What Counts For The $300 Chase Sapphire Reserve Travel Credit?

The Chase Sapphire Reserve offers an annual travel credit of $300 each calendar year (or each cardmember year, for newer cardmembers), in this post we share what does and doesn’t count for this travel credit.

The Full Fine Print

Below is the full fine print taken from the official page (no longer available at the moment):

$300 Annual Travel Credit

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). Purchases are when you, or an authorized user, use a card to make purchases of products and services, minus returns or refunds. Buying products and services with your card, in most cases, will count as a purchase; however, the following types of transactions won’t count: balance transfers, cash advances, travelers checks, foreign currency, money orders, wire transfers or similar cash-like transactions, lottery tickets, casino gaming chips, race track wagers or similar betting transactions, any checks that access your account, overdraft advances, interest, unauthorized or fraudulent charges, and fees of any kind, including an annual fee, if applicable. We do not determine whether merchants correctly identify and bill transactions as being of a certain type. For more information about Chase rewards categories, see www.Chase.com/RewardsCategoryFAQs. Statement credit(s) will post to your account the same day your travel category purchase posts to your account and will appear on your monthly credit card billing statement within 1-2 billing cycles. 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. The Annual Travel Credit will be issued for the year in which the transaction posts to your account, through your December statement date. For example, if you pay for baggage fees, but the airline does not post the transaction until after your December statement date, the cost of the baggage fees will be allocated towards the following year’s Annual Travel Credit maximum of $300.

Important Pieces

• $300 credit is for all purchases in the travel category
• $300 annual credit is based on a calendar year and when your statement posts. For example if your December statements post on the 14th then purchases that settle on the 15th will count for the following year. So if you signed up in March, you should be easily able to get the credit twice. Update: Those who apply for the card on May 21, 2017 and after will get the travel credit based on the cardmember year, not calendar year.
• Transaction needs to post before the end of your December statement to qualify for a credit, regardless of when the purchase was made (e.g last minute purchases in December are not a good idea)
• Statement credit will be processed automatically and will appear on your monthly credit card bill within 1-2 billing cycles
• Authorized users don’t receive the $300 travel credit, but their purchases will count towards the primary cardholders credit

What Will Trigger The Credit?

If you read the above, you’ll know that any purchase that falls under ‘travel’ will trigger the credit. Chase defines travel as follows:

Merchants in the travel category include airlines, hotels, motels, timeshares, campgrounds, car rental agencies, cruise lines, travel agencies, discount travel sites, and operators of passenger trains, buses, taxis, limousines, ferries, toll bridges and highways, and parking lots and garages. Please note that some merchants that provide transportation and travel-related services are not included in this category; for example, real estate agents, websites or owners that rent vacation properties, in-flight goods and services, on-board cruise line goods and services, sightseeing activities, tourist attractions, merchants within airports, and merchants that rent vehicles for the purpose of hauling. In addition, the purchasing of points or miles does not qualify in this category.

Confirmed As Working

• Aeroplan:
  • Award fees: 1
• Air India: 1
• AirBnB: 1, 2, 3
• Airport Parking:
  • DCA: 1
  • Denver 1, 2
  • Logan: 1
• American Airlines:
  • Gift card: 1, 2, 3
• check24.de: 1
• Clipper card: 1
• Delta flights: 1
• Disney Vacation Club dues: 1
• Enterprise car rental: 1
• Etihad Airlines: 1
• EZPass: 1
• Fasttrack: 1
• Gotobus.com: 1
• Good to go toll reloads: 1 (via DM on 01/29/18)
• Greyhound buses: 1
• Hawaiian Airlines: 1
• Hop On/Hop Off Bus: Spain
• Hyatt Hotels: 1
• IHG stay: 1 (via e-mail on 1/15/17)
• Illinois I-PASS (auto refill): 1
• JetBlue:
  • Flight: 1
• Keisei Skyliner: 1 (via DM on 01/29/18)
• Lyft: 1
• Marriott Gift Cards: 1, 2
• Megabus.com: 1
• MGM grand: 1
• NTTA: 1
• NYC MetroCard: 1, 2
• 3rd-party parking lots outside of PHL (express park): 1
• Parkmobile street parking: 1
• Philadelphia Parking Authority: 1
• RadPad Through Android Pay: 1
• Southwest
  • Flight: 1
  • Giftcard: 1, 2
  • Taxes on companion fare: 1
• Taxi:
  • Austin: 1
• Tolls:
  • EZPASS
    • northern Virginia, on 495 Expressway: 1
• Turo: 1
• Uber: 1, 2, 3
  • UberEats: 1
  • Gift card through MPX: 1
  • Uber Pool Pass: 1
• Undercover Tourist: 1
• United Airlines:
  • Award: 1
  • First class upgrade: 1
  • Flight: 1
• Vanilla Air baggage fees: 1 (via DM on 01/29/18)
• Washington D.C. Metro: 1
• Viator: 1
• Zip Car: 1

Confirmed As Not Working

• Alaska Airlines inflight food: 1
• American Airlines inflight food/drink (doesn’t code as dining or travel and earns 1x): 1
• Frontier inflight drink (doesn’t code as dining either): 1
• Homeaway: 1
• Hornblower dinner cruise: 1
• Hotels.com Gift Card: 1
• Hyatt: eGiftcard: 1
• JetBlue inflight food/drink (codes as dining): 1
• NY EZPASS: 1 (see this post)
• Parking lots in San Jose: 1
• VRBO: 1

Our Verdict

This travel credit is significantly better than we thought it would be, it’s more in like with the Citi Prestige benefit than the Ritz-Carlton benefit. This benefit from Chase is significantly better though as it doesn’t just apply to airlines, but hotels and other assorted fees. I can’t wait for this card to officially launch.