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Forget the flat 2x or 3x dining and travel rewards that these cards have offered to-date. New rewards are coming. And these aren’t just rumors. The leaked documents come directly from the card issuer itself.
Reddit poster “the_one_with_me” found that the Ultimate Rewards portal links to cardmember agreements that differ from the cards’ current rewards structure. This suggests that these changes are in the works, but that the details wUpdatere leaked early. Here’s what’s changing (hat tip Doctor of Credit):
Chase Sapphire Preferred
Current rewards structure
- 2x for Travel and Dining
- 5x Lyft (through March 2022)
- Points worth 1.25 cents each when redeemed for travel & Pay Yourself Back
New rewards structure
- Link to Sapphire Preferred document
- Effective date: August 16, 2021 (confirmed)
- 3x Dining, Streaming Services, and Online Grocery (excluding Target, Walmart, and Wholesale Clubs). Note from Greg: I think that “online grocery” means grocery ordering and delivery services like Instacart and Shipt.
- 5x Travel Booked through Chase’s Travel Portal
- 2x all other travel
- 1x on all other purchases
- 10% Anniversary point bonus: Each account anniversary, “earn bonus points that equal 10% of your total spend in points” based on spend in your cardmember year.
Note from Greg: This adds an extra 0.1x to all of your spend. If you spend $25,000 during the year, you’ll get 25,000 x .1 = 2,500 bonus points. You do not get extra points based on bonus categories. e.g. dining purchases (which will now earn 3x) effectively earn 3.1x not 3.3x thanks to this bonus. - $50 Hotel Credit: Each cardmember year, earn $50 back on hotels booked through Chase Ultimate Rewards. The portion of this spend that is rebated will not earn Ultimate Rewards. Those who have the card open before August 15, 2021, will have to wait until their next account anniversary after that date to begin earning this credit.
- Points worth 1.25 cents each when redeemed for travel. There is no mention of “Pay Yourself Back”.
- Update: New card design will be available to new and existing cardmembers after August 16
My Take
When Chase introduced 3x dining and drugstore and 5x travel through Chase for the Freedom Flex and Freedom Unlimited, I believed that they would quickly add the same for the Sapphire Preferred. Well, it didn’t happen quickly, but it’s finally coming. We still don’t get 3x drugstore, but the other two components are coming, along with 3x streaming and online grocery.
Overall, in my opinion, assuming Chase won’t also increase the card’s annual fee, these are decent enhancements to the old Sapphire Preferred card. 3x dining does more than bring the card on par with the Freedom cards that earn the same because the Sapphire Preferred has no foreign transaction fees. The 10% anniversary bonus sounds more exciting than it is. Who spends enough on the Sapphire Preferred to turn this bonus into big points? If you are spending that much, you probably should be using a card that earns better rewards to begin with. The $50 hotel credit is a pure net win for anyone willing to book a hotel online once a year.
I don’t find any of the enhancements super exciting, but they do offer enough to make this once great card relevant again.
Chase Sapphire Reserve
Current rewards structure
- 3x Travel and Dining
- 10X Lyft (through March 2022)
- 1x on all other purchases
- $300 Annual Travel Credit
- Points worth 1.5 cents each when redeemed for travel & Pay Yourself Back
New rewards structure
- Link to Sapphire Reserve document
- Effective date: August 16, 2021 (confirmed)
- 10x on Chase dining
Note from Greg: This sounds more exciting than it is because in practice, to-date, there are very few opportunities to prepay for dining through Ultimate Rewards. - 10x Hotel and Car Rental purchases through Chase’s Travel Portal
- 5x Airfare Booked through Chase’s Travel Portal
- 3x for all other Travel and Dining
- 1x on all other purchases
- $300 Annual Travel Credit
- Points worth 1.5 cents each when redeemed for travel. There is no mention of “Pay Yourself Back”.
- New: Starting later this year, cardmembers will have access to “Reserved by Sapphire” which will purportedly offer “exclusive” chances to book reservations at high-demand restaurants.
My Take
Just because it’s not in the document, I don’t think it is likely that Pay Yourself Back is going away. However, if it does go away, that would be a big blow to the Sapphire Reserve’s value in my opinion.
