Chase Launches the Next Big Thing – Sort Of

One of the most talked about and most anticipated cards in a while is the new Chase Sapphire Reserve card. It is a premium card that has a lot going for it, including a mega sign-up bonus. Launch day was supposed to be August 21, but it sort of slipped out a little early. This let us get a glimpse of what the card promises so let’s take a look.

Confirmed Details of the Chase Sapphire Reserve

 

There has been a lot of discussion about this card and even screenshots from within the Chase employee ranks to verify what had been talked about. But, yesterday for a little while, Chase had a public link (this is a cached version of the application) available for the Chase Sapphire Reserve and it gave us a look at the details and what is supposed to be rolling out for all this Sunday, August 21.

First Things of Note for the Chase Sapphire Reserve

There has been a lot of speculation as to whether this card would be under the 5/24 rule and early reports on Reddit about the applications that got in last night and approved suggest that it may not be. However, this was obviously not the real roll out and even customer service representatives do not have information about this card yet. My guess is that it will be under the 5/24 rule when the official rollout is here but we will have to wait and see.

Also, good news as this slip up shows that Chase will be rolling out this card for applicants online. There were some rumors and discussion that it would be in-branch only but the fact that Chase was testing the online application is good news for those that do not like to apply in branches.

Chase Sapphire Reserve Sign-up Bonus – 100,000 Ultimate Reward Points

This is one the most exciting parts about the new Chase Sapphire Reserve. It will come with 100,000 Ultimate Reward points as the sign-up bonus. At the very least (if redeemed for a cash equivalent), it is worth $1,000 but will get you a definite $1,500 in value towards travel and even more.

The spending requirement for this card is $4,000 in 3 months, a very low threshold for such a monster bonus.

Chase Sapphire Reserve Annual Fee – $450

Yes, this is a premium card so it can command a premium annual fee. But, with this card’s benefits, you will easily be able to get that back. This is the new big brother to the Chase Sapphire Preferred which comes with a $95 annual fee. See the benefits below for how the Chase Sapphire Reserve fee could end up being a net cost less than the Sapphire Preferred!

Authorized users on this card will cost an additional $75 per user.

Chase Sapphire Reserve Travel Credit – $300

This is one of the best parts about the card that should really make it a keeper for anyone that travels even a little bit. The Chase Sapphire Reserve comes with an annual travel credit of $300 that is a maximum account for all users on the account – primary and authorized users.

This travel credit works on an annual basis following the first December statement of the new account. This means that your first cardmember year, you will be able to get $600 in travel credit from this card! The travel credit will post automatically when you pay for things like airfare, hotels and other travel incidentals.

Chase Sapphire Reserve Lounge Access

The Chase Sapphire Reserve comes with Priority Pass Select membership for access to lounges. This allows you to have access to over 900 lounges worldwide – as well as your unlimited number of guests!

Chase Sapphire Reserve Global Entry or TSA Pre Reimbursement

Once every 4 years, you will be able to be reimbursed for your payment for Global Entry ($100) or TSA Pre ($85). The terms say that you get one credit per account which I believe excludes getting the same for your authorized users. This is a shame, if that is the case, as it would be a compelling factor for people to get added as an authorized user. Hopefully, I am just reading that wrong.

Chase Sapphire Reserve Point Redemption – 1.5 Cents for Travel

This is one of the big ones! Having the Chase Sapphire Reserve guarantees that you will receive 1.5 cents for travel when redeeming your Ultimate Reward points through their portal. Right now, it is 1.2 cents so this is quite an increase. It comes at a perfect time as airlines continue to devalue their awards but while airfare deals continue to roll out multiple times in a week – even for business class!

This means that if you normally transfer your Ultimate Reward points to United for economy tickets to Europe, you may now be better off just outright purchasing your ticket using Ultimate Reward points. It costs 60,000 miles and potentially around $100 or more in taxes and fees for a roundtrip economy ticket to Europe. If you were to redeem those UR points for the purchase of a ticket instead of transferring them, it would get you $900 in redemption value plus possibly save you the $100 that you would have spent on taxes and fees!

Chase Sapphire Reserve Point Earning – 3X for Travel and Dining

The Chase Sapphire Preferred allows you to earn 2 points per dollar for travel and dining. The new Chase Sapphire Reserve will let you earn 3 points per dollar for travel and dining!

Summary

The Chase Sapphire Reserve comes with some other benefits as well but these are the highlights for sure! If you were able to apply and get approved last night, good for you! For the rest of us, we have to wait until Sunday! It sure looks like Chase is going to be hitting a lot of new applicants with this card!