Chase Sapphire Reserve Review: 50,000 Bonus Points + $300 Annual Travel Credit

If you’re a recurrent traveler and looking for a card with great benefits, definitely take a moment to check out the Chase Sapphire Reserve^SM Card. With the Chase Sapphire Reserve^SM, you have the opportunity to earn 50,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.

That’s $750 toward travel when redeemed through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal! To top that, you will receive up to $300 in travel credits annually as reimbursement for travel purchases.

In addition, get 3X points on travel immediately after earning your $300 annual travel credit and airport lounge access. Plus, enjoy no foreign transaction fees! The only catch is the card’s $450 annual fee. However, if you use all this card has to offer, you will come out ahead despite the hefty fee.

The Chase Sapphire Reserve^SM is marketed toward the same people who’d apply for The Platinum Card® from American Express. On that end, it’s also very competitive.

For what unique features this card has to offer and how it compares to it's sister card, the Chase Sapphire Preferred^SM, continue reading below.

Chase Sapphire Reserve Card Summary

Earning Chase Ultimate Rewards Points

With the Chase Sapphire Reserve^SM, you earn 3 Chase Ultimate Rewards points per $1 spent on travel and restaurants and 1 point per $1 spent on everything else.

Sapphire Reserve cardholders can get a value of 1.5 cents per point when redeeming points for travel through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal. That means, travel and dining expenditures can have an effective 4.5% rewards rate. As long as your account remains open, your points don’t expire.

Redeeming Rewards

Redeem points for a variety of items at Chase’s Ultimate Rewards portal. The best redemption option is travel, where you'll earn a value of 1.5 cents per point. Therefore, 50,000 points is equal to to $750 in travel.

Other redemption options include cash equivalents like statement credits, gift cards, and bank account deposits, general merchandise, experiences, and more. You can also redeem points for purchases at Amazon. These other redemption options generally value points at 1 cent per point or less.

Additional Benefits

Chase Sapphire Reserve^SM Lounge Access & Luxury Benefits: The Sapphire Reserve from Chase gives you complimentary access to over 900 airport lounges through Priority Pass™ Select. Once you enroll, you may enter lounges for free whenever travelling on any itinerary. Guests need to pay $27 each, every time they wish to enter. This set-up is equivalent to the Prestige tier of membership in the Priority Pass™ program – a $399 annual value.

Priority Pass™ Select is available through most premium credit cards, not just the Chase Sapphire Reserve^SM. In terms of coverage, it’s one of the better lounge memberships available. There are more Priority Pass™ lounges worldwide than through other programs, like Lounge Club.

Ultimate Rewards & Transfer Partners: Like the Chase Sapphire Preferred®, the Chase Sapphire Reserve^SM earns you Ultimate Rewards points. This is one of the most valuable credit card reward programs on the market. Its value comes largely from the list of transfer partners. You can move your points over to 11 different airline and hotel programs. These will change from time-to-time. The current list includes:

• British Airways Executive Club
• Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
• Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards®
• United MileagePlus®
• Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
• Hyatt Gold Passport®
• Marriott Rewards®
• IHG® Rewards Club
• Ritz Carlton Rewards®

All transfers are at a 1:1 ratio. If you plan your transfers right, it’s possible to increase your overall rewards rate. For example, we value Hyatt Gold Passport® at $0.021 each. Therefore, if you transfer your points over to the hotel, your rewards rate can be anywhere between 2.1% and 6.3%.

Bottom Line

When you sign-up for a Chase Sapphire Reserve^SM Card, you will earn a fantastic bonus. If you are a frequent traveler and have read through the features, I’m sure you will now surely want to be an owner of one! For one, automatically receiving up to $300 back annually in travel credits definitely makes up for the steep annual fee of $450.

The travel credits are good towards almost any and most travel purchases you make — even on parking and tolls. In addition to that, with the Elite travel benefits, you can receive up to $100 credit toward Global Entry or TSA Precheck enrollment.

To conclude, this card offers a big bonus with even bigger benefits that include easy to use travel credits. But despite my ongoing rave about it, if you can not justify paying such a high annual fee for a credit card, don't feel the need to get one just because of its high ratings. There will be other deals that will come along and will be more fitting for your spending habits.

For more information about other credit cards, review our complete list of credit card bonus promotions.

The editorial content on this page is not provided by any of the companies mentioned, and has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities. Opinions expressed here are author's alone.