Chase Sapphire Reserve® Card Guide 2025 Changes + Strategy Tips

Change to Annual Fee

This will be the first change most people notice.

If you apply for a Chase Sapphire Reserve® on or after June 23, 2025 — your annual fee will be $795 a year. This makes it the highest annual fee around (Except for ultra premium cards that are invite-only). Authorized users will now cost $195 to add.

Before June 23, 2025, the annual fee is $550 per year. Authorized users cost $75 to add.

My Take: This is an incredibly hefty annual fee and that fee alone will mean a lot of people will pass up this card. It’s not a beginner friendly card at this price point. But some people will see that astronomical fee and look at the annual credits and decide that surprisingly it makes sense for them. It all depends on how you already do your spending if this card provides true value to you.

When do the Changes Take Place?

It depends.

If you apply for a Chase Sapphire Reserve® card on June 23, 2025 or later: the new benefits and new annual fee will be immediate.

If you are a current cardholder of a Chase Sapphire Reserve® card: the new benefits will kick in on October 26, 2025. Whenever you have an annual fee come due on or after October 26, 2025 — it will be at the new higher rate. You will have some benefits grandfathered in (I will explain in detail below)

If you upgrade to a Chase Sapphire Reserve® before June 23, 2025: you will lock in one year at $550 for the annual fee. The new benefits will kick in October 26, 2025. Your annual fee the second year will be charged at the new higher rate. You will have some benefits grandfathered in (I will explain in detail below)

No Changes to These Benefits

There are a lot of changes to this card but some benefits will remain the same. Here are the ones that stay the same.

$300 Annual Travel Credit

Any purchase that you make that codes as as travel expense will automatically trigger the statement credit. This is true for larger purchases like hotel rooms or flights. But also works for parking, bus tickets, or even some campsites.

My Take: This $300 travel credit is the easiest travel credit to use of any premium card.

$120 Trusted Traveler Credit

You get a statement credit of up to $120 every four years for purchases made for Trusted Traveler programs like Global Entry, NEXUS, and TSA Precheck.

My Take: We love our Global Entry but if you’re in the points world long enough, these credits become less valuable because you might already have Global Entry. And now that kids get Global Entry for free if parents have it, most households need a max of 2 of these credits. Still a nice credit.

Priority Pass Membership (Airport Lounge Access)

The Chase Sapphire Reserve® will provide access to 3 networks.

• Priority Pass lounges for the primary cardholder and two guests.
• Chase Sapphire Lounge® by The Club for the primary cardholder and two guests.
• 20+ select Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounges and Air Canada Cafés when traveling on a Star Alliance airline for the primary cardholder and one guest.

My take: This doesn’t quite cut it for families of 4+ but is still more generous than the new Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card policies and Amex policies! Bigger families would need to either pay $195 to add an authorized user to get more guest access (pricey) or have another person in the household get this card or another card. See more on lounge strategy here.

DoorDash Benefits

You get free DashPass through 12/31/27 or a minimum of 1 year depending on the activation date. If activated by 12/31/26, the expiration date will be 12/31/27. If DashPass is activated between 1/1/27 – 12/31/27, your expiration date will be one year from activation.

You get up to $10 off two orders per month on DoorDash non-restaurant orders. Discounts must be used for two separate orders.

Chase Sapphire Reserve® members enrolled in DashPass will receive $5 per month DoorDash credit. If the credit is not used within the calendar month, it will be carried over for a maximum of 2 months. Up to $15 in credit can be accrued before a $5 credit expires.

My Take: I like this benefit but some people find it hard to use if they don’t have a pickup location near them. I still wouldn’t value it at $300/year like Chase claims. Personally I place the value more around $100/year. Here’s how to activate this.

Lyft Credit $10/month

Chase Sapphire Reserve® members get $10 in monthly credit towards Lyft rides when they link their card to their Lyft account. This offer is good through September 2027.

Credits do not roll over to the next month, and they cannot be used on Wait & Save rides or bike and scooter rentals.

My Take: Useful if you use Lyft, if not — this may not add value for you.

Other travel and purchase protections

These aren’t changing. The Chase Sapphire Reserve® offers some great protections to give you peace of mind when you’re traveling and on those big purchases.

The Trip Delay Reimbursement is an upgrade to a similar benefit you receive on the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card. On the Preferred card, this benefit kicks in after a delay of 12 hours. On the Reserve card, it kicks in after a delay of just six hours.

Other benefits include:

• Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver
• Trip Cancellation/Trip Interruption Insurance
• Travel and Emergency Assistance Services
• Extended Warranty Protection
• Purchase Protection

New Benefits Added

When these changes take place depend on when you opened your card (or upgraded to a Sapphire Reserve).

If you apply for a Chase Sapphire Reserve® card on June 23, 2025 or later: the new benefits are immediate

If you are were a cardholder of a Chase Sapphire Reserve® card on June 22, 2025 or before: the new benefits will kick in on October 26, 2025.

