Are you thinking about upgrading to the Chase Sapphire Reserve? Me too

Most people looking for a travel credit card have probably come across the Chase Sapphire Reserve®. It’s at the top of many lists and it’s easy to see why.

There’s a great rewards program with lots of useful transfer partners, a $300 annual travel credit, and a credit toward the Global Entry or TSA PreCheck application fee. However, with a $550 annual fee, it’s a hard sell for many people – myself included.

I currently have the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, which is basically the younger sibling of the Sapphire Reserve. It’s only $95 per year and still has a great rewards program, but it lacks some attractive perks like the Reserve’s travel-related account credits.

Lately I’ve been thinking about making the switch, but it would be my first luxury travel card, so I need to make sure the high fee fits into my travel budget.

A travel credit card that fits my budget

The Reserve is primarily a travel card—and it offers a $300 statement credit for travel—so the first step is to make sure I travel enough to justify such a card.

Using the credit should be easy considering I travel across the country every year to go home for the holidays. This essentially drops the card’s annual fee from $550 to $250. But $250 is still a lot more than $95, so we need to do a few extra calculations.

I spent about $5,200 on my Sapphire Preferred in 2024, which earned me about 70,400 points. Most of those points came from the welcome offer, but the rest was mostly dining and travel.

Chase Ultimate Rewards points are worth 1.25 cents when redeemed through Chase Travel℠ or 1 cent when redeemed as a statement credit.

If I redeem those points for travel through Chase Travel with its 25% redemption bonus, they would be worth $880 — far more than the annual fee of either card. But I don’t get a welcome bonus for upgrades, so I won’t get the extra bonus next year.

If I spent $5,200 again next year and spent most of that travel and dining on the Reserve, I would have earned a slightly higher rate because I would have earned 3x points on travel with the card instead of 2x points like I would with the Sapphire Preferred.

I spent about $2,000 on travel and about $2,000 on dining, with the rest on entertainment, groceries, and incidentals. If I just focus on the highest-yielding categories and assume I spend about the same with the Reserve, I’d earn 6,000 points on both travel and dining, for a total of 12,000 points.

The Sapphire Reserve offers a 50% travel redemption bonus, meaning 12,000 cards redeemed for travel through Chase Travel are worth $180. That would essentially require me to pay a $70 annual fee on the Sapphire Reserve, $25 less than the $95 annual fee on the Sapphire Preferred.

There’s also a Global Entry or TSA PreCheck application fee credit that can save you up to $100—at least in your first year with the card.

However, the credit is only available every four years, so the reserve would only save me $25 in my second year with the card, assuming my travel and restaurant expenses didn’t increase.

Are Sapphire Reserve benefits worth the annual fee?

Really, it boils down to the added convenience of TSA PreCheck and airport lounge access. I plan on traveling at least a few times a year, including some international travel, so both could really improve my travel experience. And with more travel usually comes more money, meaning I could earn enough points to cover the remaining annual fee.

The verdict

For now, I’ll probably stick with the Sapphire Preferred unless my travel and dining expenses increase next year. I realize that with my current spending and travel credit, the Reserve’s annual fee would be $25 lower than the Preferred, but that’s only if I use the travel credit every year and redeem all of my rewards through Chase Travel.

While I could probably redeem most of my travel rewards through Chase, there may be times when I want to book through another service or simply redeem my rewards for account credits.

It’s not that the features don’t offer the right value for money. It’s more about which card better fits my travel budget and habits. It’s more important to have a card that I know for sure I can benefit from with my current spending than a card with attractive features that I may not be able to take full advantage of.

I also want to try point transfers with Sapphire Preferred this year to see how much value I get per point compared to standard redemption before making a final decision.

At this time, the Sapphire Reserve is not for me. However, if my travel budget and redemption habits change, I will reconsider the Sapphire Reserve.