Overall, I find the additions here to be underwhelming. The ability to earn 5x for airfare and 10x for cars and hotels through the Chase portal is a very good addition, but personally I don’t spend enough in these categories to make this a blockbuster change. I do like the fact that you can now get these best-in-class rewards for travel when using this card which offers best-in-class travel protections (see: Ultra-Premium Credit Card Travel Insurance Benefits). On the other hand, I don’t like booking rental cars or hotels through online travel agencies (which this is) because then you do not earn rewards (other than credit card rewards) or get elite benefits with those bookings.
Other changes?
The documents listed above are Ultimate Rewards program agreements for each card. There could be other upcoming changes to these cards that do no effect the Ultimate Rewards program. For example, if there are annual fee changes, I wouldn’t expect to see any mention in these documents. For the record: I don’t expect annual fee changes. That was just an example.
Update: The official announcement of 8/10/21 indicates that there will be no changes to the annual fees on either card.
New Sapphire Lounge by The Club airport lounges coming
Chase has also announced that they will open new a few lounges. “Chase Sapphire Lounge by The Club” airport lounges will be located at New York’s LaGuardia (LGA), Boston’s Logan Airport (BOS), and Hong Kong (HKG) and will be open to both Reserve cardholders and Priority Pass members. That last part is good news: even those with Priority Pass memberships from other issuers will be able to access the Sapphire Lounges. We don’t yet know when these lounges will open, only that opening dates and additional locations will be announced. From the way the announcement is worded, it sounds like these initial 3 locations are set to open this year.
Your take?
What do you think of these changes to the Sapphire Preferred and Sapphire Reserve cards? Please comment below.
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Any idea when Chase will be updating their new CSP cardmember offer online to reflect the new earning structure? I thought this went into effect today but I’m not seeing it on the regular site offer nor on a new referral offer generated today, maybe I need to wait a bit longer for P2 to apply. Thanks in advance.
I’m surprised that it’s not showing up yet online. I’m sure it will show up soon or at least before the end of the week.
Thanks, Greg. It looks like it got updated later on Monday. I see the new rewards structure now, even on a referral offer.
I have the CSR. I’ve never had the CSP. My annual fee isn’t due until March. I think the plan may be to get the Ink Business Preferred and then cancel the Reserve. At a later date apply for the CSP. I’ve also got the Freedom Unlimited and both Business Unlimited/Cash no fee cards. I’ll probably cancel one of the business cards as well.
IMO, the CSR actually seems to be taking a big hit. So we get some bonuses by using the Chase travel/dining portals. Not mentioned with these enhancements is the presumed end to the Doordash & Lyft benefits. The Doordash $60 credit was always stated to be 2020 & 2021 benefits, and the Lyft 10x earning is supposed to go away in March 2022. So if those go away, and we are left with just these 5x and 10x bonuses, that is a huge downgrade (at least for me).
Like most of the commenters here, I tend to book directly with hotels for elite benefits, earnings, etc. Occasionally I will book through an OTA when there are no great chain options & I am booking an independent hotel. But even then, the 10x earning is not that great, when you look at stacking opportunities that are lost. Some of the last couple independent hotel bookings I made:
In both of these situations, the benefits I got from stacking were better than the 10x I would have earned on the Chase Travel portal.
As a CSR holder, meh. Although I am generally satisfied w the card, improvements are always welcome of course. However these changes will not affect my spend/earn in any meaningful way.
Any new benefits are nice (for the most part). But the only thing of value to me is the streaming credit for the CSP. I do not have the CSR but I don’t see anything exciting there either. I’m amazed at all the blog posts about the Exciting New Sapphire benefits. But I guess everyone values things differently.
as a CSR cardholder, these “enhancements” are weak!
I fail to see how these additions will change anyone’s opinion about either card.
Chase had a chance to pick up some disgruntled Amex Platinum customers, but must have decided that it wasn’t worth the effort.
Am I missing something, or are the Reserve enhancements pretty worthless while the preferred enhancements do provide a little more value?
You’re not missing anything.
