Okayyy let’s get into this! Our favorite bank, Chase, just launched some brand NEW cards (i.e. fresh opportunities for earning some discounted travel for your fam) as well as announced some new changes to their ecosystem overall.

There’s good, GREAT, bad, but definitely some really valuable potential opportunities for MORE TRAVEL…let’s dig in below!

***Thank you so very much for using my links if you DO decide to apply for these new offers!!

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New Chase Cards and Changes: The highlights

• “Refreshed” Card! – The facelifted Chase Sapphire Reserve® is LIVE – TLDR: a new reallllyyyyy steep annual fee ($795) with a long slew of “coupon book” style credits that are suppose to give you over $2,700 in annual value (details on that below). However, definitely worth a sign up (for the first year)- earn 100,000 bonus points + $500 Chase Travel℠ promo credit after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.

• Brand New Card! – The Sapphire Reserve for Business® – Again steep $795 annual fee with a slew of credits to offset that. However- You can earn 200,000 bonus points after you spend $30,000 on purchases in your first 6 months from account opening. This is the one I am most excited about and plan to apply for (for year 1 at least) because it doesn’t take up a 5/24 slot and offers a higher bonus! Yes a bigggg spend requirement- BUT you have SIX months to hit that!

(See the full break down on this one HERE! Man if you can meet that minimum spend and use some of credits to knock down that annual fee…this is the MOST amount of Chase points you can earn in one fail swoop of ALL TIME)

• NEW! Higher bonus on the #1 Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card – Earn 75,000 bonus points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening!! This is FANTASTIC news!

***I really do think all of these changes and announcements just highlight again how UNMATCHED VALUABLE the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is and WHY it’s always named the #1 travel card year over year. If you somehow do notttttt have this card yet, stop what you are doing now and get this money saver in your wallet stat!

• Whether these cards are long term keepers (and actually put MORE value into people’s pockets than that steep yearly cost), is going to completelyyyyy depend on each individual family- HOW you spend your money and if the credits actually make sense for how spend and travel.

• However, what we DO know, is that almost always a card is more than worth the annual fee that first year because of the big welcome bonus. These cards may not be forever keepers, but as a really powerful sign up to earn a large stockpile of our favorite points they may make sense for that first year for a lot of people!

Other notable announcements

• New Eligibility Rules: If you currently hold the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, you are NOT eligible for the welcome offer on the personal Chase Sapphire Reserve® and vice verse. However, you cannnnnn downgrade your Chase Sapphire to a $0 annual fee Freedom card, and THEN apply for the other Chase Sapphire card and still be eligible for the welcome offer. Confusing!? Yes, yes it is.

• Buuutttttt….! You ARE eligible to apply and earn the welcome offer on the Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business® while holding a personal Sapphire card and vice verse.

• Moving away from the 48month rule: Previously you could receive the welcome bonus on the Sapphire cards every 48months. Chase is saying they are moving away from this set eligibility timeline and introducing more nuanced, wider “lifetime language” eligibility criteria.
  • Offer details state: “This credit card is unavailable to you if you currently have one open. The new cardmember bonus may not be available to you if you currently have any other personal Sapphire cards open, previously held this card or received a new cardmember bonus for this card. We may also consider the number of cards you have opened and closed, as well as other factors in determining your bonus eligibility.”

• Introducing an AMEX like “pop-up window”: This will tell you if you are eligible to receive the welcome bonus on a card before accepting and a pull to your credit takes place (PRO: If you are confused about your eligibility for an offer you could attempt to apply and see if you ARE able to earn the bonus, without a pull to your credit.)

The New Chase Sapphire Reserve®

Honestly, an astronomical annual fee ($795) and a laundry list of credits that could bring you $2,700 in value. This could definitely make sense for some people and do just that- let’s dive into the nitty gritty. Again, worth it for year 1 at the very least.

***With the new eligibility rules, you will only be eligible for the personal Reserve welcome offer if you never earned a Reserve bonus in the past AND are not a current Sapphire Preferred card holder. I DO recommend making sure to hold on to ONE Sapphire Preferred per household.

