Confusion Between The Chase & VISA Luxury Hotel Collections

by joeheg

The Chase Sapphire Reserve advertises itself as a card for smart, sophisticated travelers. It has many features that justify the hefty $550-a-year price tag, like a $300 annual travel credit, primary car insurance coverage, Priority Pass membership and Global Entry/TSA Precheck reimbursement.

If you go to the page on the Sapphire Reserve website, you’ll find a link to the Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection.

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The Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection is a network of more than 1,000 of the world’s finest hotels, resorts and spas. When you use your Chase Sapphire ReserveSM or J.P. Morgan ReserveSM card to purchase your stay, you enjoy complimentary guest privileges including daily breakfast for two, a room upgrade (when available at select properties), early check-in and late check-out (when available at select properties) and a special amenity unique to each property such as lunch or dinner for two, a spa treatment, golf green fee waivers, welcome gift, or airport transfers.

Here’s a direct link to the website. You’ll be asked to log in with your Chase ID associated with your card. Only cardholders of a Sapphire Reserve, J.P. Morgan Reserve and select United co-brand cards have access to this program.

a screenshot of a credit cardAll other cards will forward back to the Ultimate Rewards main page.

But what if you don’t have a Sapphire Reserve for, you know, reasons?

I knew I booked the Waldorf Astoria through a different website where a Sapphire Preferred cardholder could make similar reservations. It’s called the Visa Luxury Hotel Collection. Not confusing at all, right?

Here’s a direct link to their website.

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This program is open to all cardholders who hold an eligible Visa premium card and are in good standing. Eligible Visa premium cards include Visa Signature and Visa Infinite cards and select Visa Gold and Visa Platinum cards. The Visa Luxury Hotel Collection offer is valid only when you book and pay for your stay with a valid, eligible Visa premium card.

This isn’t a Chase program but one run by VISA. It isn’t that difficult to get a Visa Signature card, even the no-annual-fee Disney Visa card would qualify.

So what’s the difference between the two programs?

The first thing I noticed was that each program offered different hotels. The Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection has these options in Osaka, Japan over Thanksgiving.

a screenshot of a hotel

And here are the options from the Visa Luxury Hotel Collection.

a screenshot of a hotelThe next difference was the perks offered by each program.

Here’s the offer from the Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection for the W Osaka.

a screenshot of a hotelWhile here’s the offer from the Visa Luxury Hotel Collection at the Conrad.

a white card with black textBoth rates include a full breakfast, room upgrade (if available) and late check-out upon request (if available).

The Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection offers a $100 hotel credit, a welcome amenity and possible early check-in and the Visa Luxury Hotel Collection offers a $25 food or beverage credit, VIP Guest status and in-room Wi-Fi.

I didn’t get a chance to check this out for every hotel, but I did another search for a U.S. hotel to see if it made any difference. This time I looked for a hotel around Hollywood.

One hotel on both lists was the Andaz West Hollywood.

Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection:

a screenshot of a check-inVisa Luxury Hotels Collection.

a screenshot of a credit cardWhile the rate from the Luxury Hotel and Resort site seems higher, it includes the taxes and fees (but not the resort fee). Visa Luxury Hotels Collection adds taxes to the room rate at checkout. This means you’ll get a lower price and better perks from the Sapphire Reserve website than from the Visa website.

Final Thoughts

What do I think about the two different websites? The Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection website is the more polished of the two. It seems to have slightly lower prices and better benefits than the Visa Luxury Hotels Collection website.

However, you don’t need a Sapphire Reserve card to use the Visa Luxury Hotels Collection website, only a Visa Signature card from any bank. Sapphire Reserve cardholders can book on either website.

Since the prices can vary and inventory on both websites are different, it would be a good idea to check them both out if you can. If you only have access to the Visa Luxury Hotels Collection website, know that you’re probably missing out on some options but the prices on the eligible hotels are similar between the sites. I’d also suggest if you’re looking to pay at a luxury hotel, you can see if there are any good offers through luxury travel agents, like the Virtuoso network or with programs like Hyatt Prive.

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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary

1 comment

World Traveler July 10, 2023 - 7:37 am

Thanks for writing this. The truth is Mastercard too has a luxury hotel program and it’s usually pretty useless, much like the Visa hotels program. The other program anyone can access is ClassicTravel.com and through that you can access an agent who has access to multiple programs. The one point, is the best programs are by far the two run by American Express Platinum (Fine Hotels and Resorts & The Hotel Collection). I also talked to a hotel front desk person once and she told me, that she had worked at two FHR properties including the one I was staying at the time, and FHR gets the best upgrades because they produce more business for the hotels than any other program and it wasn’t close.

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