Chase is refreshing its Sapphire Reserve lineup this summer with a higher annual fee and higher fees for authorized users, but more rebates and strong additional perks for booking travel.
Chase Sapphire Reserve Gets New Credits, Higher Fee, And Fresh Benefits
Let’s look at the changes announced today, which will go into effect on June 23, 2025.
Annual Fee Bump + Business Edition
- Annual fee rises from $550 to $795 per year starting June 23, 2025 for new applicants and on renewal after October 26, 2025 for existing cardholders.
- Authorized-user fee increases from $75 to $195.
- New business version, Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business, also debuts at $795 but with no employee card fees.
Rewards Revamp
- 8x points on all travel booked through Chase Travel (flights, hotels, rental cars, cruises, activities).
- 4x points on flights and hotels booked directly with the provider (up from 3x).
- 1x points on other travel outside the portal (previously 3x).
- 3x points on dining remains unchanged.
New Credits & Perks
Chase is rolling out a full slate of lifestyle and travel credits, with over $2,300 in potential value:
- $500 for The Edit by Chase Travel (two $250 hotel credits)
- $300 live entertainment credit (StubHub/Viagogo)
- $300 DoorDash credit (restaurant & grocery delivery promos through 2027)
- $300 dining credit via OpenTable’s Exclusive Tables
- $250 Apple subscription credit (Apple Music and Apple TV+)
- $120 Peloton credit ($10/month)
- $120 DoorDash DashPass credit
- $120 Lyft credit ($10/month through September 2027)
- $300 annual travel credit remains unchanged
- Global Entry/TSA PreCheck credit and Priority Pass lounge access continue
Points Boost & Elite Status
- New Points Boost feature: up to 2¢/point value on select Chase Travel redemptions.
- Existing 1.5¢ value applies for current members until October 25, 2027 for points earned prior to redesign.
- Complimentary IHG One Rewards Platinum Elite status through December 2027.
- Spend $75,000 annually to unlock:
- IHG Diamond status
- Southwest A-List status and $500 Southwest credit
- $250 Shops at Chase retail credit
My Thoughts On These Changes
First, I’m quite happy to see no changes to lounge access. With a new Chase Sapphire Lounge coming soon to Los Angeles (LAX), that alone should pay for the annual fee for my family.
If you’re already booking most of your travel through Chase Travel, the increased earning potential and “Points Boost” can add real value. Sure, the loss of 3x on other travel categories (like public transit, tolls, or Airbnb) will sting for some users, but I think most will come out ahead.
The elimination of 1.5x cents per point for a “Points Boost” sounds suspicious to me…I’m not sure that most will come out ahead…but if you’re using your points for 1.5 cents in value instead of transferring them to partners like Hyatt, Air France-KLM Flying Blue, or United MileagePlus, you’re not using them effectively in the first place.
The higher annual fee and higher fee for authorized users on the personal card may not be ideal, but when you stack the dining credit, Lyft credit, and Apple credit, you will come out ahead (as much as I loathe having to keep track of all these things).
Overall, the fundamental value proposition of this card remains intact.
CONCLUSION
Chase is raising fees on the Sapphire Reserve and adding more benefits, but the core value of the card remains unchanged. I’ll come out ahead in that I’ll use OpenTable’s Exclusive Tables benefit (and otherwise would not, but it will be fun to take my wife out on dates at fancy places), but the extra points on travel booking and continued lounge access make me breathe a sigh of relief.
Will you keep the Sapphire Reserve, downgrade, or jump to another premium card?
Matthew,
As an existing CSR member do you know when we can request the new card design? June or October?
Thanks
Can get a citi custom cash for the transit, etc., but where’s the best place now to book Airbnb/Vrbo for points?
“but if you’re using your points for 1.5 cents in value instead of transferring them to partners like Hyatt, Air France-KLM Flying Blue, or United MileagePlus, you’re not using them effectively in the first place”
Just don’t agree with this. Years ago it was easy to transfer to partners and get tremendous value, but these days it’s really hard to do so (outside of Hyatt…. for now). Unless you are really flexible and willing to layover somewhere (non-starter) then I can constantly expect to pay 275k+ United miles for my family of three to fly to Europe. We just bought nonstop tickets to Munich, during the Oktoberfest, for 133k Chase Points. I also get PQP’s and the exact flight I want. What’s the better value?
