Updated April 8, 2026.
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The Facts
In August 2016, Chase brought Sapphire Reserve Visa Infinite to the already competitive high-end credit card market, while at the same time introducing J.P. Morgan Reserve Visa Infinite to replace J.P. Morgan Palladium Visa Signature for its affluent Private Bank clients.

Chase Sapphire Reserve

• Annual Fee: $795 for the primary cardholder, $195 for each authorized user.

• Signup Bonus: 125,000 points (=$1,250 in travel rewards via Chase, or 125K miles/points of United, Singapore, British, Flying Blue, Southwest, JetBlue, Hyatt, etc.) after you spend $6,000 within 3 months of new account opening. This bonus is not available if you currently have a Sapphire card (Sapphire, Sapphire Preferred, or Sapphire Reserve) or have received signup bonus from any Sapphire card in the past 48 months. Based on anecdotal reports, this card is subject to Chase's 5/24 rule (you won't be approved for this card if you have opened 5 or more new accounts within the past 24 months; any new account with any issuer will count, not just with Chase; new accounts include most credit cards and charge cards but exclude non-Chase business cards and store charge cards). Historical best bonus of this card: 125,000 points in 2025; 100,000 points in 2016 and 2025; 80,000 points in 2022; 60,000 points several times in past years.

• Application landing page [Disclaimer: we will receive a referral bonus from Chase if you apply and are approved for this card. The signup bonus you will receive is the same as the public offer via Chase's non-referral link].

• Rewards: 8x points on Chase Travel purchases, 4x airlines and hotels booked direct, 3x dining, 1x everywhere else.

• Best Use of Ultimate Rewards (UR) points: The Ultimate Rewards is Chase's rewards program - normally the points can be redeemed for cash, merchandise, gift cards, or travel, at up to 1 cent per point (note: cash rewards have 1 cent value). However, Sapphire Reserve has three premium redemption options. The first option is to redeem for travel through UR and get 50% bonus value, essentially making 1 point = 1.5 cents. Note that this is better than the 25% bonus on Sapphire Preferred or Ink Plus. The second is to redeem through "Pay Yourself Back" feature and get 25% bonus value for categories that are subject to change - current and previous categories include dining, groceries, home improvement, Airbnb, annual membership fees, and charity. The third option is to transfer points into miles or points of frequent traveler programs. Please see our review on Marriott vs. MR vs. UR vs. TY vs. C1 vs. CR for detailed comparison of the five programs that allow miles/points transfer.

• Annual/semi-annual/monthly credits: (1) Annual $300 travel credit each membership year: since its introduction, this has been the best annual travel credit provided by a high-end card, as it allows almost any travel expense to be reimbursed automatically. (2) Up to $500 The Edit by Chase Travel credits each calendar year ($250 semi-annually, two nights minimum per stay). (3) Up to $300 dining credits each calendar year ($150 semi-annually for Chase Sapphire Reserve Exclusive Tables on OpenTable). (4) Up to $420 DoorDash value = complimentary DashPass membership ($120 value, offering zero delivery fee and reduced service fees on food orders over $12) and up to $300 DoorDash value each calendar year ($25 per month - $5-off on restaurant orders and two $10-off on grocery/retail orders). (5) Complimentary Apple TV+ and Apple Music memberships in $288 statement credits each calendar year. (6) Up to $300 StubHub credits each calendar year ($150 semi-annually). (7) Up to $120 Lyft credits each calendar year ($10 per month). (8) Up to $120 Peloton credits each calendar year ($10 per month). (9) Through 12/31/2026, $250 credit on prepaid Chase Travel hotel bookings with IHG Hotels & Resorts, Montage Hotels & Resorts, Pendry Hotels & Resorts, Omni Hotels & Resorts, Virgin Hotels, Minor Hotels, and Pan Pacific Hotels and Resorts. Two night minimum.

• Airport Lounge Access: (1) Unlimited complimentary access to Chase Sapphire Lounges for you (a primary cardmember or authorized user) plus two guests. There are currently only 8 lounges but the list is expected to grow. (2) Priority Pass Select membership which provides unlimited complimentary access to more than 1,800 airport lounges worldwide for you (a primary cardmember or authorized user) plus two guests. Please see our featured review to learn more about airport lounge access.

