In addition to Chase making The Edit credit easier to redeem, they’ve also announced today that both Sapphire Reserve® and Sapphire Reserve for Business® cardholders will be getting an additional benefit in 2026.
From January 1, 2026, through the end of the year, cardholders will get up to $250 in statement credits for prepaid bookings through Chase Travel℠ for select hotel chains.
The hotel chains that’ll be eligible for this benefit are:
- IHG Hotels & Resorts
- Omni Hotels & Resorts
- Virgin Hotels
- Pendry Hotels & Resorts
- Montage Hotels & Resorts
- Minor Hotels
- Pan Pacific Hotels & Resorts
Chase has also advised that, in addition to the up to $250 in credits you’ll receive, cardholders will earn Ultimate Rewards points on the stay for any spend above $250, plus the stays will be eligible to earn points in the loyalty program of the chain you’ll be staying at. That presumably also means that you’ll earn elite night credits, be eligible to receive status benefits, etc.
Note that this benefit is for stays booked through Chase Travel, so booking direct on, say, IHG.com won’t earn you a statement credit. Also, be aware that this is a benefit that’ll only be around in 2026, rather than being a new, permanent benefit on the Sapphire Reserve and Sapphire Reserve for Business cards.
Something else that’s important to be aware of is that a minimum stay of two nights is required. That makes the credit much less appealing as you can’t redeem it for cheap one night stays, but it could still be useful nonetheless.
Considering IHG is included as one of the eligible chains, this new – albeit limited-time – benefit should be somewhat easy to use, despite the two night minimum stay. $250 could cover the cost of a couple of nights in an airport hotel, a couple of nights along a highway on a road trip, etc.
Both this new benefit and the positive change to how The Edit credit can be redeemed suggest that Chase is getting concerned with how few people are applying for the card and/or how many people are cancelling their existing card at renewal. The fact that they’re announcing these benefit changes 3.5 months before they take effect makes me think it’s more a case of them being concerned about the latter—that people are cancelling their existing Sapphire Reserve cards at a far greater pace than anticipated and that these benefits will hopefully stem the outflow.
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Just wanted to throw in a data point. I booked two nights at a Kimpton Hotel for ~$569. I used about 950 chase UR points (boosted at $0.02/pt), to bring the price down to $550. My card year just happens to start in January. I was expecting the $550 to trigger my $300 yearly travel credit and either the $250 The Edit Credit OR the $250 hotel credit since it was an IHG property. After the $550 posted, I received all three credits instantly, for a net positive of $250. I am surprised they would allow all three credits to post for a total over what I spent.
I can confirm that the credit posts very quickly within 1-2 days of booking. I booked an intercontinental (IHG) with mine. The credit is listed as “Hotel Credit $250/year)”, doesn’t have to be in the Edit (mine was not).
HI Katie, Quick question: Did you already use your $300 travel credit fro 2026? I want to use the $250 Hotel credit and not the travel. Thanks!
I believe the $300 credit is per cardmember year, and not calendar year. We used it Fall 2025 pretty quickly after opening the card.
Thanks! I forgot Chase was different than Amex in this regard. This is our first time with a reserve (vs many times with a Platinum)
This credit continues to be useless because The Edit still has wildly inflated pricing. Here’s yet another example:
3 night reservation at the Pendry Chicago in June
The Edit ~$2175 plus 8x points on non-credits (although T&Cs suggest otherwise)
AA Hotels ~$1525 plus 15,000 AA miles/LPs plus 10x miles on $ through AA exec card.
So it’s just lovely that Chase wants to give me a $250 Edit credit, a one-time 2026 $250 IHG credit and a $100 Chase Travel offer, but even with those $600 in credits, AA Hotels is still cheaper by $50 and gets a ridiculous amount of miles (over 30,000 miles and 16,500 LP – more if in the bonus, whatever the bonus turns out to be for the 2026 year…)
Are there specific use cases where these credits might be valuable? Sure. But when it starts to feel like hunting for a needle in a haystack, why on earth am I going to waste my time with Chase’s travel portal. It all just feels like an arbitrage to get folks to think that PointsBoost is better than 1.5cpp (it may be in specific use cases despite the 2.0 PointsBoost downgrade, but across the board, give me a guaranteed 1.5cpp any day of the week).
So, again, thanks but no thanks, Chase.
Anyone want to weigh in on if booking NH Hotels (now owned by Minor) would qualify for the credit?
Has to be an Edit hotel booked thru Chase’s portal.
You may want to re-read this article in particular as it’s referring to a different $250 hotel credit offered by csr
Still has to be booked and prepaid thru Chase’s portal.
