How to upgrade to chase sapphire reserve?

Currently, Chase only allows customers to hold one card or the other, so you’ll have to choose between the Sapphire Preferred or Sapphire Reserve. The Reserve, which has a significantly higher annual fee, comes with a few extra travel benefits that may make the higher annual fee worth paying for some people. However, more expensive doesn’t necessarily mean better in all cases. For some cardholders, the Preferred remains a better choice.

Whether you should upgrade to the Chase Sapphire Reserve® or not depends on your spending habits and how often you expect to use the included benefits.

Though everyday purchases in unbonused categories earn 1 Chase Ultimate Reward® point per dollar spent on both cards, the Chase Sapphire Reserve® offers additional points on a handful of categories.

Chase Sapphire Reserve® cardholders who are willing and able to book hotel and/or car rental reservations through Ultimate Rewards travel will earn 10 points per dollar spent, double that of the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card. A customer who uses this feature frequently will see substantial rewards gains over the course of the year thanks to the generous earnings. Other travel purchases earn 3 points per dollar instead of 2 points per dollar, which can still add up on large purchases.

Notably, only the Chase Sapphire Reserve® offers a Priority Pass membership to cardholders. Members have access to over 1,300 airport lounges worldwide, which typically include complimentary Wi-Fi, food, beverages and other amenities while on-site.

Day passes to lounges typically cost around $50 per person, so frequent users of this benefit could save hundreds of dollars annually when upgrading to the Chase Sapphire Reserve®.

Both credit cards offer an incentive for redeeming your Ultimate Rewards points toward travel booked through the Chase portal. Instead of being worth 1 cent per point (like it would with cash back or statement credits), you’ll get a bonus on every travel redemption.

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card offers a 25% bonus, making points worth 1.25 cents each when redeemed for travel. The Reserve, on the other hand, offers a 50% bonus for a 1.5 cent per point valuation. On small redemptions, this won’t make much of a difference but it adds up if you consistently choose this type of reward.

The Chase Sapphire Reserve® includes up to $300 in statement credits to reimburse travel purchases charged to the card. This is significantly more than the $50 offered on the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card—and much more flexible since the Preferred credit is only valid on hotel stays booked through Ultimate Rewards. Do keep in mind that some “travel” expenses, such as theme park tickets, may not code as travel and therefore won’t qualify for the credit.

The Reserve also includes credits toward trusted traveler programs (such as Global Entry) and more generous travel protections for trips charged toward the card.

There’s a huge disparity between the annual fees on the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and Chase Sapphire Reserve®. The Preferred costs a competitive $95 per year while the Reserve costs $550 per year.

Travelers may consider the cards’ ability to earn statement credits toward select travel as good as cash. In that case, the true out-of-pocket cost on the Preferred is $45 annually while the Reserve is $250. No matter how you calculate your annual expenses, there’s no disputing the Reserve is more expensive and must be paid in full each year.

Though the Reserve offers a stronger earning structure for most travel purchases, the Preferred has its own advantages on earning rates. Select online grocery purchases and streaming services (such as Spotify or Netflix) earn 3 points for every dollar spent; on the Reserve, they are treated as non-bonused spend at only 1 point per dollar spent.

Perhaps more importantly, the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card gives cardholders bonus points each account anniversary upon renewal. Cardholders earn bonus points equal to 10% of your total purchases made the previous year.

Essentially, that means all purchases earn 1.1 points per dollar spent, with categories like dining clocking in at 3.3 points per dollar spent. It all adds up, especially for high spenders.

One of the Chase Sapphire Reserve®’s better selling points is that you can earn 50% more value when redeeming points toward travel booked through Chase Ultimate Rewards. However, this perk only matters if you make that type of redemption. Similarly, not all cardholders will value the Priority Pass lounge membership or the Global Entry/TSA PreCheck application fee credit. Cardholders who prefer to transfer points directly to travel partners will get the same 1:1 ratio regardless of which card they hold.

Like many premium travel cards, the Chase Sapphire Reserve® offers benefits including credits toward Global Entry or TSA PreCheck application fees and Priority Pass membership. There’s no denying these benefits can be valuable. However, if you already have another card offering identical benefits, they might not be worth paying for twice.

As always, when comparing the true cost of a new credit card, benefits should only be counted at your personal valuation.

To upgrade from a Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card to a Chase Sapphire Reserve®, you'll need to call the number on the back of your card to speak with a Chase customer service representative. That agent can check if you're eligible for a product change and submit your request.

But what if you’ve already opened the Chase Sapphire Preferred card and think that the Chase Sapphire Reserve card might be the best option for your situation?

In this guide, we’ll go through the A to Z of comparing both cards and outlining the customers who are best suited to upgrade to the Chase Sapphire Reserve card.

We’ll also show you how you can upgrade your card with ease!

The Chase Sapphire Preferred card and Chase Sapphire Reserve card have similar names. Indeed, most travelers actually refer to these cards interchangeably as the “Chase Sapphire” when that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Here are some of the key benefits associated with each card.

The Chase Sapphire Preferred card offers its cardholders a variety of ways to earn bonus rewards and redeem them for maximum value. Best of all, this card is jam-packed with value without needing to shell out a huge annual fee.

Here are the spending categories where you can earn bonus Ultimate Rewards points:

Other purchases will earn 1 point per dollar spent.

Also, you’ll enjoy these additional benefits:

The ultra-premium Chase Sapphire Reserve card is packed with a ton of value for its considerable price tag. It offers much more in the way of luxury travel benefits than the Chase Sapphire Preferred card.

To start off, here are the card’s bonus categories:

All other purchases will earn 1 Ultimate Rewards point per dollar spent.

With this card, you can get:

Now that we’ve outlined the highlights of both the Chase Sapphire Preferred card and the Chase Sapphire Reserve card, let’s compare these cards head-to-head!

