Chase Follows AmEx With New Benefits for Sapphire Members
Joe Cortez August 10, 2021
Chase Sapphire cardholders will get access to new bonuses and benefits when on their card starting August 16, 2021. Added features include additional points for dining purchases, hotel credits and access to future airline lounges.
Frequent flyers who hold one of the two Chase Sapphire credit cards will soon have a new set of benefits starting August 16, 2021. In a press release, the financial institution announced a set of upgrades for both cards, along with a new design for the Chase Sapphire Preferred card.
New Benefits Include Increased Points, Bonuses and Exclusive Access
Most of the benefits and bonuses are being added to the Chase Sapphire Preferred, the lesser of the two credit cards. In addition to earning 5X total points on all travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards (including airfare and hotels), cardholders will also earn 3X points per $1 spent on:
- Dining purchases, including eligible delivery services, takeout and dining out – an increase from 2X points per $1 spent.
- Select streaming services: Disney+, Hulu, ESPN+, Netflix, Sling, Vudu, Fubo TV, Apple Music, SiriusXM, Pandora, Spotify and YouTube TV.
- Online grocery purchases, excluding those from Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs such as Costco and Sam’s Club.
A $50 annual credit for hotel stays purchased through Ultimate Rewards will be implemented in two phases. New cardmembers will get the credit on their first hotel booking through the travel portal, while existing cardholders will receive it after their next anniversary date.
Finally, Sapphire Preferred members will get a 10 percent anniversary points bonus on their account anniversary. The bonus is based on the total qualifying spend during the year. For example, if a cardholder spends $25,000 in the 12 months between anniversary dates, they will get an additional 2,500 Ultimate Rewards points.
Those who have the high-end Chase Sapphire Reserve card will also see new bonuses. Along with their current benefits, cardholders will get 10X total points per $1 spent on Chase Dining purchases through Ultimate Rewards, as well as hotel stays and car rentals purchased through Ultimate Rewards. For airfare purchased through the travel portal, cardholders will get 5X total points per $1 spent.
The Sapphire Reserve cardholders will also get access to the Chase Sapphire Lounge by The Club. The first three locations to feature the new lounges are Boston Logan International Airport (BOS), New York’s LaGuardia International Airport (LGA) and Hong Kong International Airport (HKG). Timetables for opening will be announced later. Access will be limited to Chase Sapphire Reserve cardholders and Priority Pass members.
Changes Follow American Express Upgrades, Increased Fees
Chase’s new benefits and bonuses for the Sapphire line of cards comes just over one month after American Express announced changes to their premier product, The Platinum Card. The American Express changes added CLEAR membership and a hotel credit, but increased the annual fee to $695.
What are your thoughts on the Chase Sapphire upgrades? Share your thoughts on the FlyerTalk Forums!
CSR members are getting screwed. Why aren't we getting the 3x poitns for groceries and streaming services? And the lounges are a joke since Am Ex members will also get access with PP.
Interesting to see the battle of the cards. Luckily I don't deal with the cards, just the bottom line that is presented to me.
Totally agree with emcampbe. I'll cancel the CSR in the fall when my annual fee hits, if they don't offer me a solid statement credit I'll go with the CSP
Wow! 3X points on my Netflix subscription? That's 504 bonus points per year. Be still, my beating heart.
While I'm not as enthusiastic as the reply above about the new Amex Platinum benefits (Equinox - really?) I'll probably keep that card until the lounge changes take effect because I get value in excess of the fee. The Sapphire? Not much useful new benefits here and a lot of the ones I have historically leveraged (Lyft mainly) are going away. Prepaid dining is rare (though I'll do it shortly for French Laundry) and I have little interest in booking through their portal for hotels (where I won't get my Globlaist/Titanium/Diamond benefits) and prefer to book directly with airlines. I get 5x with the Platinum on direct bookings, and with the Amex Gold, I get 4x at restaurants (and grocery stores) vs 3x at restaurants with Sapphire.