There’s also a new Chase offer on my CSR for $100 off a Chase Travel booking of $600+ made from 1/1-3/31.
Presumably this means that if you can find a $600 2-night Kimpton stay on the Edit that you could get it for free by stacking the $250 Edit credit, the $250 IHG credit, and the $100 Chase Travel offer. (Not sure if the Chase offer is targeted)
Tip of the hat to the Frequent Miler Team! Right after being named Frequent Miler’s 2025 Bonvoyed of the Year winner Chase adds this new benefit. While not the most exciting, I can pivot some travel plans and save 250 bucks off of this and many others probably can too! Clearly, when Frequent Miler talks they are paying attention.
How do you check to see if the hotel is eligible or not? They seem to imply that not all hotels of the listed brands qualify.
All the eligible hotels are overpriced or not available. More time wasted. CSR is dead
False. This works for any IHG hotel bookable on Chase Travel, including budget hotels like Holiday Inn Express. The hotel doesn’t have to be part of the overpriced Edit collection. Plus you still earn points and get elite benefits on these stays. So this is a great one-time benefit on this card.
One step forward, two steps back. Now hotels in Chase travel that are available for Preferred cardholders are showing sold out for Reserve cardholders
I just noticed this today, too!
Me too
Aloha- does anyone know if we would receive 2 credits if we booked an Edit hotel that was also an IHG?
I would assume so. Many Kimpton hotels by IHG would be perfect for this.
I love to see it, for once consumers are fed up and it’s finally working in our favor! No more high fees with annoying to use coupons! We’re still deep in the couponization but at least things are slowly improving in a few ways. Hopefully the consumer pushback will continue and they’ll keep trying to make things better for us!
More sleight of hand. Yet another “benefit” for a pre-paid booking with a two night minimum that does not earn the 8x portal points and is one time only for 2026. Uh… ok. I suppose if you can find a two night stay at an IHG property for $125 a night, this one checks out. But it’s not a reason to keep the CSR. What a complete disaster and Chase has no one to blame but itself.
Starting January 1, 2026, get up to $250 in statement credits through December 1, 2026 on prepaid Chase Travel hotel bookings for stays with IHG® Hotels & Resorts, Montage Hotels & Resorts, Pendry Hotels & Resorts, Omni Hotels & Resorts, Virgin Hotels, Minor Hotels, and Pan Pacific Hotels and Resorts. Two night minimum required. Purchases that qualify will not earn points.
It’s like no matter how many credits they provide, people always complain. They are literally giving you an extra $250 credit. On top of the $500 The Edit Credit, on top of the $300 Travel credit. That’s $1,050 value in those 3 credits alone. Tomorrow they could announce a new $250 credit for another travel category and people would still find something negative to say.
LOL @ “$125 night IHG property”. You should really consider applying for no annual fee cashback cards and stick with those.
This is a classic case of: Non-Premium travelers complaining about a Premium travel credit card.
Anyone who considers those credits to be worth $1,050 isn’t a premium anything. They’re just a dupe.
They’re providing a new credit that I have no use for. Will still cancel without a second thought
I can get other premium travel cards to work out in my favor. And I could get the previous CSR to work out in my favor. But this one doesn’t work out for me, although admittedly my math is a bit more complicated than yours.
But now I am just so confused about whether I am a premium traveler or not.
If you care about whether you’re a premium traveler, you’re not.
Yes, that’s a good way to put it. And doubly so if you care whether others are premium travelers. I mean I try to book nice trips, keep cards that work for me, and dump the ones that don’t. But others seem very wrapped up in who is a premium travel and who isn’t, lol.
You are commenting on a site that publishes a spreadsheet that values the $500 Edit credit at $75 and that even values the $300 travel credit at $285 because of the loss of points on the $300. They have now added a one time only 11 month credit for $250 to use for a two night prepaid stay at an IHG property, which may or may not earn points above the $250 value of the credit (the words seem clear to me, but what Chase is doing with it I have no idea). The value of that credit, therefore, is not $250. At a minimum, you are losing 8x points on that $250, which is 2,000 points, a conservative value of which would be $30. So let’s call it $220.
I agree that many HNWI’s don’t really care and will simply absorb the fee increase and move on. If you are one of those individuals and you value the credits that Chase is offering at face marketing value, good for you! Enjoy them. For those of us who have held this card for nearly a decade and are perhaps slightly irked at the clear loss of value that Chase is delivering on 10/26, you’ll forgive us a moment of analysis about what is happening. Or perhaps you thought that Chase was giving an extra one time $250 credit because their CEO woke up yesterday and was feeling generous.
