Complete Guide to Chase Sapphire Preferred Benefits and Perks

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is one of the most popular travel credit cards and it’s the best card for anyone who’s new to the world of travel rewards. The card offers a good earning structure, comes with a very generous welcome bonus and has excellent travel benefits – all for a very reasonable $95 annual fee.

There’s a reason why we believe that the Chase Sapphire Preferred is the best beginner card. But it’s not just newcomers benefiting from the Chase Sapphire Preferred. Many veterans find themselves chasing after the card themselves.

Many times, the welcome bonus is the number one driving reason to get a card. There’s often many additional benefits that you’ll get from your credit card as well. That’s why it is important to understand what you’re getting so that you can take full advantage of the perks of your card.

The card is accepted worldwide, has great travel protections and other valuable perks. Let’s look at some of the best Chase Sapphire Preferred benefits and perks.

Generous Welcome Bonus

One of the biggest and most immediate perks you’ll get from the Chase Sapphire Preferred is the welcome bonus.

The bonus varies from time to time. Usually it’s 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first three months from account opening, but we’ve seen higher numbers. At the very minimum, that’s $750 toward travel when you redeem the bonus points through the Chase Travel℠.

Chase has great transfer partners such as Hyatt and United, and the signup bonus could be worth much more than $750 if you transfer Ultimate Rewards to one of the partners. For example, you can fly roundtrip to Europe in economy for 60,000 points or fly a family of three to Hawaii!

If you’d rather use the points for hotel stays, there are quite a few luxurious Hyatt hotels around the world where you can stay for 12,000-15,000 per night. So just the welcome bonus alone will give you a 4-5 day stay at some of the best and most interesting hotels around the world.

For those looking to put their benefits to use, there’s a lot of great ways to find value in the bonus from the Chase Sapphire Preferred. Just be mindful that you need to be below 5/24 to be eligible to open the card.

Chase Sapphire Preferred Bonus Categories

Some of the best Chase Sapphire Preferred benefits has to be its great bonus categories to help you earn points on your day to day spending.

You’ll earn 5X points for every dollar spent on travel purchased through the Chase Travel Portal, excluding the $50 hotel statement available every year (more on that later). If you purchase travel elsewhere, you’ll still earn 2X points on all other travel paid for with the Chase Sapphire Preferred.

The travel category is pretty broad, so even things that you can’t book through the travel portal like tolls or paid parking typically fall under travel.

Another benefit of the Chase Sapphire Preferred is the ability to earn 3X points on dining, which includes eligible delivery services, takeout and dining out.

For many people, groceries can be one of their biggest monthly budget items. The Chase Sapphire Preferred is a good way to maximize your return on your groceries. The card offers 3X points on online grocery purchases, but it does exclude Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs.

All other purchases will earn 1X point for every dollar spent.

Anniversary Points Boost

The anniversary points boost is another benefit of the Chase Sapphire Preferred that will help add more points to your account.

Every year, Chase will award cardmembers with an annual point bonus of 10% of your total purchases for the year. So if you spend $30,000 in a year you’ll get an additional 3,000 points.

This is limited to dollars spent, not on total points earned. So you won’t get 10% of the total points earned back, just an extra 0.1 point for every dollar you spend. The anniversary bonus also doesn’t apply to extra points earned for bonus categories. You won’t get 0.5 points for every dollar spent through Chase travel. You’ll just get 10% in points for every dollar spent, regardless of whether there’s a category multiplier or not.

Transfer Points to Travel Partners

Chase has great airline transfer partners that include airlines in all three major airline alliances and non-alliance airlines like Southwest and Virgin Atlantic. That means that you can travel anywhere in the world if you have Ultimate Rewards points.

Ultimate Rewards points transfer to airline partners instantly or almost instantly.

Each transfer airline has “sweet spots”, making the points even more valuable. For example, you can transfer 95,000 Ultimate Rewards points to Virgin Atlantic and book a round-trip business class ticket to Tokyo on its partner ANA from the East Coast and the Midwest.

Chase also has hotel transfer partners and the Ultimate Rewards points transfer to Hyatt, Marriott and IHG. We would only recommend transferring the points to Hyatt unless you just need to top off your Marriott or IHG account for a particular redemption.

The points transfer to all travel partners at a 1:1 ratio.

Chase Travel Portal Redemption (1.25 Cents per Point)

Ultimate Rewards points offer the ultimate flexibility. One way to redeem points for travel is to use Chase Travel℠. Sapphire Preferred cardholders can redeem points at 1.25 cents each.

If you come across a great fare sale, it might make sense to redeem the points through the portal at 1.25 cents per point. So, for example, a $100 flight will cost 8,000 points. It’s always a good practice to compare prices for economy flights, or even inexpensive business class flights, on the portal with what transfer partners would charge.

Chase travel portal also has lots of great non-chain or local chain hotels, so check the price before transferring the points to Hyatt. Hotel loyalty programs will often only allow you to redeem points for a standard room for two guests. However, if you are using the portal, you can book rooms for more than two people or larger suites.

Combine Points

Chase allows you to combine points from multiple Ultimate Rewards earning accounts. So if you have Chase Freedom Flex℠ or Chase Freedom Unlimited® cards, you can combine points earned with these cards with points earned with your Sapphire Preferred card. This will turn cash back into travel points that can be transferred to a transfer partner or used on the travel portal.