• Hotel Privileges: (1) The Edit by Chase Travel (EBCT), formerly known as Chase Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection, through Signature Travel Network, offers perks such as daily complimentary breakfasts for two, room upgrades upon availability, early check-in and late check-out upon availability, and property specific amenities (such as a $100 spa/dining/hotel credit per stay), at over 1,000 luxury hotels and resorts worldwide. You may book a hotel through EBCT and the rates are mostly the same of the Best Available Rates (BAR, i.e., refundable flexible rates set by the hotel) and include taxes, resort fees, etc. This is Chase's answer to Amex's highly recognized Fine Hotels & Resorts program. (2) Visa Infinite Privileges at Relais & Chateaux (a collection of 500+ high-end luxury boutique hotels worldwide): a VIP welcome at all hotels (unique to each property) and complimentary breakfasts at 120+ participating hotels. Visit relaischateaux.com/visainfinite-us for details. You will also be accelerated to its Club 5C status after staying 2 nights in a 12-month period. Relais & Chateaux's Club 5C is by-invitation only if you don't have a Visa Infinite and normally requires staying 15 nights per year; perks include room upgrades upon availability, and "Discovery Privilege" unique to each property. (3) Visa Signature Luxury Hotel Collection which offers perks including daily complimentary breakfasts for two, room upgrades upon availability, late checkout upon availability, $25 food and beverage credit per stay, free room wi-fi, and VIP amenities, at over 900 luxury hotels and resorts worldwide. You may book a hotel on VisaSignatureHotels.com and the rates are the same as BAR. Note that the coverage and perks are different from EBCT's, but some hotels participate in both programs. (4) Visa Infinite Luxury Hotel Collection which covers a subset (200+) of Visa Signature hotels but offers an extra property specific perk like a $75 food and beverage credit or a $100 spa/hotel/rate credit per stay. You may book a hotel a VisaInfiniteHotels.com, and the rates are the same as BAR. (5) Privileges at Ennismore - receive 4th night free, food & beverage credit, and daily free breakfasts for two at Ennismore global portfolio hotels, including brands such as SLS, Mondrian, Delano, Hyde, Morgans Originals, Hoxton, and SO/.

• Other Visa Infinite Benefits: (1) Visa Infinite 24/7 Concierge Service. (2) Visa Infinite Car Rental Privileges at Avis, National, and SilverCar.

• Other Benefits: (1) Waived foreign transaction fees with an embedded EMV chip for foreign travel. (2) Primary rental car collision coverage - note while most credit cards provide rental car insurance, they are secondary, meaning your personal insurance's collision damage coverage kicks in before the credit card's. Please see our featured review on credit cards that come with primary rental car insurance for details. (3) While most credit card's Roadside Assistance service only dispatches a provider and you have to pay for the actual charges, Sapphire Reserve covers up to $50 per service and 4 times per year. (4) Reimbursement for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck application (up to $120) every four years. (5) Exclusive Events & Experiences such as a private dinner with a celebrity chef.

• Benefits After $75K - after you spend $75,000 each calendar year you will receive the following additional benefits: (1) Southwest Airlines A-list status, (2) IHG One Rewards Diamond status, (3) Hyatt Explorist status, (4) $500 Southwest Airlines Chase Travel credits, and (5) $250 The Shops at Chase credits.

• Protection: Sapphire Reserve offers the highest level of consumer and travel protection among all credit cards.

• Other Facts: Currently, there are three Chase Sapphire cards - the entry level non-fee Chase Sapphire (not available to new applications), the premium Chase Sapphire Preferred ($95), and the high-end Chase Sapphire Reserve ($795). Sapphire Reserve has the same metal design as Sapphire Preferred's and weighs about 13 grams.

• History: After introduced and shocking the industry in 2016, Sapphire Reserve did not have any significant change in its rewards and benefits other than the Chase-wide consumer and travel protection changes, until January 2020 when Chase increased the annual fee from $450 to $550 and added a few temporary perks partnering with Lyft and DoorDash. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Chase introduced several customer friendly temporary benefits to keep many cardholders loyal, including the "Pay Yourself Back" feature. In August 2021, Chase again enhanced the card by introducing 10x and 5x bonus categories. In 2023, Chase devaluated the "Pay Yourself Back" feature for CSR by reducing the bonus from 50% to 25%. In September 2025, Chase introduced another major revamp of CSR by increasing the annual fee from $550 to $795, changing the bonus structure to 8/4/3/1, adding a suite of new credits ($500 for EBCT hotels, $300 for dining, $420 for DoorDash, $288 for Apple, $300 for StubHub, $120 for Lyft, $120 for Peloton).

J.P. Morgan Reserve

• JPM Reserve has almost all features of Sapphire Reserve, including signup bonus. The only differences are the following: (1) JPM Reserve is made out of brass and plated with palladium just as JPM Palladium Card and weighs about 27 grams, twice as heavy as Sapphire Reserve; (2) JPM Reserve offers some unwritten benefits such as complimentary United Club membership with unlimited access to 50+ domestic lounges and 200+ international lounges for the primary cardholder and guests, and waived miscellaneous fees; (3) applying JPM Reserve requires a private banking relationship with J.P. Morgan, which currently requires at least $10,000,000 ($10M) in assets.

