What’s up everyone, Logan here, today I want to talk about the new benefits that Chase
recently announced for the Sapphire line of cards which includes the Sapphire Preferred
and the Sapphire Reserve. I’ve already reviewed both of these cards separately, I also put
out a more detailed comparison of these cards to help you decide which one is right for
you, links to all those videos are in the description below, I did release all those
videos before Chase rolled out these changes, so I wanted to make this video to update y’all
on what has changed since those changes went into effect, so in this video I’m going
to focus on those changes and how they affect the overall value of each of these two cards.
And if you’re interested in the Sapphire Preferred or the Sapphire Reserve then please
look in the description for my affiliate links, I get a commission when you use that link,
if you use my link and are approved, the channel will get a small commission, it is no extra
cost to you but it really helps me out to be able to continue to create content like
this. There are some really enticing introductory offers currently available with both of these
cards, the Sapphire Preferred comes with 100,000 bonus points when you spend $4,000 or more
on purchases in the first three months from being approved for the card, and the Sapphire
Reserve comes with 60,000 bonus points when you spend $4,000 or more on purchases in the
first three months. That hasn’t changed, and the Sapphire Preferred’s bonus is actually
worth more even after factoring in the Reserve’s fifty percent redemption bonus compared to
the Preferred twenty-five percent redemption bonus, I spent a lot of time talking about
and comparing these cards’ welcome offers to each other right now in my Chase Sapphire
Reserve vs. Preferred video, that information has not changed even with these new updates,
so check out that video if you want to learn more about that comparison. The only caveat
with those welcome offers is that you won’t be eligible if you’ve received another introductory
Sapphire offer anytime in the last 48 months, so if you’re in that situation then you
might want to wait until you get beyond 48 months just to make sure you can get as much
value -as possible out of those cards. Before I get into the changes I do want to mention
that one thing that has not changed about these cards are their respective annual fees,
the Chase Sapphire Preferred’s annual fee is staying the same at ninety-five dollars
and the Chase Sapphire Reserve’s annual fee is staying the same at five hundred and
fifty dollars. Also not changing are the redemption bonuses if you redeem your points for travel
through Chase Ultimate Rewards or through the Chase Pay Yourself Back program, as I’ve
discussed in my other Chase Sapphire videos, the Preferred’s redemption bonus remains
at 25% and the Reserve’s at 50%, if you don’t know what I’m talking about with
that, please go watch my other Chase Sapphire videos. Alright, let’s get into these changes,
first I want to talk about the changes to the Sapphire Preferred, then the changes to
the Sapphire Reserve, and then at the end of the video I will share my thoughts on how
these new changes affect the value of the Preferred vs. the Reserve, which card came
out ahead with these changes, so if you’ve been wondering about these two cards, be sure
to stick around until the end. The first major change is that Sapphire Preferred cardholders
will now receive five points for each dollar they spend on travel booked through the Chase
travel platform in Chase Ultimate Rewards. The travel rewards rate used to be a flat
two points for each dollar spent, that’s still going to be the case for travel booked
outside of Chase, but you’ll get two and a half times that value if you remember to
make those arrangements through Chase. The dining rewards rate is also jumping from two
points per dollar spent up to three points per dollar spent, that’s a 50 percent increase,
and that rate applies to delivery and takeout as well as meals purchased in restaurants,
ust like before. On top of that they’re applying the rate of three points per dollar
to select streaming services as well as online grocery purchases aside from Target, Walmart,
and wholesale clubs. Up until now the Sapphire Preferred has only offered two points per
dollar spent on dining and travel along with one point per dollar spent on everything else,
so that’s a pretty significant upgrade when you look at all the ways you can now earn
additional rewards. Outside of the points system Chase is adding an annual hotel credit
of $50 for reservations booked through Chase Ultimate Rewards, so your first $50 in spending
in that category will automatically be covered by the annual credit. Finally there’s a
brand-new annual bonus that includes one extra point for every ten dollars you spent throughout
the year regardless of how that spending was distributed between different categories.
Let’s say you charge $25,000 in purchases to your Sapphire Preferred in your first year
with the card, then you’ll receive 2,500 bonus points when you get to the end of that
year, and then you’ll get another 10% annual points bonus at the end of your second year
for purchases you made on the card during the second year, and that comes on top of
everything you earned when you originally made those purchases. Chase is also pairing
these changes with a new design for the Sapphire Preferred which you can see on-screen, this
will be the default design if you’re signing up for a new card, and if you already have
a Sapphire Preferred I would recommend contacting Chase directly if you want to switch to the
new design. OK that covers the changes to the Preferred, the Sapphire Reserve is getting
some additions of its own, so let me quickly walk you through those before I talk about
what these changes mean for those of you who are trying to decide between these two cards.
