8 Reasons Why the Chase Sapphire Reserve Is The Best Travel Credit Card on the Market

I am a BIG fan of the Chase Sapphire Reserve for so many reasons (well, 8 to be exact). Here’s the story of how I got introduced to it – in a somewhat roundabout way – along with why, 8 years later, I still love it.

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Getting the Chase Sapphire Card

I was at work one sunny afternoon in 2016 when a colleague (we’ll call her Alexis) could barely contain her excitement about this new travel credit card that just came out: Chase Sapphire Reserve. 

Alexis’ eyes lit up as she told me all about the $300 annual credit, incredible rewards benefits, and the generous 100,000 points bonus offer. As I listened to her wax poetic about the Reserve, I became intrigued; I only had the Chase Freedom and all I got was cash back. While great, it suddenly paled in comparison to this shiny new travel rewards card. 

As I thought about all of the events I had on my calendar coming up – weddings, vacations, road trips – I quickly realized that I wanted the Chase Sapphire Reserve too. 

As soon as I got home, I applied. I eagerly awaited the word “APPROVED” to appear on my computer screen. Seconds felt like hours. Then it happened – I was approved! 

A few days later, a sleek box came in the mail containing my brand new card. Unboxing it felt delightfully ceremonious. It was my first “big girl” credit card. 

Inside was a letter welcoming me to the Sapphire family along with beautiful marketing brochures and pamphlets that only reinforced what I already knew: I made the right decision. 

The card itself carried a surprising weight to it (due to its metal core), giving it an immediately distinguishable feel. 

I was in love. And I have remained faithfully in love for the better part of 8 years.

What I Love About the Card

You might be wondering what all the fuss is about the Chase Sapphire Reserve… especially with its $550 annual fee. I get it. Or perhaps you, too, are the proud owner of one and can attest to its benefits.

Wherever you stand, there’s a lot to love about this card and here are are my personal favorites (in order of preference):

No foreign transaction fees

• As expats now, this is huge for us. We make 95% of our purchases with our Chase cards so we can collect points and redeem them for travel. We love that we can be overseas and still reap all the benefits of the card.

Annual $300 Travel Credit

• We spend tons on travel every year and just for doing that, Chase automatically applies a $300 credit every year; that alone helps to offset the annual fee, essentially bringing it down to $250/year. It’s a no brainer.

Earn More with Chase Travel

• More often than not, we book our travel through Chase Travel; doing so gives us 10x points on hotels and 5x points on airfare. If we don’t use the portal, we still get 3x points on travel-related purchases. All that means is that we accumulate a lot of points fast. 
• The best part is? When we redeem points for travel using the Chase Travel portal, they’re valued at 1.5x more. Who doesn’t love that? 🤷

Lounge Access

• Lord knows I love a good lounge. The first thing I do after I book a trip is to check out the airport lounges. With our card, we get a Priority Pass membership, which gives us access to over 1,300 lounges around the world in 600+ cities. One of my favorites is in Madrid.
• Recently, Chase launched its own branded lounges in select cities (e.g., Austin, Boston, etc.) that you get access to by virtue of being a Sapphire customer. We have not had the good fortune of checking these out yet but they look fab!

The Edit Upgrades

• The Edit are Chase’s handpicked elite hotels all over the world; through the program, we’ve stayed at Nobu, Four Seasons, Ritz Carlton and a few others. Each time, we’ve been absolutely blown away by the level of service. The beauty of these hotels that are part of The Edit is that you get awesome VIP upgrades when you book:
  1. Daily breakfast for 2
  2. $100 property credit (includes dining, spa or other activities at the property)
  3. Room upgrade at check-in, if available
  4. Early check-in/late check-out, if available
• Touches like these consistently make our stays more memorable.

Global Entry or TSA PreCheck® (or NEXUS) Credit

• When we lived in the States, we traveled a lot – both domestically and internationally – so having Global Entry and TSA PreCheck were non-negotiables for us. PreCheck alone saved us SO much time (not having to take our shoes off or take our liquids/laptops out of our bags was such a nice benefit).
• Global Entry made returning to the US from international trips a breeze; we’ll definitely continue taking advantage of this credit (you get one statement credit every 4 years).

Travel Insurance

• Any time we travel, I always feel reassured knowing we’re covered by Chase; they have the most incredible trip protection coverage. Per Chase: “If your trip is canceled or cut short by sickness, severe weather and other covered situations, you can be reimbursed up to $10,000 per person and $20,000 per trip for your pre-paid, non-refundable travel expenses, including passenger fares, tours and hotels.”
• And when it comes to rental cars, we always decline the rental company’s collision insurance and use Chase who will cover up to $75k in damages anywhere in the world.

Peloton 

• One of the things I miss most about the States is our Peloton Bike+. We used it everyday and did not only bike classes but strength and cardio ones too. When we purchased our bike, Chase was offering 10x points on Peloton purchases, which we received. Unfortunately, this isn’t an evergreen benefit, rather one that pops up a few times a year so keep your 👀 peeled.

As an expat, we love that this is a visa card; reason-being, we’ve found that they tend to be more widely accepted in Portugal than AmEx.

If you don’t have the Chase Sapphire Reserve, I highly recommend signing up (the current offer is 60k bonus points). Otherwise, the Preferred version is equally excellent (and comes with a lower annual fee of only $95). 

You can’t go wrong either way.

Happy travels!

xoxo