To me it’s at most a $170 difference and it starts to get close for me since I use the 3X travel as well as the 1.5 cpp redemption.
Yeah I should have mentioned that. In my case I don’t value the DoorDash benefits so that wasn’t a factor but it makes sense that it can be the little shove needed to make the CSR the better fit.
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