One Year (+) with the Chase Sapphire Reserve Credit Card
Overview
From my experience, few things have changed travel for me like the Chase Sapphire Reserve Credit Card. This is primarily because it comes with a Priority Pass Membership, has no international fees and has its own travel booking portal within the Chase APP. It’s a great card for someone who frequently travels internationally. But I will get into that more below.
My Experience
My journey started when a close friend brought me into an airport lounge as a guest on his card and from that point on it was on my mind. When I returned to the U.S. some months later, I had a good amount of time to spend at home and do some life admin. I had checked the registration for the card and saw that there was a 60,000 point bonus for spending $4,000 in the first three months. 60,000 points is worth about $600 or $900 when you make bookings through their terminal. So, I planned accordingly in order to take advantage of this offer.
I registered for the card around the time I needed to buy a new laptop and book flights/hotels for a trip to Austin, Texas. I had also planned a big New York Day as seen in this video with a few friends where I, of course, offered to put everything on the card. After these big expenditures (around $500 or so which was paid back to me) it didn’t take much to hit the spending benchmark and get the bonus points. Soon, I had around 76,000 points in total which I used to book a direct flight from Newark to Tokyo and a flight from Bali Denpasar to Ho Chi Minh City. Both of these flights were totally paid for by the bonus points and were less than $20 more expensive through the Chase App than direct with the airline. If you can manage to take care of the $4,000 spending goal, plan it well or offer your card to friends and family to hit the goal, the reward is quite significant. Both of those flights were totally covered and would have cost me about $1,100.
Over the course of this period (May 2023 – October 2024), I took twenty-four flights and booked thirteen of them through the Chase Travel Portal as there was a negligible price difference ($0 – $20) and I visited ten different lounges (eighteen visits in total). This airport treatment has been a game changer for me. Due to my estimation, with my frequent travel habits, I believe I have received more than my money’s worth. See here:
The breakdown
The major caveat with this credit card is the annual fee with is $550. This looks daunting at first but you have to consider the fact that you get a $300 travel reimbursement on the first $300 you spend on travel. So, if you are traveling anyway, this effectively brings down the annual fee to $250. Now, with those lounge visits, if I assume a modest estimation of a $15 airport food and beverage budget for each trip – then right there right there I’m slightly ahead at $270 (18 visits x $15 estimated average value – this is quite a low estimation considering that many lounges offer buffet style meals and all you can drink beer, wine and oftentimes liquor).
But, in my personal experience it gets better if I factor in the points I accumulated throughout the period.
This is the only credit card I used and in this period I accumulated around 30,000 points which allowed me to deduct: $264 on two separate flights from Ho Chi Minh City to New York (combined), $38 off of a hotel stay by the Newark Airport, and recently $120 on a single night stay at La Vela Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City. This is an additional $422 dollars just from using the credit card with 1x points on all purchases and 3x on travel (up to 10x for reservations booked through the portal – which I have not used).
Overall, it is my estimation I got around a $692 benefit using the card or $442 after the annual fee. In my opinion, for someone just using the card and not pushing the limits on points like on r/churning, this has been a solid card to have.
Conclusion
Practically all the worth in this card is for people who travel at least somewhat frequently. This way, you can secure the travel reimbursement and enjoy the airport lounges through Chase and Priority Pass (it is worth noting that Priority Pass Lounges seem to be more common outside of the United States so this is especially true for frequent international travelers). For this reason, I believe it is perfect for expats living abroad, international school teachers and digital nomads. In my experience, this card has drastically changed the way I travel due to the Priority Pass Membership. I have also benefited from collecting points simply from my everyday purchases. I have used the their booking terminal for hotels and flights but you should definitely check other sources for reservations as their portal can list a higher price or not offer as many options – this has been noticeable for me with airlines in South East Asia.
Other great things about the Chase Sapphire Reserve card are the travel protections and insurances that they offer. Fortunately, I have never had to use any of these services but it’s nice to know that they are there and could be used if needed. They offer a lost luggage reimbursement, a flight delay/cancellation benefit and there’s even an emergency medical and dental benefit. You can find the full PDF detailing all Travel & Purchase Protection Benefits here.
For those based in the United States, you may also enjoy the 10x points on Lyft rides and occasional discounts or the one year Door Dash membership which also includes monthly discount opportunities.
If you found the information valuable in this post, sign-up and find more information with my referral link.
Bonus: Lounge Talk
Airport lounges have been a game changer for me. I was always the type of traveler who would try to calculate exactly when to arrive at the airport in order to spend as little time there as possible. Now, it’s probably one of the only places where I like to arrive a bit early. I admit, I do like a good “termie” before a flight so the fact that there are many lounges all over the world that offer free beer and wine makes travel a bit more enjoyable.
I have visited lounges in: Shanghai, Tokyo, Osaka, New Delhi, Austin, Guangzhou, Cape Town, Victoria Falls, Singapore, Ho Chi Minh City, Bali Denpasar, Kuala Lumpur and Colombo.
Tokyo Haneda has two great lounges. I felt the earthquake on January 1st, 2024 in the TIAT Lounge. There’s a nice Sapporo beer machine and a selection of liquors including Japanese Whiskey. The snacks are great with karaage chicken and edamame being the personal highlights. The Sky Lounge had a similar drink selection with solid mini-tonkatsu pork sandwiches. I used the shower facilities in this lounge for the first time which was an oddly-awesome experience. Showering in an airport.
Colombo and Bali stand out as having some of the best food options in my experience so far with New Delhi just trailing them. They all had a hot buffet with a wide selection of food items and good flavors. However, New Delhi had a bar with discounted drinks and Bali did not have any alcohol whereas Colombo had complimentary beer, wine and liquor. Bali Denpasar did have a very nice complimentary coffee cafe in their lounge.
Overall, all of the lounges have been extremely comfortable and have provided a good selection of snacks to full meals. But there are some exceptions…
Osaka probably had the worst lounge I visited over the time and didn’t provide much besides a more comfortable chair to wait from and a few light cookies. I have also experienced long waits or haven’t been able to access lounges in some airports such as Hong Kong where the wait time to enter was too long both times I went through the airport. I also had to wait for the TIAT Lounge in Tokyo as there were too many people on one long transfer through Haneda. Otherwise, every other experience has been a breeze and has made airports much more enjoyable than they previously had been.
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