Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card Review

Whether you’re dipping your toe into the world of points and miles or are a budget-conscious traveler, there’s one card that deserves a space at the front of your wallet: the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card.

The Chase Sapphire Preferred Card has it all. With a highly flexible rewards currency, strong bonus spending categories, robust travel insurance perks and a long list of hotel and airline transfer partners, the Chase Sapphire Preferred always has you covered for an annual fee of $95.

When it comes to the balance between perks and fees, few other travel credit cards can compete with the Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card.

Here’s a full Chase Sapphire Preferred review, so you know exactly what one of the best cards on the market can offer you. We’ll cover Chase Sapphire Preferred benefits, bonus categories, redemption opportunities and travel insurance perks as well as how the card can fit into your wider credit card strategy.

Discover the Power of the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card

The Chase Sapphire Preferred is a much-loved travel credit card offering some of the best rewards for a reasonable annual fee.

Its sibling card, the Chase Sapphire Reserve®, offers even better rewards but for a much higher annual fee.

If you’re considering the Chase Sapphire Preferred vs. the Chase Sapphire Reserve, you should understand that the Reserve card is designed for the frequent traveler while the Preferred card is better for budget-conscious travelers and beginners to the points and miles hobby.

And while the Sapphire Reserve card may offer additional luxury perks—from Chase Sapphire Lounge access to generous travel credits—the Sapphire Preferred offers arguably better bonus spending categories, the exact same transfer partners and almost identical travel insurance benefits for less than a fifth of the Chase Sapphire Reserve’s annual fee.

For this reason, the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card is often (and rightly) touted as one of the best beginner credit cards available. In fact, if you could open only one credit card, the Chase Sapphire Preferred should be a strong contender for first place, given its balance between perks and fees.

Uncover the Key Features of the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card

The Chase Sapphire Preferred is a travel rewards card, so it’s of no surprise that travel-related perks are plentiful. However, it also offers opportunities for you to earn points on typical everyday expenses, making it even easier to offset its annual fee and accumulate points for more frequent redemptions.

The Chase Sapphire Preferred Card benefits are extensive, so let’s have a quick overview of its standout perks.

Maximize Your Travel with Valuable Rewards

The Sapphire Preferred offers the ability to earn bonus points on travel-related expenditure with a generous definition of “travel.”

Whether you’re purchasing airfare and hotel accommodations booked through the Chase Travel portal or paying for an Uber, toll charges or a cruise directly with the provider, you’ll earn bonus points on your spending.

Jumpstart Your Rewards Journey with a Generous Sign-Up Bonus

Considering its annual fee, the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card packs a punch when it comes to its welcome bonus.

Historically speaking, welcome offers have reached as high as 100,000 Ultimate Rewards points with a minimum spending threshold of $4,000 in the first three months.

Depending on how you redeem the welcome bonus, you can reap massive value from it. Check out the latest updated Chase Sapphire Preferred bonuses.

Travel with Peace of Mind: Comprehensive Insurance Coverage

You’ll never be left high and dry when you pay for travel using your Chase Sapphire Preferred Card. It offers one of the most comprehensive suites of insurance benefits, including:

• Trip cancellation and interruption insurance
• Trip delay insurance
• Baggage delay insurance
• Baggage loss reimbursement
• 24-hour travel accident insurance
• Common carrier insurance
• Auto rental collision damage waiver

You’ll be hard-pushed to find another card with such extensive coverage for the equivalent annual fee.

Redeem Your Rewards Your Way: Flexible Redemption Options

Although Chase doesn’t have as many transfer partners as other card issuers, it certainly wins when it comes to quality. You’ll have access to 14 travel transfer partners, including airlines from all three major alliances and up to three large hotel portfolios.

You can redeem your Ultimate Rewards for more than 2 cents per point by transferring them and maximizing their value.

You also can redeem your points for a 25% boost toward travel purchases through the Chase Travel℠ portal (for a value of 1.25 cents per point).

Elevate Your Travel Experience with the Chase Sapphire Preferred Benefits

The Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card can play a key role in your wider points and miles strategy. Not everyone wants to fork out $550 per year for the premium Sapphire Reserve. If you can’t make use of its benefits, you’ll lose more than you gain by holding the card.

However, the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card can be paired with one of the Chase Freedom cards to allow you to earn points on a wider range of purchases.

The Chase Freedom Unlimited® and the Chase Freedom Flex^® are two $0 annual fee cards. While they technically earn points in the form of Chase Ultimate Rewards, points can be redeemed for cash back only, meaning you can forget about lucrative transfer partner redemption opportunities if you hold these cards on their own.

