Sep 2, 2016, 8:22 am
Last edit by: serpens
Sapphire Reserve Annual Travel Credit
How are the dates calculated?
For cards issued prior to May 21, 2017 it was Reimbursed per Calendar year, not membership year. Purchases must be posted (not pending) by your December statement (dated any time Dec 1 through Dec 31) to be credited against current year's $300 credit. Any travel spend that posts after the December statement will credit against the next year's $300 credit.
For cards issued after May 21, 2017, it will be reimbursed by membership year.
But my 2nd annual fee is after May 21, 2017, why didn't my travel credit reset?
Because if you got your card before that date, your travel credit will continue to reset after your December statement.
Does the travel credit count as minimum spend?
Spend is spend, the credit is the credit. The $300 reimbursement is a separate item from spending requirements( the $300 reimbursement on travel, $100 Goes all count towards the $4,000 only the $450 yearly fee doesn't). You must spend $4000 for your signup bonus UR points. If part of that spend is categorized as travel, a credit will post to your account accordingly. They are separate items.
Even if you return a purchase after you've met your $4000 initial spend it will not count against your spend.
Can I get two travel credit fees if I apply in the middle of the year?
Not for applications after May 21, 2017.
What counts as Travel?
Gas Station and Grocery Store purchases will also count through 12/31/21. (See post 1521.)
The following items have been reimbursed.
Airline purchases, fees & gift cards:
What doesn't count as travel?
Here's a thread dedicated to the topic: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/chas...rrect-mcc.html
The following items have NOT posted as travel/been reimbursed:
How are the dates calculated?
For cards issued prior to May 21, 2017 it was Reimbursed per Calendar year, not membership year. Purchases must be posted (not pending) by your December statement (dated any time Dec 1 through Dec 31) to be credited against current year's $300 credit. Any travel spend that posts after the December statement will credit against the next year's $300 credit.
For cards issued after May 21, 2017, it will be reimbursed by membership year.
But my 2nd annual fee is after May 21, 2017, why didn't my travel credit reset?
Because if you got your card before that date, your travel credit will continue to reset after your December statement.
Does the travel credit count as minimum spend?
Spend is spend, the credit is the credit. The $300 reimbursement is a separate item from spending requirements( the $300 reimbursement on travel, $100 Goes all count towards the $4,000 only the $450 yearly fee doesn't). You must spend $4000 for your signup bonus UR points. If part of that spend is categorized as travel, a credit will post to your account accordingly. They are separate items.
Even if you return a purchase after you've met your $4000 initial spend it will not count against your spend.
Can I get two travel credit fees if I apply in the middle of the year?
Not for applications after May 21, 2017.
What counts as Travel?
Gas Station and Grocery Store purchases will also count through 12/31/21. (See post 1521.)
The following items have been reimbursed.
Airline purchases, fees & gift cards:
- AA e-gift certificate
- Delta eGift Cards, in-flight food/drink purchases
- UA in-flight bev
- Moved from EC to EC+ on AA and credit posted 8/2017.
Southwest gift cards do work! Just purchased a $40 emailed gift card and received the travel credit 3/2018
- Airbnb & their GC
- Bellagio Las Vegas -- including restaurant charges signed to room (posted as BELLAGIO - FRONT DESK)
- hotels.com (NOT hotels.com e-gift cert!)
- Hotel restaurants not charged to room (verified at Renaissance LV)
- Marriott GC and hotel charges
- Priceline "opaque" hotel purchases
- Kruger National Park lodging reservation (booked on sanparks.org official site)
- Hilton Home2 Suites
- taxi fares: Uber, Lyft, Gett, Way2Ride, London taxi, RideAustin
- Transit fees: BART, MTA, FastTrac, MetroCard, DC Metro (WMATA) SmarTrip farecard and commemorative cards, NJ Transit, Oyster card, Ventra (Chicago), Las Vegas Monorail,Short term parking at LAS, London, STIB/MIVB (Brussels), UTA (Salt Lake City), TriMet (Portland, OR)
- Parking meters: Chicago; Portland, OR; San Francisco; Atlantic City; Seattle; Minneapolis; Raleigh; San Diego
- Public parking garages: San Francisco; Montgomery Co. MD; Saint Paul; UC San Diego
- Toll passes: E-Z Pass (MA, MD, NH, NJ, NY, PA), Sunpass prepaid tolls, Washington State GoodToGo tolls, RiverLink tolls, TxTag, IPass (Illinois), Houston EZ-Tag
- Train tickets: trainline (UK train tickets), Eurostar.com, Bahn.com (when using Paypal), Amtrak (cafe car purchases as well as tickets purchased from kiosks or the website), italirail.com, Train and bus travel in Scotland at ticket counter, SNCB/NMBS (Belgium--app or counter; chip-and-sign cards don't work in ticket machines), Euroshuttle (car train under the English Channel)
- Ferries: Cape May, NJ to Lewes, DE
- Shuttles: Jackson Hole WY Airport official shuttle to town
- Unlimted JR Pass for Japan purchased from japan-rail-pass.com
- Bikeshare membership/usage fees in Washington, DC
- Parking apps: ParkWhiz, SpotHero, ParkMobile
- Presidential Limousine service in Las Vegas
- Costco Travel
Disney theme park tickets physically purchased at Disney gateSee post #1203- Disney Vacation account funding
- Royal Caribbean drink package
- Cruise bookings
- Cruise Excursions Booked Prior to Cruise (and fully refundable)
- MIR Travel Agency
- ChargePoint for Electric Vehicle Charging
- MileagePlusX Uber GC
- undercovertourist.com
- Rental cars (verified Avis on page 7 of this thread)
- Lahaina Cruise Co. (Hawaii Ocean Project whale watch cruise)
- Interval International Exchange Fee + Upgrade Fee
- Aircraft title transfer registration fees with ICAO's International Registry of Mobile Assets (Cape Town Convention and Aircraft Protocol)
- Cooking class/experience booked through Viator
What doesn't count as travel?