So similar to the Preferred’s changes, the Reserve’s changes focus on moving people
toward the Chase Ultimate Rewards interface. The first new benefit I want to mention is
that you’ll get ten points for each dollar you spend on Chase Dining purchases, hotel
stays, and car rentals as long as they’re booked through Chase Ultimate Rewards. So
the hotel stays and car rentals, that’s pretty self-explanatory, but let’s talk
a bit about this new Chase Dining feature, what is this, so this is basically the ability
to book dining experiences through Chase Ultimate Rewards, and they also supposedly have unique
dining experiences that you can access through Chase Dining, obviously if you book these
purchases with your Reserve you’ll get the 10x points on Chase Dining, you can also use
points to redeem for dining. So I had never looked into Chase Dining before, so I did
for purposes of this video, so I opened up the platform, it’s powered by a company
called Tock that I guess Chase has partnered with, and I basically just searched for restaurants,
I searched up Riverside, CA which is where my parents live, no restaurants there, I searched
up Santa Clarita, CA, another kind of suburb of Los Angeles, only one restaurant. So obviously
you’ll find probably find lots of restaurants, typically nicer, maybe hip, restaurants in
big cities like L.A., New York, whatever, but don’t think that you’re going to be
able to find your local diner or chain restaurant or your go-to mom and pop Thai place for pad
kee mow. So let me just say that. If that’s your scene, fancy, hip restaurants, you may
get a lot of value out of Chase Dining, but just where I’m at right now in life with
two little ones, if you’ve seen our family vlog you know what I’m talking about, that’s
not our scene, so personally I wouldn’t get much value out of this new benefit from
the Reserve, but I know that many foodies will. On the Reserve, Chase is also increasing
the bonus rate to five points for each dollar spent on air travel booked through Chase,
so you could earn an incredible number of points throughout the year if you’re a frequent
traveler and you don’t mind using the Chase travel portal. Beyond that the Reserve is
also getting a new program called “Reserved by Sapphire,” now this isn’t up and running
yet, but once it starts it will provide exclusive access to reservations at certain luxury restaurants.
They list a few examples including Canlis in Seattle, Redbird in Los Angeles, SingleThread
Farms in Healdsburg, California, Reverence in New York City, and One Off Hospitality
in Chicago, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they unveil more restaurants by the end
of the year or early in 2022. Alright, folks, those are the changes we’ve heard about
from Chase, and looking at these changes on their face, it’s fairly obvious that the
Chase Sapphire Preferred is really coming out ahead here because let’s think about
this for a second. Let’s start with dining because the bonus points on dining purchases
is a huge reason why a lot of people tend toward the Sapphire line of travel cards.
Right now, other than for restaurant purchases made through Chase Dining -- and the vast
majority of most users’ restaurant purchases will in fact likely not be made through Chase
Dining -- with these new changes, both the Preferred and the Reserve other than for purchases
made through Chase Dining, they both give 3x points. So that’s huge, yes, if you redeem
points for travel through Chase Ultimate Rewards, you’ll still get slightly more value from
the Reserve because you can redeem for a 50% bonus, so those 3x points could translate
to 4.5% value back if you redeem for travel through Chase, but with the Preferred now,
while previously that value back if you redeem for travel through Chase was only two points
with a twenty-five percent bonus so two-point five percent, while now the Preferred with
its redemption bonus now the value back is three points with a twenty-five percent bonus
on dining purchases so three point seven five percent value back on dining purchases. So
that spread there between the value you get on dining purchases between the Preferred
and the Reserve is now a lot smaller. Another leg-up here with the Preferred is now it’s
getting a fifty-dollar annual hotel credit for reservations booked through Chase Ultimate
Rewards, that means if you book a hotel through Chase Ultimate Rewards, once a year you’ll
get a fifty-dollar credit, you take the annual fee of ninety-five dollars less the fifty
dollars, that’s net after credit only forty-five dollars. Of course we can do the same analysis
with the Reserve and it’s five hundred and fifty dollar annual fee, which when reduced
for the three hundred dollar annual travel credit is net two hundred and fifty dollars,
but my point here is that with these changes the Preferred got a new credit of fifty dollars
while the Reserve still keeps its respectable three hundred dollar travel credit but it
wasn’t increased with these changes. And what about the anniversary point bonus? Only
the Preferred is getting the ten percent anniversary point bonus, the Reserve is not getting that
anniversary bonus. And again only the Preferred now has select streaming services and online
grocery purchases as three-X bonus categories, the Reserve does not, those are still non-bonus
categories. Really the only thing here in terms of these changes that strongly work
in favor of the Reserve for many folks is that now Reserve cardholders can get 10x points
on hotels and car rentals booked through Chase Ultimate Rewards beyond the three hundred
dollar annual travel credit. But if you’re the kind of person who doesn’t really stay
in hotels, you mostly stay in Airbnbs, or you mostly just use the points you rack up
on all your dining spending to pay for hotels, this really isn’t a benefit to you. Maybe
you still pay for airfare, well guess what, now for airfare booked through Chase Ultimate
Rewards, you’re getting the same 5x back you do on the Reserve with the Preferred.
Obviously if you book travel outside Chase Ultimate Rewards, the Preferred will still
give you 2x points while the Reserve will give you 3x points. So if are someone who
does book a lot of hotels and car rentals with your credit card, not with points, then
having the Reserve so you can get 10x points on them when you book through Chase Ultimate
Rewards could be a good fit for you, but in my opinion, you’d have to really do that
a lot for this change to the respective Preferred and Reserve cards to really move the needle
for you. And obviously the Reserve you get lounge access and all that too, I’ve covered
those other comparisons between these two cards in my Chase Sapphire Preferred vs. Chase
Sapphire Reserve, I will note that this video was published before these changes rolled
out, so to the extent that video conflicts with this one, this one is correct, but in
that video I also compare a lot of other things between these two cards that did not change
with these new changes from Chase like the travel protections, the lounges, all that
stuff, if you want to watch that video, it’s right over here, and if you want to watch
my video on just how valuable the new hundred-thousand point Chase Sapphire Preferred welcome offer
is, be sure to check out this video right down here, and I will see you in those videos,
buh-bye.