Is the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card Worth It?

Like a fine wine or classic novel, the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is a timeless favorite. A reasonable annual fee combined with a range of transfer partners, competitive bonus categories and robust travel insurance perks makes the Sapphire Preferred card ideal as an all-rounder.

But is the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card worth it in all cases?

Let’s take a detailed look at the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card, comparing its perks and bonus categories to the cost of holding the card, as well as consider when a $0 annual fee card or a premium travel credit card would be the better option.

Chase Sapphire Preferred Card: An Overview

The Chase Sapphire Preferred Card offers mid-tier to high-tier benefits for a low-tier annual fee, making it one of the most competitive travel credit cards on the market. Here’s an overview of the card’s bonus spending categories and perks.

Key Benefits of the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card

Now let’s jump into each benefit the Chase Sapphire Preferred offers.

Generous Travel Rewards

Whether you travel once a month or once a week, the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card has you covered.

It earns 5X Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent on travel purchased through Chase Travel℠, excluding hotel purchases that qualify for the $50 annual hotel credit. On all other travel purchases the card earns 2X points per dollar spent.

Chase has a generous definition of the category of “travel,” giving you a wide array of opportunities to earn points on spending. Under Chase’s policy, purchases with the following merchants are considered travel purchases:

• Airlines
• Buses
• Campgrounds
• Car rental agencies
• Cruise lines
• Discount travel sites
• Ferries
• Highways
• Hotels
• Limousines
• Motels
• Parking lots and garages
• Passenger trains
• Taxis
• Timeshares
• Toll bridges
• Travel agencies

So whether you’re paying for an Uber or your next family vacation, you’ll earn a competitive rate of points on your spending with the Sapphire Preferred.

Competitive Welcome Offer

The Chase Sapphire Preferred has a typical welcome offer of 60,000 to 100,000 points after you charge $4,000 to the card within the first three months of card membership.

This means you effectively earn between 15X points and 25X points per dollar on the first $4,000 spent, making it a highly lucrative offer.

For the average American household, hitting $4,000 across all spending categories over a period of three months shouldn’t be much of a challenge. If you happen to have a lower annual expenditure than the average household, getting creative with your spending by prepaying bills, vacations or other upcoming expenses, can enable you to meet the minimum spending threshold.

Just keep in mind that you should never purposely overspend to earn a welcome bonus; instead, focus on charging inevitable yearly expenses during the welcome bonus time frame to your card.

Bonus Spending Categories

The bonus spending categories on the Chase Sapphire Preferred help to maximize the value of your everyday spending.

The bonus categories on the Chase Sapphire Preferred are fairly broad, covering a wide range of different options. They include:

• 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 points on all other purchases

Not to mention, you can pursue a two-card combo strategy by holding the Chase Freedom Unlimited®. The Chase Freedom Unlimited is a $0 annual fee card that earns points you can typically redeem for cash back only. However, by simultaneously holding a Chase Sapphire product, you’ll be able to transfer points earned on your Freedom Unlimited card to your Sapphire Preferred and redeem them through Chase Travel℠ or transfer them to travel partners.

Considering the Freedom Unlimited offers a baseline rewards rate of 1.5X points per dollar spent, this is a highly lucrative way to maximize the value of your spending.

Point Redemption Flexibility

The Sapphire Preferred offers a robust points currency—Chase Ultimate Rewards points—alongside a slew of domestic and international travel transfer partners.

You can either redeem your hard-earned Ultimate Rewards at a fixed rate of 1.25 cents apiece through Chase TravelSM or transfer them to one of Chase’s 14 airline and hotel partners.

Chase’s partners include:

• 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

You can transfer your Ultimate Rewards to all of Chase’s partners at a ratio of 1:1.

With a welcome offer between 60,000 and 100,000 points, you could fly yourself, your significant other and even the whole family to Disney World and back as part of a two-card trip, for example. Depending how high the welcome offer is when you earn it, you could also redeem your points for between $750 and $1,250 through Chase TravelSM.

Whatever your travel plans are, Chase’s long and varied list of transfer partners gives you maximum flexibility when it comes to redeeming your points.

Lucrative Cardholder Perks

Annual $50 Hotel Credit

On every anniversary that you have your card, you’ll be eligible for a $50 statement credit for hotel stays purchased through Chase Travel℠.

In most places, that won’t cover a full night, but it will definitely help lower the cost of your stay. This is a great perk to keep you flexible when booking hotels that may otherwise not be bookable with points.

Complimentary One-Year DoorDash DashPass Membership

You can save money on food delivery with a complimentary one-year DashPass membership, which offers reduced service fees and waived delivery fees on DoorDash and Caviar orders that meet the minimum subtotal. You’ll need to activate this benefit by Dec. 31, 2027 to be eligible.

As a DoorDash member, you’ll also get up to $10 off a month on non-restaurant DoorDash orders.

Bonus Points with Lyft

Sapphire Preferred cardholders earn 5X points on purchases made with Lyft through Sept 30, 2027—that’s an additional 3X points on top of the 2X points earned on travel purchases.