However, if you also hold the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card, you can transfer the Ultimate Rewards points earned on the Freedom cards to your Sapphire Preferred account. You then can use these points for transfer partner redemptions as well as redeem them at a rate of 1.25 cents apiece through Chase Travel^SM.

The Chase Freedom Unlimited earns 3X points on dining and drugstore purchases and 1.5X points on non-bonus category spending, while the Freedom Flex offers 5X points on quarterly rotating bonus categories (on up to $1,500 in total combined purchases each quarter you activate them), 3X on dining and drugstores, and 1X on everything else.

That means you can expand your ability to accumulate Ultimate Rewards points without paying any extra annual fees.

If you pursue this strategy, you’ll never earn fewer than 1.5X Ultimate Rewards points on any purchase, making it particularly useful for purchases that fall outside of typical bonus spending categories.

This is one example of how you can leverage the Chase Sapphire Preferred to earn you even more points and how it thus fits into your wider card strategy.

Likewise, don’t underestimate the Sapphire Preferred Card’s travel insurance perks. The amount of money these perks can save you on having to take out separate insurance policies can offset the annual fee alone.

Unlock a World of Perks with Chase Sapphire Preferred

For a card with an annual fee of $95, the Chase Sapphire Preferred offers an extensive range of perks and cardholder benefits. Here’s a detailed overview of every perk you can benefit from as a Sapphire Preferred cardholder.

$50 Annual Hotel Statement Credit

When you book hotel accommodation with your Chase Sapphire Preferred through Chase Travel, you’ll receive a statement credit toward the purchase, up to an annual maximum of $50. Unfortunately, the first $50 you spend on hotel purchases through the Chase Travel℠ portal won’t earn any bonus points.

The statement credit will appear on your monthly credit card billing statement within one to two billing cycles after your purchase posts to your account.

Keep in mind that this card benefit is available every year you hold the card, enabling you to offset the annual fee by more than 50% every year.

25% More Value for Chase Travel Redemptions

When it comes to redeeming your hard-earned Ultimate Rewards points, the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card has your back.

If you redeem your points for travel through Chase Travel, you’ll receive a 25% boost in value. That means your typical 60,000-point welcome bonus would be worth $750 instead of $600 when redeemed for travel through Chase.

If this is a redemption option you want to pursue, it’s an excellent way to make your points go further.

10% Anniversary Points Bonus

Every account anniversary year, you’ll receive a 10% bonus point boost equivalent to your total expenditure on your Sapphire Preferred Card in the previous year. So if you spent $15,000 on your card, you’ll receive a 1,500 point bonus.

This is an easy way to earn an extra couple of hundred or even thousand points simply by holding and spending with the card.

Lucrative Redemption Opportunities

Chase is known for its lucrative rewards currency—Ultimate Rewards points—in addition to its extensive list of transfer partners.

You can transfer your Ultimate Rewards points to the following 11 airline and three hotel partners at a 1:1 rate:

• Aer Lingus AerClub
• Air Canada Aeroplan
• Air France-KLM Flying Blue
• British Airways Executive Club
• Emirates Skywards
• Iberia Plus
• JetBlue TrueBlue
• Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
• Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards
• United MileagePlus
• Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
• IHG One Rewards Club
• Marriott Bonvoy
• World of Hyatt

These partners give you access to all three airline alliances as well as three big names in the hotel industry, opening up a world of redemption opportunities.

By transferring your Ultimate Rewards points to one of Chase’s travel partners, you can get a redemption value of at least 2 cents per point. So when hotel and airline cash prices are running high or when you can find a sweet-spot redemption opportunity, take advantage of Chase’s travel partners.

DashPass Subscription

As a Chase Sapphire Preferred cardholder, you’ll get a complimentary membership for both DoorDash. DashPass membership unlocks lower service fees and $0 delivery fees on eligible orders for 12 months. To enjoy this cardholder perk, you’ll need to activate it by Dec. 31, 2027.

Bonus Points with Lyft

For a limited time (through March 2025), Chase Sapphire Preferred cardholders can earn 5X points on Lyft purchases. That’s 3X additional points on top of the 2X points on travel purchases.

No Foreign Transaction Fees

The Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card is free of foreign transaction fees. That means you can continue to spend and earn points while abroad without having to worry about the value of your earnings being eroded.

