Chase Sapphire Reserve: 2025 updates!

It’s officially time to revisit the Chase Sapphire Reserve. June 2025 brought with it a huge update to this card, and a massive increase in the annual fee from $550 to $795. There’s a strong and continuing trend of credit card issuers to increase annual fees while offering more credits to offset those fees. No major update has been announced to the Chase Sapphire Preferred, but this card’s primary competitor (the Amex Platinum) has announced that their own update is coming. I have to imagine Amex’s announcement was at least partially to avoid Chase dominating the credit card news. The Sapphire Reserve was already potentially on the downgrade block for me with the changes to its DoorDash and Lyft benefits (and the end of the Instacart benefit). So now we need to ask if this card is worth holding onto with the increased annual fee. Let’s explore.

Welcome Offer

The CSR currently has a welcome offer of 100 000 bonus points after spending $5 000 in 3 months and a $500 travel credit on Chase Travel. This bonus is huge and likely worth around $2 000. Chase is also updating how its travel portal works with the Reserve’s revamp, so it’s unclear if I still value Chase Ultimate Rewards points at 1.5 cents per point (cpp). The welcome bonus should, however, offset the annual fee for at least 2 years. 

Earnings

The Reserve’s earning structure has been updated to: 8x points/$ on hotels and flights through Chase’s portal (which functions like an online travel agency). Otherwise, it offers 4x points/$ on airline and hotel bookings (when booking directly with the airline/hotel). It continues to offer 3x points/$ on dining and 1x point/$ on everything else. Here is the summary of the changes;

Category	Old earning	New earning
Flights (Direct / Chase travel)	3x / 5x	4x / 8x
Hotels (Direct / Chase Travel)	3x / 10x	4x / 8x
Other travel	3x	1x
Dining	3x	3x
Everything else	1x	1x

The loss of the “other travel” bonus category is unfortunate, but I would say that, on the whole, these changes are positive. But these changes alone do not justify the increased annual fee.

I’ll note that triple points on dining is actually standard for Chase cards at this point.  The Chase Freedom Unlimited (no annual fee) and the Sapphire Preferred ($95 annual fee) both also earn triple points despite their substantially lower annual fees. 

Benefits

The main change with the increased annual fee is an increase in the number of spend-based benefits offered on this card. This is typical for card issuers at this point and is likely because they can partner with programs to offer these benefits, and spend-based benefits encourage spending on the card. What premium card issuers have realized is that their users don’t carry a balance, so they can only make money off the merchant fee, which doesn’t work if the card is only used for bonused spending.

These benefits are staying the same: (1) a $300/year travel credit, (2) a DoorDash DashPass membership with some monthly credits ($5 for dining and $10 x 2 for groceries), and (3) access to Chase Sapphire lounges and a Priority Pass membership (no restaurants). The travel credit is super easy to use (and that does not appear to be changing), so that immediately reduces the effective annual fee to $495 in my opinion.

Here are the new benefits:

1. A $500 hotel credit (2x $250 semi-annual) toward two-night (or longer) bookings at upscale hotels that are part of Chase’s The Edit program.
2. A $300 dining credit (2x $150 semi-annual) toward restaurants that are part of the “Sapphire Reserve Exclusive Tables” program
3. An Apple TV+ and Apple music subscription (through June 2027), which is nominally worth $250/year if you’d otherwise pay for it
4. A $300 Stubhub/viagogo credit (2x $150 semi-annual)
5. A $10/month discount on your first Lyft ride + 5x points/$ (technically added back in March, but way worse than the old 10x points/$ from pre-March) through September 2027
6. $10/month toward Peloton memberships and 10x points/$ on Peloton equipment (through Dec 2027)

I don’t like the way the new Lyft perk works because it shows up as a discount and not as Lyft cash, so it’s less flexible to be used compared to Amex’s Uber benefit. The dining credit is good, I guess, if you would already go to those restaurants, but if you don’t, it’s just another credit to keep track of. The Apple subscriptions are great if you already pay for it, otherwise, it’s just another streaming service. I don’t really use peloton or Stubhub/viagogo, but if you do, I guess they’re also good.

