Chase Sapphire Reserve vs Sapphire Preferred: Which is Right for You?

If you want the ability to transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points to hotel and airline partners, you’ll need either the Sapphire Reserve card or the Sapphire Preferred. 

Both the cards are currently offering elevated welcome offers, so we thought that it was the ideal time to revive the debate: which one is better? Each card has its own pluses and minuses along with the wildly different annual fees ($550 vs $95). So, in this post, you’ll find a side by side comparison of each card’s benefits, perks and travel & purchase protections in an attempt to help you sort that question out.

Overview

If there is such a thing as a “classic” credit card, the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card (CSP) is it and it’s not hyperbole to say that it changed the world of credit card rewards when it was originally launched in 2009. Not only was it novel for having multiple spending category bonuses, it also offered the ability to earn flexible Chase Ultimate Rewards points, allowing cardholders to transfer earnings to multiple travel partners.

However, when the Sapphire Reserve (CSR) card first debuted several years later, it was clearly a better choice than the Sapphire Preferred for most folks who travel. It sported 3X rewards on travel and dining compared to the Preferred card’s 2X earnings in both categories. The CSR offered (and continues to offer) cardholders 1.5 cents per point value towards travel booked through Chase vs. the 1.25 cents per point that the Preferred card provides. The Reserve also had a slew of benefits not available to Preferred cardholders, among them a Priority Pass membership that included restaurants (unlike the ones that American Express gives its cardholders which only gives access to lounges).

Initially, the Sapphire Reserve cost $450 per year, but the automatic $300 yearly travel credit that the card comes with made it seem more like a $150 card to those of us who easily earned it all without effort. In this light, the $95 Sapphire Preferred card didn’t fare well by comparison. After all, with only a net $55 per year extra, you could get better perks, point earnings and value for the points that you did earn.

Things started changing when Chase increased the Sapphire Reserve annual fee to $550. Now, the Sapphire Reserve is like a $255 per year card after the $300 rebate, making it substantially more expensive than the Sapphire Preferred. First off, the same top notch travel and purchase protections can be had with the Chase Ritz Carlton card, which comes with an annual free night certificate and a lower $450. Then, earlier this year, Chase announced that it was taking away restaurant access from the Priority Pass that comes with the card starting 7/1/24, removing the advantage that it had from the versions provided by Amex and Capital One. In the meantime, Chase increased the Sapphire Preferred card’s dining earning to 3x, equaling the earnings that the Reserve card offers.

Given all these changes, is the Sapphire Reserve still worth the premium? Or, are we now  better off with the Sapphire Preferred?

Sapphire Reserve and Preferred Current Welcome Offers

Card Offer
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card ⓘ $1010 1st Yr Value Estimate 75K points ⓘ Affiliate 75K after $4K spend in 3 months$95 Annual Fee Alternate Offer: There may be elevated offers available by applying in-branch A similar offer with the first year annual fee waived may be found in-branch. YMMV. ➥More
Chase Sapphire Reserve® Card ⓘ $785 1st Yr Value Estimate 75K Points ⓘ Affiliate 75K after $4K spend in 3 months$550 Annual Fee Alternate Offer: 70K after $4K spend showing on some accounts when logged-in to Chase Recent better offer: Expired 12/1/22: 80K after $4K spend ➥More

Annual Fee & Statement Credits

^{* While we think it is safe to assume that almost all Sapphire Reserve cardholders will easily earn the $300 travel rebate each year, we don’t expect that all Sapphire Preferred cardholders will spend $50 or more on hotels through the Chase portal in order to get the Sapphire Preferred’s $50 rebate.}

Card Perks

Below we’ve listed the perks for each card that we think are the most valuable. For complete details about card perks and more, see our guides to the Chase Sapphire Reserve and Chase Sapphire Preferred.

	Sapphire Reserve	Sapphire Preferred
No foreign transaction fees	Yes	Yes
Transfer points to partners: Transfer points 1 to 1 to a variety of airline and hotel programs	Yes	Yes
Point value towards travel: When booking travel through Ultimate Rewards, points are worth more than 1 cent each.	1.5 cents per point	1.25 cents per point
Point earnings for travel spend	3X	2X
Point earnings for dining spend	3X	3X
Priority Pass Airport Lounge Access: Free entry for cardholder and up to two guests. As of July 1st, this version no longer includes access to Priority Pass restaurants.	Yes	N/A
Global Entry or TSA Pre® Fee Credit: Receive a statement credit of up to $100 every 4 years as reimbursement for the Global Entry or TSA Pre Check application fee charged to your card.	Yes	N/A

Travel Protections

Both the Sapphire Reserve and Sapphire Preferred offer very good protections for travel paid in full or in part with your card. However, the extent of the benefits offered does differ somewhat, with the Sapphire Reserve clearly the better of the two:

Purchase Protections

Here’s are the highlights of the purchase protections that both cards offer. Again, the Sapphire Reserve is clearly superior:

Chase Sapphire Reserve vs Preferred Summary

My Conclusion

I’ve long been a defender of the of the Sapphire Reserve vs the Sapphire Preferred, despite declining enthusiasm for the CSR in the world of points and miles. However, I think that I’ve personally reached a tipping point.

Let’s assume that we value the $300 travel credit at face value (which we probably shouldn’t) and factor in the CSP’s hotel credit at $45, just for convenience’s sake. That would make the yearly difference in annual fee between the two cards ~$200.

The travel and purchase protections on the Reserve are great, but I have can have them with the better-value Ritz Carlton card for $100 less per year, along with the same (and soon-to-be-pedestrian) Priority Pass. That leaves the 3x earning on travel and 1.5 cents per point redemption through Chase Travel as the primary advantages that it has over the Preferred.

In order to break even on the additional $200 that I’m spending each year, I’d have to redeem ~80,000 points annually on travel through the Chase Portal.

Conversely, we value Chase Ultimate Rewards at ~1.55 each. Using that (admittedly conservative) number, I’d have to spend ~$13,000 on travel using the card each year to earn enough points at 3x to offset $200.

Spoiler Alert: I don’t do either one of those enough for the CSR to make sense for me.

I’ve been a Sapphire Reserve cardholder for years, but no more. I just don’t see the (significant) benefits of the card outweighing the $550 annual fee any longer when I compare it with the $95 Sapphire Preferred (or the $95 Ink Business Preferred). I’m out.

There could still be some folks for whom the Sapphire Reserve makes sense; it can be a very valuable card. People who spend a lot on cash travel (and want to earn Ultimate Rewards vs another transferable currency), redeem a bunch of points every year through Chase Travel or who don’t want or can’t get the Ritz Carlton card but still want terrific travel protections may all reach a different conclusion.

All that said, it’s worth trying to suss out exactly how much these benefits are worth to you before you decide whether or not to plunk down the rather significant additional cash on the Sapphire Reserve over the Sapphire Preferred.

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