At the end of the summer last year I made the decision to downgrade my Chase Sapphire Reserve card. I’d had it for about 18 months, and the second annual fee came due. With little need to redeem or transfer Ultimate Rewards (UR) over the next several months, keeping $450 in my pocket was the best play.
The isn’t to say I didn’t see value in the card. With a $300 travel credit, Priority Pass membership that includes restaurants, and higher value for UR redeemed through the travel portal, the card begged me to keep it. I nearly did.
But now Chase just pulled an Amex, deciding to offer cardholders less, for more.
Chase Just Nerfed Its Best Card
Chase is adding a couple new benefits to its flagship card: a Lyft Pink Membership and DoorDash credits. The fact that I know basically zero about either of these should tell you how valuable these changes are to me. Simultaneously, the annual fee is going up by $100.
I don’t need free bike and scooter rides, nor “surprise offers”. We won’t use food delivery service (if it even exists where we live…unlikely). There’s nothing on the table that offers more value. Chase is going in the way of American Express, adding things that supposedly provide value. The actual goal is breakage.
Chase is now effectively charging $100 more for…nothing! At least that’s how I see it.
The math sure doesn’t pencil like it used to. Before, you had a $450 annual fee where you got 2/3 back with a $300 travel credit. The first year I used the card to pay for a work flight and got reimbursed, so it was like cash back in my pocket. I only needed to justify $150, which was easy considering that I would have kept a Sapphire Preferred with a $95 annual fee. I really only needed to justify $55.
But now I need to justify $250 (or $155, depending on how you look at it). There are certainly situations where this is possible, and I’m sure many people will decide to keep the card. But this is a much harder sell, especially since I already have a keeper premium card: The Hilton Honors Aspire. The Priority Pass membership offered by the CSR is superfluous.
So, again I say goodbye, Chase Sapphire Reserve!
The Only Time I’d Consider The Chase Sapphire Reserve
There are two primary benefits the Chase Sapphire Reserve offers that I don’t currently have with other cards: Priority Pass restaurant access and the ability to redeem Ultimate Rewards for 1.5 cents each. The Sapphire Reserve is the only card that offers the extra 0.25% redemption value. The restaurant access is fairly low value. I only used it 5-6 times while I had the card.
It is the UR redemption value that would tip the scales for me. If we decide to fly to Europe as a family and I need to book five tickets, we might be looking at somewhere between $1,700 and $2,100 in airfare on a good award sale. Assuming we need to hit the higher figure, we would need 140,000 Ultimate Rewards. Contrast this with the 168,000 Ultimate Rewards we’d need, if redeeming with a Chase Ink Preferred.
Those 28,000 Ultimate Rewards are worth a minimum of $280, so I’d certainly come out ahead by upgrading to the CSR and making the booking. We would essentially pay $550 for $580 ($280 in UR value plus $300 travel credit). The math pencils in this case.
Considering the other benefits of the card, my breakeven point is somewhat lower, ~100,000 UR redeemed in a year. We haven’t come close to that yet (I think I redeemed ~70,000 through the portal over the 18 months I had the CSR). But I could see upgrading for the higher UR redemption value. That’s about it.
Conclusion
Maybe the card was too good to be true. The initial sign-up bonus certainly made it seem that way. Maybe I should be glad that we had it good as long as we did. These changes just really move the needle for me.
I’d tossed around the idea of converting one of my other cards to the Chase Sapphire Reserve later this yes, if the need arose. With the $300 travel credit, Priority Pass lounge access that includes restaurants, and the ability to redeem Ultimate Rewards at 1.5 cents each, I could foresee a situation where the card would more than pay for itself.
But now this is less likely. Unless I find I need to redeem 100,000 or more Ultimate Rewards through the travel portal, I’m not gonna make the move. The Chase Ink Preferred will be my keeper for the long-haul, with its 3x travel earning and ability to transfer UR to partners.
What do you think of the CSR changes?
I added up my Lyft charges from 2019 and they were $1900. At 10pts that’s 19,000 points a year – cash back that’s $190 or $285 towards travel. Still worth it for me. I’ll use doordash instead of ubereats and it only gets better.
Can’t argue with that! As someone who uses Uber/Lyft maybe half a dozen times per year, the benefit just doesn’t pencil.
