Chase Sapphire Reserve Visa Infinite & J.P. Morgan Reserve Visa Infinite Review
Updated August 9, 2024.
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
J.P. Morgan Reserve
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.
Chase Sapphire Reserve vs. Amex Gold Card: After considering the easy-to-use $300 annual travel credits on Sapphire Reserve, the annual fees are effectively the same at $250 on both cards. Currently we have similar valuation for Amex MR and Chase UR points at 1.5 cents per point. The differences are as the following. (1) Amex Gold has grocery & dining as the 4x categories and airfare as the 3x category, while Sapphire Reserve has airfare through UR as the 5x category and dining & other travel as the 3x categories. You have to do your own math to figure out which is better for you. In addition, your preference in how to redeem the points is also an important factor: Amex has Air Canada, ANA, Cathay Pacific, Delta, Hawaiian, etc. as the transfer partners, while Chase has United, Southwest, Hyatt, etc.; in addition, Chase's fixed value travel redemption at 1.5 cent per point is much better than Amex's 1 cent per point value. (2) In terms of perks, Sapphire Reserve offers Priority Pass Select, hotel privileges through Visa Signature/Infinite Hotel Collection, Chase Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection, and at Relais & Chateaux, primary rental car insurance, and rental car elite status, etc., while Amex Gold offers $10 monthly Uber Cash and $10 monthly dining credits for select partners but less lucrative hotel privileges. (3) Sapphire Reserve offers much better travel protection coverage. Summing up, both cards are fantastic in their own ways; you spending pattern, preference in redemption options, valuation of perks and protection will all affect your decision making.
Chase Sapphire Reserve vs. US Bank Altitude Reserve: There is no doubt that U.S. Bank designed its Altitude Reserve to challenge the popular Sapphire Reserve. Let's see how they compare. (1) After considering their annual travel credits, Altitude Reserve is $175 cheaper in annual fees than Sapphire Reserve. (2) Sapphire Reserve has a 10-5-3-1 earning structure covering travel and dining, while Altitude Reserve has a 5-3-1 earning structure with travel and mobile wallet as bonus categories. While Sapphire Reserve offers 2 additional points for airfare (booked through Chase), Altitude Reserve's mobile wallet could cover much more than Sapphire Reserve's dining category. (3) Even though when redeemed for travel at fixed value, points in both programs are worth 1.5 cents a piece, Sapphire Reserve does offer a lot of flexibility and potentially more lucrative value when you transfer points into frequent traveler miles/points. (4) Both offer similar travel perks with few differences, such as 8 free Priority Pass Select visits provided by Altitude Reserve vs. unlimited free access provided by Sapphire Reserve. (5) The last thing to note is that Sapphire Reserve offers a higher level of travel and consumer protection in general. The bottom line: while Altitude Reserve is cheaper in annual fees and might potentially offer more rewards, Sapphire Reserve' flexibility in redemption and better protection will need to be considered.
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.
© 2011-2024 DrCreditCard.net All rights reserved.
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: $550 for the primary cardholder, $75 for each authorized user.
- Signup Bonus: 60,000 points (=$900 in travel rewards via Chase, or 60K miles/points of United, Singapore, British, Flying Blue, Southwest, JetBlue, Hyatt, etc.) after you spend $4,000 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: 100,000 points when introduced in August 2016; 80,000 points in 2022; 60,000 points in 2021.
- 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: 10x Chase Dining & hotel & car rentals through Ultimate Rewards, 5x airfare through Ultimate Rewards, 3x points on other dining and travel, 1x everywhere else. Through March 31, 2025, earn 10x on Lyft purchases and on Peloton equipment and accessory purchases over $250.
- 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 $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. By comparison, Amex Platinum has been limiting the credit to airline incidentals only; Citi Prestige first allowed airfare and airline incidentals to be reimbursed but in 2019 followed Chase to allow any travel expense; US Bank copied Chase to allow any travel expense when introducing Altitude Reserve in 2017.
- Priority Pass Select membership which provides unlimited complimentary access to more than 1,000 airport lounges worldwide for you plus two guests. An authorized user also gets a Priority Pass Select membership. Please see our featured review to learn more about airport lounge access.
