Options for the Chase Unlimited Combo

Easily Earn Points for Free Travel, Get a Great General Purpose Reward Card and Use It for All of Your Spending

The Chase Unlimited combo requires one of the Chase Unlimited cards to earn 1.5x Ultimate Rewards points on everyday purchases and one of several different Chase cards to be able to convert your points into Hyatt points or frequent flyer miles (or cash them out for more than 1 cent each. There are six different possible combinations, the question is which one is right for you.

The Sapphire Reserve is much more expensive, but it comes with a bunch of extra benefits: Priority Pass airport lounge membership, free roadside assistance, slightly better "free travel insurance" when you use it to pay for travel, a higher rate (1.5 cents per point) when you cash out your points, and 3x rewards on travel purchases.
For most people, the difference in cash-out rates between the Sapphire Reserve (1.5 cents) and Sapphire Preferred (1.25 cents) is not as important as it seems. Unless you are generating really large amounts of points, you are likely to have plenty of opportunity to get more than 1.5 cents in value per point by converting them to Hyatt points or frequent flyer miles, so you won't want to "cash them out" at either of these lower rates. If after a couple of years, you find that you don't have a good opportunity to transfer your points, you can always convert to the Sapphire Reserve, if necessary, to cash them out at the higher rate and then convert back down to the Sapphire Preferred.
The extra cost for the Sapphire Reserve depends on how much you expect to spend on travel purchases. The annual fee for the Sapphire Reserve is $550. However, the trivial-to-use $300 travel credit brings the effective cost down to $250, which is $155 more than the Sapphire Preferred. The Sapphire Preferred comes with a $50 hotel credit, but it can only be used on hotel reservations made on the Chase website, which won't count for the hotel's own loyalty program and which are likely to be a bit more expensive than you can find on other websites. So, it is worth much less than face value. The Sapphire Reserve comes with a $60 Door Dash credit, which for most people is worth a little closer to face value. So the out-of-pocket difference is likely around $125.

Assuming you don't have another card that earns better rewards, for every $1,000 you spend on Travel, you'll earn an extra 1,000 Ultimate Rewards points with the Sapphire Reserve Card. At 1.7 cents each, that works out to $17 per $1,000. You don't want to count any money you are likely to spend purchasing airfare through Chase, as you'd earn the same super-high reward rate on those purchases with either card. You'll earn even more if you purchase hotels and car rentals through the Chase website, but this will rarely be a good deal, so you probably shouldn't factor it into your calculations.

On the flip side, the Sapphire Preferred earns 3x Ultimate Rewards on Streaming and Grocery Delivery Services. For every $1,000 you spend on these, you'll earn an extra 1,500 points, valued at $26.

If you spend a few thousand more in travel than you do in Streaming and Grocery Delivery Services, the extra cost for lounge access (and the other benefits) isn't very high.
However, if you truly don't need the lounge access, most people will save some money with the Sapphire Preferred. Just remember that the lounge access you get from the Amex cards doesn't cover participating airport restaurants and there aren't many non-Amex cards that come with lounge access. Get Free Airport Lounge Access from a Credit Card.
Depending on the difference in signup bonuses, you might want to start with the Sapphire Preferred to earn the higher bonus. You can convert to the Sapphire Reserve at the end of the first year.

Personal and/or Business cards

If you are willing and able to get business credit cards, you have more options. Unlock Extra Reward Points with Business Credit Cards.

If you are interested in earning 5x points on a set of rotating categories with the Freedom Flex Card, you are better off getting the Ink Unlimited Card (instead of the Freedom Unlimited). The combination of the Freedom Flex and Ink Unlimited Cards provides the same bonus categories and the same $0 annual fee as the combination of the Freedom Flex and the Freedom Unlimited. But the Ink Unlimited has a consistently higher signup bonus and won't take up one of your Chase 5/24 slots.
If you highly valuable the extra benefits of the Sapphire Reserve, is is worth the premium over the Sapphire Preferred or Ink Preferred. Get it and either the Freedom Unlimited or the combination of the Freedom Flex and Ink Unlimited.
However, the cost difference is likely more significant. The combination of the Freedom Unlimited and the Ink Preferred, gets you the same 3x rewards on Travel, Restaurants, and Drugstores, and 5x rewards on airfare purchases through Chase as the combination of the Freedom Unlimited (or Freedom Flex plus Ink Unlimited) and the Sapphire Reserve. Therefore, no matter how much you spend on travel, the Sapphire Reserve will have an extra out of pocket cost of around $100. If you are likely to spend money in the Ink Preferred's business categories, the difference may be larger.

For most people, the extra benefits of the lounge access, primary rental car insurance, slightly better travel insurance, and roadside assistance is still going to be worth the difference in price, plus the extra slot. But it is a tougher call then it is for people who don't have access to business cards.

If you don't expect to spend much at drugstores, you should consider the Ink Unlimited and Sapphire Reserve combination. This gives you an extra 5/24 slot to use for a different card.
If you don't value the extra benefits, the Ink Preferred is probably the best companion card. Compared to the Sapphire Preferred, you'll get a typically higher signup bonus, a full 3x points on travel purchases, plus 3x points on some extra business categories. And you'll save a Chase 5/24 slot. That is usually more valuable than the Sapphire Preferred's $50 hotel credit and 3x rewards on Streaming and Grocery Delivery Services. The Ink Preferred doesn't provide rewards on restaurant spending, but you'll get that anyway from your Freedom Unlimited (or Freedom Flex).
However, if you don't value the Sapphire Reserve's extra benefits and you don't expect to spend a lot on travel, you may want to get the Sapphire Preferred. Most people are likely to spend more on Streaming and Online Grocery Delivery Services than on the Ink Preferred's business categories. In addition, there is no issue in using the Sapphire Preferred's primary rental car insurance on personal rentals. We are always a little worried about issues using the Ink Preferred's insurance on non-business rentals. The main reason, we usually recommend the Ink Preferred is for the extra 1x on Travel purchases.

In summary:

If you want the extra benefits, get the Sapphire Reserve and Freedom Unlimited (or the Freedom Flex and Ink Unlimited if you can handle more complexity), using 2 Chase 5/24 slots.
Or get the Sapphire Reserve and Ink Unlimited, using only 1 Chase 5/24 slots, but giving up the drugstore bonus category.
If you don't want the extra benefits of the Sapphire Reserve, you probably want the Ink Preferred and Freedom Unlimited (or Freedom Flex and Ink Unlimited), using 1 Chase 5/24 slot.
In some rare cases, you may want the Sapphire Preferred, instead of the Ink Preferred, using up 2 Chase 5/24 slots.
Since the Sapphire Preferred comes with a 3x restaurant bonus, if you don't care much about the drugstore category, you can pair it with the Ink Unlimited, rather than the Freedom Unlimited, and save a slot.