Chase Sapphire Reserve vs Preferred

Two of the most common travel credit cards to find in someone’s wallet are the Chase Sapphire Preferred and the Sapphire Reserve. These two cards come up a lot because they are siblings and because they are mutually exclusive: you can’t have both a Reserve and a Preferred at the same time. And really, there is no reason to anyway.

Any number of articles exist that compare the two, but I figured since it comes up enough in discussions that I may as well throw my hat into the ring.

I provide the information here just to give readers a vague idea if the rewards offered by the card might make sense for them to consider the card.  The information on this page has been collected independently, and all information should be confirmed with the card company before applying.

Annual Fee

The first comparison point for these two cards is the annual fee: the CSP is $95, whereas the CSR is a full $550, so the immediate question is, what do you get for the extra $455?

Welcome Offer

At the time of writing, both the CSP and CSR have a welcome offer of 60 000 bonus points after spending $4 000 in the first 4 months. I value Chase points at around 1.5 ¢/point, which puts the welcome offer at around $750 for both of them. I picked up my CSP when it had a 100 000 bonus point offer back in 2021, and it recently had an 80 000 bonus point offer. The CSR had a 100 000 point bonus offer when it first came out, but in general, Chase has been pushing the CSP more for new customers.

Earnings

The CSP and CSR have largely the same earning structure. Both earn 3x points/$ on dining (just like the free Chase Freedom Unlimited). The CSR earns 3x points/$ on travel, whereas the CSP only earns 2x points/$. They both earn 1x point/$ on all other purchases. The CSP was refreshed in 2021 and its dining category got bumped from 2x points/$ to 3x points/$, which reduced the gap between these two cards considerably.

Chase has a partnership with Lyft, where the CSP and CSR earn 5x points and 10x points, respectively on Lyft rides (compared to 2x and 3x on competing platforms, like Uber).

Benefits

The main difference between these cards, as is common with sibling credit cards with such different annual fees, is the benefits each card offers to justify the annual fee. The CSP only has one credit to offset the annual fee, and that’s a $50 hotel credit through Chase’s travel portal. It doesn’t seem like a hugely useful perk to me.

The CSR, however, offers several benefits. First, the card offers a $300 annual travel credit applied directly to your statement, which I value at face value, effectively reducing the annual fee to $250 basically instantly. Second, the card offers a Priority Pass membership and access to Sapphire Lounges (of which there is only one in the United States). This Priority Pass membership includes restaurants, unlike the Amex and Capital One offerings. Third, the card offers a TSA PreCheck/Global Entry credit once every 4 years. Fourth, the card offers strong trip cancellation and delay insurances (much stronger than those on the CSP, which is hard to meet the requirements for).

The CSR also offers $5/month in DoorDash credits and DashPass, as well as Lyft Pink. I don’t particularly value either of those very highly, but they’ve proved relatively useful. Finally, you can get $15/month back in Instacart purchases, but I use them even more rarely than DoorDash, haha.

Both cards offer the ability to pool Chase Ultimate Rewards Points and transfer them to partners. They both also offer an enhanced point value when redeeming points for travel through the Chase Travel portal. With the CSP, you get 1.25 ¢/point when redeeming this way, whereas the CSR offers 1.5 ¢/point when redeeming in this manner.

Card value

Back to the annual fee question: $95 vs $550 is a big difference. For an extra $455, the CSR offers a $300 travel credit, which easily reduces the difference to $155. Since the PreCheck/Global Entry credit is only once per 4 years, I’ll ignore it. If you use DoorDash and Instacart regularly, these benefits are worth $60 and $180, respectively. DoorDash I use regularly enough to get the full $60 worth, but Instacart I use so rarely that the credit doesn’t really figure in much to it. I do get some value out of Lyft Pink, but not the “$120” it is worth per year. Technically, all three of these benefits are only limited time offers through at least the end of 2024, so they might not get extended again.

The Priority Pass holds no interest to me because I already get a better one through The Ritz-Carlton Card, which is my favorite top-tier credit card. However, if you don’t have a Priority Pass and regularly fly out of an airport with a relevant lounge, it can hold some value. I’ve similarly never been that impressed with the Priority Pass offerings, but the San Jose club was nice enough.

The additional 1x point/$ on travel is good, but you’d need to spend a lot (pushing $10k) on travel on the card every year to make this perk a deciding factor.

The final benefit is the CSR’s 1.5 ¢/point through the Chase Travel Portal vs the 1.25 ¢/point on the CSP. To make up the $155 difference in annual fee off this benefit alone, you’d need to spend 62 000 Chase points this way each year. On the CSR, this is worth $930, compared to the CSP’s $775.

I’ve spent $512 through the Chase Travel Portal during this year that I’ve had the CSR, so I’ve saved 6 800 points by having the CSR.

All this is to say, I pay an extra $455 for this card to get $300 in travel credit, $60 in DoorDash credit, Lyft Pink, the occasional Instacart discount, and to save maybe $100 in points. Do I come out ahead in all this? I mean, just barely. If the DoorDash, Instacart, and Lyft Pink benefits disappear, I don’t know if I’m going to continue to hold onto the card.

Is this credit card right for you?

I think both the CSP and CSR are solid credit cards for their respective markets and that, in general, it’s pretty hard to go wrong with the CSP. The CSR, on the other hand, really comes down to three things for most people: do you spend a lot on travel every year? Can you get enough value out of getting the extra 0.25 ¢/point on the Chase Travel Portal? And, do you want a priority pass? If you can’t say to at least two (really all three) of these questions, the CSP is probably the better option overall.

Since you can product change between these two cards, if you think you’re going to have some big purchases through the Chase Travel Portal in a given year, you could upgrade your card for the year from a CSP to a CSR and then downgrade it at the end of the year (preferably during a year that you’ll be renewing PreCheck/Global Entry as well).