by Daniel | Last Updated Nov 1st, 2024
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Alright, let’s talk about one of the most popular travel credit cards out there—the Chase Sapphire Preferred card. Whether you’re new to travel rewards or a seasoned pro looking to add some serious value to your wallet, this card delivers a ton of perks without breaking the bank.
So why is this card such a crowd favorite? Well, for a relatively cheap annual fee of just $95 a year, the Chase Sapphire Preferred card comes with the ability to really elevate your travel experience.
One new benefit that was recently added to this card for new cardholders is the ability to receive a $300 Chase travel credit for the first year of card ownership as part of the welcome offer. That’s $300 you can put toward flights, hotels, or even car rentals right out of the gate. Combine that with its amazing rewards rates, and the value of this card is hard to beat.
In terms of earning rewards, it is possible receive 5x points on travel booked through Chase, 3x points on dining, and 2x points on other travel purchases. And best of all, these points can then be redeemed for travel through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal for a 25% boost in value or you can transfer these points to over a dozen different travel partners for even more value!
It’s essentially like getting first-class rewards without a first-class price.
If you’ve been hunting for a credit card that offers flexible travel rewards, low fees, and big value, you’re going to want to stick around.
So in this review, I’ll walk you through everything there is to know such the as the rewards structure, travel protections, and how to get massive value from some of the travel partners
Ready to find out if this card deserves a spot in your wallet? Let’s dive right in!
So Who Is This Card Good For?
Well the Chase Sapphire Preferred card is perfect for frequent travelers who want premium travel rewards without the hefty fees that usually come with premium credit cards.
With an annual fee of just $95 per year, it is literally hundreds of dollars cheaper than cards like the Chase Sapphire Reserve Card or the American Express Platinum card.
And whilst these Premium credit card do offer a ton of additional benefits and perks, you will have to pay a fair bit more to make use of them.
One thing that is sometimes overlooked when looking for a valuable credit card is the cards ability to provide you with decent points earning potential from a wide range of different categories.
Obviously it is nice to have access to ton of perks on your credit card, but remember you are technically paying for a large portion of these so called benefits via the higher annual fee.
Sign Up Bonus And Points Earning Ability
Now obviously getting a large signup bonus from a new credit card is always nice, and thankfully at the moment the Chase Sapphire Preferred card is offering a pretty good deal.
Currently if you can manage to spend $4,000 on the card within the first 3 months of opening the account, you will earn 60,000 bonus points.
And with Sapphire Preferred points being valued at 1.25 cents per point when used through Chase Ultimate Rewards, this signup bonus is worth $750.
Now just incase you didn’t already know, it is possible to receive much more value from these points by simply transferring to one of the many travel partners.
Using Points To Book A Hotel
As an example, if you are looking for a nice hotel stay somewhere fancy, it is possible to transfer your Chase points over to The World of Hyatt at a 1:1 ratio.
I’ve transferred my points over to The World of Hyatt multiple time over the past few years as it tends to provide a lot of value.
So if I go over to The Word of Hyatt Website and look for a hotel in Paris in early November, right at the top of the search you will see there is a very expensive hotel called the Park Hyatt Paris-Vendome, so let’s click on that.
So you will see that a Park room King will cost $1,579 per night for members, now if I go and click here where it says Use Points, you will see that it is possible to book the room on the dates selected for 40,000 points, which is pretty good!
But it is possible to get it for less.
All you need to do is go and click where it says Points Calendar
It will then bring up a page that shows you when the off peak times are, which in this case care just 35,000 points.
So if you were to use your Chase points to book this room, you are looking at a points value of around 4.5 cents per points, which is amazing value.
That values the 60,000 point sign up bonus at around $2,700!
Using Points To Book A Business Class Flight
Another way top get fantastic value from your points is by heading over to the website seats.aero
Here it is possible to find some unbelievable deals on flights.
Simply just click on the Explore tab, and then on Air France/ KLM flying Blue as they tend to have good offers for flights over to Europe.
Then select flights from North America to Europe.
Then at the bottom of the page I’ll just put LAX in the departs section.
Then scroll back up and click the Business section to organize available business class seats to show the most affordable ones available.