Bonus Points with Peloton

Sapphire Preferred cardholders earn 5X points on equipment and accessory purchases over $150 with Peloton, with a maximum of 25,000 total points, through March 31, 2025.

No Foreign Transaction Fees

The Sapphire Preferred Card comes with zero foreign transaction fees.

While this is a standard perk of credit cards with an annual fee, it’s a particularly important benefit for frequent travelers, since foreign transaction fees (around 3% in most cases) can add up quickly if you use a card that charges them.

Annual 10% Points Bonus

Chase Sapphire Preferred cardholders enjoy an annual 10% points boost on every dollar spent. This isn’t tied to bonus categories, but rather just on the total amount of expenditure made with the card in a year. That means you’ll get 0.1 Ultimate Rewards points on every dollar spent on your account anniversary.

For example, if you spend $20,000 on the card in a year, regardless of what you spent it on, you’ll get an additional 2,000 points per year.

Enjoy Protection at Home and Abroad

A lesser-talked about but equally lucrative benefit of the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card is its comprehensive range of travel insurance perks.

Travel protections include:

• Auto rental collision damage waiver
• Baggage delay insurance
• Lost baggage reimbursement
• Travel accident insurance
• Trip cancellation and interruption insurance
• Trip delay insurance

Here’s an overview of the policies, limits and notable exclusions of each insurance perk.

Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver

If you rent a car and pay with your Sapphire Preferred card, you can decline the collision damage insurance offered by the rental car company. If you do so, Chase will provide that coverage automatically anywhere in the world, and you won’t have to file a claim with your personal auto insurance. As long as you charge the rental car cost to your card, you’ll enjoy protection on the road.

You’ll be covered in cases of theft, collision damage, loss-of-use and towing charges.

The rates that rental car agencies charge for their collision damage waiver (often referred to as CDW) tend to be between $10 to $30 per day. If you’d like to rent a car while on a trip, this can save you a significant amount of money. Even at $10 per day, you’ll save $70 by paying for your rental car with your Chase Sapphire Preferred card on a seven-day trip.

Just keep in mind that the following vehicles and instances are excluded from coverage:

• 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

Baggage Delay Insurance

As a Sapphire Preferred cardholder, you and your immediate family members can enjoy protection in the event of delayed baggage. As long as you cover the cost of you and your family members’ common carrier fares, you’ll receive coverage.

You can receive 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.

Items that are excluded from reimbursement include:

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

Lost Baggage Reimbursement

If a delayed bag turns into a lost bag, the Sapphire Preferred still has your back. As long as you cover the cost of you and your family member’s common carrier fares, you’ll be eligible for coverage.

The Sapphire Preferred offers reimbursement up to $3,000 per person per covered trip with a sub-limit of up to $500 for jewelry and watches and a second sub-limit of up to $500 for cameras and other electronics.

Be aware that the following belongings are excluded from coverage:

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

Travel Accident Insurance

When worst comes to worst while traveling, the Sapphire Preferred will ensure you and your family receive financial support.

You can receive 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.

Important exclusions to this policy include the following:

• 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

Trip Cancellation and Interruption Insurance

The Sapphire Preferred’s trip cancellation and interruption insurance covers you in the event that one of the following incidents disrupts or cancels your trip:

• 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

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.

Trip Delay Insurance

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

You’ll be covered as long as your common carrier fare is charged to your Sapphire Preferred Card. Trip delay insurance covers the cost of accommodation, transportation, meals, toiletries and medication costs.

Exclusions to the policy include:

• Delays the reason for which was made public or known to you prior to departure
• Prepaid expenses related to your trip, such as tour or activity fees

Chase Sapphire Preferred: Cost-Benefit Analysis

There’s no such thing as a free lunch, and the Chase Sapphire Preferred is no exception. But just how much does it cost to hold the card? And how easy is it to offset the card’s annual fee?

Analysis of Annual Fees

The Chase Sapphire Preferred Card has an annual fee of $95.

While $95 per year isn’t nothing, it’s certainly on the lower end of the credit card annual fee spectrum.

And considering what the card delivers in perks, bonus spending categories, its welcome bonus, travel insurances and points redemption flexibility, offsetting its fee is easy.

Let’s look at the easiest ways to offset the annual fee of the Sapphire PreferredCard, for all types of spenders and travelers.

Real-World Value of Benefits

Assuming you earn the welcome offer in the first year of card membership, you’d receive a redemption value anywhere between $750 and $1,250. That makes offsetting the annual fee in the first year easy.

However, you want to be able to continue offsetting the annual fee in subsequent years, otherwise the card will cost you more to hold than it’s worth.

If we focus solely on the Sapphire Preferred’s bonus spending categories, how much spending would it take to break even on the $95 annual fee?

According to the Bureau of Labor, the average American households spends the following amounts annually:

• $5,703 on food at home
• $3,639 on food away from home

If this spending was charged to the Sapphire Preferred Card (assuming “Food at home” could be ordered through online grocery shopping), you’d earn a total of 28,026 Ultimate Rewards points. That would get you $350 if redeemed at 1.25 cents apiece through Chase Travel℠, offsetting the annual fee by more than threefold.