As the very post that you are commenting on says, “Chase is getting concerned with how few people are applying for the card and/or how many people are cancelling their existing card at renewal.” It’s probably because they know they are not delivering $1050 of value for a $795 annual fee, let alone the over $2,700 number they are using in their marketing materials.
I totally agree. I have had the CSR for over 10 years but apart from lounge access the other perks are useless. I was recently in NYC and went to one of their opentable restaurants simply to use the credit (my annual fee hits in June). Some of the worst Thai food I have ever had – I certainly would never spend my own money there. Yet those who are pro changes will claim I saved $100.
I agree and even the lounge access hasn’t been very good. They are usually lower end lounges and since every credit card and its brother now offers lounge access, I am usually on a wait list to get in.
The Edit credit has little to no value to me. I do points travel because I want to spend less $$. Giving me a $250 credit to be used on a 2 night stay at a hotel that averages $1k a night is useless. If I am staying at a premium hotel, I’m doing it on points not cash. The new credit is better as IHG is included so I can potentially get a lower rate. Too bad it’s just for one year.
Some of us travel internationally and have the means/time to do it as we wish. I personally like to stay in 4-5 star hotels and am lifetime elite on all the major programs so not tied to any one of them. The Edit and Amex FHR credits are great for me. If you are someone that is looking for a cheaper hotel to use with them so you have a “free stay” frankly you aren’t the target customer for either the CSR or Platinum Card so please cancel and go away.
I also travel frequently internationally and have the means and ability to do so. The fact that I would prefer to use points and credits for my premium hotel stays rather than pay thousands in cash (that I can use for something else on the trip) doesn’t make me any less worthy of having a CSR or Platinum card. I guess it’s a good thing you aren’t in charge of approvals at AMEX or Chase! They don’t have any issue approving me for their cards. I have no intention of cancelling, and the only place I’m going is on another trip.
Imagine thinking that having to waste time navigating a gauntlet of coupons and restrictive terms is a “premium” experience.
True premium travelers are not chasing these puny credits. It is the non premium traveler that Chase is trying to entice by giving credits on what they consider to be luxury travel in the hope the traveler will be duped to think they saved money. Just like the points crowd who book business class and claim they saved thousands. Unless you were willing to pay the normal price you truly have not saved anything. Maybe you got an experience you might not have afforded otherwise but you ate not a premium traveler.
My time is valuable. This is a waste of time pursuing
If they are worried about cancellations, maybe they should decrease the annual fee?
If they’re really having trouble retaining current cardholders I’m thinking they may need to get into the retention bonus business.
Is this in addition to the edit credits?
Yes
I just called to use this new $250 and they said you can’t book it till next year.
Hence the reason the article stated it was only a 2026 benefit. God reading comprehension is so bad in some people
The agent i spoke with had not even heard of it.
Really strange that they’re adding this just for 2026. Sounds a bit as if they’re panicking — What can we do right now to stop the bleeding right this minute. If 2 x $250 credits didn’t impress people, I’m not sure 2 x $250 for one year, then 2 x $250 is going to make that big a difference.
I am grateful to Chase because I am hoping that by laying an egg with the new CSR that they might have prevented Amex from doing the most egregious damage the could have to the Amex Platinum. (We shall see tomorrow.)
Being able to use the Edit credits anytime during the year raise the value to me from exactly $0 to not quite but very close to $0.
The new one time only IHG etc. credit could be of value, but I don’t think it is enough to get me to keep my CSR for another year, especially if it requires a two night stay. I might have been tempted, but Greg’s recent post on hotel credits prompted me to update my assessment of all my free night and other travel credits, and I am going to have enough trouble using all of them next year anyway. If it was going to be a long term credit that could be used for single nights then it would cause me to reevaluate, but it isn’t worth changing my plans otherwise.
100%. Amex was getting ready to unleash prime enshittification. I was born in a communist country and even I was tired of the Amex coupon books.
Amex saw the cold reaction that the CSR got and said, “no way we can release this”. This is why we keep getting Amex “leaks” about the new refresh. They’re just testing the waters to see what is popular and what is not. But they are definately not releasing their original refresh plan.
I truly believe you are right. I was going to cancel or downgrade my personal Platinum card. But now, it’s a keeper. The CSR is the card that I am dumping.
I have been saying since the changes were announced that these changes are good for me personally, but I am very grateful to everyone who has been threatening to cancel their card for getting Chase to give me even more benefits!
I think it is a good thing all around, especially because the new credit is a lot more flexible. So hopefully they are getting the message that the super narrow coupons are not so popular.