I regularly update our posts about the Chase Sapphire Reserve and Chase Sapphire Preferred cards on Your Mileage May Vary. When updating posts, I’m doing it for the benefit of the website, but at the same time, I’m forced to think about our situation. That happened when I broke down the differences between the two cards. I previously found it was worth paying extra for the Sapphire Reserve. However, the card has a $550 annual fee, and with the positive changes to the Sapphire Preferred, I was no longer confident about that decision. Is it worth an extra $155 per year?
I asked myself, “Why do I keep the Sapphire Reserve?”
I compared the card to the Sapphire Preferred, which we already have. Here’s a list of the extra benefits you get with the Reserve and how much I value them:
- Priority Pass Membership
- Access to Chase Sapphire Lounges
- Global Entry, NEXUS or TSA Precheck reimbursement
- Extra value primary rental car coverage
- Trip Delay coverage starts at six hours
- $100,000 Emergency medical evacuation coverage
- $10,000 per item purchase protection coverage
- Return Protection
- Earn an extra point per dollar on travel and dining
- Points worth 1.5 cents on Chase Travel Portal
Eliminate the perks I already get with other cards
I already get Priority Pass membership and Global Entry/TSA Precheck reimbursement with several other cards so those benefits aren’t worth anything. I can earn 3 points per dollar on travel and dining expenses with several cards (with lower annual fees.)
Consider extra benefits that sound good (until you think about it)
Both cards provide primary rental coverage but the Preferred’s coverage maxes out at $75,000. I can’t think of any time I rented a car worth over 75K, so it’s extra coverage I don’t need.
The same is true for the Reserve’s $10,000 limit for purchase protection. This household does not make many $10,000 purchases.
And while it sounds nice to get trip delay coverage at 6 hours instead of 12 hours, both coverages are good if you’re stuck overnight. That’s when I’d likely have significant expenses, such as a hotel room, travel to the hotel and meal expenses.
Put a value on the remaining benefits
When using the Chase Travel Portal or Pay Yourself back with the Sapphire Reserve, your points are worth 1.5 cents each. They’re only worth 1.25 cents each using the Sapphire Preferred. You’d have to redeem more than 62,000 points using this method to get an additional $155 value.
The Chase Sapphire Lounges are nice, but until there are more than a handful of them, access to them isn’t a dealbreaker. Mostly because they’re located in airports with other lounges which I also can access with other cards.
I have no other card with emergency evacuation coverage, so this could be a reason to keep the Sapphire Reserve. However, whenever we travel outside the US, I always purchase travel/medical insurance and make sure the policy includes evacuation coverage.
Final Thoughts
When I looked at the Chase Sapphire cards closer, I didn’t plan on this. Since I was approved for the Sapphire Reserve, it’s been my go-to travel card. The combination of travel coverage and points earning meant the card hardly ever left my wallet.
But that’s why you need to reevaluate the cards in your wallet every once in a while. With changes to annual fees, benefits, other cards you’ve picked up and your spending patterns, what previously seemed like a slam dunk now becomes more of a toss-up.
While the decision should be strictly a financial one, I do have some attachment to the Sapphire Reserve. It’s been the card in the front of my wallet when we travel for so long that it’s hard to think of another card to take its place. This year, I ended up keeping it, but I’m not sure if it’s the correct decision.
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13 comments
What about the annual $300 travel credit?
I considered that when looking at the price of the cards. I view the Sapphire Reserve $300 credit as like cash, so the annual fee is an adjusted $250. $250 – $95 = $155 difference in yearly fee between the Reserve and Preferred.
Why do you purchase emergency evacuation insurance? Most insurance is a rip off and esp if you already gave that coverage. What are the odds?
When it comes to getting evacuation insurance, it’s usually included in the travel insurance policy.
What are the odds? My dad died on a trip to China. The insurance covered all expenses to repatriate his remains to the US. Didn’t argue about the business class flight I booked with cash with EVA to get there and come back, hotel booking at the grand hyatt, hospital bills incurred. Never had to provide anything more than bills, statements and death certificate and I was sent a check. Best $250 a year premium I have ever paid for travel insurance. We paid on it for 10 years.
You missed a few big ones:
– $5k emergency medical / dental insurance
– Baggage delay reimbursement
– Lost / damaged baggage insurance
– Extended warranty protection
And the big one I hope you never need, but which influences my flight purchase decisions the most:
– $1M accidental death and dismemberment policy
For Baggage Delay, Lost/damaged bags and extended warranty, the Sapphire Reserve and Preferred provide identical coverages so there’s no value keeping the Reserve. I haven’t looked into the emergency medical/dental coverage but my insurance would cover me in the US and I buy insurance when we leave the country. I have life insurance so the only thing not covered is accidental dismemberment. Not worth paying $155 extra per year for that coverage.
CSR pays 3% back on travel category vs CSP pays 2%. And if you use the Chase travel portal as you said, you get a higher conversion on the 3%.
Getting 3 points for travel rather than 2 points for the Preferred card makes the Reserve a keeper. We spend about
$40,000/yr with this card for travel so that alone is $600 extra at 1.5 cents. We value Ultimate points at 2 cents.
Also, we have no other card with Priority Pass. We use their lounges at least 4-5 times a year for 2 persons. So even at $15 value a visit per person, it’s worth $120-$150 or more. Our main airport MSY has a PP lounge. Not great, but we get some value from it. Certainly $15-$20 worth.
Why are you buying insurance for your trips? The Reserve covers much of what you are paying extra for. We have used their liability insurance for a car rental when we were rear-ended. The rental company wanted $4900 for damages and loss of use. Chase Reserve covered everything without a problem. The medical or evacuation coverage is nice, but we have never used it. Baggage, delays, etc is covered by the Reserve.
@Ray, as mentioned by previous commenters, a lot of that is included with the CSP – 10k trip cancellation/interruption, trip delay, baggage, car rental, purchase protection, 100k/500k AD&D, extended warranty, etc. The Reserve adds: 2.5k medical & dental, 100k medical evacuation, 1k repatriation of remains, return protection, 1mil AD&D for air, and better trip delay.
If the CSR is your *only* card for PP and GE/TSA, then it’s not a bad card to have. Coupled with the DD credits, the difference between the CSR and CSP is negligible. IIRC, travel protections are better than the other premium cards, so you really only need to add medical insurance (2.5k isn’t enough, and pre-existing conditions are excluded).
@Joe – your travel medical insurance link is broken.
The CSR used to have value because it included Priority Pass restaurants (other PP cards didn’t). Now that that’s gone, there isn’t much reason to have the card. That will flip again after more Chase Lounges are opened.
I’m in the opposite boat, with CSP. We already have Amex Platinum and C1 VX (which basically is free with the travel credits and the 10,000 bonus points each year). So a lot of the CSR benefits we already get with other cards.
CSP has no additional cardholder fee. And give us annual 10% bonus points on spend. Further, we tend to transfer points to airline partners.
So the only real value for us with CSR is the lounges, and there isn’t one in our hub (Seattle). I use the CSP for dining (3% better than VX’s 2%) primarily (whether even that is worth the $95 annual fee is debatable, but inertia).
I think the J.P. Morgan Ritz-Carlton card provides most of these benefits, while ensuring a much greater likelihood of recouping the net annual fee amount than with the CSR.