- Hotel Privileges: (1) Chase Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection (LHRC), through Signature Travel Network, offering 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 900 luxury hotels and resorts worldwide. You may book a hotel on LHRCollection.com 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 benefit is available on select Chase cards such as Sapphire Reserve, Sapphire Preferred, United MP Club, and United MP Explorer. (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 LHRC'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 ($100) or TSA PreCheck ($85) application every four years. (5) Exclusive Events & Experiences such as a private dinner with a celebrity chef. (6) One to two years of complimentary DashPass - activate before December 31, 2024, and starting April 1, 2022, receive $5 DoorDash credit each month that can roll over up to $15. DashPass is the subscription service for both DoorDash and Caviar that offers zero delivery fee and reduced service fees on food orders over $12. (7) Two years of Lyft Pink All Access membership - activate before December 31, 2024. Lyft Pink All Access (valued at $199 on paper) offers roadside assistance up to 4 times a year, 15% off on Lyft Car Maintenance, free SIXT car rental upgrades, priority airport pickups, relaxed cancellations, unlimited 45-min classic bike rides, unlimited ebike and scooter unlocks, 3 bike or scooter guest passes per year, and exclusive savings. Effective October 2020, Lyft Pink members also receive GrubHub+ or Seamless+ membership for free. GrubHub+ or Seamless+, normally costing $9.99 per month, offers unlimited free delivery with orders over $12, exclusive member perks such as free food or discounts, and donation matching, with GrubHub or Seamless mobile app respectively. (8) Up to $119 value with Instacart - receive complimentary 6-month instacart+ membership and earn up to $60 a year via a quarterly $15 statement credit through July 2024. (9) Up to $120 value with gopuff - receive a monthly $10 statement credit through December 2023.
- 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 ($550). 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%.
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.
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.
Chase Sapphire Reserve vs. Amex Gold Card: After considering the easy-to-use $300 annual travel credits on Sapphire Reserve, the annual fees are effectively the same at $250 on both cards. Currently we have similar valuation for Amex MR and Chase UR points at 1.5 cents per point. The differences are as the following. (1) Amex Gold has grocery & dining as the 4x categories and airfare as the 3x category, while Sapphire Reserve has airfare through UR as the 5x category and dining & other travel as the 3x categories. You have to do your own math to figure out which is better for you. In addition, your preference in how to redeem the points is also an important factor: Amex has Air Canada, ANA, Cathay Pacific, Delta, Hawaiian, etc. as the transfer partners, while Chase has United, Southwest, Hyatt, etc.; in addition, Chase's fixed value travel redemption at 1.5 cent per point is much better than Amex's 1 cent per point value. (2) In terms of perks, Sapphire Reserve offers Priority Pass Select, hotel privileges through Visa Signature/Infinite Hotel Collection, Chase Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection, and at Relais & Chateaux, primary rental car insurance, and rental car elite status, etc., while Amex Gold offers $10 monthly Uber Cash and $10 monthly dining credits for select partners but less lucrative hotel privileges. (3) Sapphire Reserve offers much better travel protection coverage. Summing up, both cards are fantastic in their own ways; you spending pattern, preference in redemption options, valuation of perks and protection will all affect your decision making.
Chase Sapphire Reserve vs. US Bank Altitude Reserve: There is no doubt that U.S. Bank designed its Altitude Reserve to challenge the popular Sapphire Reserve. Let's see how they compare. (1) After considering their annual travel credits, Altitude Reserve is $175 cheaper in annual fees than Sapphire Reserve. (2) Sapphire Reserve has a 10-5-3-1 earning structure covering travel and dining, while Altitude Reserve has a 5-3-1 earning structure with travel and mobile wallet as bonus categories. While Sapphire Reserve offers 2 additional points for airfare (booked through Chase), Altitude Reserve's mobile wallet could cover much more than Sapphire Reserve's dining category. (3) Even though when redeemed for travel at fixed value, points in both programs are worth 1.5 cents a piece, Sapphire Reserve does offer a lot of flexibility and potentially more lucrative value when you transfer points into frequent traveler miles/points. (4) Both offer similar travel perks with few differences, such as 8 free Priority Pass Select visits provided by Altitude Reserve vs. unlimited free access provided by Sapphire Reserve. (5) The last thing to note is that Sapphire Reserve offers a higher level of travel and consumer protection in general. The bottom line: while Altitude Reserve is cheaper in annual fees and might potentially offer more rewards, Sapphire Reserve' flexibility in redemption and better protection will need to be considered.
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.
© 2011-2024 DrCreditCard.net All rights reserved.