Trip Cancellation and Interruption Insurance

In the event that your trip is either cut short or canceled due to a covered reason, you and your immediate family members can be reimbursed by up to $10,000 per person and $20,000 per trip for your prepaid, non-refundable travel expenses paid for with your Sapphire Preferred Card.

Non-refundable travel expenses are those charged by a travel supplier, including passenger fares, rental car agencies, tours and hotels.

Covered reasons for interruption or cancellation of a trip include:

• Accidental bodily injury
• Severe weather
• Call to jury duty
• Change of military orders for you or your spouse
• Your place of permanent residence or your accommodation has been made uninhabitable through fire, flooding or burglary
• Terrorist incident or terrorism warning issued within 25 miles of an airport, booked lodging and/or host destination (when it’s issued during your or your traveling companion’s trip)
• Organized strike causing you or your traveling companion to miss 20% of your trip
• The death or hospitalization of you or your traveling companion’s host at destination
• Quarantine of you or your traveling companion imposed by a physician or competent governmental authority with jurisdiction, due to health reasons

This wide range of covered instances combined with the high coverage limits make it the most competitive trip cancellation and interruption insurance offered by a card of its annual fee class. In fact, it’s at least as competitive an offering, if not even more so, than premium travel rewards credit cards with far higher annual fees.

If you can make the most of this benefit when traveling, it alone could offset the card’s annual fee by saving you the cost of taking out a separate insurance plan.

Baggage Delay Insurance

The Chase Sapphire Preferred Card offers up to $100 per day in reimbursement for essential items for a maximum of five days when your baggage is delayed for six hours or more.

You and your immediate family members are covered, meaning you can rest assured during your family vacation in the event of a delayed bag. All you’ll need to do is pay the cost of their common carrier fare using your Sapphire Preferred Card.

Keep in mind that the following items are excluded from reimbursement:

• Hearing aids
• Artificial teeth, dental bridges or prosthetic devices
• Tickets, documents, money, securities, checks, travelers checks and valuable papers
• Business samples
• Jewelry and watches
• Cameras, video recorders and other electronic equipment
• Recreational equipment

Lost Baggage Reimbursement

A solid baggage delay insurance policy isn’t the only baggage protection perk you’ll enjoy while traveling. If worst comes to worst and your bag is declared lost, you’ll be eligible for reimbursement up to $3,000 per person per covered trip with a sub-limit of up to $500 for jewelry and watches and a separate sub-limit of up to $500 for cameras and other electronics.

As long as you charge the common carrier fares to your Sapphire Preferred Card, you and your immediate family members will be covered.

Keep in mind that the following items aren’t eligible for reimbursement:

• Items that have been removed from carry-on baggage by you and inadvertently left behind on the common carrier
• Documents or valuable papers
• Money
• Securities
• Tickets
• Checks
• Travelers’ checks
• Furs

Trip Delay Insurance

If your flight or other form of common carrier travel is delayed for more than 12 hours or requires an overnight stay, you and your immediate family can be reimbursed for eligible expenses incurred, up to a maximum of $500 per ticket.

That can include accommodation, transportation, meals, toiletries and medication costs.

Exclusions include delays the reason for which was made public or known to you prior to departure as well as any prepaid expenses related to your trip, such as tour or activity fees.

Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver

Whenever you decline the car rental company’s collision damage waiver and charge the full rental cost to your card, you’ll automatically be covered by Chase’s auto rental collision damage waiver.

This provides you with primary coverage up to the actual cash value of the car, both in the U.S. and abroad, for up to 31 days. Unlike some credit cards with car rental insurance, you won’t have to worry about excluded countries with the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card.

You’ll be covered in instances of:

• Theft and damages to the rental car
• Loss-of-use charges
• Towing charges to the nearest repair facility

Some exclusions to Chase’s auto rental collision damage waiver include:

• Exotic, expensive and antique automobiles; vehicles with an open cargo bed; trucks (excluding pickups); vans capable of carrying more than nine people; motorcycles, mopeds and motorbikes; limousines and recreational vehicles
• Any expenses reimbursed under your personal auto insurance policy, your employer or your employer’s insurance
• Obligations you assume under any other agreement
• Injury of anyone or anything inside or outside of the vehicle
• Leases, mini leases and car-share services
• Any violation of the auto rental agreement
• Loss or theft of personal belongings

Travel Accident Insurance

The Chase Sapphire Preferred Card covers you for up to $500,000 in common carrier insurance and $100,000 in 24-hour travel accident insurance for accidental loss of life, limb, sight, speech or hearing. This benefit covers you and your immediate family.