Free Subscription to Apple TV+ and Apple Music

This benefit is through June 22, 2027. To activate this benefit, you’ll need to open your Chase Mobile® app and go to the Card Benefits section.
Then you’ll look for the Apple TV+ and Apple Music offers and follow the prompts to link your Apple ID. It will then let you activate your complimentary subscriptions. If you already have a subscription, it will be automatically suspended.

Normally Apple TV+ costs $9.99/month and Apple Music costs $10.99/month.

My Take: Useful if you already pay for these. Or if you’re willing to switch from another music service (like Spotify) to save. Personally I value this at about $100/year. We have Apple TV+ most of the year but not all year. And we use YouTube Premium so the Apple Music isn’t particularly useful to us.

Peloton: 10x Points + $10/month

10x points on eligible Peloton hardware and accessory purchases, up to 50,000 total points. Maximum of $10/month ($120 max annually) annual statement credits towards Peloton memberships, including All-Access Membership, App One, App+, Guide or Strength+.

My Take: If you already have a subscription, this is a true credit. If not, it might be a fun perk or might be worthless to you. The cheapest option is a subscription to the Strength+ App which costs $9.99/month. This credit should cover that in full. Note that you have to activate this benefit at onepeloton.com/digital/promotions/chase

StubHub Credits: $300 a year (in two $150 credits)

You get a $150 statement credit for purchases at StubHub or viagogo twice a year. One $150 will be good from January 1 to June 30 each year. Then between July 1 and December 31 you could get up to another $150 credit. This is through June 27, 2027.

A few notes:

• One-time activation required on chase.com or the Chase Mobile® app
• Events in the UK will not work
• Tread carefully with purchases made near the cutoff date, it’s unclear if you make a purchase on June 30 but it posts on July 2 which credit it would use.

My Take: For us this is a great credit as we actually use StubHub regularly to buy tickets to sports events (Go Cubs!) and theater productions in Chicago. We particularly like using it for last minute tickets — like when we saw Hamilton for $50! But as with all the credits, you need to value it according to how you actually spend your money.

Restaurant Credits: $300 A Year (In Two $150 credits)

Here are the participating restaurants.

If you dine in at these restaurants, a statement credit will be automatically applied. You can get a maximum accumulation of $150 in statement credits from January 1 through June 30. Then it resets and you can get up to another $150 from July 1 through December 31, for a total maximum accumulation of $300 in statement credits each calendar year.

Notes:

• Delivery, takeout, merchandise, gift cards might not trigger the credit.
• If you pay with a digital wallet (like Apple Pay) it might not trigger the statement — you should pay with the physical card.
• Go to OpenTable.com/Sapphire-Reserve-Dining to see the list of restaurants. Some also hold additional tables for card members to reserve.

My Take: I think this is a fun new benefit IF you live in one of the cities with restaurants or you’ll travel to them. Some of the restaurants are higher end and some have medium priced meals. So for us, this means we could probably get 3-4 dates a year out using this benefit and that’s fun! Or two fancy dates. But it easy for us because we live in Chicago.

Hotel credits with The Edit Collection

This is billed as a $500 credit for stays with The Edit collection. Like the credits above, it comes in two credits, each for half the year. It is $250 for January to June and $250 for July to December. Maximum of $250 each half year.

Notes:

• Two-night minimum.
• Purchases that qualify will not earn points.
• Must be a pre-paid stay
• Most of these hotels are priced higher via Chase Travel than booking direct

My Take: I don’t consider this a true savings. Sure some people may find ways to eek some value out of this. There are some perks you get booking a hotel through Chase’s collection including a $100 property credit, daily breakfast for 2, and a room upgrade. But with most of them you’ll find you’re paying hundreds of dollars (or more!) for the second night. I can’t imagine we’ll use this one unless somehow a hotel is on there that we plan to stay at anyway and pay cash for. There might be a possibility to use the $250 credit and then also pay the rest with points in which case it might become more appealing, especially for independent hotels.

Changes: Earning and redeeming Points

There are a lot of changes coming to earning and redeeming points. Points on travel are not earned until after the first $300 is spent annually on purchases in the travel category. The first $300 spent goes towards the $300 Annual Travel Credit.

Changes to Earning

Purchase Type	Old Earning Rate (Reserve)	New Earning Rate (Reserve)
Flights purchased through Chase	5x	8x
Hotels and car rentals booked through Chase	10x	8x
All other travel purchases	3x	4x for hotels and flights 1x for all other
Lyft	5x	5x
Dining	3x	3x
All other purchases	1x	1x

My Take: Losing 3x earning on all travel purchases will be a loss for a lot of people. This affects purchases like trains, car rentals, Airbnb, even tickets for amusement parks that are purchased from travel agents. I don’t think the 4x on hotels and flights booked directly will make up for that loss for most people.

Loss of 1.5x: Changes to Redeeming Points via Chase Travel℠

I have long touted the perk of redeeming Chase Ultimate Rewards® from a Sapphire Reserve through the travel portal at a rate of 1.5x. It is easiest to think about it as 10,000 points will get you $150 of travel. This has been the highest value you can get for your points booking through an online travel portal and one reason I encouraged a lot of people to consider the card.

