It’s now confirmed that the $300 Travel Credit will remain intact, apparently with all of the same details as before.
Up to $300 annually toward travel purchases–the most flexible travel credit available.*
For me, this was the biggest sticking point that needed confirmation as it really help offset the annual fee.
The Chase $300 travel credit is easy to use as it typically works on just about anything travel related. Even toll bills have worked for me. See what counts for the Sapphire Reserve travel credit in this dedicated post.
It also matters a lot for churners who sign up for one year and then close, sometimes a bit after the card annual fee renewal.
However, it’s been pointed out that the terms now have a provision which might preclude getting the travel credit twice with a single annual fee. The verbiage is below, I’m not sure if it’s new, but it’s certainly possible they’re weeding this out now with the new product refresh.
We may reverse statement credits if an eligible purchase is returned, canceled, or modified or if you close your account within 90 days of receiving a statement credit.
Here is the full fine print on the $300 Travel Credit:
A statement credit will be automatically applied to your account for purchases made in the travel category, up to an annual maximum accumulation of $300. Annual means the year beginning with your account open date through the first statement date after your account open date anniversary, and the 12 monthly billing cycles after that each year. Call the number on the back of your card to find out eligibility for your next $300 Annual Travel Credit. Purchases are of products and services, minus returns or refunds, made with the card by you or an authorized user of the account; however, the following types of transactions won’t count: balance transfers, cash advances, travelers checks, foreign currency, money orders, wire transfers or similar cash-like transactions, lottery tickets, casino gaming chips, race track wagers or similar betting transactions, any checks that access your account, interest, unauthorized or fraudulent charges, and fees of any kind, including an annual fee, if applicable. We do not determine whether merchants correctly identify and bill transactions as being of a certain type. For more information about Chase rewards categories, see chase.com/RewardsCategoryFAQs. Please allow 6 to 8 weeks for statement credit(s) to appear on your monthly credit card billing statement. The $300 Annual Travel Credit must be available at the time qualifying purchases are made to be applied to your account. Statement credits will be issued for the year in which the transaction posts to your account. For example, if you pay for baggage fees, but the airline does not post the transaction until after the current annual period ends, the cost of the baggage fees will be allocated towards the following year’s Annual Travel Credit maximum of $300. We may reverse statement credits if an eligible purchase is returned, canceled, or modified or if you close your account within 90 days of receiving a statement credit. Any purchases that qualify for the $300 Annual Travel Credit will not earn points.
As the 3X general travel category goes away I will not be surprised if Chase changes the $300 travel credit to follow Capital One Venture X demanding we use the Chase travel portal.
Honestly, it should have been bumped up to $500 or $700
Seems the provision is only referring if you close your account within 90 days of receiving the credit.
It makes me think that you can get the $300 travel credits after anniversary date and then downgrade the card to a freedom to get the annual fee refunded. The account is technically still open.
That’s a good catch by you. I always prefer to collect more Freedoms anyway. 😉
So right now I’m on a weird cycle because my CSR was PC’ed from a CSP. Dashboard currently says my $300 travel credit renews on 10/7. My most recent AF posted on 1/1/25. In theory, if I want to get rid of the card once my AF hits, I should be able to bank the AF into my United Travel bank on 10/8/25. Presumably the travel credit will post w/in a few days so lets say 10/12/25. In theory then I could close the card sometime after 1/10/26 and still keep the credit because I’ll be outside of 90 days.
I can’t see how this card would work out or even come close to it for a lot of people
No longer a terrible update to the card, but still bad.
Seems worse than I imagined it would be. Looks like travel credit would have to be used in first 9 months to avoid clawback and no double dipping, Apple credit not catch all on services, dining credit only good for those who live in major cities it seems based on the list, StubHub a limited use and DoorDash still overpriced. Happy to be told otherwise if I misread the benefits.
Honestly if you can’t use the travel credit in 9 months, you had no business holding this card in the first place
Not a fan of the changes, but this isn’t fair. DoorDash pickup is not overpriced at most restaurants near me, at least not noticeably so. As long as you are allowed to use it on pickup I don’t see it as a huge negative. StubHub also sells tickets for just about every event, as it is a secondary ticket market. Considering Ticketmaster has monopolized the industry, Chase clearly should have gone with them.
That’s not true at every restaurant though, definitely YMMV.
Not an event person, already get AppleTV+ with TMO and don’t frequent specialty restaurants, not that there is one even within 30 miles. The card doesn’t seem to be a travel card anymore, which in my opinion makes it worse.
Assuming this stacks with The Edit credit. You may get up to $550 back on a 2 night stay.
the $300 is easy enough to get back that it’s usually just thought of as an offset to the annual fee
That 90 day language is big. B/C chase takes their sweet time posting the annual fee but the $300 credit reset happens on time.
Thanks for the update. This feature is important enough to warrant a separate post. I was considering canceling if they got rid of this option. We’ll just have to see if they raise the AF and by how much.
$795 annual fee
You would have to actually read more than the headline to know why this is news.
Wonderful, get to keep $300 of “other travel” spend on the CSR and not a penny more…