Credit Card Showdown: Chase Sapphire Reserve Vs. The Platinum Card From American Express - Forbes

With more than a handful of options for a premium travel rewards credit card, two cards rise above the rest: Chase Sapphire Reserve® and The Platinum Card® from American Express. Both of these popular cards charge a high annual fee, but each card has perks and benefits that can offer value beyond the fee charged if optimally utilized.

But which one is right for you? Today we cover the high points of each card to help you decide.

Chase Sapphire Reserve® Is Best for:

$300 Annual Travel Credit

One of, if not the, best perk of this card is the $300 annual travel credit. Cardholders are automatically reimbursed for up to $300 of travel purchases after each account anniversary. Since this card is designed for travelers, it's likely you can easily spend this amount. This helps partially offset the annual fee.

Bonus Point Categories

This card comes with some of the best categories for earning points for travel and dining. The Chase Sapphire Reserve offers 3 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent on travel and restaurants. Just note, the 3 points per dollar earned on travel kicks in after the use of the annual travel credit.

Travel, per Chase, is a very broad category covering merchant categories such as airlines, hotels, campgrounds, car rental agencies, cruise lines, trains, rideshare, parking lots and more. The restaurant definition also expands to delivery services and takeout.

Transfer Partners

The flexibility of Ultimate Rewards® explains why the Sapphire Reserve is such a popular card. Points earned on this card can be transferred to one of many airline or hotel transfer partners. Some of the popular options include British Airways, Singapore Airlines, Southwest Airlines, United Airlines and Hyatt. These transfers are made on a 1:1 ratio in increments of 1,000.

Notably, Ultimate Rewards' partnership with Hyatt puts the Sapphire Reserve above the Platinum Card when it comes to transfer partners. While the Platinum Card has over a dozen airline partners at 1:1, the hotel transfer ratios on the Platinum Card are sub-par.

Redemption Bonus

If cardholders like to book travel more directly, points are given a 50% boost in value when using for travel booking through Chase's travel portal instead of a direct cashback option. So if 50,000 bonus points are used for travel purchases, $750 would be taken off the final cost at booking.

Travel Insurance

When using your Chase Sapphire Reserve or Ultimate Rewards to pay for your or an immediate family member's trip, trip cancellation/trip interruption insurance can be leveraged. This reimbursement covers losses such as pre-paid, non-refundable passenger fares, hotels, and tours.

Up to $10,000 per covered trip per person and a maximum limit of $20,000 per occurrence can be claimed. For example, a family of four experienced a total loss of $25,000 over an entire trip. $20,000 would be reimbursed as a maximum amount for this one occurrence.There is also a $40,000 12-month maximum benefit. Cover events include, but are not limited to, injuries, severe weather and jury duty that cannot be postponed.

As a separate coverage from trip cancellation/interruption, this card also offers trip delay reimbursement. Delays in excess of 6+ hours, eligible travelers can receive up to $500 each for unreimbursed expenses such as lodging, meals and other incidentals.

This card's auto rental collision damage waiver is also one of the best. This primary coverage means claims filed can be done through the card and not with another insurance company first. Simply decline the rental agency collision damage waiver (CDW) and loss damage waiver (LDW) at booking and pay using your card to now be covered for eligible losses. Rental vehicle coverage also includes loss of use charges and towing.

Other covered travel-related benefits include delayed/lost luggage, roadside assistance, emergency medical and dental, emergency assistance, and emergency evacuation. As with most insurance benefits, timeliness and documentation are key to successful claims. Keep all receipts and document all conversations as this information will likely need to be provided while filing a claim.

The Platinum Card® from American Express Is Best for:

Bonus Points on Airfare

This card offers 5 Membership Reward points per dollar spent on flights capped at $500,000 in spending per calendar year. Flights must be purchased either directly from the airline or on American Express Travel. This card also offers 5 points per dollar on prepaid hotel bookings made through American Express Travel. All other eligible purchases earn 1 point per dollar.

While this card offers more points on these travel categories vs Chase's premium option, the defined categories are much more restrictive. The Platinum Card does make more sense if the vast majority of your travel spend is on plane tickets.

Travel and Featured Benefits

The Platinum Card offers a slew of travel-related benefits. Cardholders are able to enroll in Hilton Honors Gold status and Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite status. Both of these statuses come with enhanced room upgrades, if available, later checkout, welcome gifts, bonus points on paid stays and more. Additional complimentary benefits through Fine Hotels & Resorts®, with an average total value of $550 per stay at participating properties, is also available to cardholders.

