There are a lot of premium travel credit cards out there to choose from, but there are two consistent front-runners — Chase Sapphire Reserve® and The Platinum Card® from American Express. Both cards come with a high annual fee but are packed with valuable benefits.
Those willing to pay for one of these top travel cards will want to look at which card makes the most sense for their wallet. If you want a combination of flexibility and travel perks, the Chase Sapphire Reserve® card may be the better choice. But, if you are a frequent traveler looking for more luxury travel perks, you may want to opt for The Platinum Card® from American Express.
| Chase Sapphire Reserve® | The Platinum Card® from American Express | |
|---|---|---|
| Welcome offer | Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. | Earn 80,000 Membership Rewards® Points after you spend $8,000 on eligible purchases on your new Card in your first 6 months of Card Membership. |
| Rewards | Earn 5x total points on flights and 10x total points on hotels and car rentals when you purchase travel through Chase Travel℠ immediately after the first $300 is spent on travel purchases annually. Earn 3x points on other travel and dining & 1 point per $1 spent on all other purchases. | 5X Membership Rewards® points on flights booked directly with airlines or with American Express Travel on up to $500,000 on these purchases per calendar year and 5X Membership Rewards® points on prepaid hotels booked with American Express Travel. Terms apply. |
| Annual fee | $550 | $695 |
| Regular purchase APR | 21.99% - 28.99% Variable | See Pay Over Time APR |
| Foreign transaction fee | None | None |
| Credit needed | Excellent | Good / Excellent |
| First-year value | $2,306* | $3,140* |
| Second-year and ongoing value | $1,106* | $1,540* |
| Lounge access | Priority Pass | Priority Pass, American Express Centurion, Delta Sky Club and more |
Annual feeBoth of these cards come with a high annual fee, but the Chase Sapphire Reserve® offers the lower option. When deciding if you want to pay the price for either of these cards, consider how much you travel and if the benefits you’ll be paying for with each card make sense for you.
The Platinum Card® from American Express comes with credits that can be worth more than $1,000, which can be an easy way to cover the fee.
The Chase Sapphire Reserve® card comes with a $300 flexible travel credit, airport lounge access worth over $469 per year and other travel benefits that can help cover a piece of the annual fee.
Welcome offerBoth welcome offers will give you upfront value that can help offset the annual fee for the first year. With Chase Ultimate Rewards points being worth 1.5 cents per point when you redeem through the Chase TravelSM portal, the Chase Sapphire Reserve® welcome offer value is slightly higher. American Express points are worth 1 cent each when redeemed through the Membership Rewards portal.
If you plan to transfer points to a travel program, The Platinum Card® from American Express may have the better value with points worth around 2 cents each and a long list of airline and hotel partners to choose from.
Rewards rateThe key difference in the rewards rates is the bonus categories. The Platinum Card® from American Express offers great rewards on airlines and other American Express Travel purchases, while the Chase Sapphire Reserve® card offers a wider range of categories including dining. The Chase travel category also covers more purchases than the American Express category with airlines, hotels, campgrounds, car rental agencies, trains, rideshare, parking lots and more included.
Redemption options and point valueBoth cards allow you to earn a higher point value when redeeming through the issuer portal, but the Chase Sapphire Reserve® card has a higher point value at up to 1.5 cents per point when you redeem through Chase Ultimate Rewards. If you plan to redeem for cash back, Chase Sapphire Reserve® is also the better choice at 1 cent per point vs. 0.75 cents per point with The Platinum Card® from American Express.
If you plan to redeem your points for airline purchases, note that you’ll only get 1 cent per point on flights and 0.75 cents per point on other travel purchases with American Express. Chase doesn’t differentiate the point values between flights and travel and you’ll be able to redeem for all travel purchases at the same value in the Chase TravelSM portal.
| Card | Rewards program | Redemption options | Estimated point value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chase Sapphire Reserve® | Chase Ultimate Rewards |
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| The Platinum Card® from American Express | American Express Membership Rewards |
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Transfer partnersAnother way to redeem points for a higher value is to transfer them to a travel partner. You can transfer points at a 1:1 rate to all Chase transfer partners and most American Express partners. By our estimates, you can get around 2 cents per point when you transfer to partners, but the value varies by partner and redemption.