One of the biggest selling points of the Chase Sapphire Preferred card is the seemingly unbelievable rewards structure from a card with a sub-$100 annual fee. In fact, the Chase Sapphire Preferred card outperforms its ultra-premium counterpart in a few categories!

Meanwhile, the Chase Sapphire Reserve card offers a series of other game-changing benefits, such as the ability to earn 3x points on other travel purchases including hotel stays booked directly through the hotel, tour packages, and so much more.

Also, the Chase Sapphire Reserve card boasts airport lounge access, thanks to the complimentary Priority Pass Select membership offered. Furthermore, the Chase Sapphire Reserve card will help you get outsized value from your redemptions through its 50% bonus on Chase travel portal bookings and Pay Yourself Back.

Hot Tip: Need a comprehensive look at the cards’ merits? Check out our detailed comparison of the Chase Sapphire Preferred card vs. the Chase Sapphire Reserve card to determine which card is best for you!

The process for upgrading your Chase Sapphire Preferred card is super easy!

Just call the number on the back of your Chase Sapphire Preferred card and explain to a live agent that you’d like to upgrade to the Chase Sapphire Reserve card.

Keep in mind that the Chase Sapphire Reserve card has a minimum credit limit of $10,000 by virtue of being a Visa Infinite card.

So if your current Chase Sapphire Preferred card has a lower credit limit than $10,000, part of the upgrade process will involve a request for a credit limit increase, also known as a CLI.

When a credit limit increase is requested, Chase may be required to perform a hard inquiry to increase your credit limit to the necessary amount for the Chase Sapphire Reserve card.

With all that said, the question is: is the upgrade worth it?

Should you upgrade your Chase Sapphire Preferred card to the Chase Sapphire Reserve card? Here are a few profiles in which it might make sense to upgrade to the Chase Sapphire Reserve card.

The Chase Sapphire Reserve card generally offers better rewards on travel. To reiterate, you’ll earn 3x Ultimate Rewards points on travel not booked through Chase Ultimate Rewards, while the Chase Sapphire Preferred card offers 2x Ultimate Rewards points.

If you’re the type of person who tends to book hotels, tour packages, or flights directly with the provider, or if you just tend to stray away from booking directly with Chase Ultimate Rewards, the Chase Sapphire Reserve card could be worth it for you.

Arguably, the biggest value proposition of the Chase Sapphire Preferred card is the ability to earn 3x points on dining. It’s exceedingly rare to find a credit card with a sub-$100 annual fee that offers a return on spend of 6.6% for dining!

The Chase Sapphire Reserve card offers 3x points on dining, but it doesn’t offer the 10% anniversary rewards bonus that the Chase Sapphire Preferred card does.

So if you spend a ton of money on dining every month, it’s probably worth keeping your Chase Sapphire Preferred card.

The Chase Sapphire Preferred card earns 3x points on online groceries, excluding Target, Walmart, and warehouse clubs.

One of the best use cases of the Chase Sapphire Preferred card is on Instacart purchases. Remember that the Chase Sapphire Preferred card only earns bonus points on online groceries; so if you don’t spend much on online groceries every year, the value proposition of the Chase Sapphire Preferred card may weaken a bit.

The Chase Sapphire Reserve card offers significantly upgraded travel benefits over the Chase Sapphire Preferred card. Sure, the Chase Sapphire Reserve card also comes with a higher annual fee, but the increased benefits deflect the cost almost entirely.

For example, with the Chase Sapphire Reserve card, you’ll get a complimentary Priority Pass Select membership, which enables you to access more than 1,300 airport lounges around the world for yourself and up to 2 guests! This benefit alone is worth at least $469 every year.

Plus, you’ll also enjoy an annual travel credit of up to $300 from the Chase Sapphire Reserve card, which is one of the easiest benefits to use.

That’s not even considering the ability to get more perks at hotels through the Chase Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection, better travel insurance protections, and the Global Entry/TSA PreCheck/NEXUS application fee credit every 4 years!

In short, if you want better travel benefits, the Chase Sapphire Reserve card’s value proposition is enormous.

One of the most-discussed benefits of the Chase Sapphire Reserve card is the 50% redemption bonus on travel booked through Chase Ultimate Rewards. In comparison, the Chase Sapphire Preferred card offers a smaller 25% redemption bonus.

If you are constantly redeeming points through the Chase travel portal, you could come out way ahead in the long run by holding the Chase Sapphire Reserve card.

For example, if you book 4 round-trip economy tickets to Hawaii, each costing $500, you’d normally have to pay $2,000 or spend 200,000 Ultimate Rewards points.

By redeeming points through the Chase travel portal using your Chase Sapphire Preferred card, you could redeem 160,000 Ultimate Rewards points for that same trip. With the Chase Sapphire Reserve card, you could redeem just 133,333 points. And that’s just for 1 trip!

You’ll get some fantastic value with fewer points using the Chase Sapphire Reserve card, and the savings will add up over the years.

If you have the Chase Sapphire Preferred card and applied less than 4 years ago, your only option to get your hands on the Chase Sapphire Reserve card would be to upgrade.

If you have the Chase Sapphire Preferred card and applied more than 4 years ago, you can follow these steps to qualify for a new bonus on the Chase Sapphire Reserve card:

By applying for a new card altogether, you should qualify for a new welcome bonus, as long as it’s been at least 4 years since you received a bonus on a Sapphire card. Keep in mind that this process will almost certainly result in a hard inquiry, as it is a new card application.

The Chase Sapphire Preferred card and Chase Sapphire Reserve card are 2 of the most impressive credit cards available. Thanks to industry-leading rewards categories and thoughtfully-designed card benefits, these 2 cards remain some of the most popular credit cards to this day.