For awhile now, the best credit card to use for saving cash on ride-hailing services has been The Platinum Card® from American Express because it comes with up to $200 in annual Uber credits ($15/month and $35 in December). But now Chase is stepping up to the plate and is adding Lyft benefits to the Chase Sapphire Reserve.
Starting Jan. 12, 2020, Sapphire Reserve cardholders will get a complimentary year of Lyft Pink membership, which normally costs $19.99/month. This membership gets you 15% off all rides, three free cancellations a month (you must rebook within 15 minutes of cancelling), three free bike or scooter rides per month, priority airport pickups and more. To get the free Pink membership, make sure you have the latest version of the Lyft app downloaded, then set your eligible Chase card as your default payment method. After that, you'll enjoy a complimentary year of Lyft Pink, currently valued at $239.
TPG Reporter Liz Hund found the membership to be worth double the monthly cost. On top of that, you'll also earn 10x Ultimate Rewards points on Lyft rides when you pay with your Reserve card. That's a massive return equal to 20% according to TPG's latest valuations.
You'd normally need to spend $135 a month in Lyft rides for the 15% discount to justify the cost of a Lyft Pink membership, which doesn't include the other perks at all. So this is a solid addition to the card and it isn't hard to get value from these if you use ride-hailing services even occasionally. But, the addition of these benefits is being offset by a $100 increase in the card's annual fee (from $450 to $550 per year).
The Lyft discounts and bonus earning rate aren't the only new features the card is getting, Chase has also added several new benefits for the DoorDash delivery service. You can read more about the other new Sapphire Reserve perks here.
If you're interested in applying for the Sapphire Reserve, now is the time to do it because if you get your application in before Jan. 12, you can lock in the lower annual fee for the first year. For existing cardholders, the higher annual fee will apply to account renewals as of April 1, 2020.
Related reading: Significant changes confirmed for Chase’s Sapphire Reserve card