I hear you … but even with these bogus extra benes and the increase in annual fee, Chase Reserve is still an excellent choice. Just the bonus on redeeming URs direct at high-end hotels is worth a great deal to me. And Customer Service phone answered by a human? Ability to solve simple problems through the message center? Extremely valuable. Just yesterday I wasted 20 minutes with an AmEx CS rep on the phone … she spoke clear English but couldn’t communicate. I finally just fired questions at her until we got it all straight. Or so I thought … this morning the information I gave her was entered wrong, so I had to start over. I was livid, but managed to solve my problem online, sparing the CS department from a phone call which would not have been pleasant. If you employ CS reps, wouldn’t it behoove you to hire those who can communicate with the cardholders? Perhaps today’s consumer thinks AmEx CS is OK, but I’ve been a cardholder since 1972 when AmEx was the BEST. Everyone has their own agenda, but I appreciate your warning to keep a close eye on these things.
I’ve not really had to deal with their customer service, but it sounds like that is another factor in their favor. However, I have yet o have an especially bad experience with Amex!
Nice to see that someone has a good experience with Chase. I wouldn’t say mine is terrible but it’s no where near anything resembling “premium”. It’s just another visa card from what i’ve experienced.
I’ve had the complete opposite experience with their online message center. If anything, it’s a canned response which is likely delivered from some off short contact center. I am yet to ever receive a personally written response to anything I have written them. I have the complete opposite experience with AmEx where their online chat is with real people who can actually do things in real time.
As for phone service with AmEx, again, for me, nothing but the best. I push one button on the app on my phone and it calls them and they greet me by name. No entering 16 digits, more digits, begging for an operator, giving the number again, address, social, all of that. With AmEx, they see I am calling from my phone, my app that I am logged into and answer by name. THAT is service to me. I am yet to ever have a single person be unable to communicate and have never been “off shored” like Citi does with most calls. Chas calls have been ok, but rarely US-based.
Again, with Chase, online is I would say 99% useless. I’ve also seen with Chase that overnight and early mornings they do maintenance on their website. When trying to log in, instead of a message stating this, it simply states “your password is invalid and now your account is locked”. That happens constantly with Chase. When reaching out to them, you’ll receive a canned letter about “how to change your password”. Again, to me, their onlilne service is nearly 100% useless. Never ever have I had any of those experiences with AmEx.
My experiences.
Don’t forget the travel insurance that the card provides.
This is a consideration. However, I have a couple other products that are fairly comparable, and some offer decent protection for a much lower fee.
I understand where you’re coming from, but I disagree. For people who live in big cities where DoorDash and Lyft are super accessible, these changes are worth the extra $100. It definitely changes the target audience of the card, but the changes aren’t worthless to everyone.
Totally get it. For me, this is a big 0. But if you already use those two services, this’ll likely be a plus.
Disappointing for sure, but we have 4 Freedom cards and are usually able to take advantage of at least $600 in 5% categories which translates into an extra $300 because we have CSP. Add in an additional $50 for having the Unlimited card means it still is positive, just a little less positive.
Dang. Four Freedoms is amazing. If you’re redeeming mostly/all through the travel portal, then yes, I would think the math still pencils.
You’re absolutely correct. I was actually just about to upgrade my Preferred card and for once I’m glad I procrastinated. By substantially weakening their premium consumer card, Chase managed to weaken Ultimate Rewards as a whole. With Hyatt going to variable pricing, Korean Air gone as a partner, and the whole Marriott/Bonvoy catastrophe, it’s not like Chase cardholders have seen improvements in the recent past either. This is just another negative change for the customer.
It’s a bummer. I’m still locked in with Hyatt, which is the primary reason I collect UR. I’ll just settle for a less premium card.
I have mixed feelings about the Hyatt changes. I’m hoping I’ll be able to hit low-tier places on off-peak dates to make up for peak summer redemptions.
I had the CSP until last spring when I decided to upgrade to the CSR. I’m planning on downgrading back to the CSP when the annual fee comes due.
Downgraded mine all the way to a Freedom! But…I’ll be eligible for a new CSP bonus shortly.
I have both a Freedom and a CFU already, so CSP is the only other logical path for me.
There is an argument for more than one Freedom. 😉
I agree that the “added” benefits are super weak. They remind me of the credit card “exclusive” events in my emails that only seem to feature dinner or concerts in LA or NY.
I’ve managed to get my CSP AF down to $35 as they’ve offered a $60 statement credit upon renewal. This skews the CSP fee even further.
Nice! That does tip the scale further. At this point, I’ll likely pick up another CSP for the bonus. But the Ink Preferred will be the keeper with 3x UR on travel.