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There are few things in life I would publicly claim to love. My wife, my dog, soccer, and local St. Paul pho are a few big ones. But a surprise addition to that list in the past few years is the Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card. Not a joke!

Time and time again I’ve been amazed at the benefits and perks of this card. In this article I’ll review the benefits that I use the most as a CSR credit card holder. This is a GREAT card for avid travelers and should always be part of the consideration set when shopping around.

As a fledgling blog disclaimer, I’ll add that I don’t have nearly enough readership to get paid for my recommendations yet. So you can rest assured that my love for the Chase Sapphire Reserve is real and not funded by any corporate overlords.

WHY I LOOKED INTO THE CHASE SAPPHIRE RESERVE

In 2016, I was a few years into my young marketing career after undergrad. Since college, I had leaned on the tried and true combination of debit cards from Wells Fargo and my local credit union in St. Paul. I eventually got a LITTLE savvy and started capitalizing on the epic and generous (that one was a joke) 1% cash back from a Wells Fargo credit card.

Everything is relative, and 1% is more than 0%. Math. So take that for what it is. But that’s pennies compared to what you could earn elsewhere, and comes with no additional perks. Then there’s the whole unethical cluster-eff that is Wells Fargo as a company. But I digress…

As I ramped up my spending into my mid-20’s on travel, restaurants, and courting my future wife, I was interested in maximizing my benefits with a new card. 1% wasn’t cutting it. My meticulousness around travel transfers over to personal finance as well, so I got to work researching.

THE CONS (CON, actually.)

I’m going to start by sharing the cons because 1) I’m a salty little grouch like that and 2) there is only one. Trust me, the list of pros is way longer and follows the con.

There is a high annual fee for the Chase Sapphire Reserve. No argument, it’s definitely high for a credit card. But you have to think about total benefit and ROI here. If you made me pay you $500 and then gave me $3000, I wouldn’t whine about having to lose $500.

When I signed up in 2016, the annual fee for the Chase Sapphire Reserve was $450. I’ve been pleasantly surprised that it hasn’t gone up for me, even though it has gone up to $550 for new signees. I’ve paid $450 for the past five years, plus an additional $75 to add another user (my wife). Again on ROI, even paying extra for Mrs. Meticulous to have her own card has netted positive on cost/benefit.

The fact that the fee has risen for new users is a bummer. But STILL the math works out. Just be patient and read through all the bennies I’m about to list out and you’ll see. If you do the research I am confident it’ll slap you in the face that despite having to pay out a few hundred dollars a year, you’ll get them back and then some in a major way.

THE PROS – FIRST, THE SIGNUP BONUS

In 2016 when I was shopping for cards, the signup bonus was a definite consideration. You can interpret this as a marketing gimmick, but it definitely factors into the return on investment of the card.

They’ve since reduced the bonus to 50,000 Chase points (we’ll talk about those in more detail soon) from 100,000, but it’s still nothing to sneeze at. If you spend $4,000 in the first three months of receiving your card you receive this bonus. We’ll get into the Chase points math next, but that is worth $500 in cash or $750 in Chase Ultimate Rewards travel. 

$4,000 in a quarter might sound like a lot, but there are ways to get this done. I timed the card activation well with a trip purchase looming. A couple air tickets and hotels plus everyday spending got me there. Worst case, throw your rent on it – it’s worth the small fee you might pay to do it to get the bonus.

THE CASH BACK BONUSES

This is where the both literal and figurative money is made with the Chase Sapphire Reserve. It gets more complex than the simple 1% I was getting before, but in this case complexity leads to a bigger benefit.

The reason this card was perfect for me as a 20-now-30 something was the increased reward for relevant categories. Instead of 1%, you get 3% when using the card on travel or dining expenses. Besides the rent, travel and restaurants are the biggest expenses for my wife and I so the stars aligned perfectly here. You get 1% back on everything else which is a bummer, but better than zero and you’re making off like a bandit if you spend a decent amount on travel and restaurants.

Travel is definitely pretty loosely/generously as well, including the obvious plane tickets and hotels all the way down to Lyft rides and parking ramps. 3% adds up quickly when you take a couple trips every year.

THE TRAVEL BONUSES

If the 3% wasn’t enough, the Chase Sapphire Reserve also gives you a $300 EVERY YEAR on travel-related expenses. Meaning, the first $300 of flights, Lyfts, etc. of the year are completely covered by the card at no additional cost. If you’re paying the $550 annual fee, you’ve already recouped over half. Every year, automatically.

If the 3% and the $300 wasn’t enough EITHER (ungrateful…), sliding into the party is the Chase Ultimate Rewards travel portal. If you book through Chase’s (admittedly poorly designed) Kayak-like travel portal, you redeem your points at 1.5x. So you’re getting 50% more value out of your points when you redeem for travel through Chase. Even that piddly 1% you got on the line items outside travel and dining get redeemed for more.

As an example, remember that 50,000 points you made in your signup bonus? Yes, you could cash that out for $500. But if you find a flight or hotel you like through the Ultimate Rewards portal, that $500 turns into $750. That’s easily a couple flights in the continental US, all just from spending $4,000 in the first few months you had the card. 

Phew, I need to lay down before I pass out… so much benefit it can get overwhelming sometimes.

