The biggest thing in the miles and points world this week (and the week before, and the week before), is the Chase Sapphire Reserve.

Chase Sapphire Reserve, courtesy of ThePointsGuy.

You see, the Chase Sapphire Reserve, kind of like the big brother of the Chase Sapphire Preferred (and foreshadowed by P.F. Digest), is Chase’s response to the Citi Prestige and the American Express Platinum cards. Chase is only a few months or years late.

The offer that has everyone excited

Chase is really making the Chase Sapphire Reserve enticing, not just for the first year, but as a long-term card to hold. Here’s why:

• $450 Annual Fee – Ack! But read below for why it might be worthwhile!
• 100,000 Ultimate Rewards points after $4,000 Spend — who doesn’t love easy points? Especially when they are transferrable to a whole host of programs!
• $100 Global Entry credit – If you don’t already have Global Entry, get it, and don’t look back. You’ll never regret it. If you do have Global Entry, offer to pick it up for your family, friends, neighbors, work colleagues. It’s great! Share the love.
• $300 Annual Travel Credit – It sounds like this will operate more like the Citi Prestige rather than American Express’ Platinum Card (which requires some gaming), this effectively drops the cost to $150.
• Earn 3x Ultimate Rewards Points on travel and dining – This is an improvement over the American Express Premier Rewards Gold Card, which also receives 3x on travel expenses.
• Priority Pass Select Membership – This is good, since as I recall, the Chase Ink recently sunset that benefit. I recently used a Priority Pass lounge in Cancun’s airport. It’s really a great lounge of last resort, and worth having in your travel wallet.
• Redeem Ultimate Rewards points for flights, hotels, and other stuff at a rate of 1.5 cents per point – I have not yet redeemed Ultimate Rewards points for travel, other than transferring them to Hyatt, Marriott, British Airways, or others. I’m sure it’s a reasonably good deal. In fact, since Citi is sun-setting their 1.6 cents per Thank You Point on American for the Citi Prestige, this is probably the best deal going.

Conclusion

In full disclosure – there are no affiliate links here. In fact, there are no links to affiliate links. Why? Because I just didn’t feel like it was appropriate, given all the hype about this card. Do I like the card? Yes. How much do I like the card? My wife and I both applied for the card when the application site was briefly available last week. Why? Because we’re both way beyond 5 new accounts in 24 months, which may or may not trigger Chase to not approve you for a credit card. We saw with the Freedom Unlimited (aptly acronymed as “FU”), that early applications could get by.

But back to my original question: Is this a great credit card for resellers? Probably not. Resellers should focus on category bonuses, like the AT&T Access Card (no longer available) or if there are no category bonuses, I like the American Express Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG), given that if you transfer points, you get 1.25 miles per dollar. Can the Chase Sapphire Reserve be good for some resellers? Definitely, but it would not be the first card I go for, unless I’m booking travel.