There are a lot of travel credit cards in the market today. It can be daunting to figure out what the best card would be for your travel needs. The Chase Sapphire Preferred has many benefits, such as bonus point categories, travel protections and a low annual fee.
The card used by experienced travelers as well as people that travel on occasion. It is one of the most popular credit cards on the market today. So, let’s take a look at what makes the Chase Sapphire Preferred so popular and the benefits that it offers.
1. 60,000 Point Sign Up Bonus
Right now the Chase Sapphire Card has a 60,000 point sign up bonus after you spend $4,000 in the first three months of having the card. The most common point offering is 60,000 and the highest it has ever been was 100,000 points.
This is a $750 value when booking through the Chase travel portal. The points can be worth more when you transfer points to Ultimate Rewards (UR) travel partners.
2. Excellent Transfer Partners
The Chase Preferred Credit Card has some excellent transfer partners. You are able to move points from the Chase card to one of the partners at a 1:1 ratio.
There are 11 airline partners and 3 hotel chains that you can transfer Ultimate Rewards points to.
Airline Partners
- Aer Lingus, AerClub
- Air Canada Aeroplan
- British Airways Executive Club
- Emirates Skywards
- Flying Blue AIR FRANCE KLM
- Iberia Plus
- JetBlue TrueBlue
- Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
- Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards
- United MileagePlus
- Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
Hotel Partners
- IHG Rewards Club
- Marriott Bonvoy
- World of Hyatt
The value of your points can be worth more by transferring your points to one of the travel partners.
For example, a stay at the Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort and Spa would cost you $1,410 but if you transfer points to World of Hyatt it would cost you 25,000 points. That is over a .05 cent redemption per point which is a fantastic redemption.
3. Earn Bonus Points in Various Categories
Getting a sign up bonus is great but having a card where you can earn points after the bonus is a great feature to have with a credit card.
You can earn Ultimate Rewards bonus points in the following categories:
- 5x points on travel booked through the Chase travel portal
- 3x points on dining
- 3x points on select online grocery stores excluding Walmart, Target and wholesale clubs
- 3x points on select streaming services
- 2x points on all travel
- 1x points on all other purchases
You will also earn a 10% bonus from all of the points that you earn in a year. For example, if you earn 25,000 points for the year you will receive 2,500 extra points.
4. Pair the Card with No Annual Fee Cards
The Chase Sapphire Preferred can open up the door to pair it with other Chase cards that have no annual fee. The benefit of having these cards is that you can earn more Ultimate Reward points. Two of the cards are personal cards and the other two are business cards.
The personal cards include:
- The Chase Freedom Unlimited is a great everyday spend credit card since you earn 1.5% on all purchases.
- The Chase Freedom Flex has quarterly rotating categories which you earn 5x the points on up to $1,500 of spending. You also earn 3x points at drug stores.
The business cards include:
- The Ink Business Unlimited Credit Card offers 1.5% on all business purchases.
- The Ink Business Cash Credit Card offers 5x the points at office supply stores, internet, cable, cell phones, landlines and 2x the points at restaurants and gas stations.
It is nice earning points on the various cards and then being able to transfer them to the Sapphire card to use them for travel.
5. Great Travel Insurance and Protection
The Chase Sapphire Preferred has a number of different travel insurances that can help you save money and protect you when using them for travel.
The insurances include:
- Primary Rental Car Insurance: This will protect you from total loss, theft or damage of your rental car. It will save you from having to get coverage through the rental car company.
- Baggage Delay Insurance: This insurance kicks in when your luggage is delayed 6 or more hours. It will cover up to $100 a day for 5 days for essentials, such as, toiletries, clothing and a phone charger.
- Trip Cancellation/Trip Interruption Insurance: If you have an interruption or cancellation because of illness, injury or severe weather, you can be reimbursed up to $10,000 per person or $20,000 per trip for prepaid nonrefundable travel expenses.
- Trip Delay Reimbursement: A person whose flight, train, bus or etc. is delayed over 12 hours can be reimbursed up to $500 for lodging, travel, meals, transportation and other reasonable expenses. This is applied to all family members booked on the reservation.
Tonya and I booked a rental home in Bar Harbor, ME for a week and the cancellation policy states that you only get your money back if it gets rented out for the week that you booked it.
That made me a little nervous and so we looked into getting trip insurance. The cheapest policy was over $250. Needless, to say that was not to appealing.
I remembered that the Sapphire Preferred has trip cancellation/interruption insurance. So, we made the first payment for the rental with the card. The card’s trip cancellation/trip interruption insurance kicked in with the first payment.
We don’t have to charge another payment on the Sapphire Preferred to have the insurance because only part of the rental needs to be charged on the card to have the coverage. I will take free over $250 any day of the week.
6. Low Annual Fee
The $95 annual fee for the Chase Sapphire Preferred card is very reasonable considering all of the different perks that you get with the card.
7. $50 Annual Hotel Credit
Every year you get a $50 hotel credit on the anniversary of your card. The hotel room must be booked through Chase Ultimate Rewards Travel Portal. This perk alone brings the annual fee down to $45.
8. Miscellaneous Perks
Let me do my best commercial voice by saying “Plus there is more.” Besides all of the things that I have already mentioned there are still some other perks with the Chase Sapphire Preferred card.
These perks include:
- No Foreign Transaction Fees: This is huge if you do a lot of foreign travel.
- 5x Ultimate Rewards points on Lyft rides.
- Free one year subscription to DoorDash DoorPass. You will get lower service fees and free deliveries for orders $12 or more.
- $60 credits for Peloton monthly subscriptions. You also will receive 5x Ultimate Rewards points on Peloton bike, Tread and Guide purchases totaling $450 or more.
Final Thoughts
You can’t go wrong with the Chase Sapphire Preferred Credit Card because of its large sign up bonus, great insurance coverages, bonus points in various categories, $50 hotel credit and a low annual fee.
Those are just a few of the benefits that you need to consider in adding the this card to your travel credit card collection.
If you are still not convinced that the Chase Sapphire Preferred is the card for you, I have written a post titled “Picking the Best Travel Card” that can help you decide what type of travel card to get.
