Buzz
Both the Chase Sapphire Preferred and Chase Sapphire Reserve rank among the top travel credit cards, but before applying, it's crucial to examine your personal spending habits.
Why? Because while the Chase Sapphire Reserve offers a more rewarding structure, it also has a much steeper annual fee: $450 annually, compared to the Chase Sapphire Preferred’s more modest $95 fee.
Here’s a quick summary of the rewards and perks each card provides:
Chase Sapphire Preferred Card
Earn 2x points on travel and dining purchases
Earn 1x points on all other purchases
Get 25% more value for points when redeemed for travel via Chase Ultimate Rewards
Receive 60,000 bonus points after spending $4,000 within the first 3 months, equivalent to $750 for travel through Chase Ultimate Rewards
Transfer points to selected travel partners at a 1:1 ratio
Chase Sapphire Reserve Card
Earn 3x points on travel and dining purchases
Earn 1x points on all other purchases
Get 50% more value for points when redeemed for travel through Chase Ultimate Rewards
Receive 50,000 bonus points after spending $4,000 within the first 3 months, worth $750 when redeemed for travel via Chase Ultimate Rewards
Transfer points to selected travel partners at a 1:1 ratio
Benefit from a $300 annual travel credit
Access Global Entry or TSA Pre✓ fee credit
Enjoy Priority Pass Select membership
To make the most of the additional points and benefits that come with the Reserve card, ensure that your spending justifies both the rewards and the annual fee.
This involves doing a bit of calculation.
Fortunately, The Points Guy has already done much of the math for us in a detailed post comparing both the Chase Sapphire Preferred and the Chase Sapphire Reserve. Here’s one example from the post:
If you plan to use your
Chase Ultimate Rewards points
through the
Chase travel portal
for flights, accommodations, car rentals, and cruises, the Sapphire Reserve becomes the better option if your annual spending on
travel
and
dining
exceeds $3,425 — that’s just $286 per month.
If you prefer to calculate on your own, tally up your total spending on travel and dining over the past year. (If you use financial tools like Mint or YNAB, they’ll generate a report for you. Alternatively, if your bank or credit card issuer tracks your spending by category, you can export the transactions, upload them into a spreadsheet program, and sort by column.)
Next, multiply your travel/dining expenses by 2 to determine how many points you could have earned with the Chase Sapphire Preferred, or by 3 to see what you would have accumulated with the Chase Sapphire Reserve.
Here’s an illustration of how it works: I spent $4,449.44 this year on personal travel and dining (this includes vacation travel as well as everyday transportation like Lyft, Uber, and buses), which would have earned me 8,899 points with the Preferred and 13,358 points with the Reserve.
If I used those points for travel through Chase Ultimate Rewards, my 8,899 points with the Preferred card would have increased by 25%, totaling 11,124 points and covering $111.24 in travel expenses. With the Reserve, my 13,358 points would have grown by 50%, giving me 20,037 points and covering $200.04 in travel expenses.
However, I would also receive the $300 annual travel credit with the Reserve, which would mean around $500.04 of my travel costs would be covered at minimum—I’m not even considering the point bonuses I could earn with either card, or how much I’d accumulate from non-travel, non-dining purchases.
But, if we take the math all the way, $500.04 in Reserve reward value minus the $450 annual fee leaves me with $50.04 (the “net profit”), and $111.24 in Preferred reward value minus the $95 fee leaves me with $16.24.
The Chase Sapphire Reserve is clearly the better card for me, and that’s before factoring in first-year point bonuses, the points I’d earn on non-travel, non-dining spending, the Global Entry or TSA Pre✓ fee credit, the value of a Priority Pass Select membership, and more. Yes, my calculations align perfectly with The Points Guy’s advice—which is to be expected—but it was still worth taking the time to crunch the numbers myself.
Before you write off the Chase Sapphire Reserve’s steep annual fee as something beyond your budget, take a moment to assess your spending patterns and do some quick calculations. (Keep in mind that if you tend to carry a balance on your credit cards, you’ll need to account for interest, which could diminish any “net gains” you might earn.)
If you really want to be thorough, try running the same calculations for all the other rewards credit cards available out there.