Even if you were to charge dining purchases only to the card, you’d still earn 10,917 points, with a redemption value of $136, more than offsetting the annual fee.

Alternatively, for the frequent traveler, you’d need to spend $1,520 a year through Chase Travel℠ to break even on the annual fee.

Likewise, it’s easy to underestimate the value of travel insurance perks, but these benefits can save you hundreds of dollars per year by preventing you from needing to take out separate insurance policies.

Overall, offsetting the annual fee of the card shouldn’t be much of a challenge, whether you use it for everyday spending, paying for vacations or insuring you and your family while abroad.

Is the Chase Sapphire Preferred Worth It?

With all of this information, you’re armed to determine whether or not the Chase Sapphire Preferred is worth a place in your wallet.

Overall, it’s a solid choice of card that combines a lucrative welcome offer, broad bonus spending categories, flexible point redemption opportunities and a strong rewards currency with a reasonable annual fee.

If you’re in the market for an all-rounder card or the perfect card for getting into the world of points and miles, you couldn’t find a much better card than the Sapphire Preferred.

However, there are cases where it makes sense to pay the higher annual fee of a premium travel rewards card. For instance, frequent travelers may be interested in the Sapphire Preferred’s sibling card, the Chase Sapphire Reserve® card. Despite its hefty $550 annual fee, it’s loaded with perks that help to offset that price tag, including the following:

• 5X points on flights when purchased as travel via Chase Ultimate Rewards (applies after the first $300 is spent on annual travel purchases)
• 10X points on car rentals and hotels booked through Chase Travel℠ (applies after the first $300 is spent on annual travel purchases)
• 3X points on eligible delivery service purchases, takeout and dining out
• 3X points on travel purchases (applies after the first $300 is spent on annual travel purchases)
• 10X points on Chase Dining purchases via Ultimate Rewards
• Redeem points for 50% more value when used for travel purchases through Chase (1.5 cents per point)
• Transfer points at 1:1 ratio to Chase’s airline and hotel partners
• No foreign transaction fees
• Up to $120 statement credit reimbursement for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck® application fee, every four years
• Complimentary Priority Pass Select™ membership

Also worth considering is the mid-tier American Express® Gold Card. With an annual fee of $325 (see rates and fees), you’ll get the following:

• Earn 4X points at restaurants worldwide on up to $50,000 in purchases per calendar year, then 1X points thereafter.
• Earn 4X points at U.S. supermarkets on up to $25,000 per calendar year in purchases, then 1X points thereafter.
• Earn 3X points on flights booked directly with airlines or through amextravel.com.
• Earn 1X points on all other purchases.
• $120 Uber Cash on Gold: Add your Gold Card to your Uber account and each month automatically get $10 in Uber Cash for Uber Eats orders or Uber rides in the U.S., totaling up to $120 per year. Effective 11/8/2024, an Amex Card must be selected as the payment method for your Uber or Uber Eats transaction to redeem the Amex Uber Cash benefit.
• Uber App and your eligible Amex Gold Card must be a method of payment on your Uber account. The Amex Benefit may be used in the United States only.)
• Up to $120 annual dining credit, issued in $10 monthly statement credits, when you pay with your card at Grubhub, The Cheesecake Factory, Goldbelly, Wine.com, and Five Guys (enrollment required)
• Receive a $100 experience credit (minimum stay of two nights required) when you book The Hotel Collection through American Express Travel.
• No foreign transaction fees

Amex points can be transferred to over 20 different airline and hotel partners, including Aeroplan, Delta SkyMiles and British Airways.

If you’re torn between the Amex Gold card and the Chase Sapphire Preferred, see our Amex Gold vs. Chase Sapphire Preferred comparison article.

Alternatively, if you’re not ready to pay an annual fee, the Citi Double Cash® Card is another great option. You’ll earn 2% cash back on all purchases (1% when you buy, and another 1% when you pay).

If you’d rather earn points, you can convert your cash back to Citi ThankYou Points at a rate of 1 cent per point if you also have the Citi Strata Premier℠ Card.

Another good option if you’re easing into points and miles is the Chase Freedom Flex®. With the Freedom Flex, you’ll earn 5% back on the first $1,500 you spend in combined purchases in bonus categories each quarter. You have to activate it each quarter, but it’s easy to do so by just logging into your account. You’ll also earn 5% on travel purchased through Chase Travel℠, 3% back on dining at restaurants, including takeout and delivery and 3% on drugstore purchases.

And if the idea of different categories makes your head boggle, then the Chase Freedom Unlimited is the right card for you. You’ll earn the same bonus categories as the Freedom Flex, but 1.5% cash back on all other purchases. And there’s no rotating categories to have to worry about.

Final Verdict

The Chase Sapphire Preferred is one of the best entry-level flexible rewards credit cards on the market today. It’s easy to see why so many people think that the Chase Sapphire Preferred is worth it year after year, competing with many mid-tier rewards credit cards for half the price.

Your average family can earn more value in points than what you’d pay for the annual fee, while getting a lot of travel and purchase protections on top.