Business is a similar story. Haven’t seen 70k one-way fares when I want to fly in a long time. With a kid in school, my flight options will be limited further. For my family, 1.5 cents per point was tremendous value. I also have a United Club card, Hyatt card, Marriott card, so I was already getting a good amount of points. So now I’m losing the other travel category and would effectively only use the CSR at restaurants, and a few flights a year. That’s maybe 40k-50k in additional points for ~1k/year (with authorized user). Looks like a downgrade may be my choice but will have to see the new redemption values first.
Agree for many reasons.
I just used the 1.5x redemption for the first time and redeemed 1.2M UR points. Sure it’s not the best value but you try finding business class tickets for a family of four on the dates that actually work for your family on JAL to go JFK-HND-TPE then TPE-HND and HND-JFK. Sure in some fantasy world I can pay 60k AA points each way for 120k/pp on the JFK-HND route and then book separate tickets between HND-TPE. But here in the real world where seats that are released are snapped up instantaneously and available in blocks of 2 at most… it’s a very hard task. So to find $4.5k/pp tickets in the first place (which I could only get through portals) and then to pay 300k/pp with the 1.5x redemption, felt pretty good to me. Plus we all earn AA miles and LPs on the distance charts not the $ charts – the entire family will be Gold just from this trip and will be able to somewhat easily get my wife to Platinum while I’ll be able to keep PPro. That’s going to be great for certain trips where I want to be able to access international business class lounges when traveling economy with the whole family. Point is when factoring in the miles earned plus the status benefits, doing better than 1.5cpp.
Plus, most people don’t want to clip coupons. The CSR was the ultimate KISS card – keep it simple stupid. My baby boomer parents liked being able to simply know what categories earned bonus spend and liked being able to redeem their points at more than 1cpp – they felt like they were getting something and most of their travel is domestic. Now it’s a whole different and more expensive ballgame, and customers have more choices than ever. Feels like a pretty big gamble, although it’s JPMorgan Chase – they have plenty of money to gamble with.
I’ve been debating about getting this card and canceling Venture X in light of the lounge cuts. Apart from the travel credit, the $300 OpenTable credit might be useful (though it depends on what restaurants this actually covers). Otherwise, it’s a largely useless coupon book, with a pu pu platter of stuff I’ll rarely if ever use. I guess we’ll see, but a best case scenario of $195 for Chase lounge access doesn’t seem compelling to me.
“The elimination of 1.5x cents per point for a “Points Boost” sounds suspicious to me…”
Your suspicions are well-justified. This is “dynamic pricing” – on the value end.
We already have dynamic pricing on the purchase end: when you use points at 1.5X to “buy” (redeem points for) flights and hotels, those prices fluctuate based on demand, whims, and other factors. Now, they get to decide how much value your points will have – you WERE getting 1.5X-on-everything, going forward you get 1X on everything, except when Chase feels like pushing out some blue-light-specials and dumping things at a discount – hooray, maybe someday you’ll get 2X on that motel outside Sarasota. But only when/where Chase decides they want to. You can be sure that flight to Bali or the stunning villa on a Greek island is not going to come when your points have 2X on that. For everything you actually want, your points just lost 50% of their value.
This is nothing less than the gutting of the Chase UR program, possibly the biggest devaluation in history. You know, what the Marketing Team calls “an exciting enhancement.”
I’m neutral on it. I applied for the CSR on basically the day it came out back in 2016, so I’ll at least get this years AF for $550, so I can give it a try. Forcing two nights per stay on the hotel credit is less than ideal, and it definitely won’t be worth a true $500 to me annually. Neither will the dining credit really be worth $150. None of my favorite restaurants show up, so I guess I’ll get a discount at places I wouldn’t otherwise go to, but I don’t think that’s a true $300 annually. Also, the Doordash credit is a joke. $25 a month? Technically, but not really. I will use the Apple Music subscription, but that isn’t worth $250 to me.
Will I get an extra $245 of value out of the card? Maybe, but what’s the breaking point. If the AF was $3,000 and I got $3,100 of value from it, is it really worth fronting that much cash? As these premium cards evolve, I’m starting to think that they’re not really made for smart consumers like us. Sure, the Chase lounges are great now, but Amex lounges used to be great, and nowadays none us ever even consider them.
All I really want is my circa 2004 Diners Club card.
I never wanted a bunch of lifestyle credits and lounges full of people who got an $800 card so that they could mound food on a plate at the SkyClub buffet. Everything that they add to the CSR and the Alex Platinum just reinforces my nostalgia for the old days when awards were available, lounges were 25% full, and there was respect for the game.
These cards are for schmucks now.
Why is the DoorDash credit listed as new credit? The structure of the credit appears to be the same. It has been available since last year. I agree with Jerry the DoorDash credit is a joke. $25.00 a month, but not really.