Chase Sapphire Really Has No Phone Tree or Hold Times

I applied for the Chase Sapphire card primarily - okay, solely - for the $100 sign-up bonus. But when I called with a question about how to redeem, I was actually startled that a human being picked on the second ring. No phone tree to navigate, no punching in my dang 16 digit number first… I didn’t even have to press 0 several times.

Now that I read their website again, I do see the sentence mentioning “direct access to dedicated live advisors”. It appears I’m not the only one to notice this:

When a Sapphire cardholder calls Chase, "a specially trained advisor picks up the phone – with no need to navigate a voice-response system." These specially trained advisors have the goal of resolving the customer's need on the first call. (Chase didn't say anything about the empowerment to do so, but perhaps that's a picayune quibble). No phone tree has to be worth at least a ten point reduction in blood pressure. Can one really put a price on health? Perhaps not, but Sapphire seems to have given it an annual fee…

Actually, that last part is true for the Sapphire Preferred, but the regular Sapphire has no annual fee, and I still get zero hold times. Hey, a new feature that’s actually useful. If only the rewards structure were better.

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