Chase Raises Sapphire Reserve Price to $795 Annually, Up $245

[rstcso]

Chase has announced a price hike from $550 to $795 on their Sapphire Reserve card. This is my primary travel card, and due to my renewal timing, my renewal will still be at the $550 rate, but not sure it's going to be worth the additional $245 come next year. In addition to the primary fee increase, the price for cards for authorized users, e.g. my wife, is raising from $75 to $195 annually.

Chase has added new "features", which if used, make it's value more palatable, but I've found booking through their travel and dining sites to be more expensive than many other options, even when factoring in the increased points and other bits and pieces.

For how I currently use the card, the benefits make the value fair to me, e.g. $300 annual travel reimbursement, travel insurance, Sapphire and Priority lounge access, TSA-Pre, Nexus, and Global Entry reimbursement (up to $120/yr), etc, but I'm basically cheap, so this may be hard to accept come renewal time next year.

Who else uses Chase Sapphire Reserve, and are you going to keep it? What alternative would you entertain if switching and why?

 

[tedsweet]

i never pay a card fee

 

[daves87rs]

I just have the regular Sapphire card- I’ve surprisingly gotten use out of it the last few years.

I think it just depends on how much you like using the benefits. A couple extra hundred a year really is not bad in the long run, unless this happens every year…….

 

[rstcso]

i never pay a card fee

It's the only card which I pay a fee.

 

[Leo99]

I've been in a variety of airport lounges and they can vary in quality a great deal. I don't recall ever being in a Sapphire lounge. If you travel enough and lounge access is a perk you want, it might be worth it. Being on a long layover can be very tiring and having a lounge where you feel a little pampered can make all the difference. I use my company credit card for business travel and we fly business class if it's over 5 hours and I don't travel that much personally to make it worth it to me.

 

[CarLuver]

if you travel a lot, just the lounge access can make it worth the price .

 

[tbm5690]

Look at getting a Venture X instead. $395 annual, no additional cardholder fees, and most all of the same benefits that you listed. Doing nothing it pays for itself every year with a $300 travel credit and 10k mile annual anniversary bonus.

10x points on hotels and 5x on flights booked through Cap1 travel. Hertz President's Circle and National Executive status with primary coverage for all rentals. Capital One allowing you to use points to wipe out any travel purchase after the fact via statement credit using points is a handy feature if you don't book through their portal all the time, which I usually don't.

That's a large fee jump for the Reserve. Puts it in AMEX Plat territory but not sure it can compete there.

 

[SeaJay]

I pay the approximate $99 fee for my regular AMEX card which I use all the time and mostly payoff every month.

 

[tbm5690]

i never pay a card fee

No fee cards are fine, but often higher fee cards offer more benefits that easily exceed the fees charged. Of course it depends on the use case.

 

[rstcso]

I've been in a variety of airport lounges and they can vary in quality a great deal. I don't recall ever being in a Sapphire lounge. If you travel enough and lounge access is a perk you want, it might be worth it. Being on a long layover can be very tiring and having a lounge where you feel a little pampered can make all the difference. I use my company credit card for business travel and we fly business class if it's over 5 hours and I don't travel that much personally to make it worth it to me.

Austin has a Sapphire Lounge, but it's not full-fledged like the ones in JFK, LGA and others. These lounges are fairly new and more are being added.

Flying through Charlotte a couple of months ago I had a 2.5 hour layover, so I went to the Minute Suites and took a nap. You're limited to one hour, but you have a small room to yourself where you can relax, watch tv, or take a nap.

 

[Zee09]

How does Sapphire stack up to cards like AARP and AAA for the less traveled folks.? My problem is I usually don't renew...

 

[RhondaHonda]

I used to have the Sapphire Reserve but didn’t think the annual fee was worth it for my usage. My work pays for TSA Pre or Global Entry and most of my travel is business anyways. I just use the Freedom Unlimited with no annual fee and it seems good enough for me with my points accrual.

 

[SC Maintenance]

You would need to do a ROI on your spend, and figure out if you would be better off with a 2% cash back card and just pay for the beni's they offer directly? If your running $50K a year through the card, your likely better with cash back.

 

[Rand]

I have the sapphire preferred.. i use it to combine all the cashback/points from my freedom unlimited(1.5% everything), freedom(5% rotating categories ), and freedom flex 5% rotating categories
into travel rewards that transfer to partners (what you need sapphire for)
its worth the $95

Also they started offering "points only deals" on travel site about a month or 2 ago.

just picked up 4 days at ocean city for 478$ in points vs 1010+tax retail.. pushing the points value to around 2.3cents/point.
thats pretty hot when you stack a ton from 5% back grocery shopping, 5% fuel (buy grocery gift cards at their gas station) etc.

usually manage 60000 or more in points per year..
hyatt is usually quite good too.. transfer at 1:1 so chase points 5000($50)=5000 hyatt for a night in columbus etc(vs about $130 cash)

if they bump the sapphire preferred fee much I might have to eventually reconsider but it makes my 1.5% back freedom unlimited worth over 3% back with proper redemption.