You can also combine points earned with a business card with the points earned with a personal card. Likewise, you can combine points among family members that live at the same address.

No Foreign Transaction Fees

There are no foreign transaction fees on purchases made with Chase Sapphire Preferred card. So when you use Sapphire Preferred abroad, you are saving 1-3% in fees that many other cards charge.

Foreign transaction fees often surprise people once they get back from their trip. Having no foreign transaction fees as a Chase Sapphire Preferred benefit will help protect you from being surprised upon your return. 

If you are using your Chase Sapphire Preferred abroad, also be sure to pay in the local currency. You’ll typically get a more favorable conversion rate between the local currency and the U.S. dollar from Chase than from the bank that is processing the payment.

Peloton

If you’re a Peloton fan, you can get 5X points per dollar spent, up to $5,000, when you use your card on Peloton equipment and accessory purchases of $150 or more. This offer is good through Peloton only (on their website, over the phone, or in their store showroom) until March 31, 2025.

Hotel Credit

With your Chase Sapphire Preferred, you can take advantage of a hotel credit as a benefit of your card. On each account anniversary year, you’ll be eligible for up to $50 in statement credits for hotels booked through Chase.

This means you’ll have to go through the Chase travel portal to book your hotel. You don’t have to redeem points for the remaining balance, but it is an option if you’d rather save the money.

Rental Car Coverage

The Chase Sapphire Preferred comes with auto rental collision damage waiver as a cardmember benefit. When renting a car, just decline the rental company’s collision insurance and charge the entire rental cost to your card.

This is a great benefit because the coverage is primary and provides reimbursement up to the actual cash value of the vehicle for theft and collision damage for most rental cars in the U.S. and abroad. That means that you won’t need to file a claim with your personal auto insurance if you incur damages to the rental car.

Rental car coverage doesn’t extend to car sharing platforms like Turo, but it will work with any major rental car company.

Trip Cancellation and Trip Interruption Insurance

The card provides coverage if your trip is cancelled or interrupted because of sickness, severe weather or other covered situations. Trip interruption insurance will reimburse you up to $10,000 per person and $20,000 per trip for pre-paid non-refundable travel expenses.  This includes airfares, tours, and hotels.

This benefit provides some peace of mind when traveling. Likewise, if you need to cancel a trip at the last minute due to an illness (yours or a family member), you’ll be eligible to be reimbursed for non-refundable travel expenses.

Trip Delay Reimbursement

If your flight is delayed more than 12 hours, or if you need an overnight stay, you and your family are covered for unreimbursed expenses, such as meals and lodging, for up to $500 per ticket. That means your meals and lodgings will be covered if you get stuck at the airport.

For this benefit to kick in, make sure to pay for your ticket and all eligible expenses with your Chase Sapphire Preferred.

This benefit also works on tickets booked with points and miles, so you’ll just need to use Sapphire Preferred to pay the taxes and fees.

Baggage Delay Insurance

This is another valuable benefit of this card. If your bags are delayed by more than six hours, you are eligible to be reimbursed for essential purchases like toiletries and clothing up to $100 a day for five days.

To be eligible for baggage delay insurance, the trip must be paid for with your Chase Sapphire Preferred card.

This benefit also works on trips booked with points and miles, so you’ll just need to use Sapphire Preferred to pay the taxes and fees.

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Roadside Dispatch

If you have a roadside emergency, such as a tire changed or need lockout service or gas delivery, Chase will help you find roadside services. This is not a free benefit and the fees will be billed to your card.

Travel and Emergency Assistance

Emergency Assistance will help you find a doctor, a lawyer or other travel and emergency assistance away from home. This is not a free benefit, so you will be responsible for the cost of the services.

This could be extremely valuable if you need help finding an English speaking doctor or attorney abroad or need help arranging emergency transportation.

Travel Accident Insurance

If you used your Sapphire Preferred to pay for at least part of the trip cost, you are eligible for accidental death or dismemberment coverage of up to $500,000. That includes loss of speech, sight or hearing experienced on a covered trip. Both the cardholder and the immediate family members are covered, even if the Cardholder isn’t traveling with them.

This can provide some peace of mind on a long or adventure-type trip when one is more likely to get injured.

Purchase Protection

Purchase protection covers new purchases made with the card for 120 days against damage or theft up to $500 per claim and $50,000 per account. The benefit applies to the cardholder and the recipients of gifts purchased by the cardholder.

This could be useful when purchasing small but expensive items, such as headphones or cell phones that could be easily damaged or stolen, especially when traveling.

Extended Warranty Protection

Everything purchased with your Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card will have one additional year of extended warranty. The benefit applies to the cardholder and the recipients of gifts purchased by the cardholder. The coverage is up to $10,000 per claim, maximum $50,000 per account.

Most purchases are eligible for extended warranty, as long as the original warranty is three years or less. Items that aren’t covered include boats, automobiles, aircraft and any other motorized vehicles, items purchased for resale, professional, or commercial use, used or pre-owned items and computer software.

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Final Thoughts

Sapphire Preferred comes with a slew of valuable benefits that offer additional peace of mind to travelers. Not only can you transfer Ultimate Rewards points to many great travel partners, but you can also redeem the points through Chase travel portal at 1.25 cents each for flights, hotels and activities.

The Chase Sapphire Preferred is a great choice for someone who’s new to travel or travel rewards, but also a solid card to hold onto long term for veterans alike.