Sapphire Reserve Benefits Confirmed: How the Travel Credit Works, Lounge Access Details, Primary CDW, Travel Discounts & More!

Chase Sapphire Reserve Confirmed Benefits

Update: The Chase Sapphire Reserve card is now available to the public. You can find out much more information about the card along with how to apply in this post.

Earlier I posted about the working application link for the Chase Sapphire Reserve card. Up until now we had been operating on leaked information about this card. While those leaks did give us the basics of this very attractive card, some of the benefits weren’t exactly spelled out. Now that the application is live, we can now dig into the terms and see exactly how things are going to work. Let’s take a look.

Benefits We Know About

Before I dig into the new information, here is some of what we already knew:

• The card earns 3X Ultimate Rewards on travel and dining
• Points are transferable 1:1 to travel partners. (Same as with Ink Plus or Sapphire Preferred)
• Points are worth 1.5 cents each when booking travel through Ultimate Rewards
• No foreign transaction fees

$300 Travel Credit

The Sapphire Reserve comes with a $300 annual travel credit. The wording in the leaked screenshots seemed to indicate this would be an automatic credit and it appears that is true. Here is what is written in the terms:

A statement credit will automatically be applied to your account when your card is used for purchases in the travel category, up to $300 in statement credits annually (“annually” means the year beginning with your account open date through the first December statement date of that same year, and each 12 billing cycles starting after your December statement date through the following December statement date).

So this is great news and is just as we thought! An automatic credit for just about anything in the travel category. It applies each calendar year, meaning in the first year with your card, you should be able to get $600 in credits. That more than offsets the $450 annual fee! Unfortunately, authorized users do not get their own statement credit.

Qualifying purchases made by authorized users on your account will be included in the $300 Annual Travel Credit. Maximum statement credit accumulation for the Annual Travel Credit is $300 annually.

Lounge Access

Based on the leaked language, we suspected the lounge membership with the Chase Sapphire Reserve would be Priority Pass Select and we were correct. Here is what it says in the terms:

Complimentary Priority Pass™ Select Membership
One time activation required. There is no additional cost to activate your membership and certain terms, conditions and exclusions apply. Priority Pass Select membership includes access to airport lounges participating in the Priority Pass Select network.

Unfortunately we still don’t know if this membership will include guests like with the Citi Prestige or will be only for the cardmember like with the Amex Platinum. Unfortunately I couldn’t find that information so there is still some mystery.

$100 Global Entry/Precheck Credit

While I am sure many of you already have this benefit on another card, here is how it will work with Chase Sapphire Reserve:

To be eligible for this statement credit you must use your Chase Sapphire Reserve^SM card to either complete the Global Entry application and pay the $100 application fee, or complete the TSA Pre ✓^® application and pay the $85 application fee. A statement credit will be processed after the Global Entry program application fee OR TSA Pre ✓^® application fee (whichever program is applied for first) is charged to your Chase Sapphire Reserve^SM card. You are entitled to either: one (1) $100 statement credit per account, OR one (1) $85 statement credit per account, every 4 years in connection with the Global Entry or TSA Pre ✓^® program application fee.

Once every four years isn’t terrible. Enough to get  renewed for free. I know this benefit is becoming so widespread that most of us often overlook it.

More Tidbits

The Chase Sapphire Reserve will also provide special car rental discounts at Avis, National and Silvercar. The application page also states that auto coverage on this card is primary which is the same as with the Sapphire Preferred.

Here is how the car rental discounts will work:

National: Discount applies to base rate only at participating locations. Discount varies by rental date, location and vehicle type. 24-hour advance reservation required. May not be combined with other discounts. Availability is limited. Subject to change without notice. Blackout dates may apply.

Avis: Discount applies to base rate only at participating locations. Discount varies by rental date, location and vehicle type. May not be combined with other discounts. Availability is limited. Subject to change without notice. Blackout dates may apply.

Silvercar: No blackout dates. Reservations must be 2 days or longer. Offer not valid with any other offer unless stated otherwise. Discount applies to base rental rate before surcharges and taxes.

No big deal here and I suspect these discounts probably won’t be much better than you could get elsewhere.

Conclusion

While we still have a few more things to learn about Chase’s Sapphire Reserve premium credit card, the inclusion of Priority Pass lounge access and most importantly the $300 automatic travel credit make this card an amazing value considering it also comes with a 100K sign-up bonus.

Disclosure: Miles to Memories has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Miles to Memories and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers.

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