Here's a thread dedicated to the topic: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/chas...rrect-mcc.html
The following items have NOT posted as travel/been reimbursed:
e-gift card from Airline, except DeltaPlease list specifics.- AA in-flight food
- AAA membership
- Alaska Airlines: e-gift cards; in-flight food; Board Room membership (post 1152)
- Blink Charging (EV charging network): shows up as Bills & Utilities
- CLEAR -- annual membership fee and pro-rated $50 fee for adding a family member
- Points.com (Southwest)
- Not all parking meters - Michigan State University (MSU Police Dept. 1x), Phoenix
- Parking citation payment (SF MTA)
- Hotel parking fees (e.g. Fairmont SF)
- Walt Disney tickets directly from Disney.com
- Vacation Rental by Owner/HomeAway
- Airport landing, parking and ground handling fees for private jets
EZ-Tag (Houston, TX)now DOES count per post 1109- Georgia Peach Pass
- Hotels.com e-gift card
- Hyatt e-gift card
- Hyatt physical G.C. from Hyatt.com (coded as Online, Mail, or Telephone transaction or Card, Gift Novelty and Souvenir Stores) No manual adjustment.
- IHG Ambassador recognition program
- Southwest Airlines in-flight purchases
- Southwest Airlines Wi-Fi purchase ("Bills & utilities" in Chase online banking)
- Prince Resorts Hawaii Gift Card (Prince Hotel Waikiki, Mauna Kea Hotel, Hapuna Beach Hotel)
- Meal at Fairmont Hotel not charged to room
- Choice hotel Points + Cash reservation
- Delta in-flight Wi-Fi purchased through app
- MPX Amazon.Com
- Not all public transit: Lisbon metro
- Travel Insurance (Allianz)
Chase Sapphire Reserve $300 Annual Travel Credit (2016 - 2021)
Aug 30, 2016, 12:36 am
#16
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: Somewhere in Florida
Posts: 2,622
Not in the least worried. I think most FT'ers will be on a plane or in a hotel at least once between now & year-end. If not, I'm sure most FT'ers would find an alternative way to get the spend in.
Aug 30, 2016, 1:56 am
#17
Join Date: Jul 2005
Programs: Hilton Diamond, Starwood Platinum, AA, SW, Delta
Posts: 885
Does it work for tours like the citypass cards?
Aug 30, 2016, 1:58 am
#18
Join Date: Jul 2005
Programs: Hilton Diamond, Starwood Platinum, AA, SW, Delta
Posts: 885
travel credit
For travel do you know if it works on uber or buses?
Exactly.
Chase has made every indication that what constitutes "travel" hasn't changed and there's no evidence to the contrary. The list of MCCs is pretty long and seems to include almost everything one could imagine being "travel" (no car stuff except rentals, though)
I suspect a lot of us CSR holders have (or had until recently) a CSP, so it's pretty easy to see what got double points. All airline spend, hotels, rental cars, rail (including CTA/WMATA/etc) fare, etc etc.
The one "non-travel" charge I disagreed with was a hotel in Japan whose MCC must have been something odd. Chase gave me the points no questions asked when I pointed out the business name was XYZ HOTEL ABCVILLE on the statement. Same story with a couple restaurants in Japan and Indonesia that weren't "dining" but I don't bother over 15 points. In 4 years with CSP I never saw a single US or Canadian charge that I thought should've gotten classified as travel but didn't.
Also, I have to ask... is there anyone who intends to use the CSR who's actually worried about not spending $300 on travel in a year (or even between now and December)?