American Express has more partners to choose from, but whether you choose Chase or American Express depends on your travel plans and which airlines and hotel brands you prefer. For example, Chase is a good option if you frequently fly with United and Southwest or if you usually stay at Hyatt hotels, whereas American Express is a good option for Delta frequent flyers. Many of the airline options for both transfer programs belong to an alliance, meaning you may be able to use points to fly with an airline’s alliance partner, even if that airline doesn’t offer flights covering your travel plans.
The Chase Sapphire Reserve® card comes with a flexible travel credit of up to $300 each anniversary year that is applied to your account automatically. Options for reimbursement include:
This is higher and more flexible than The Platinum Card® from American Express which offers a $200 hotel credit only on select prepaid bookings through American Express Travel and up to a $200 airline credit that only applied to “incidental fees” charged by airlines.
Once you enroll in Priority Pass, you’ll get complimentary airport lounge access available at more than 1,300 VIP lounges over 500 cities worldwide. This is a valuable perk because unlimited lounge access is $469 per year plus $35 for each additional guest. You’ll get complimentary refreshments and free Wi-Fi and charging stations.
Although this is a good value, The Platinum Card® from American Express wins in the airport lounge category, offering a full suite of lounges including Priority Pass.
You’ll get one statement credit of up to $120 every four years for your application fee.
In our opinion, the Chase Sapphire Reserve® card offers the best travel insurance benefits among travel cards. Its benefits include a primary rental car policy, which means — as long as you reserve and pay for your rental car with your card and decline the rental company’s coverage — you don’t need to go through your personal insurance policy before making a claim with Chase.
The Platinum Card® from American Express offers similar coverage for many of the benefits below, but — notably — offers secondary rather than primary rental car coverage.
When you book through The Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection, you’ll get perks like a room upgrade or daily breakfast. There are more than 1,000 properties included to choose from.
Similar to what you’ll get with The Platinum Card® from American Express, the Chase Sapphire Reserve® card offers elite status with Avis and National. You’ll get access to benefits like upgrades, car rental discounts, savings on luxury and premium car rental rates and other promotional offers.
Lyft: 10x total points on Lyft rides plus a complimentary two-year Lyft Pink All Access membership which includes member-exclusive pricing and benefits.
Peloton: 10x total points on Peloton equipment and accessory purchases over $150 with a max earn of 50,000 total points.
DoorDash DashPass subscription: Complimentary access to DashPass for a minimum of one year which includes $0 delivery fees, lower service fees and a $5 credit each month.
Instacart+: One year of complementary Instacart+ with $15 a month in Instacart statement credits.
Purchase protection: New purchases are covered for 120 days against damage or theft up to $10,000 per claim and $50,000 per year
Return protection: Coverage up to $500 per item, $1,000 per year within 90 days of purchase.
Extended warranty protection: Extends the U.S. manufacturer’s warranty by an additional year on warranties of three years or less.
The Platinum Card® from American Express offers a wider range of credits to choose from, but it’s important to know that many of these credits have stipulations that can make them hard to use. For example, you’ll get up to a $200 airline fee credit, but it only applies to incidentals on one airline that you have to designate at the beginning of the year. You can also get up to $200 in Uber Cash, but it can only be used in $15 monthly increments. You’ll want to read the terms and conditions of each benefit to decide if you’ll be able to find value.
The Platinum Card® from American Express comes with The American Express Global Lounge Collection® which offers complimentary access to more than 1,400 airport lounges across 140 countries. The Centurion® Lounges from American Express, which are some of the most elite lounges, are included in this list of lounge options. Centurion Lounge access is limited to only a few types of travel credit cards, making it one of the most exclusive lounge programs around.
Lounge options include:
If you travel frequently, this is a much better value than the Chase Sapphire Reserve® card that only comes with Priority Pass.