I already struggle to use the hotel credits associated with my Delta Reserve Business Card and Amex Platinum Card, so I really don’t want another hotel credit to keep track of.

Authorized users can be added for an additional $195 per year (up from $75 per year) but each user does still get a Priority Pass card.

How to use the points

The simplest way to use Ultimate Rewards Points is to redeem them for a statement credit at a rate of 1 pt = 1¢ for any purchase.  However, the major benefit of this card used to be that these points could be redeemed at a rate of 1 pt = 1.5¢ towards travel through the Chase Portal.  Now, there are specific purchases that qualify for a points boost where 1 pt = 2¢, but most purchases will now be 1 pt = 1¢ is my understanding.

Using the points has now, therefore, also become more complicated than before (and online travel agencies are annoying to deal with).

I’d realistically still just transfer the Chase points to one of the transfer partners (e.g. British Airways or United), which can unlock more value out of the points.

Examples of using the card

These examples exclude any credits that come with the card.  For example, the travel budget excludes the $300 travel credit offered by the card to help offset the annual fee. These examples also assume that you use the card to pay directly with the merchant, rather than through the Chase portal.

Spend per month

	Example A		Example B		Example C		Example D
Groceries (1x)	$300	300	$200	200	$600	600	$400	400
Gas (1x)	$0	0	$100	100	$200	200	$100	100
Airfare (4x)	$700	2 800	$200	800	$0	0	$400	1 600
Hotels (4x)	$1 000	4 000	$200	800	$0	0	$300	1 200
Gen Travel (1x)	$400	400	$0	0	$300	300	$100	100
Dining (3x)	$600	1 800	$300	900	$300	900	$0	0
General (1x)	$1 000	1 000	$500	500	$500	500	$400	400
Total	$4 000	10 300	$1 500	3 300	$1 700	2 500	$1 700	3 800
Average points/$		2.58		2.2		1.47		2.24

The Reserve’s updated bonus categories and solid earnings means that the average points earned is around 1.47 – 2.58 points/$, which is worth 2.20 – 3.87 ¢/$, with the valuation of 1.5¢/point for Chase Ultimate Rewards points. The range of average points/$ has increased substantially due to the massive difference in points earnings by category (between 1x and 4x) and the rearrangement of the categories. Hotels and airfare can often be big spend categories because they tend to cost a lot more (all at once) than a bunch of small general travel (i.e. tolls and train ticket) purchases.

Specific examples

Card	World Traveller ($750)  (% return)	Marriott Hotel night ($230/night)	Points values (WT/Hotel)
No rewards card	2 728 (4.9%)	2 200 MP (7.3%)	$37.10 / $17.60
General 1% cashback card	2 728 + $7.50 (5.9%)	2 200 MP + $2.30 (8.3%)	$44.60 / $19.90
Chase Sapphire Preferred	2 728 Avios + 1 500 UR (7.9%)	2 200 MP + 460 UR (10.7%)	$59.60 / $24.50
Chase Sapphire Reserve	2 728 Avios + 3 000 UR (10.9%)	2 200 MP + 920 UR (13.7%)	$82.10 / $31.40

Is this credit card right for you?

After having gone through the updates, I’m not sure if it’s worth holding on to. If you’re in the market for a premium credit card, it’s probably worth getting and trying it out, given the huge bonus. The credits do, in my opinion, justify the increased fee… if you’re able to use them.

Here’s the simple case that makes it worth it: you already subscribe to Apple TV and Music and can use one of the hotel/Stubhub/dining credits. Those, combined with the $300 travel credit, make this card make sense. If you can’t find a good use for the credits though, it’s time to downgrade to the Chase Sapphire Preferred in my opinion.