And right here at the top you will there is a flight from LAX to FCO ( Rome Italy) with a Business class seat from 50,000 points.
So just click the little gray icon here to bring up more details about the flight.
Then in the pop up click Business again.
And there is a Business Class seat for 50,000 points plus a fee of $273.50.
Now if I go over to the Air France website, this exact booking will cost $8,369!
This means you are getting a points value of just over 16 cents per point, which is insane!
And besides too all, you can use the $300 travel credit to cover the cost of the $273.50 fee.
So based on 60,000 points, that would value the sign up bonus at around $9,600.
Points Earning Ability
Now the Chase Sapphire Preferred card also has a pretty descent range of points earning categories that can help you get a ton of value out of your everyday spending.
So right at the top there are 3 options for earning 5x points which are:
- Any travel that is specifically booked through Chase Travel.
- All Lyft rides
- And then any purchases of over $150 at Peloton (although this is limited to a maximum of 25,000 points)
There is also 3 options for earning 3x points which are:
- Eating out at restaurants, which includes purchasing take out or using delivery services.
- Making online grocery purchases
- Then using select streaming services
All travel that is not specifically booked through Chase Travel will earn you 2x points.
And then everything else will earn 1 point per dollar spent.
So as you can see, the highest points earning categories of the Chase Sapphire Preferred card are generally travel related (besides the Peloton offer).
Travel And Purchase Coverage
Now if you’re going to be traveling around with this card, it’s important to know what coverage you actually have access to.
And thankfully, there is quite a decent range of coverage that is provided with this card.
Now before I do go over the list of coverage, for any of it to be valid, any related purchases that you make a claim against must have been paid for using the Chase Sapphire Preferred card.
Also, make sure to go over the terms and conditions for each category as there are certain restriction.
So starting first with Purchase Protection, you are essentially covered for up to 120 days for new purchases against damage or theft up to a total of $500 per claims and a total of $50,000 per account.
There is also Extended Warranty Protection that basically adds one additional year of coverage on US Warranties that are 3 years or less.
Travel Protection
Then in terms of Travel Protection there are 4 separate categories.
The first is Trip Cancellation and Interruption Insurance which provides overage of up to $10,000 per traveler up to a total of $20,000 per trip if it happens to cut short due to a covered reason.
There is then Trip Delay Reimbursement which provides up to $500 per covered traveler if your flight is delayed for more than 12 hours or requires an overnight stay.
Then with Baggage Delay Insurance you are covered for up to $100 per day for a total of 5 days if your baggage is delayed for more than hours.
And finally there is Auto Rental Coverage that provides up to $60,000 of coverage for theft and collision damage for most rental cars that have an MSRP of $125,000 or less.
Benefits and Perks
Now credit cards that only cost around $100 a year generally don’t come with many benefits.
But the Chase Sapphire Preferred card now has 3 main perks that actually provide a decent amount of value, at least for the first year of card ownership.
So like I mentioned earlier in the video, it is now possible to receive a $300 travel credit for the first year of card ownership.
And to claim this credit all you need to do is book travel directly through Chase travel.
Another benefit that comes with this card is a $50 statement credit that can be received after you make a hotel booking through Chase Travel.
So if you do manage to make use of both of these credits you are looking at $350 in value, and if you minus the $95 annual fee, you are essentially receiving $255 in positive credit for the first year of card ownership which is really good value
Now another benefit with this card is the ability to receive a 10% bonus on the previous year’s total spend.
As an example, if you spent say $30,000 on the card over the course of a calendar year, the following year you would receive 3,000 points.
And finally you will receive a complimentary DashPass Subscription worth $120.
With this you will receive free delivery on eligible orders and get up to $10 off non-restaurant DoorDash orders each month.
Final Thoughts
Ok so that covers pretty much everything there is to know about the Chase Sapphire Preferred card, and as you can see, for a card that cost just $95 a year, it comes with a ton of value.
With the addition of the $300 travel credit, the card is essentially free for the first 3 years of card ownership.
And as I showed at the start of the video, the signup bonus, if used through one of the travel partners can be worth literally thousands of dollars.
And if you want to learn more about 2 very popular travel credit cards that provide even more value than this card, check out my review here.