You’ll get perks like signature cocktails, spirits and wine, TVs, spa services, Member Service Professionals to help with your travel itinerary, free Wi-Fi, workspaces, luggage lockers and more.
You’ll get either a statement credit worth $120 every four years for Global Entry or a statement credit worth $85 every four-and-a-half years for TSA PreCheck.
With The Platinum Card® from American Express, you’ll be eligible for Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite Status and Hilton Honors™ Gold Status (enrollment required). You would typically have to stay 25+ nights with Marriott and 40+ nights with Hilton to reach these statuses. This is a perk that the Chase Sapphire Reserve® card does not have.
The Platinum Card® from American Express offers good travel insurance options that are comparable to the Chase Sapphire Reserve® card. The main difference is that you’ll get secondary rental car insurance with The Platinum Card® from American Express, meaning that you won’t get liability coverage and not all vehicle types or rentals are covered. You’ll get more generous rental car insurance with the Chase Sapphire Reserve® card, which offers primary coverage.
Here is a full list of travel protection and insurance for The Platinum Card® from American Express:
Book with one of over 1,500 properties worldwide through the American Express Fine Hotels + Resorts Program and get a suite of benefits like daily breakfast for two, room upgrades, $100 amenity, late checkout, early check-in and more. Plus, you can earn 5X points on stays or pay with your stay with points.
With The Platinum Card® from American Express you can get complimentary premium status on car rental programs like Avis Preferred®, Hertz Gold Plus Rewards® and National Car Rental® Emerald Club. You’ll also get benefits like free upgrades and other discounts.
Get lower fares on the best international seats for up to eight tickets per booking. This includes international First, Business and Premium Economy seats on 20+ airlines.
ShopRunner: Free two-day shipping from 100+ online stores (enrollment required).
Purchase protection5: Purchase protection is an embedded benefit of your card membership and requires no enrollment. It can help protect covered purchases made on your eligible card when they’re accidentally damaged, stolen, or lost, for up to 90 days from the covered purchase date. The coverage is limited up to $10,000 per occurrence, up to $50,000 per card member account per calendar year. Coverage limits apply.
Return protection5: With return protection, you may return eligible purchases to American Express if the seller won’t take them back up to 90 days from the date of purchase. American Express may refund the full purchase price excluding shipping and handling, up to $300 per item, up to a maximum of $1,000 per calendar year per card account, if you purchased it entirely with your eligible American Express Card. Purchases must be made in the U.S. or its territories.
Extended warranty5: When an American Express Card Member charges a covered purchase to an eligible card, your extended warranty can provide up to one extra year added to the original manufacturer’s warranty. Applies to warranties of five years or less. Coverage is up to the actual amount charged to your card for the item up to a maximum of $10,000; not to exceed $50,000 per card member account per calendar year.
You should get the Chase Sapphire Reserve® card if flexibility is important. You’ll get a wide range of options in terms of redeeming rewards and points have high value especially when you redeem through Chase TravelSM.
You’ll get lounge access at a slightly lower annual fee than The Platinum Card® from American Express and a $300 travel credit with a lot of redemption options. This card also has some of the best travel insurance benefits, plus a high rewards rate in a wide range of categories. If having a long list of luxury travel perks isn’t high on your priority list, then this is the card for you.
You should get The Platinum Card® from American Express if you prefer luxury while traveling. This card has a slightly higher annual fee than the Chase Sapphire Reserve® card, but it’s worth it if you’ll use all the perks.
You’ll get high rewards on travel and global lounge access to over 1,400 lounges. This card also comes with a long list of credits worth over $1,000 and automatic hotel elite status. You won’t get the same level of flexibility in earning and redeeming points, so it’s best for those looking exclusively for luxury travel benefits.
To see rates & fees for American Express cards mentioned on this page, visit the links provided below:
The information related to the Wells Fargo Active Cash® Card has been collected by LendingTree and has not been reviewed or provided by the issuer of this card prior to publication. Terms apply.
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