STRATEGY EXAMPLE

IF Luke and I both held the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card currently…

• Today, I could have him downgrade his Sapphire Preferred
• Wait two weeks
• Apply for personal Chase Sapphire Reserve® and earn the welcome offer (ONLY IF he’s never earned the Reserve welcome offer before! He hasn’t!)
• We would still have my personal Sapphire Preferred so still in a good strategy place long term (I recommend keeping one per household long term)
• After one year, he downgrades his Chase Sapphire Reserve® for a $0 annual fee option

….Phew…are you tired?! Because I am! The things we do for cheap family vacations let me tell you 🙂

Credits I think that are ACTUALLY valuable (and realistically useable)

• 8x points on all Chase Travel℠ portal purchases 
• 4x points on flights and hotels booked directly 
• $300 annual travel credit (no travel portal necessary- love this!)
• Global Entry or TSA PreCheck® credit (Up to $120 every 4 years)
• Access to Chase Sapphire Lounges, Priority Pass Select, and some Air Canada lounges (+ 2 guests!)
• Same built in very robust travel and rental car insurance
• $300 annual dining credit ($150 bi-annually) at Sapphire Reserve Exclusive Tables, available for booking on OpenTable (if you live in a city that has these, could be really valuable)

Credits that might not be as valuable as they look

• $500 annual hotel credit at The Edit by Chase Travel (a new collection of hotels and resorts)
  • $250 bi-annually (I HATE when they break it up like this!): These properties are PRICEY, I can’t foresee even with $250 off how it would actually save you money in the end)
• Points Boost: Redeem points for up to 2x value on premium travel in the Chase Travel portal. Note: This replaces the current 1.5x value on all Chase Travel purchases for Sapphire Reserve cardholders.
  • Urgh I think this one hurts. These “Points Boost” travel options will be completely subjective to Chase (and probably not the option you are looking for ever right lol?!) Only 1x value on using your points in the portal for such a premium card is a real loss.
• IHG One Rewards Platinum Elite status
  • If you stay at IHG’s often enough, you probably have an IHG card that already gives you status (AND a 4th night free!) right?!?
• $300 in DoorDash promos + DashPass membership
  • We DO save a lot of money with our DashPass Membership, however they way they break up the “$10 off two orders per month on DoorDash non-restaurant orders + $5 restaurant credit” reallyyyyy feels like they are nickle and diming you.
• $120 in annual Lyft credits ($10 monthly)
  • Useful if you use Lyft monthly?!
• $300 annual StubHub and Viagogo credit ($150 bi-annually)on concert and event tickets
  • Only valuable for a small sect of families that are purchasing tickets REGULARLY
• $120 in annual statement credits toward Peloton memberships
  • If you are an avid Peloton user, this could really take that annual fee down a chunk!
• $250 annual value through complimentary subscriptions to Apple TV+ and Apple Music
  • This feels vague and I am not certain on if it is broken up monthly etc- we do love Apple TV+ though!

New Sapphire Reserve for Business® highlights:

• 8x points on all Chase Travel℠ portal purchases 
• 4x points on flights and hotels booked directly 
• $300 annual travel credit (no travel portal necessary- love this!)
• Global Entry or TSA PreCheck® credit (Up to $120 every 4 years)
• Access to Chase Sapphire Lounges, Priority Pass Select, and some Air Canada lounges (+ 2 guests!)
• Same built in very robust travel and rental car insurance
• $300 annual dining credit ($150 bi-annually) at Sapphire Reserve Exclusive Tables, available for booking on OpenTable (if you live in a city that has these, could be really valuable)

Other Business Card specific Perks

• 3x points on social media and search engine ads
• Same $300 in DoorDash promos + DashPass membership
• Same $120 in annual Lyft credits ($10 monthly)
• $400 ZipRecruiter credit for hiring ($200 bi-annually)
• $200 Google Workspace credit, including AI tools
• $100 Giftcards.com credit for employee gifts ($50 bi-annually)
• $0 for employee cards
• High spending limit + Flex for Business (pay over time option)

***I do really like that the Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business® would NOT count against your 5/24 status and provides those two free guests into lounges as well…not to mention 200k of our FAVORITE points!

***Remember it is SO much easier to be eligible for business credit cards than you think! HERE!

My Strategy for Premium Cards

Again, almost ALWAYS a credit card is worth the annual fee (no matter how high) that first year, because of that hefty welcome bonus of points you can earn.

• Example: With the Reserve cards, if you leverage some of the easier to use credits year 1 to really cut into that annual fee and can redeem that 100-200,000 welcome bonus for $5,000++ worth of travel. I’d say that WELL worth a sign up right?!

I do have certain cards I keep in my wallet long term with larger annual fees: like the Hilton Aspire Card or the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card. Based on our families spending, travel, and priorities the credits on these cards EASILY provide more value than the annual fee – or at worst it’s a break even.

So year 1 is always an easy choice- especially if it will earn me a HUGE stash of our favorite points!!

• I am currently at 4/24 so I plan to apply for the Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business® and realllyyyy stretch out that large minimum spend over the full 6 months.
• Luke downgraded his Sapphire Preferred two years ago (I currently hold that card for the whole fam and will hold tight with that), so I will likely have him go for the personal Chase Sapphire Reserve® and then again downgrade after a year

After that, thennnn I do a hard reassessment to see if these fancy cards are just shiny or really put more value and travel in my family’s pocket long term then they cost us.

***Again, thank you for using my links if you do decide to go for one of these new offers!