Amex Platinum vs. Chase Sapphire Reserve

Four questions that decide it

Both cards have long benefit lists. Most of the value, though, comes from a handful of perks that either fit your life or don’t. Answer these four and the choice is usually clear.

Both cards share the rest of their transfer partners, including Air Canada Aeroplan, Air France-KLM Flying Blue, British Airways, Iberia, Aer Lingus, JetBlue, Singapore Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, and Marriott. So the deciding partners are the ones above. If most of your answers land in one column, that’s your card. If they split, read on: the credits math and the opportunity cost usually break the tie.

What each card gives back

The fees are $895 for the Platinum and $795 for the Reserve. What matters is how much of each card’s credits you’d use without changing your habits. The Reserve’s main credit is the easiest to use. The Platinum’s credits are worth more on paper, but they arrive in small monthly and quarterly pieces at specific merchants.

Amex Platinum

$895 / year

Uber Cash	-$200
Airline fee credit	-$200
Digital entertainment	-$300
Resy dining	-$400
If you use all four	-$205

Uber and digital entertainment credits are monthly, Resy is quarterly, and most need enrollment. Also available: $219 CLEAR+, $120 Uber One, $600 in hotel credits, and credits at Equinox, lululemon, Oura, and Walmart+. Count those only if you’d spend there anyway.

Sapphire Reserve

$795 / year

Travel credit (automatic)	-$300
The Edit hotel credit	-$500
StubHub / viagogo	-$300
If you use all three	-$305

The $300 travel credit applies to almost any travel purchase, so most cardholders get it without trying. The Edit credit is $250 per prepaid two-night stay. Also available: a $300 dining credit, $324 in Apple TV and Apple Music, DashPass with up to $420 a year in DoorDash promos, and $120 in Lyft credit.

This is how I read those numbers. Count the Reserve at $495, because the travel credit is close to automatic. For the Platinum, start at $895 and subtract only the credits you’d have spent the money on anyway. For me that’s Delta travel, CLEAR, and the other credits I’d use anyway, which is why it stays in my wallet. For someone who doesn’t use Uber or Resy, the same card costs nearly its full fee.

The opportunity cost most comparisons skip

Credits are only half the picture. Every dollar you put on one card is a dollar not earning on the other. So besides asking whether the credits cover the fee, ask what the same spending would have earned on the other card. Here’s one year of fairly typical spending run through both.

On this spending, using only the Platinum gives up 21,000 points a year. At a conservative 1.5 cents per point, that’s about $315, which belongs on the Platinum’s side of the ledger next to its fee. Shift the mix toward flights and the gap narrows; eat out more and it widens. The Platinum’s 5x on hotels only applies to prepaid stays booked through Amex Travel, so a direct hotel booking earns just 1x.

Carrying both changes the picture: dining and hotels go on the Reserve and flights on the Platinum, which earns 71,000 points on the same spending. It only works if both cards’ credits are already paying for themselves.

Airport lounges

The Platinum has the larger network. The Reserve has fewer lounges but a more generous guest policy. In practice the better card is whichever one has a lounge at the airport you fly from most.

How you earn points

Getting value out of your points

Both currencies are worth the most when transferred to airline and hotel partners. Which card wins depends on where you’d send them.

The Hyatt ratio is the main reason I’ve kept the Reserve all these years. A 100,000-point sign-up bonus is a lot of Hyatt nights at properties that would otherwise run $800 or more. If you fly Delta, the Platinum’s mix of Delta transfers, 5x on flights, and Sky Club visits is the equivalent draw.