Is the Chase Sapphire Reserve® Really Worth It?

Credit cards have gotten more expensive over the years. The Chase Sapphire Reserve® will currently set you back $550 for its annual fee. Like most high-priced cards, it also has lots of perks that could be valuable if you can use them. If you'd like to compare it against other great options, check out our list of the best travel credit cards.

Whether this Chase card is worth it depends on how well the features fit your lifestyle. To find out, let's go over what it offers and how much money you could potentially save with it.

Spending credits bring down the true cost of the card

If you travel regularly, the Chase Sapphire Reserve® won't actually cost you $550 per year. It includes up to $300 in statement credits per year toward travel purchases. The credits apply to anything Chase counts as travel, which is a broad list. I always found this travel credit easy to use, and it brings down the true annual cost of the card to $250.

This card also has DoorDash benefits, including a monthly spending credit. These benefits are:

• Complimentary access to DashPass for a minimum of one year (must activate by Dec. 31, 2027)
• DashPass members get up to $25 in monthly savings with a $5 monthly credit automatically credited to your DoorDash account and two $10 promos to use on non-restaurant DoorDash orders

You could get another $300 in savings per year from those DoorDash credits. They certainly aren't as easy to use as this card's travel credit. But they could work out well for frequent DoorDash users.

An excellent rewards program with big bonus opportunities

Chase's travel cards are popular, and it's largely because of the Chase Ultimate Rewards program. It's easy to redeem Ultimate Rewards points for a high value. If you have the Chase Sapphire Reserve®, you can redeem them for Chase Travel bookings at a value of $0.015 per point. You can also transfer points to Chase's roster of over a dozen airline and hotel partners.

It's also easy to earn Ultimate Rewards points. On travel and dining purchases, the Chase Sapphire Reserve® earns 3x to 10x points per $1. And right now, this card has a sign-up bonus of 60,000 bonus points (worth $900 in travel) for spending $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months.

With that sign-up bonus, you're already ahead on this Chase card's annual fee, and it has plenty of other premium travel perks.

Travel perks could save you money and upgrade your trips

Last but not least, let's look at some of this card's most notable travel benefits:

• Airport lounge access: You get complimentary access to over 1,300 airport lounges worldwide for yourself and up to two guests. This includes every Chase Sapphire Lounge by The Club location and Priority Pass lounges (after a one-time enrollment).
• Global Entry/TSA PreCheck/NEXUS credit: You can receive a statement credit of up to $100 every four years to cover the travel security program of your choice.
• Lyft Pink membership: You get two complimentary years of Lyft Pink All Access when you activate by Dec. 31, 2024. Benefits include 10% off Lux rides, free Priority Pickup upgrades, and relaxed ride cancellation and lost and found fees.

Airport lounge access is one of my favorite features, and it's an important one for travelers trying to find the best credit card. It's much more enjoyable to wait for your flight in a comfy lounge with free food and drinks than the general boarding area. If you're a frequent flyer, you should get plenty of mileage out of this benefit.

A membership fee credit to Global Entry or TSA PreCheck is another valuable perk for frequent flyers. It will allow you to get through airport security faster at airports with those services. Global Entry is the better option, as a membership to that program also includes a TSA PreCheck membership.

Deciding if the Chase Sapphire Reserve is worth it

To see if the Chase Sapphire Reserve® is right for you, come up with an estimate for how much you'll save with it. You can get a good idea of its value by going over the benefits you'll be able to use and subtracting the annual fee.

Let's say you're sure you'll use the $300 annual travel credit. You also take three roundtrip flights per year and spend about $30 at each visit to the airport. Since you're visiting the airport six times total, that's $180. If you had airport lounge access, you'd be able to save that money.

You also estimate that you'd earn about 40,000 Chase points per year, based on your typical spending. Since you can redeem those at $0.015 per point for Chase Travel bookings, that's another $600 in savings. You're already saving:

• $300 from the annual travel credit
• $180 from the airport lounge access
• $600 from the rewards you earn

With $1,080 in savings, minus the $550 annual fee, you end up saving $530. Keep in mind that this isn't counting all the card's benefits, either.

No credit card is right for everyone. But if you like to travel, and you do it often, the Chase Sapphire Reserve® is a great choice. To learn more about it, check out our in-depth review here.