If you dont want the reserve anymore, go apply for the preferred when they offer 100000 point signup bonus with $4000? spend
transfer your points to it. close reserve then earn your 100000 points by paying property tax, car insurance, medical or dental bills etc.

Edit: the sap. pref. also gives you 3% on eating out, with a 10% yearly bonus so "3.3%" as points which with proper redemption is 6-7% back.

The way to extra win is to also use the freedom flex (freedom is only for current members) with the 5% categories to get extra chase points.

The actual cashback on the sap. preferred is usually worse than the freedom unlimited 1.5% so i rarely use it except for eating out.. and sometimes travel(2%)

its true value is to maximize when spending your points you earn with their other cards.

 

[John105]

How does Sapphire stack up to cards like AARP and AAA for the less traveled folks.? My problem is I usually don't renew...

Speaking of AARP, when I look at my membership card, it says I’ve been a member since age 36. Apparently when my mom first joined, she added me as her spouse thinking I could get some good deals?!!

 

[Zee09]

Speaking of AARP, when I look at my membership card, it says I’ve been a member since age 36. Apparently when my mom first joined, she added me as her spouse thinking I could get some good deals?!!

My buddy tells me AARP is starting to throw up roadblocks to discounts and merchants don't want to honor it either...

 

[Pew]

My sister showed me her card... Snazzy metal to. Probably a good time to remind her she still owes me money.....

 

[JHZR2]

I have this card. Signed up when the fee was like $400 and you got $300 in travel credit. So I put ezpass and uber on it, always got the credits in full the first few months of the renewal year, and got the other goodness. Things like the priority pass lounge access for $100/yr, TSA Pre for my wife, etc.

I too saw the fee increase, so I’m weighing my options. I like it, but I agree that the travel costs aren’t always the most competitive, and the added perks are TBD in terms of benefit. I haven’t been to a chase sapphire lounge yet. But in reality the number of lounges I actually go to in a year is countable on two hands.

Look at getting a Venture X instead. $395 annual, no additional cardholder fees, and most all of the same benefits that you listed. Doing nothing it pays for itself every year with a $300 travel credit and 10k mile annual anniversary bonus.

10x points on hotels and 5x on flights booked through Cap1 travel. Hertz President's Circle and National Executive status with primary coverage for all rentals. Capital One allowing you to use points to wipe out any travel purchase after the fact via statement credit using points is a handy feature if you don't book through their portal all the time, which I usually don't.

That's a large fee jump for the Reserve. Puts it in AMEX Plat territory but not sure it can compete there.

Thanks, that’s helpful!

 

[JHZR2]

Though I’ve been happy with my CSR card, I have had a few situations recently that has me rethinking it.

We went to Disneyland, and ai booked a Hilton associated property through the chase portal. I use a travel portal for work all the time, so thought nothing of it. We get there, and mind you I’m maybe three stays away from lifetime Diamond status, and the desk tells me that I didn’t book through Hilton, so no status, no points, no food credits, nada.

I looked into it and this has been the policy for a few years, but I’ve never dealt with it. Ok, so the Chase points for hotel points isn’t such a good bet.

I also use the Priority Pass for airport lounges. Today I had some time at DFW, and it worked great. I used two lounges. Neither had that much food, but it was fine. I’ve used lounges in CLT, LHR, MIA, OSL, HAM, SEA, and probably a few others. But many other places I go don’t have lounges. Now, I don’t like long layovers, and I don’t want to spend time at the airport, but the lounges are nice when I have a few minutes. But if I’m going to pay for a card, would the American Airlines higher tier card be better? It’s less money and as I understand it, gives access to lounges. The flip side is that they opened a Chase Sapphire lounge at PHL where I often fly from, but it’s between D and E terminals, which isn’t where I often go. So balancing the use of fee cards at all, let alone premium fee cards, and then what’s the better bet is a conundrum.

 

[Tdbo]

My buddy tells me AARP is starting to throw up roadblocks to discounts and merchants don't want to honor it either...

AARP discounts are a joke.
We used an AARP discount when we just bought new phones last month.
Discount provided free activations on our phones, and provided us with a monthly AARP discount.
Got the ATT bill. Phone bill went up $60./month.
Went in to express my extreme displeasure with the upcharge.
They offered me a 55+ plan which took my bill down to the level I was paying prior to the new phones.
To get this, I had to forfeit the "Discount" that I was allegedly receiving as an AARP member , that caused a $60./month jump on the phone bill.
But, hey, that four dollar discount that I get every time I go to Outback really makes me flush with cash.
After the end of September, I will no longer be an AARP member.