FOREIGN EXCHANGE FEES

Or lack thereof.

The CSR does not charge any fees to convert foreign currency to USD. That may seem trivial, but some less ideal banks (cough, the one with the carriage) charge 3% or more to convert foreign currency into US dollars.

Picture the simplicity of simply using your card for expenses while in-country. You don’t have to be Rain Man every time you pay for dinner trying to figure out how much it’s actually going to cost you. I mean you still have to do that, you just don’t have to tack 3% more on.

For every $1000 USD in another country , the lack of fees saves you $30. Nothing earth-shattering, but it’s built into the card automatically.

THE TRAVEL PROTECTION

Built-in travel protection is a highly unsung benefit of this credit card. When you use it for various purchases, those purchases are protected from loss. You’ll want to review all of these in detail before buying (or especially before using) them. But these two are the main ones I’ve capitalized on.

If you rent a car and use the Chase Sapphire Reserve, that car is covered. You can feel comfortable denying the surprisingly aggressive desk clerk when they give you that look like “are you sure about that, you look like a trash driver.” YES, YOU’RE SURE.

The travel protection also covers trip interruption and trip delay. If you’ll remember from an earlier post, I made a big oopsie and missed a bunch of flights and got my wife and I stranded in the Lima, Peru airport. The card didn’t cover my flights (oh, I tried) but did cover a night in the airport hotel and dinner. I was in a foul mood at the time but this saved me over $300 just because I used the Reserve.

GLOBAL ENTRY / TSA PRE-CHECK BENEFIT

Another reason why the Chase Sapphire Reserve is great for travelers is the credit they provide for Global Entry or TSA Pre-Check. Every four years, they will credit $100 towards these expenses.

We went with Global Entry, which includes TSA Pre-Check. There is a little more to the application process like an interview at the airport with non-subtle questions about whether you’re a terrorist. But, as long as you aren’t, you might as well go this route, especially if you plan to travel internationally.

I won’t go into detail in this post, but Global Entry entitles you to faster customs processing when you get home from abroad. You can skip most of the processing lines and get home faster, which is valuable when you’re tired and the fun part of travel is behind you. My wife and I have more often found Mobile Passport lines to actually be shorter than Global Entry lines so have used it more often, but options are nice so we’re glad we use both.

PRIORITY PASS

The cushiest perk that I love about this card is that you are eligible to become a member of Priority Pass. This membership gives you entry to certain airport lounges across the world.

At my beloved MSP, this entitles you (and guests!) to entry and $15 food credit to PGA MSP lounge. I couldn’t care less about golf but I’ll take the free food, airport wifi that actually f’ing works, cleaner bathrooms, comfy chairs, and electrical outlets.

RANDOM PERKS THAT ADD VALUE

I’m trying to keep this “miscellaneous” section short, but it’s hard. There are so many minor but valuable perks that add up!

A great benefit that is provided by the Chase Sapphire Reserve right now is Doordash DashPass. I literally pushed one button on Chase’s website and became a DashPass member at no additional charge. This allows you free delivery fee and reduced service fees on Doordash orders, of which my wife and I are heavy users. If you use it even a couple times a month, it’s probably $10 in your pocket each time, which adds up.

DashPass is also a double benefit of sorts. You save every time you buy, but you still get 3x Chase Rewards points since this is considered a “restaurant.” Whew, *fans self.*

To rapid fire some of the others, I also have Lyft Pink for free through the card (that I haven’t used since COVID but whatever it’s there), compounded by a 10x earning rate when using Lyft. Chase also recognized that people are eating out less so have authorized grocery purchases to get 3x between November 2020 and April 2021. The Mother Theresa of credit cards.

SOME MATH FOR YOU ANNUAL FEE AVOIDERS

Since I harped a lot on return on investment and the benefits outweighing the costs here, let’s do some quick accounting:

FOR THOSE OF YOU KEEPING SCORE, THAT’S A NET GAIN OF $495.

Looking at it itemized, you can see how much gain you receive with this investment. Yes the $550 is steep, but just look at how much you get. I won’t even say the clichéd “gotta spend money to make money” but I already said it, so…

I will also say that I used very conservative numbers here. It’s very possible that you spend more across travel, restaurants, and everything else. I didn’t include the Global Entry credit, or any savings from claims against the trip interruption insurance. You potentially use Priority Pass twice (or more!) per trip, so think of how this value multiplies when you take multiple trips in a year. I didn’t factor any savings relating to foreign exchange rates.

There are ways to game the Chase Rewards numbers up. For example, for trips I plan for the family, like our 2019 trip to Europe, I fronted the expenses and had everyone pay me back. You could do the same at restaurants with groups of friends, and even look deceptively generous in the process 😉

WRAP UP – The Chase Sapphire Reserve

Love is in the air…

One HUGE caveat I didn’t mention is that to reap the full benefit, you need to pay the card off on time and in full every month. I never carry a balance over, as the interest rates on any credit card are astronomical.

With disciplined usage, Chase is literally paying me to use their card. I pay the annual fee, zero in interest, and rake in savings and benefits.

As a reminder, I’m not getting paid by Chase to sing the praises of the Sapphire Reserve. I legitimately think this is the best credit card available for travelers. That hasn’t changed since I got it in early 2016, and I don’t see it changing anytime soon.