The rumored 200K in-branch Sapphire Reserve card offer is the latest in a series of events that have solidified my belief that the rollout of the refreshed and couponized Chase Sapphire Reserve Card has not gone as well as Chase had hoped. First, they changed the welcome offer to 125K to make the headline more appealing. Then, they tweaked their The Edit credits to make them slightly more usable. Next, they introduced a new $250 credit for select Chase Travel℠ hotels in 2026. And now they’ll apparently bribe select customers with a massive 200,000-point offer. Their desperation is readily apparent.
Here’s the thing… I don’t believe that tweaking the welcome offer or piling on more coupons is the right answer. Instead, Chase should focus on making the Sapphire Reserve card broadly appealing once again. The old Sapphire Reserve card was easy to recommend to all frequent travelers. It was simple to understand, and it offered solid value. The new product is a good fit only for those who are willing to invest the time and effort to learn how best to utilize the card and its numerous new coupons. In this post, I’ll present some ideas for how Chase could modify the new card to make it easy to recommend once again.
3 guiding principles
I believe that fixing the Sapphire Reserve card’s image requires following three principles:
- Simplify
- Bring back the best of the old card’s features
- Keep the best of the new card’s features
To be clear, I’m writing about the card’s core features, not its many coupons. While I do think it’s crucial for Chase to greatly expand both the hotels available through The Edit and the restaurants available through Sapphire Reserve® Exclusive Tables, I believe they’ll get there eventually. Chase has followed the path that Amex invented: increase annual fees and make up for it with coupons. I’m not a fan, but that ship has sailed. Instead of changing that model, I think Chase needs to strengthen the card’s core value to make it broadly attractive once again.
Best old features
The old card had three excellent features that made it easy to recommend to frequent travelers:
- Earn 3x for all travel and dining
- Redeem points through Chase Travel℠ for 1.5 cents per point value
- Best in class travel protections
While the card’s travel protections remain intact, the other features have been replaced with complicated alternatives:
- Earn 3x for dining, 4x for hotels and flights, and 1x for all other travel
- Redeem points through Chase Travel℠ for only 1 cent per point value, except when Points Boosts are available. Then, you can get 1.5, 1.75, or 2 cents per point value.
Best new features
- Earn 8x for all travel booked through Chase Travel℠
- Earn 4x for flights and hotels booked directly through travel providers
- Redeem points for more than 1.5 cents per point when Points Boosts are available
Recommendation
- Recommended earning rates:
- 8x for all travel booked through Chase Travel℠
- 4x for flights and hotels booked directly through travel providers
- 3x for dining and all other travel
- Recommended point redemption rates:
- Redeem points through Chase Travel℠ for 1.5 cents per point value
- Offer “Premium Power Boosts” where select premium hotels and premium cabin flights can be booked with points for 1.75 or 2.0 cents per point value.
The earning and redemption rates outlined above are not as simple as those of the original version of the card, but I think it’s too late to remove the 4x earning rates or Power Boosts. A significant simplification would be for Chase to offer 4x points for all travel, but I assume that’s too expensive; otherwise, Chase would have provided that with the initial card refresh.
How to pay for this fix?
My recommendations, listed above, suggest bringing back two features from the old card:
- 3x for all travel
- Points worth 1.5 cents each through Chase Travel℠
I assume that Chase removed those features because they were too expensive. Maybe so, but these were the key features that we loved about the old card, so it’s better to find a way to pay for them than to take them away and hope we don’t mind!
I know this will be unpopular, but one way Chase can save money is to convert its $300 travel rebate into a $300 Chase Travel℠ discount. As things stand now, it’s safe to assume that there is minimal breakage on the $300 credit, as it occurs automatically whenever the card is used for travel. By changing it to a portal credit and converting it to a discount rather than a rebate, there will be far more breakage. Plus, it will encourage people to pay for travel through Chase more often. That will lead to additional revenue for Chase.
Why would a discount lead to more breakage than a rebate? It’s the same reason why, as a consumer, I prefer travel rebates over discounts. In the post “Best credit card travel portal credits,” I wrote the following:
A problem with a once-per-year discount is that plans can change. Imagine wanting to book two separate, refundable hotel stays, but you’re unsure whether you’ll keep both bookings. With a discount, you need to select just one booking where you’ll apply your discount, and then you’ll have to pay the full price for the second booking. If you end up cancelling the stay where you used your discount, it might then be too late to rebook the other stay or to use the discount elsewhere before it expires. With a rebate, though, you can book both stays, get the rebate, and then feel free to cancel either one. As long as you don’t cancel both stays, your rebate shouldn’t be clawed back. This is just one example of many where a rebate can be better than a discount.
A discount is better for the card issuer for the same reasons that it’s worse for consumers. Still, if this would help Chase bring back the card’s old 3x travel and 1.5 cents per point redemptions, I’m in favor.