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The Math
Some detailed discussions on travel booked through UR which returns 10x points on Chase Dining & hotels & car rentals and 5x on airfare: it makes a lot of sense to book airfare (other than a few exceptions such as Southwest) to take advantage of the bonus, as the rates are the same as if you book directly with airlines and if you remember to add your frequent flyer number you will still earn miles and be recognized for your elite status; however, you may want to think twice before booking hotels, because several hotel programs won't allow points earning or recognize your elite status if you book through a third party; also be careful about car rentals, as you might not be able to apply certain coupons or promotions; while 10x on Chase Dining looks terrific on paper, the participating restaurants are limited. Thus in our analysis, we do consider airfare as a robust 5x category while not considering Chase Dining & hotels & car rents for the additional 7x points (on top of dining & travel that already return 3x).

After taking advantage of the $300 annual travel credits, the effective annual fee on this card becomes $250. With that, it offers Priority Pass Select membership, hotel and car rental privileges, primary rental car collision coverage, premium roadside assistance, waived foreign transaction fees, Global Entry application credit, Lyft and DoorDash perks, etc. If you ever make use of some of these perks, you may have already come out ahead, and you will enjoy the bonus categories for free. The other way of looking at this is that if your spendings in bonus categories beat the effective annual fee and the 2% cashback offered by our benchmark such as Citi Double Cash and Fidelity Visa, you will enjoy all the perks for free. For example, if you value UR points at 1.5 cents a piece and spend $2K in airfare and $6K in dining & other travel combined, you will earn a bonus of $2,000 x (7.5 - 2)% + $6,000 x (4.5 - 2)% = $260, which more than cancel out the effective annual fee. In addition, Sapphire Reserve offers the best consumer and travel protection among all credit cards. In our opinion, no other card offers such strong performances in rewards, perks, and protection all at the same time.

Sapphire Reserve vs. Sapphire Preferred ($95): After considering the $300 annual travel credit, the Sapphire Reserve is $155 more than Sapphire Preferred. With that, you receive 5x additional points for Chase Dining & hotels & car rentals through UR and 1x additional points on travel not through UR, the increased fixed-value travel redemption value (1.5 vs. 1.25 cents), impressive travel privileges (airport, hotels, car rentals), and better consumer and travel protection. You need to do your own math, especially weighing the extra perks and protection, to make your decision between the two.

Chase Sapphire Reserve vs. Capital One Venture X: (1) First of all, Venture X is $155 cheaper in effective annual fees ($95 vs. $250), and also important is the fact that Chase charges $75 per authorized user while Capital One charges zero. (2) When it comes to rewards, Venture X offers 5x airfare and 2x everywhere else, and Sapphire Reserve offers 5x airfare, 3x dining & other travel, and 1x everywhere else. As our current valuation of both currencies happens to be the same at 1.5 cents a piece, as long as your spending in dining & other travel combined is less than 50% of your total spending, Venture X is better; however, keep in mind of their unique transfer partners (e.g., Chase has United, Southwest, JetBlue, and Hyatt, and Capital One has Air Canada, Avianca, Turkish, Cathay Pacific, and Qantas) and Sapphire Reserve's better fixed value travel redemption option (1.5 cents vs. 1 cent) when you make your decision. (3) Most travel perks provided by both cards are similar, with a few differences such as Capital One Lounges, Chase Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection, sbe hotel privileges by Chase, Hertz President's Circle by Capital One. (4) Sapphire Reserve has better travel/consumer protection in general, but lacking Capital One's cellphone protection. (5) Overall, when we crunched the numbers, Venture X clearly comes out ahead, but you might still do your own math to decide which one suits you better.

To see how Chase Sapphire Reserve competes with other cards with similar annual fees, please check out our featured review Comparing High-end Cards covering Amex Platinum Card, Amex Delta Reserve, Amex Hilton Aspire, Amex Marriott Brilliant, Chase Sapphire Reserve, Chase United Club, Citi Prestige, Citi AA Executive, BofA PR Elite, U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve, Capital One Venture X, CNB Crystal, HSBC Elite, and MasterCard Black Card.

The Conclusion
Chase Sapphire Reserve was the most existing product Chase introduced in the past decade and is still arguably the best Chase card you can have today. Scoring incredibly high in all of the four areas we evaluate: signup bonus (top 30), rewards (#8), perks (#9) and protection (#1), no wonder Sapphire Reserve reigned our Best Credit Card List most of the time since its introduction, until dethroned by Capital One Venture X in late 2021. With the 2025 revamped, Sapphire Reserve returned as the king of credit cards.