Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card Review: A Top Travel Card

Because of this, the Chase Sapphire Preferred is one of the best rewards cards for beginners and experienced travelers alike.

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Overview of the Chase Sapphire Preferred

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is a longstanding favorite card for both frequent and casual travelers, offering a stellar sign-up bonus, many ways to earn extra reward points, and the ability to use points for cashback or travel.

While the card does come with an annual fee, the benefits (such as a sign-up bonus that's worth $750 when you redeem through Chase Travel℠, insurance benefits, and partner credits) can make up for the modest cost.

The Chase Sapphire Preferred also has airline and hotel partners such as Hyatt, Marriott, and Southwest Airlines, so you can get some flexibility in using your rewards points. While you can cash in your Ultimate Rewards® points for 1 cent per point, transferring to partners can easily earn you up to 2 cents per point (or more) on the right redemptions.

Overall, this card offers a lot of perks and is one the best travel cards around. 

LEARN MORE: Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card

Redeeming Rewards

Using Chase Ultimate Rewards® can be somewhat complicated, so it’s important to understand how the redemption process works before redeeming your points.

Here are the different ways you can use your Chase rewards points:

Cashback

You have the flexibility to redeem your points for cashback or ‘pay yourself back' for purchases. With both of these options, you essentially pay off a portion of your card balance at a rate of $0.01 per point.

This redemption rate is decent and notably better than American Express Membership Rewards, which redeem at $0.006 per point.

Chase Travel℠

You can use your Chase points to book flights, rental cars, hotels, cruises, and experiences through Chase Travel℠. Plus, you'll earn 5x rewards points when booking travel this way, along with a 25% booking bonus — that means 10,000 points would be worth $125 in travel!

The prices can vary a lot when you're using Chase Travel℠, and sometimes are much higher than just booking directly. Compare prices before completing your booking to ensure you’re getting the best deal.

Transfer partners

Probably the best value available is through Chase's transfer partner program. Chase partners with hotel and airline loyalty programs and allows you to transfer points directly to a partner program.

Here are the partners currently available with the Chase Sapphire Preferred card:

• Aer Lingus
• Air Canada
• Air France KLM
• British Airways
• Emirates
• Hyatt
• Iberia
• IHG Hotels & Resorts
• JetBlue
• Marriott Bonvoy
• Singapore Airlines
• Southwest
• United Airlines
• Virgin Atlantic

Partners such as Hyatt, Southwest, and Virgin Atlantic offer great redemption options and can easily net you $0.03 or $0.04 per point when booking rewards travel. 

Make sure to compare prices and confirm you can make your intended booking before transferring points. Once the points have been transferred, you cannot transfer them back to Chase Ultimate Rewards®.

Gift cards

You have the option to redeem your points for gift cards through the Ultimate Rewards® portal. While most cards can be purchased for the standard $0.01 per point redemption value, occasionally select gift cards will go on sale.

Additional Benefits of the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card

In addition to its regular bonus points and rewards, there are a ton of special benefits and limited-time offers with the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card:

• 10% anniversary bonus for total purchases made the previous year
• $50 annual Ultimate Rewards® Hotel Credit
• 5x points on Lyft (expires end of March 2025)
• 5x points on Peloton equipment and accessory purchases over $150 (up to 25,000 bonus points, expires end of March 2025)
• Free Doordash DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027

It also comes with several protections and insurance that can help if a purchase is stolen or lost, or if you run into issues while traveling:

• Purchase protection: Covers theft, damage, or involuntary and accidental loss within 120 days from the date of purchase (up to $500 per claim and $50,000 per account)
• Extended warranty: Extends a U.S. manufacturer’s warranty by one additional year, on eligible warranties of three years or less
• Travel protection: Trip delay, trip cancellation, baggage delay, lost baggage, and primary auto coverage insurance
• Roadside assistance: Covers up to five miles of towing, tire changes, fuel delivery, and more

Who Should Get the Chase Sapphire Preferred?

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is one of the best rewards cards for beginners. With flexible points, a decent sign-up bonus, and lots of travel perks for a low annual fee, it’s almost a no-brainer.

It’s also a great everyday spending card if you want to earn more miles on travel bookings and food-related spending.

Who Shouldn’t Get the Chase Sapphire Preferred?

If you are a frequent traveler who wants more premium travel perks, such as lounge access, status upgrades, or TSA PreCheck or Global Entry credits, the Chase Sapphire Preferred probably isn't for you.

While this card has some great perks, it can’t compete with cards like the Chase Sapphire Reserve or The Platinum Card from American Express for premium travel benefits.

Also, Chase enforces a 5/24 rule, which says that an individual cannot apply for more than five personal credit cards within the last 24 months. So if that's you, you're out of luck for now.

COMPARE: Best Travel Credit Cards

Alternatives to the Chase Sapphire Preferred

For premium travel perks: Chase Sapphire Reserve®

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The Chase Sapphire Preferred's big brother, the Chase Sapphire Reserve®, is Chase's flagship travel rewards card, with boosted benefits (and also a higher annual fee).

This card comes with a slew of luxury travel perks whose value that can easily outweigh the annual fee — but only if you're a frequent enough traveler to make the most of them.

LEARN MORE: Chase Sapphire Reserve®

For flexible rewards: American Express Green Card

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Both Chase and American Express offer flexible rewards points that can be used for cashback, travel rewards, gift cards, or transferred to travel partners. The American Express Green Card is comparable to the Chase Sapphire Preferred in regards to travel perks and benefits, with a slightly higher annual fee.

All information about American Express Green Card has been collected independently by Erika.com. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

For a comparable annual fee: Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card

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The Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card comes with a modest annual fee and a range of travel benefits, similar to the Chase Sapphire Preferred. However, Venture Rewards stands out with a higher sign-up bonus.

It's worth noting, though, that the points from Venture Rewards are worth less when redeeming for cashback (0.5 cents per point versus 1 cent per point with Chase Sapphire Preferred).

LEARN MORE: Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card

FAQs

What are Chase points worth?

Chase Sapphire Preferred points are worth 1 cent per point when redeeming for cashback or gift cards. However, they are worth 1.25 cents per point when redeeming through Chase Travel℠. You can also transfer Ultimate Rewards® to travel partners and potentially get better redemptions for your points.

Do Chase rewards points expire?

So long as you keep your Chase Sapphire Preferred account open or transfer your points to another account that earns Ultimate Rewards®, your points will never expire. Note that closing your account could lead to any unused points expiring.

The Bottom Line

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is one of the most popular travel credit cards, thanks to all the benefits it offers for an affordable annual fee. If you're looking for a card that will score you flexible travel points, plus perks like purchase protection, this card may be right for you.

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Disclosure: Opinions expressed here are the author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.