One of the most desired features is access to Centurion and International American Express Lounges. Food and drinks are complimentary and the upgraded lounge makes for a more relaxing pre-flight experience. Platinum Card holders are also permitted to use Delta Sky Clubs when flying same day with Delta. And like with the Sapphire Reserve, a Priority Pass Select Membership is also available with enrollment.

This card also comes with a $200 airline fee credit. This credit is more restrictive as it only can be used on incidental fees, such as checked baggage or in-flight entertainment and refreshments. This credit can only be used on a single airline from a select group of qualifying airlines that cardholders have the opportunity to choose from at the beginning of each year.

Platinum cardholders who have their card connected to their Uber account receive Uber VIP status and a $15 monthly Uber Cash credit ($35 in December) that expires at the end of that same month. The credit can be used for both Uber and Uber Eats in the U.S.

Transfer Partners

American Express has one of the deepest transfer partner pools making Membership Rewards a great point currency. Some of the popular transfer partners include Air Canada, Avianca, Delta Air Lines, Flying Blue AirFrance/KLM, Singapore Airlines and Virgin Atlantic. They also have hotel partners in Choice Hotels, Hilton, and Marriott, but the ratios are generally not favorable. Not all ratios are 1:1, so be sure to check before transferring.

Applicants Over 5/24

Chase has an unpublished practice of not giving card applicants approval if they have opened five or more credit card lines within the last 24 months. This rule is known as the 5/24 rule. This could easily sway someone towards the Platinum Card being that it is issued by American Express with no known "rule" like this.

American Express does have a one bonus per card per lifetime provision on many cards, though, so you may not qualify for a welcome bonus if you've held the Platinum Card in the past.

Consider the Chase Sapphire Reserve and The Platinum Card for:

Maximizing Point Earning Potential

The Platinum card only has a bonus on select flights and hotels. Traveling typically comes with much more associated costs such as parking at an airport, car rentals and food. This could make a good case for having both cards. Using the Platinum card to earn 5 points per dollar on eligible flights and hotels and the Reserve for all other travel-related and dining costs to earn 3 points per dollar.

Working for a Specific Redemption

Having both cards allows you to create combinations to make travel cheaper or to travel in style. Consider the possibility of having both cards and meeting the minimum spend requirements to obtain both of the welcome bonuses would have a nice amount of points to work with. A number of programs partner with both Ultimate Rewards and Membership Rewards, allowing you to transfer a large sum of points into the same frequent flyer account quickly.

For example: Both Chase and American Express have Singapore Airlines as a transfer partner. Singapore Airlines offers a fantastic premium product. For 95,000 Singapore KrisFlyer miles, which can be had by transferring Ultimate Rewards and/or Membership Rewards, you can book a business class seat from San Francisco to Singapore. You'll need 132,000 KrisFlyer miles to book a first class seat on Singapore Airlines' A380 aircraft from New York to Singapore, connecting in Frankfurt.

Consider Neither Chase Sapphire Reserve nor The Platinum Card From American Express for:

Avoiding a High Annual Fee

This one is just glaring for many. A $550 for the Chase Sapphire Reserve or $550 for the Platinum (see rates & fees) is a lot and both cards do have step-down options with reduced perks.

If travel is infrequent, it could be hard to justify paying the annual fees. While you can avoid paying interest by paying the card balance in full monthly, the annual fee can't be skated around. With these cards giving further access to roadside assistance, car rental insurances and other travel-related services, there's no use in paying the annual fee if they can't be leveraged.

Redeeming Your Rewards for Something Other Than Travel

Both Ultimate Rewards and Membership Rewards can be redeemed outside of travel-related categories, but it comes at an indirect cost. A simple example is that both points can be used to offset purchases made on Amazon.com. Using Ultimate Rewards and Membership Rewards would make a $30 purchase require 3,750 points and 4,286 points respectively. These severely discount the value of the points used when compared to being used on travel.

Bottom Line

Both the Sapphire Reserve and the Platinum card are excellent for frequent travelers. They both excel in different areas when compared to each other, so careful consideration should be had before applying. The key is determining if at least the annual fee's value can be achieved, even more so after the first year.

To view rates and fees of The Platinum Card® from American Express, please visit this page.