The New Chase Sapphire Reserve

Over a month ago, rumors surfaced that significant changes were on the way to the Chase Sapphire Reserve, including a substantial annual fee increase. Well, those rumors turned out to be true, as the new Chase Sapphire Reserve dropped on June 17, 2025, confirming virtually all of the rumored changes, and then some. 

Let’s just get right into it, shall we? First, I would like to address the rumored new benefits that have now been confirmed.

 

The New Chase Sapphire Reserve Benefits

As stated in my rumor posts, the new Chase Sapphire Reserve benefits include:

• 8x points on hotels and rental cars booked via Chase Travel (down from 10x)
• 8x points on flights booked via Chase Travel (up from 5x)
• 4x points on flights and hotels booked directly with the provider (up from 3x; but no longer covers all travel)
• 10x points on Peleton purchases of $150 or more
• 1x points on all other travel spend (down from 3x)
• $500 annual credits for The Edit spend (hotels) split into two $250 semi-annual benefits
• $300 annual dining credit via Sapphire Reserve Tables and StubHub credits, both split into two $150 semi-annual benefits
• $300 DoorDash credits awarded as one $5 monthly credit for restaurants and two monthly $10 credits for groceries and retail purchases
• $120 DashPass membership
• $250 annual Apple TV+ and Apple Music credit
• $120 Peleton credit at $10/month
• Points Boost offering a value of up to $0.02 per point when redeeming via Chase Travel. However, this coincides with the elimination of the $0.015 per point valuation for all Chase Travel redemptions. The standard will be $0.01 moving forward. 
• Annual Fee: $795
• Authorized User Fee: $195/user (up from $75)

I don’t recall seeing the 10x Peleton earning rate in any of the rumors leading up to today, so that one is new. The DoorDash credit is basically what we have today, which sucks. $20/month as retail and grocery credits? No thanks. Moreover, it should be noted that the Apple TV+ and Apple Music credits are good for just those two services – it does NOT credit to Apple One, Apple Fitness, Apple News, or Apple Arcade subscriptions. 

Also new is that bump to the authorized user fee. $195 is bonkers, but it’s also worth reminding that authorized users receive the same lounge benefits as the primary cardholder. 

Oh, and there’s a business flavor, too, now. But, I’m not going to cover that here. 

 

The New Chase Sapphire Reserve Big Spender Benefits

Of course, there’s another set of benefits I didn’t cover above, but have carried over from the rumors to the new Chase Sapphire Reserve. These include the following benefits, which are awarded to cardholders who spend $75,000 or more in a calendar year:

• $500 Southwest credit
• Southwest A-List status
• IHG One Rewards Diamond status
• $250 The Shops by Chase credit – a new online shopping “experience” exclusive for cardholders, with exclusive promotions and the option to pay with your card or points 

Again, who the hell is putting $75,000 on a Sapphire Reserve and flying Southwest? Hmm? That said, I doubt United would let Chase offer any kind of perk with them for this card, especially since they’re focused on selling their own co-branded credit cards. Southwest, on the other hand… Well, given their private equity overlords, seem to be willing to do anything for a buck. 

 

What’s Not Changing With the New Chase Sapphire Reserve

There are several critical benefits that aren’t changing as we transition to the new Chase Sapphire Reserve, and they include:

• $300 annual travel credits 
• 3x points on dining 
• $120 Global Entry/TSA PreCheck/NEXUS fee credit every 4 years
• $120 Lyft credit at $10/month and 5x points earnings
• Primary rental car coverage
• Trip cancellation and interruption insurance
• Trip delay insurance
• Emergency evacuation and transportation coverage
• Baggage delay insurance
• Roadside assistance

 

Temporary New Chase Sapphire Reserve Benefit

Through December 31, 2027, cardholders will receive IHG Platinum status. In order to receive this benefit, you’ll need to link your IHG One Rewards account to your card via the benefits section on chase.com or the Chase mobile app. 

 

Timing

The new Chase Sapphire Reserve will open to new applications on June 23, 2025. The new product page is already up, though the “old card’s” page and application are still available if you want to apply for it before the change becomes effective. 

