Who Should (and Shouldn’t) Get the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card?

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When traveling, you make sure to pack your passport, wallet and other essentials. Bringing a good travel credit card is just as important. You’ll want one that waives foreign transaction fees, offers complimentary trip insurance and helps you earn rewards along the way.

Only a few cards check all of these boxes for just the $95-per-year price point. That’s what makes the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card one of the most recognizable travel rewards cards out there. It's jam-packed with travel benefits that can easily be worth thousands every year. And since it’s offering a limited-time welcome offer, you’ll want to decide if you should apply for the card before it’s too late. Here's what you need to know.

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

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is one of the gold standards for earning travel rewards. This travel credit card helps users earn points quickly with accelerated rewards in everyday spending categories like travel and dining.

Cardholders enjoy perks like a $50 annual hotel credit, 10% anniversary point boost and access to the Ultimate Rewards Travel portal.

New cardmembers can earn 60,000 bonus points after using their credit card to spend $4,000 within three months of account opening. This bonus is worth $750 in travel reservations booked through Chase Ultimate Rewards, but potentially more when transferred to airline and hotel partners. Read our full review of the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card.

Current Welcome Offer on the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card 

Without a doubt, 60,000 points is a lot of points. But what are they actually worth? 

Each point is worth 1.25 cents when booking flights, hotels, car rentals and more through Chase. 

However, you can stretch the value of your points—reaching our latest estimations of over 2 cents per Ultimate Rewards point—when you transfer your points directly to Chase’s unique travel partners, such as Southwest, United, Hyatt and many more. You’ll want to read up on our guide for the best uses of Chase Ultimate Rewards, which can help get considerably more value from your 60,000 bonus points. 

Benefits of the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card

For starters, Chase Sapphire Preferred cardholders can earn a ton of bonus points on travel and everyday purchases:

In addition, here are other benefits for travelers:

• Annual $50 hotel credit when booking your stay through the Chase Ultimate Rewards travel portal.
• Earn 10% bonus points based on your card spend in a year, every cardmember anniversary.
• Complimentary DoorDash DashPass membership for free deliveries on eligible orders of $12 or more and reduced service fees until Dec. 31, 2024.
• Primary rental car insurance, covering theft or damage up to the actual value of the rental car.
• Trip cancellation and interruption insurance, reimbursing up to $10,000 per person or up to $20,000 per trip.
• Trip delay reimbursement, reimbursing up to $500 per ticket for delays of 12 hours (or more) or requires an overnight stay.
• Baggage delay insurance, reimbursing up to $100 per day (for up to five days) if your bag is delayed by six hours or greater.
• Purchase protection, reimbursing up to $500 per claim and up to $50,000 per account for new purchases against damage or theft, up to the first 120 days.
• Extended warranty protection, adds an additional year of protection on an item with an eligible U.S. manufacturer’s warranty of three years or less. 

All of these protections and benefits come with your Chase Sapphire Preferred Card, which is pretty impressive for a card with a $95 annual fee.

Who Should Get the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card?

The Chase Sapphire Preferred Card is a great pick for a lot of travelers, but we’ll go over a few specific scenarios where the Chase Sapphire Preferred really knocks it out of the park. 

You're Looking for Your First Travel Credit Card

For those who are moving on from their cash-back cards to their first travel card, the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card will strike gold for most people. 

You’ll quickly earn points you can redeem for flights, hotel nights, group tours and more, significantly reducing the cost of your travel expenses. The Chase Ultimate Rewards portal is also easy to navigate, and you can redeem your points at a moment’s notice—without any required amount of points you need to save up first.

Finally, the $95 annual fee isn’t as intimidating as other travel cards that charge north of $695 per year. Still, the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card manages to offer a range of competitive perks and a strong rewards currency that is best for booking “free” travel.

You Want to Earn Flexible Travel Rewards

When you open a credit card with an airline, you’ll earn and redeem miles within that frequent flier program. Similarly, when you open a credit card with a hotel chain, you can only earn and redeem points within that loyalty program.

For the most wiggle room, you’ll want to earn flexible travel rewards rather than being locked into one program. Chase Ultimate Rewards points are touted as one of the best flexible rewards currencies out there, and for good reason. You can essentially transform your points to flights on any airline or into hotel stays at a chain, independent property or home rental—and more. 

Finally, many airline and hotel currencies have significantly devalued in the last decade or so. What your points and miles were worth years ago may not afford you the same amount of luxury now—so again, travel rewards points that aren’t tied to one brand are the way to go. 

Related Article

Chase Travel Rewards: Guide to Chase Ultimate Rewards

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You Want Travel Protections

Every trip you book with the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card automatically becomes protected thanks to its long list of complimentary travel protections. You may even want to apply for this card merely for the peace of mind you’ll gain.

As we head into the busy summer season, flight delays and other travel mishaps are common. Rather than purchasing individual travel or car rental insurance, the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card is a great way to protect yourself—and for relatively minimal cost.

If you’re filing a claim for reimbursement with any of the protections afforded to you, be sure to keep track of all receipts and proper documentation. In the event of a travel emergency, these protections can rescue the day by saving you thousands of dollars. 

Who Shouldn’t Get the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card? 

There’s no one-size-fits-all solution for every traveler. Here are some examples of when the Chase Sapphire Preferred isn’t the best card for you.

You're Getting Your First Credit Card

You’ll want a good or excellent credit score to maximize your chances of approval. If you’ve only ever had a debit card and have no credit history to report, your application for the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card will most likely be denied. Fortunately, you can build up your credit portfolio over time and eventually work toward applying the Chase Sapphire Preferred. 

You Can't Meet the Welcome Offer Spend Requirement

If you’re unable to meet the spend requirement needed to earn the Chase Sapphire Preferred card's bonus, you lose the opportunity to earn the welcome offer for good. 

Plus, you don’t want to make unnecessary purchases (and potentially fall into debt) just to unlock the welcome offer. Before you apply, you’ll want to feel comfortable that you’re getting enough value from the card to justify paying the $95 annual fee. 

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You Don’t Meet Chase’s 5/24 Rule

Although it’s an unpublished rule, the issuer will most likely deny your application if you’ve opened five or more credit cards (from any issuer) in the past 24 months. This rule of thumb applies to the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card or any other Chase card you may be interested in.

In addition, the issuer has strict rules on who can receive a new welcome offer for previous cardholders of any Chase Sapphire-branded card. If you’ve held the Chase Sapphire Preferred or Chase Sapphire Reserve in the past 48 months, you’re ineligible to receive the current welcome offer. Be sure to backtrack and see if it’s been at least four years since you’ve earned the bonus; otherwise, you won’t be able to see those 60,000 bonus points in your account.

Bottom Line

No card is perfect, but the Chase Sapphire Preferred is one of the top contenders. Any prospective applicant should read over and understand the breadth of these benefits, as they can truly unlock so many travel possibilities for a fraction of the cost of other cards.

Featured photo courtesy of Marriott.