[Live] Chase Making Changes To Chase Sapphire Reserve & Preferred Cards (Hotel Credit, 10% Anniversary Credit & More)

Update 8/16/21: Live

Update 8/10/21: The changes mentioned below for the Sapphire Preferred and Reserve cards have been confirmed and will go into effect on August 16th. No changes will be made at this time to the annual fees on these cards. (Regarding the $50 Annual Credit on hotel stays purchased through Ultimate Rewards: new cardmembers will start earning towards the credit immediately and existing cardmembers will start earning after their next account anniversary.)

Update: Chase’s media team has confirmed changes are coming to the CSR & CSP, but not what the specific changes are. I’d be surprised if they weren’t the ones listed below, but it’s very possible there will be additional changes as well.

According to leaked cardmember agreements it looks like Chase is making some changes to the Chase Sapphire Reserve & Chase Sapphire Preferred card. Based on these agreements these changes will go into effect on August 15th, 2021. The changes are as follows:

Chase Sapphire Preferred Changes

• $50 Annual Hotel Credit. This is per cardmember year, rather than calendar year. Must be booked through the Chase Travel Portal.
• Card earns at the following rates:
  • 5x on travel booked through the Chase Travel portal.
  • 3x on Dining/Streaming Services/online grocery (excludes: excluding Target, Walmart and
    wholesale clubs)
  • 2x on travel
  • 1x on all other purchases
  • 10% Anniversary point bonus. When you renew your card Chase will offer a 10% bonus spend. For example if you spend $25,000 you’d earn 2,500 bonus points.  This is award after the annual fee is paid. This doesn’t apply to the sign up bonus.

Chase Sapphire Reserve Changes

• Card earns at the following rates:
  • 10x on Chase dining, hotel and car rental purchases through Chase Travel portal
  • 5x on airline travel booked through the Chase Travel portal.
  • 3x on all other dining and all other travel
  • 1x on all other purchases

Our Verdict

Chase offered 10x on dining purchases through Chase Dining when it first launched, so not terribly surprising to see this here. Chase has also offered anniversary point bonuses in the past. The terms don’t show the annual fees, so it’s possible we will see a fee increase on the Sapphire Preferred. Obviously it’s not guaranteed that these changes will go into effect, but it seems very likely unless Chase were underwhelmed with the American Express Platinum changes.

Hat tip to the_one_with_me