For existing cardholders, the new annual fee becomes effective as of October 26, 2025, which is also when these same cardholders will gain access to the new benefits. That’s right, the new benefits are available to new cardholders who apply on or after June 23, while existing cardholders will have to wait four months to see that change. That said, existing cardholders’ pool of points earned prior to October 26, 2025, will be grandfathered into the $0.015 per point Chase Travel redemption value until October 26, 2027, while simultaneously being able to take advantage of the new Points Boost feature. 

 

Sapphire Reserve Tables

Before we get to my thoughts on the new Chase Sapphire Reserve, I want to cover Sapphire Reserve Tables. You see, I initially thought this was the same thing as Chase Dining, which is a Chase-branded version of Tock. It is not. Rather, Sapphire Tables is a version of the Visa (Infinite) Dining Collection, which is part of OpenTable. For Sapphire Reserve dining, the following restaurants will be participating at program launch in Hawai’i: 

• Hau Tree
• Kaimuki Shokudo
• Lineage Maui
• MW Restaurant
• Nami Kaze
• Senia
• The Pig and The Lady

And since so many of you go to Vegas regularly, here are the participating restaurants there: 

• Esther’s Kitchen
• Harlo Steakhouse & Bar
• Hell’s Kitchen – Caesars Palace Las Vegas
• La Strega
• Momofuku
• Nobu – Caesars Palace Las Vegas
• Top of the World Restaurant – The STRAT Hotel
• Vanderpump à Paris

Unfortunately, participation seems to be quite limited. However, there are options on the list I love or want to try, such as The Progress SF, Tomo, Canard, Single Thread in Calistoga, and Aska, among others. 

 

My Take on the New Chase Sapphire Reserve

Of course, I’m not happy about the annual fee increase and monkey see, monkey do approach they’re taking with the new Chase Sapphire Reserve, copying Amex’s coupon book strategy for the Platinum card. As I’ve said before, being in the industry, I understand the reason both Amex and Chase are doing this, and think it’s brilliant from the issuer’s perspective. But that doesn’t mean I like it any better as a consumer.

I’m also not happy about the elimination of the general 3x travel bonus. Sure, you get 8x when booking via Chase Travel… However, that’s a small consolation given that Chase Travel is often among your most expensive options. And since I usually book my rental car via Costco Travel, that would mean I earn 1x on rental cars, which is awful. 

Now, I’m house-poor nowadays, so I no longer travel. But, theoretically speaking, if I could travel, here’s how the new benefits would stack up for me:

• $300 annual travel credit is a no-brainer
• $99 of the $250 Apple credits since we get Apple Music via Verizon for free, but pay for an annual Apple TV+ subscription
• $120 DashPass
• $60 DoorDash restaurant credits 
• $150 to $300 Sapphire Reserve Tables, depending on my travel + dining plans for the year

That totals up to $729 on the low end and $879 on the high end, which either comes in just below the annual fee or slightly above. Of course, you can toss in another $120 every four years, which breaks down to an annualized benefit of $40, which changes those numbers to $769 and $919, respectively.

I don’t place a lot of value on the lounge benefit, since my home airport (HNL) doesn’t have many participating lounges.

So, if I were still able to travel and dine out, keeping the card would be a no-brainer. I’d likely drop my authorized user under this scenario, but that would have virtually no perceivable impact. 

Unfortunately, the above scenario isn’t real. In fact, I likely won’t even be able to take advantage of even half my annual travel credit this year, and we very rarely go out to a restaurant. As such, given my current situation, keeping the Sapphire Reserve makes virtually no sense whatsoever. The likely scenario for me is to product change to the Sapphire Preferred. That said, my annual fee just posted on June 1, so I have nearly a whole year to watch how things evolve and think about my next steps. 

 

The New Chase Sapphire Reserve, Final Thoughts

I know there are many out there debating what they want to do next. Unfortunately, there aren’t many great options out there. Fearing missing out, Amex recently announced that a comprehensive refresh of the Platinum card is coming this fall. I bet they didn’t actually have a plan, but didn’t want the new Sapphire Reserve to steal their thunder. Regardless, one thing is for sure: the Platinum card’s annual fee will likely increase to the $900 to $1,000 range. Likewise, Capital One recently nerfed the Venture X’s lounge benefit, as that card’s too-good-to-be-true value proposition will likely begin to slowly degrade. 

So, with all of this going on, I want to know. What do you all plan to do? If you already have the old version, do you plan on hanging onto the new Chase Sapphire Reserve? If you don’t have this card yet, do you plan on getting it now?