ETA this thread on CS(P) double points for travel: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/chase...solidated.html
Chase has made every indication that what constitutes "travel" hasn't changed and there's no evidence to the contrary. The list of MCCs is pretty long and seems to include almost everything one could imagine being "travel" (no car stuff except rentals, though)
I suspect a lot of us CSR holders have (or had until recently) a CSP, so it's pretty easy to see what got double points. All airline spend, hotels, rental cars, rail (including CTA/WMATA/etc) fare, etc etc.
The one "non-travel" charge I disagreed with was a hotel in Japan whose MCC must have been something odd. Chase gave me the points no questions asked when I pointed out the business name was XYZ HOTEL ABCVILLE on the statement. Same story with a couple restaurants in Japan and Indonesia that weren't "dining" but I don't bother over 15 points. In 4 years with CSP I never saw a single US or Canadian charge that I thought should've gotten classified as travel but didn't.
Also, I have to ask... is there anyone who intends to use the CSR who's actually worried about not spending $300 on travel in a year (or even between now and December)?
ETA this thread on CS(P) double points for travel: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/chase...solidated.html
Aug 30, 2016, 7:18 am
#19
Join Date: Sep 2014
Posts: 27
Has anyone had success purchasing airline (AA & Southwest, in particular) gift cards for the travel credit?
Aug 30, 2016, 7:39 am
#20
Join Date: Feb 2016
Location: Seattle, WA
Programs: AS MVP Gold 75K, DL Platinum, UA Gold, Marriott LT Titanium, Hyatt Globalist, Hilton Gold
Posts: 89
Exactly. I buy 3-4 domestic tickets on United every month on top of everything else. This is no problem at all.
Aug 30, 2016, 8:09 am
#21
Join Date: Mar 2013
Posts: 178
I've already used my $300 travel credit for this year. Is there a strategy to take another vacation in December and somehow time it so it uses my $300 for 2017?
Aug 30, 2016, 8:18 am
#22
Join Date: Jun 2011
Posts: 161
I will have absolutely no problem burning thru the $300 for travel with a $10,000 cruise coming up for payment soon. I am more interested in the trip interruption / cancellation coverage that this card offers. Does anybody know if this coverage is like a travel guard policy that one might purchase to hedge issues while on an expensive vacation? I was not able to find a thread about travel insurance so if there is one that I missed, I would appreciate being pointed to it.
I was just approved for the card yesterday.
Thanks!
I was just approved for the card yesterday.
Thanks!
Aug 30, 2016, 8:39 am
#23
Join Date: Aug 2014
Posts: 70
All of my uber charges in Lima Peru earned the bonus travel points on my CSP.
There is a consolidated CSP Travel category thread where many are complaining that some things changed to 'government services' in the past few months including toll charges and city owned parking garages. I would do a test charge before loading up an account balance counting on the 3 UR points per dollar.
There is a consolidated CSP Travel category thread where many are complaining that some things changed to 'government services' in the past few months including toll charges and city owned parking garages. I would do a test charge before loading up an account balance counting on the 3 UR points per dollar.
Aug 30, 2016, 9:12 am
#24
Join Date: Jun 1999
Location: NYC/LA
Programs: DL Plat, AA Plat Pro, Marriott Titanium, IHG Diamond Amb
Posts: 7,487
Aug 30, 2016, 9:26 am
#25
Join Date: Aug 2015
Posts: 19
Also wondering as this is how I plan to use the travel credit for this year. I would like to get the gift cards and then book my family vacation airfare next year with the other $300 credit so we can get tix together.
Aug 30, 2016, 10:23 am
#26
Join Date: Feb 2016
Location: Lexington, KY (but never there)
Programs: Delta Platinum, JetBlue Mosaic, Hilton/Hyatt Diamond, Marriott Gold, IHG Platinum, SPG Gold
Posts: 32
Does the $300 travel credit count towards the initial $4000 spend requirement? in other words do you need to spend $4300 to get sign up bonus? Thanks
Aug 30, 2016, 10:50 am
#27
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: Puyallup
Posts: 86
I did this with the AMEX Platinum last year and purchased Alaska Airlines gift certificates. Hoping I can do the same with the CSR.
Aug 30, 2016, 11:48 am
#28
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: Intermountain West
Programs: Too many to list
Posts: 12,082
It would make sense that your 'net' spend would have to be $4000 ($4300-$300 credit). I'm not sure but it makes sense to me. We'll all find out in a few weeks after 1st statements hit. Personally, I'm going to spend $4300+ and not take any chances. Then, after my Dec. stmt. posts, I'll put on another $300+ in travel expenses for 2017.
Aug 30, 2016, 12:09 pm
#29
Join Date: Jan 2013
Posts: 46
I am planning right now on spending the $300 travel credit on airfare, but if that falls through I would also like to hear about success stories in purchasing United GC's and being reimbursed.
Aug 30, 2016, 12:31 pm
#30
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: MSN
Programs: AA, BAEC Gold
Posts: 3,929
It is linked in the Wiki of the application thread.