But this benefit is being discontinued and the new base rate for redemptions via Chase Travel will now be 1 cent per point — which is worse than the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card!

And now there will be a new “perk” called Points Boost where cardmembers’ points “could be worth up to 2x” on some hotels and some premium class flights.

Note that points earned prior to October 26, 2025 by Sapphire Reserve cardmembers who applied prior to June 23, 2025 can be redeemed at 1.5x on Chase Travel until October 26, 2027.

And for points earned prior to October 26, 2025, cardmembers will automatically receive the best offer available, whether it’s Points Boost or 1.5x on Chase Travel, maximizing rewards value for two years.

My Take: This is a huge loss for what has been a great option for booking cheap flights and independent hotels with the great 1.5x rate. We’ll have to wait and see how the Points Boosts play out but my guess is that redeeming points via Chase Travel will be thing of the past for this year. Better options will be the Sapphire Preferred or via Aeroplan Pay Yourself Back.

Other Changes I think are irrelevant

Chase is also adding some “premium benefits” if you spend more than $75,000 a year on this card. Sure if you’re spending that much on the card these might be nice? But not worth doing all that spending to get these.

• IHG One Rewards Diamond Elite Status (you can get this just by holding an IHG Credit Card)
• Southwest Airlines® A-List Status (most benefits will probably be redundant if you have the higher annual fee Southwest cards)
• $500 Southwest Airlines credit when booked through Chase Travel (Don’t book Southwest flights via Chase Travel if you can help it, with the way the new credits work)
• $250 credit to The Shops at Chase, a new online shopping experience designed exclusively for cardmembers allowing them to shop for brands including Dyson, Sony, Therabody, and Tumi, with rotating promotions, using their Ultimate Rewards points or their card to pay

Strategy Tips: Ignore, Upgrade, or Wait To Apply?

Now that we have an overview of all the changes, let’s talk about strategy. What do you need to keep in mind if you’re evaluating if this card makes sense for you?

Strategy 1: Ignore the hype

This is a perfectly acceptable strategy. Though I assume if you made it this far in the article you’re not completely ignoring the hype. If you look at these credits and they don’t match the way you spend, ignore this card! It will take mental energy to ensure you’re getting your money’s worth — besides the fact you’ll have to shell out $795 up front and then later try to make your money back on it!

Strategy 2: Upgrade Before June 23, 2025

You might like the new benefits on this card and choose to upgrade an existing Freedom or Sapphire card to the Sapphire Reserve before June 23, 2025.

If you opened a card within the past year, you can’t upgrade it yet. But there are some workarounds! In May, I downgraded a Sapphire Preferred card I had to a Freedom card. That’s because I wanted to (and did!) get the 100,000 point Sapphire Preferred offer.

Then on Saturday, I called to take the Freedom card I just got (the newly downgraded one!) and upgrade it to a Sapphire Reserve. So once you’ve had the account for more than a year, it appears you can upgrade and downgrade even one month to the next.

Pros:

• Lock in a full year of the lower $550 annual fee
• Get access to all the new benefits starting October 26, 2025 (still plenty of time to use the bi-annual credits for things like StubHub and Dining before December)
• Retain the option to use your points at 1.5x through October 26, 2027 via Chase Travel.

Cons:

• You won’t earn a welcome offer on the new Sapphire Reserve — and some guesses are that it will be a pretty big offer. It also seems that Chase might be doing away with the family and 48 month restrictions — so it’s possible you might get approved for the Reserve after June 23 even if you have a Sapphire Preferred.

Strategy 3: Apply before June 23

Pros:

• Lock in a full year of the lower $550 annual fee
• Get access to all the new benefits starting October 26, 2025 (still plenty of time to use the bi-annual credits for things like StubHub and Dining before December)
• Retain the option to use your points at 1.5x through October 26, 2027 via Chase Travel.

Cons:

• You will be applying with the 60,000 point offer. There is a small chance Chase would match you to whatever the new offer is after June 23 but no guarantees.

Strategy 4: Wait till June 23 to Apply

Pros:

• You will likely earn a big welcome offer (if you’re approved). I have no idea what the offer will be but I’d be shocked if it was under 100,000 points.
• Get access to all the new benefits immediately. Might be hard to use the first set of StubHub and Dining before June 30th though. If you’re doing this, I highly recommend asking for your card to be expedited as soon as you get approved. Then try to use your benefits by June 26th to get them to post before June 30th. Make sure you have activated all benefits in the Chase app before using them.

Cons:

• No option to use your points at 1.5x through Chase Travel.
• You might not get approved. Even though Chase is apparently doing away with the family and 48 month restrictions — no guarantees they will approve you.
• You’ll immediately have to pay the $795 annual fee.

Existing Cardholder Strategy

Existing cardholders have no reason to close the card immediately. If your annual fee will be charged October 26, 2025 or later, you’ll be charged $795 the next time it is charged. You’ll want to evaluate if this card is worth keeping for you. I’d also recommend asking for a retention offer before you close it — sometimes the first year after big changes, banks are more generous with retention offers.

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