These are a big fat meh to me. I long for the good old days of simpler benefits. The Amex platinum is the biggest offender with their barrage of rando credits like the equinox and second tier online subscriptions. I transfer my ultimate rewards to Hyatt anyway so I don’t care about the 1.5 you get from the csr. As it stands the preferred has an awesome sign up bonus and then it’s $95 for a weak card. Amex Gold all the way for me. Plus I love my Hyatt card and I’m in the 75% bonus category for my BOA card which is effectively free and I get 2.625 on all spend. I have everything covered for the moment. If I start traveling for work again I’ll look out for a decent card with priority pass. Otherwise the ultra premiums are losing me. I can get a separate card for my favorite airline, favorite hotel, other spend, and general travel, for next to nothing.
Right now I have a Sapphire Preferred card. I don’t even keep it in my wallet unless I’m traveling. I only keep the card and pay the fees for the ability to transfer points to travel partners and for the primary rental car coverage. 3X on dining might be enough to put the card in my wallet.
I’m looking to see a replacement for DD credits on CSR. The UR doc does not mention non-earning benefits, so I’ll hold out hope that we’ll see some new credits with the announcement. CSR is a real stinker at $250 net annual fee
The CSR enhancements are a nothing- burger in my opinion. The CSP enhancements might work for some people (those who want to book hotels through Chase), but overall they don’t look too special either if one has a CIP. Once Chase discontinues PYB on the CSR, I’ll downgrade it to a freedom flex, and use a CIP for transfers. Will still have 3x dining (and 5x Chase travel) with the Flex and 3x travel (and more) with the CIP.
Just give Chase a call and they will reduce the annual fee when posted.
With the super easy $300 travel credit, $450 for CSR was fine. I value the $300 credit as an actual $300 because I don’t have to change anything and automatically use it in January.
So $150 for CSR (with slightly better earnings, travel protections, pay yourself back, etc) vs $95 for CSP was a no brainer.
I just don’t see the value in $250 effective AF when I can get basically the same thing for less elsewhere.
I will (almost) never book through portals even at 10x points, it just isn’t worth it.
Car rentals: The combination of status + corporate codes mean my rate is frequently half or less of hotwire/costco.
Hotels: Until it counts as an eligible booking, I’ll always book direct through Hyatt for nearly all my reservations. Status and eligible nights (plus globalist benefits/points) are way more valuable than 10x. Also OTA doesn’t get member/corporate discounts, so even the 10x points may only get you back to the “member” pricing.
Airlines: 5x is a maybe. Although I’ve learned over the last year that you’re in a much better position to get refunds or make changes if the ticket is directly with the airline. Is it worth an extra 2x? Probably not.
I’ve had the reserve since it was released. If they up the AF I’m going to either downgrade to CSP or cancel and re-apply for CSP. Or honestly just use an Ink card for the travel protections and ability to transfer points and for the first time in a REALLY long time not have any Sapphire cards.
Agree completely – I have the Amex Platinum and Amex Gold plus CSR so get better dining (plus grocery) credit from Amex. The Amex Platinum gives me 5X on airline purchases directly from the airline so don’t have to go through their portal. Frankly, the only thing I really use the CSR for at this point is non airline travel that isn’t at a hotel where I have an affinity card that gets me more value (or by using one of the many Amex offers that credit money back after a hotel stay).
Think I have hit the wall on the CSR. I don’t mind paying a net $250 a year ($300 travel credit is easy for me to use) if there were other benefits (financial or non-monetary) but that really isn’t the case. All I’m losing is increased rewards in some travel spend and the ability to go to the few Priority Pass restaurants (Amex Priority Pass doesn’t include that but Amex has a much stronger airport lounge access benefit w Platinum so I’m usually there). My renewal is August and I will probably pay for 1 more year just to see if they extend Doordash/Lyft into 2022 or provide any other benefits. Otherwise cashing out my Ultimate Points and canceling. Many complain about the recent Amex Platinum AF increase but the additional benefits more than offset it for most (definitely for me) and IMHO the CSR is not competitive with Amex Platinum now at all. Sure there is some better travel insurance but I’ll roll the dice on that and go w what Amex, my other cards, my home owners’ insurance provide. Frankly, I can’t recall a time I’ve used travel insurance (and I’ve traveled all over the world for 35 years) so it is hard for me to give that much value.