Here’s How to Take Advantage of Chase Sapphire Preferred’s 60,000 Bonus and Travel Benefits

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Whether you're planning travel for business or pleasure, the right credit card can protect you from flight delays and lost luggage with built-in trip insurance. In addition to a huge sign-up bonus, the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card also offers cardholders valuable travel and purchase protections like trip cancellation insurance, flight delay coverage and lost luggage reimbursements for you and your immediate family. Here's how the Chase Sapphire Preferred sign-up bonus and rewards rates can help you maximize your travel costs.

Chase Sapphire Preferred®

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• Our Rating 5/5 How our ratings work
• APR20.99% - 27.99% (Variable)
• Annual Fee$95
• Sign Up Bonus 60,000Chase Ultimate Rewards Points More Info

  Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. Dollar Equivalent: $1,320 (60,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards Points * 0.022 base)

The Chase Sapphire Preferred Card is one of the gold standards for earning travel rewards. It has a generous sign-up bonus and you can earn points on travel and dining expenses. The card does have an annual fee, but you can continue earning points through bonus categories and an anniversary points boost.

• Overview
• Pros & Cons

Overview

The Chase Sapphire Preferred is pretty flexible as it lets you transfer rewards points into miles or points several airlines and hotel programs. You can take advantage of strong transfer partners such as United, Southwest, Singapore Airlines, Virgin Atlantic and Hyatt. Similarly, you can book any reservation you want through the Chase Travel℠ portal. Although the card might not be ideal for the most frequent travelers, it has a built-in upgrade path, so when it’s time to level up your travel rewards game, you won’t have to start from scratch.

Pros

• Points are easily transferable to airlines and hotel partners
• Accelerated earnings on dining, travel & household purchases
• Excellent travel and purchase protections
• No foreign transaction fees

Cons

• Not ideal for the highest spenders
• $95 annual fee

Chase Sapphire Preferred Sign-Up Bonus

With the Sapphire Preferred card, you can earn 60,000 bonus points —when you spend $4,000 in your first three months—valued at $750 in travel rewards when redeemed for travel through Chase Ultimate Rewards®. In other words, just for using the card to make everyday purchases you've already budgeted for, like dining and auto repair, you can earn a trip to Hawaii later in the year. Keep those positive island thoughts in mind while you're filling up your gas tank during the cold of winter.

Chase Sapphire Preferred gives you three months to earn this introductory bonus. That means if you're approved for your card on September 5th, you'll have until December 5th to spend that first $4,000 and unlock your bonus points.

Just keep in mind that this card comes with a $95 annual fee, and you can only score the current sign-up bonus if you don't already have an active card in the Sapphire family and haven't received a new cardmember bonus for any Sapphire card within the past 48 months.

Rewards Rate

The Chase Sapphire Preferred offers several bonus categories that give this already popular travel credit card even more value.

The card has 5x points per dollar spent on travel booked through Chase Ultimate Rewards, 3x points on dining, 2x back on other travel purchases and 1x on everything else.

Travel Benefits

Cardholders also get a $50 annual hotel credit that is automatically applied to the first $50 in annual hotel expenses booked through Ultimate Rewards. This statement credit essentially reduces the card's $95 annual fee to only $45.

Plus, cardmembers will receive a 10% anniversary point boost based on however many points they earned the prior year. For example, if you earned 20,000 points using your Chase Sapphire Preferred, then you would receive 2,000 points on your card anniversary.

4 Reasons to Book Travel With the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card

Chase Sapphire Preferred is a particularly versatile card, and it's a smart choice when you're new to travel rewards credit cards in general. The annual fee might seem scary if you've never paid for a credit card before, but that fee is a small change when you consider all of the travel benefits and freebies you'll receive. Here are a few of our favorite perks.

1. 25% More Value With Travel Redemption

Points are worth 1.25 cents each when redeemed through the Chase Ultimate Rewards travel center, but they can also be transferred to airline and hotel partners at a 1:1 ratio. When you’re able to redeem these rewards for premium class international flights or hotel reservations during peak season, it’s often possible to realize several cents in value per point redeemed.

Pair the Sapphire Preferred with the Chase Freedom Unlimited® Card and you can transfer your cash back to the Ultimate Rewards program as points. The Freedom Unlimited earns a generous 5% back on travel booked through Chase, 3% back at restaurants and drugstores and 1.5% back on all purchases, which is more lucrative than the 1:1 points you'll earn on non-eligible spending with the Sapphire Preferred.

For example, spending $1,000 on purchases other than travel and dining, the Sapphire Preferred will only earn 1x point per dollar spent. This will earn you 1,000 points that can be redeemed for $12.50 toward travel. However, spend that same $1,000 with the Freedom Unlimited card, and you'll earn 1.5% cash back. However, if you transfer your $15 cash back to the Sapphire Ultimate Rewards portal, you'll have $18.75 to spend on travel instead.

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2. Trip Delay Reimbursement

Travel delays are a common nuisance for travelers, especially during unexpected inclement weather. If your flight is delayed more than 12 hours or requires an overnight stay, then you, your spouse or domestic partner and children under 26 are covered for unreimbursed expenses (such as meals and lodging) up to $500 per ticket.

3. Trip Cancellation Insurance

Life happens. If illness or severe weather threatens your travel plans, don’t worry: Sapphire Preferred has you covered. Even if you purchased nonrefundable travel, you can be reimbursed up to $10,000 per person and $20,000 per eligible trip. This coverage applies to flights as well as tours and hotels paid for with your Sapphire Preferred.

4. Lost Luggage Reimbursement

Did baggage claim get a little too rough with your luggage? Chase Sapphire Preferred covers up to $3,000 in lost or damaged luggage for you or an immediate family member. If your baggage is delayed by the carrier, the card reimburses up to $100 a day for up to five days.

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Your Sapphire Preferred Spending Plan: Turn Everyday Spending Into Travel

The Chase Sapphire Preferred Card is one of the gold standards for earning travel rewards. It starts you off with a generous sign-up bonus and continues to offer strong value by allowing you to earn double points on travel and dining expenses. Here's how to use maximize the travel-earning potential of your new Sapphire Preferred card:

• In addition to earning the 60,000-point bonus, you'll also earn points on your purchases. Spend a portion of those points on travel and dining, and you'll earn 2x-5x points per dollar.
• Plan to open the card during the time you'll do the bulk of your spending. You can even add an authorized user to hit your spending minimum faster.
• If you're still struggling to hit $4,000 worth of expenses, consider booking future travel now or book travel with a friend or relative and have them reimburse you for their half.

The Chase Sapphire Preferred is a user-friendly card with great travel perks. But when it comes time to redeem your rewards for travel, this credit card really shines. You can take advantage of some really strong transfer partners such as United, Southwest, Singapore, Virgin Atlantic and Hyatt. Or you can easily book any reservation you want through the Chase Ultimate Rewards travel center. Plus, the Chase Sapphire Preferred sign-up bonus is among our picks for the best credit card bonuses.