Current vs. previous Sapphire Reserve
For reference, the table below shows a side-by-side comparison of the old car details, the current card details, and my proposed “fixed” card details.
| Pre 6/23/25 | Current | Proposed | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Annual Fee | $550 | $795 | $795 |
| Point Earning Rates: | |||
| Flights & Hotels | 3x | 4x | 4x |
| Other Travel | 3x | 1x | 3x |
| Dining | 3x | 3x | 3x |
| Chase Travel Hotels & Cars | 10x | 8x | 8x |
| Chase Travel Flights | 5x | 8x | 8x |
| Chase Travel Other | 3x | 8x | 8x |
| Major Perks: | |||
| Chase Travel Point Value | 1.5 Cents Per Point | 1 to 2 Cents Per Point | 1.5 to 2 Cents Per Point |
| Point transfer to Airlines & Hotels | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Excellent Travel Protections | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Priority Pass w/ 2 Guests | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Major Coupons | |||
| $300 Travel Credit per Membership Year | Rebate on all travel | Rebate on all travel | Chase Travel discount |
| The Edit (Hotels) | N/A | $250 twice per year | $250 twice per year |
| Select Chase Travel hotels | N/A | $250 in 2026 | $250 in 2026 |
| Sapphire Reserve Exclusive Tables | N/A | $150 per 6 Months | $150 per 6 Months |
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I don’t get the hate. They increased the fee $250 and added $300 credits at restaurants I’d gladly pay out of pocket for. That more than makes up for the increase right there. Then there’s Stubhub, Apple TV, etc. I was actually considering cancelling before the refresh, but now it’s a no-brainer keeper for me.
As Greg said, simplify. Along that line, fix the statement credits:
– Make the Lyft credit like Amex’ Uber credit.
– Make the Door Dash monthly credits less of a hassle.
– Make the dining credit usable toward any Visa Dining Collection restaurant
– Broaden the product lines within Shops at Chase
Whether Chase intentionally or unintentionally made the CSR’s statement credits as they are, they lost my wife and me. We are the high-spending travelers they want. And, such clients want a simple, straightforward long-term solution. We received the opposite. So, we’ve product-changed out of the CSR and we’ve happily settled into an end-game card strategy. And, being happily settled, there’s little reason for us to return.
Chase has taken a sad, half baked Amex imitation approach with the CSR reboot. They blew up their competitive advantages over Amex, but just created a substantially inferior version Amex – time to step up! I think they should go all in and do it right with much bigger SUBs (200k is perfect), NLL offers, retention offers, and large upgrade offers.
I don’t understand why everyone is hating on the CSR refresh. Why do you care so much about 3x travel and 1.5 cents per point in the portal? How much are you actually spending on travel that doesn’t fall into another category? Just put it on a 1.5-2x catch all card and forget about it. As far as point redemption, almost every hotel I want to go to is under points boost which is 2c/pt instead of 1.5c/pt. So this is a net positive, not a negative. The ability to book activities through the portal and get 8x points back is awesome. I initially thought CSR refresh was bad, but the more I look into it, I think it is a huge win. The credits are super easy and worth way more than the annual fee. For example, I don’t know hardly anyone in real life that doesn’t use stubhub to get tickets to go to sporting events, concerts, etc. It’s just people online that must never get off the computer. You can definitely pick your seat on stubhub (unlike what somewhat else said).
Yeah, no. It’s a close call for me, but I’m keeping it. I rarely use nor want to use chase travel, so the portal point value, points boost and edit credit are worth nothing to me. The $300 is what makes the AF bearable. If they take it away, I’m gone.
I wish Chase, Citi, and AMEX would consult travel bloggers about upcoming CC launches or changes to get their feedback prior to launch. If you hate the card before launch, it gives the card issuer time to reevaluate and make changes, if necessary. Rather than hate on the card after it has already been launch and losing that new card / refreshed card excitement.
I’d also add with the new restriction to only get the Reserve SUB once, it has locked out a number of the market that might get it. I’m one. I got it shortly after opening and kept it for four years before downgrading to the Preferred. I’m definitely interested in the card again, but for $795, I’d want to also have a SUB available.
I know there’s rumors about offering something for current Preferred holders, but we’ll have to see if that’s true and if the offer is more than a token SUB.
Most folks who transfer UR points don’t care about the 1.5X redemption. With the increase in the annual the coupons benefits like Edit hotels and Exclusive Tables are very difficult or impossible to use and I’m speaking from the perspective of NYC!
And I’m assuming the Select hotels credit will be impossible to use too!
The stubhub credit is useless as the fees are exorbitant and one cannot see exact seats unlike Ticketmaster resales.
I have 75K spend but those additional benefits are too pretty useless for me. Shops by Chase has ridiculous prices and sometimes double the Amazon prices. No one cares about Southwest Airlines and their A list in the NY area although I can live with it for occasionally going out of the way on the cattle call airline!
If they can fix those or reduce the fee to $595 they may get people interested. I’m still holding on to it due the United (Newark hub) and Hyatt transfer partners but I don’t see much value for folks outside those parameters
On Stubhub credit — let’s say P2 buys some cheap ticket for $10 and resell to you for $150, sure there will be transaction cost, but you cash out this useless credit
I’ll give you credit for thinking creatively. But my opinion is that the $795 fee is the main issue. It’s big and bold and I see it glaring at me right up front. Unfortunately, some of those new benefits (such as the restaurant benefit) are useless unless you live in a major urban center. We kept our CSR card this year because we were grandfathered at the old annual fee. Next year this card is likely to be on the chopping block. It’s difficult to see how we’d get sufficient benefit to justify that high cost.
I’d tell Chase to eat some crow and lower that fee.
Agreed. If they hadn’t removed those two features I’d probably be keeping the card. So yes, I’d take this trade off. I’d still be disappointed that I have to find so much value to cancel out the annual fee, but the easy value on Chase points without as much work also saved me time. As it stands, they cost me time on the redeeming points end, and cost me time with the coupon book that doesn’t align well with my spending habits. So it was a super easy decision to cancel at my next renewal. The number of hours the changes to the Reserve would cost me per year if I keep it is enormous.