Keep in mind that the following exclusions apply:

• You entering or exiting any aircraft while acting or training as a pilot or crew member
• Your emotional trauma, mental or physical illness, disease, pregnancy, childbirth or miscarriage, bacterial or viral infection, bodily malfunctions, or medical or surgical treatment or diagnosis thereof
• Your commission or attempted commission of any illegal act including but not limited to any felony
• Any occurrence while you are incarcerated
• You participating in parachute jumping from an aircraft
• You being engaged in or participating in a motorized vehicular race or speed contest
• You participating in any professional sporting activity for which you received a salary or prize money
• You traveling or flying on any aircraft engaged in flight on a rocket-propelled or rocket-launched aircraft
• Your suicide, attempted suicide or intentionally self-inflicted injury
• A declared or undeclared war

Travel and Emergency Assistance Services

Chase Sapphire Preferred cardholders will always have the ability to call their benefits administrator for travel and emergency assistance, including medical and legal referrals, wherever you are in the world. Just keep in mind that you’ll be responsible for any costs incurred.

Purchase Protection

When you use your Chase Sapphire Preferred Card for new purchases, you’ll be covered for up to 120 days against damage or theft, up to $500 per claim and $50,000 per account.

Extended Warranty Protection

If you purchase an eligible product with a U.S. manufacturer warranty of three years or less, you’ll have the warranty extended by an additional year.

Boost Your Rewards with the Chase Sapphire Preferred Sign-up Bonus

As with most travel credit cards, their welcome bonuses change from time to time. The Chase Sapphire Preferred Card is no different.

However, the typical welcome bonus ranges from 60,000 to 100,000 Ultimate Rewards points after spending $4,000 within the first three months of card membership.

To be eligible to earn the welcome bonus, you’ll need to have not received a welcome bonus on any Sapphire credit card within the last 48 months. Likewise, you can hold no more than one Sapphire credit card at a time.

That means if you currently hold the Chase Sapphire Reserve card or received its bonus within the last 48 months, you won’t be able to earn the welcome bonus on the Sapphire Preferred Card. Otherwise, you’re good to go (assuming you’re under Chase’s 5/24 count).

Something to keep in mind is that as a Chase Sapphire Preferred cardholder, you can redeem your points through Chase Travel for 25% more value. That could turn a welcome bonus of 60,000 points into $750. If you were to apply and earn the welcome bonus at its record high of 100,000 Ultimate Rewards points, that 25% boost would increase the value of your welcome bonus points to $1,250.

Of course, redeeming through the travel portal isn’t your only option. In fact, transferring your points to one of Chase’s airline or hotel travel partners could net you an even greater redemption value.

For example, you can easily get 2 cents per point when transferring Ultimate Rewards points, turning 60,000 points into $1,200 and 100,000 points into $2,000 worth of value.

This massive potential for lucrative redemptions is why earning the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card’s welcome bonus is so important.

Think of it this way. Spending $4,000 in return for 60,000 to 100,000 points is the equivalent of a bonus spending category with a points multiplier of 15X to 25X points per dollar spent. At no other point could you dream of getting anywhere close to this return rate on your spending.

This is why it’s key to apply for the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card not only when the welcome bonus is historically high, but also when you are in a position to earn it through natural spending.

Overspending in an attempt to earn a card’s welcome bonus is a recipe for disaster. You’ll do more damage to your finances than any number of points earned in return can offset. The risk of late penalty fees, exorbitant interest charges and the eventual damage to your credit score aren’t worth the risk.

Instead, you want to do a little bit of financial planning. Think about the expenses you have on the horizon. That could be bill payments, holiday shopping season, a wedding or a vacation. These are big expenses which you’ll have to pay anyway. By charging them on a new travel rewards credit card, this spending can be put to use and go toward the minimum spending threshold required for the welcome bonus.

And even if the welcome bonus is historically high but you don’t have large expenses in the next three months, consider the possibility of prepaying your bills and vacation bookings. That way, these outgoing costs can go toward your minimum spending threshold, netting you tens of thousands of Ultimate Rewards points.

Earn Rewards Faster with Chase Sapphire Preferred Travel Categories

Unlike some travel rewards credit cards, the Chase Sapphire Preferred offers a wide array of opportunities to earn bonus points on your spending.

Instead of restricting you to earning bonus points on travel-related purchases or everyday-related purchases, the Sapphire Preferred enables you to earn points on both.

Here are the following categories you can earn bonus points on:

• 5X points on travel purchased and booked through Chase Travel (excluding hotel purchases that qualify for the $50 annual hotel credit)
• 3X points on dining, including eligible takeout, delivery services and dining out
• 3X points on online grocery purchases (excluding Walmart, Target and wholesale clubs)
• 3X points on select streaming services
• 2X points on all other travel purchases
• 1X point on all other purchases

The Chase Sapphire Preferred Card is first and foremost a travel rewards card, so it comes as no surprise that travel and dining expenditure will earn you the highest number of points per dollar spent. These are arguably the two most popular spending categories for globetrotters.

All travel booked through the Chase Travel℠ portal earns you 5X points per dollar spent. However, do keep in mind that portal purchases are considered third-party bookings, meaning that your hotel elite status benefits won’t be recognized. Likewise, you’ll begin to earn 5X points on portal purchases only after you’ve spent the minimum amount to qualify for the $50 annual hotel credit.

If you spent a total of $2,000 on hotel and flight bookings for your family vacation through Chase Travel, that would net you 10,000 Ultimate Rewards points. Ten thousand Ultimate Rewards points can be redeemed for anywhere between $125 through Chase Travel and up to $200 when transferred to hotel or airline travel partners—covering part of your next vacation.

This is a textbook example of how to leverage money you’d spend anyway to net you hundreds of dollars worth of rewards points.

When it comes to all other travel purchases, every dollar you spend on airline tickets, checked bags, hotel rooms, Airbnb bookings, car rentals, cruises, ride-hailing services, public transit fares and tolls will earn you 2X points. As long as the merchant is coded as travel, you’ll receive bonus points.

That means unless you opt to walk to your destination, the Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card will almost always earn you double points on the cost of your journey—be it a bus or a flight.

As for the dining bonus, you don’t have to splurge on steaks and wine to qualify for bonus points (though you’re more than welcome to do so). Fine dining, fast food chains, food trucks, coffee shops, pizza parlors and even bars will earn you 3X points if the establishment is coded as dining on your card statement.

Something key to keep in mind is that the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card doesn’t charge foreign transaction fees. That means all your spending on travel, dining and more while abroad will be free of extra charges, making your money go further.

Likewise, while the 3X points multiplier on both travel and dining purchases can help you rack up points while on vacation or traveling abroad, they also enable you to earn points on everyday purchases, whether it’s an Uber ride to the mall or a quick drive-thru lunch order.

Streaming services and online grocery purchases also earn you 3X points per dollar spent from the comfort of your own home.

Subscriptions to the following streaming services are eligible for the bonus 3X points:

The inclusion of streaming services as a bonus spending category is an easy way to help you earn points on recurring monthly expenses.

The online grocery bonus spending category includes pickup and delivery orders from grocery stores and meal kit delivery companies but excludes purchases from Target, Walmart and wholesale club stores, such as Costco or Sam’s Club, as well as from pharmacies located within grocery stores.

If you often take advantage of online grocery shopping and delivery services or could easily switch to using this system, earning 3X points per dollar spent on this weekly expense is an easy way to make your money go further.

To put the points-earning potential of this bonus category into perspective, Americans spent an average of $5,703 per year on grocery shopping in 2022. If that spending was charged to the Chase Sapphire Preferred and done online at eligible merchants, that would work out to a return of 17,109 Ultimate Rewards points.

More than 17,000 Ultimate Rewards points have a value of at least $213 when redeemed through Chase Travel and a value of potentially $342 when redeemed through hotel and airline travel partners. That’s a lot of value for simply doing your shopping online.

Finally, as already mentioned, you’ll earn a 10% bonus in Ultimate Rewards points equivalent to your total expenditure on the card within the last membership year. Points will post on or around your account anniversary. That means the more purchases you make with the card annually, the higher the bonus will be.

For example, if you prioritize spending with the Sapphire Preferred Card and end up hitting $30,000 within a card membership year, that would equate to a 3,000-point bonus.

Overall, the Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card offers generous bonus spending categories, enabling you to earn points on both everyday and travel expenses at home and abroad.

Start Your Travel Rewards Journey with the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card

Come for the welcome bonus, stay for the perks. No matter how you slice it, the Chase Sapphire Preferred is one of the best, if not the best, rewards cards for a newcomer to the hobby.

It helps to have some credit history on file before you can qualify for this card, so if you’re just building credit, this isn’t your best option.

However, once you qualify for an account, you’re in for a treat. Flexible rewards and competitive redemption rates are some of the factors contributing to why this card is a fan-favorite on the credit-card rewards arena. Travel benefits are why it packs a punch and knocks other mid-range cards out of the ring.