Points, Miles & Credit Cards

Review: Chase Sapphire Preferred®

September 22, 2023

6 min read

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Table of Contents

Who is the Chase Sapphire Preferred® card for?

The card_name is an easy addition to the wallet of any burgeoning points traveler. The solid earning rates on purchases related to food and travel will boost your points-earning without too much effort. The reasonable $95 annual fee is offset by a bevy of benefits that are easy to use on a good day (that hotel credit) and there for you on a bad day (lost luggage).

Annual fee: annual_fees

Foreign transaction fee: foreign_transaction_fee

Earning rate:

Earn 5X points per dollar spent on travel purchased through Chase Travel(SM).
Earn 3X points per dollar spent on online grocery purchases (excluding Walmart, Target, and wholesale clubs), dining at restaurants (including eligible delivery services, takeout, and dining out).
Earn 3X select streaming services.
Earn 2X points per dollar spent on all other eligible travel purchases (like airline tickets and hotel bills).
Earn 1X point per dollar spent on all other eligible purchases.

Welcome offer: bonus_miles_full

Pros and cons

Pros:

Chase has some of the best airline and hotel transfer partners among all card issuers
Comparatively low annual fee
Host of travel protections
No foreign transaction fee makes this card perfect for traveling abroad
Earns bonus points on several common spending categories

Cons:

Lacks many extra travel perks that are common with more premium cards
Does not grant you lounge access

Our take

This card's points are valuablely flexible. You can transfer your points to any of its array of airline partners to get where you need to go.

Chase Sapphire Preferred® Review

If you’re looking to get your feet wet in the world of credit card points and airline miles, you’ll need a good starter credit card with which to learn the ropes.

That card should have three things: the annual fee needs to be affordable, whatever that means to you; the shopping categories on which the card offers bonused spending need to match your spending habits; and the points should be transferable to travel partners that you would actually use.

There are plenty of cards out there that do just that, but there’s one credit card for beginners that stands heads and shoulders above the rest. For points and miles beginners, I recommend the card_name.

Earning points with the Chase Sapphire Preferred® card

The card_name lets you earn multiple Chase Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent on eligible purchases that fall into certain "spending categories," many of which are types of things most travelers and non-travelers buy anyway. This makes the card a useful way to earn points for everyday spending, even when you're not on the road. Let's look at those spending categories one by one.

Here are the points you can earn with the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card:

Earn 5x total points on travel purchased through Chase Travel(SM), excluding hotel purchases that qualify for the $50 Annual Ultimate Rewards Hotel Credit.
Earn 2x on other travel purchases.
Earn 3x points on dining, including eligible delivery services, takeout and dining out.
Earn 3x points on online grocery purchases (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs).
Earn 3x points on select streaming services.
Plus, earn 1 point per dollar spent on all other purchases.

First, the travel category. You get two points per dollar spent—or “2x”—on travel, such as plane tickets or Airbnb stays. But keep in mind that Chase defines the “travel” category broadly. It counts the obvious (“car rental agencies, cruise lines, travel agencies”) and the less obvious (“buses, taxis, limousines, ferries, toll bridges and highways, and parking lots and garages”) as travel expenses, so you have the opportunity to earn more points on more everyday purchases.

On top of that, you earn 5x on purchases made using your card through the Chase Travel portal. Paying for flights or hotels through a travel portal with a credit card is a great move if you see a price that’s cheaper or costs the same as if you’d book directly with the airline or hotel. However, I strongly recommend that you only ever pay with actual money in a travel portal; redeeming your credit card points through travel portals will limit the value of your points.

Next, the categories that I like to call the “food” categories. With the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, you earn 3x on the following: dining at restaurants (including takeout and eligible delivery services) and online groceries (excluding Target®, Walmart® and wholesale clubs). Similarly, “dining” and “restaurants” include establishments like bars, cafés, and fast food joints. That means $2 for a coffee at a diner gets you 6 points, $20 dollars on a fancy cocktail at a bar gets you 60 points, and $100 on groceries delivered gets you 300 points. Just watch all that add up over time as you get rewarded for simply feeding yourself.

There’s also the small but mighty category of “streaming services.” These days, all those TV subscriptions can get expensive. You may as well earn 3x on that Netflix log-in you most certainly do not share with all your family members and friends.

And, for a limited time, you’ll earn 5x on qualifying rides through the rideshare service Lyft until March 2025 (as opposed to the usual 2x you’d get on, say, Uber.)

Finally, the Sapphire Preferred offers a 10% points bonus on your card anniversary. What does that mean? After your first year of card membership, and on every anniversary after that, you’ll get bonus points equivalent to 10% of the points you earned in the last twelve months. For example, if you earned 60,000 points in one year, you get 6,000 more points (as a reminder, that’s 10% of 60,000) added to your account on your card anniversary.

Redeeming points with the Chase Sapphire Preferred® card

There are several ways to use your points, but the best redemption method is to transfer them to one of Chase's airline or hotel partners.

Chase transfer partners

You can transfer Chase points to these airlines.

Aer Lingus AerClub
Air Canada Aeroplan
Air France / KLM Flying Blue
British Airways Executive Club
Emirates Skywards
Iberia Plus
JetBlue TrueBlue
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards
United MileagePlus
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

All points transfer at a one to one (1:1) ratio, which means that one Chase point is equivalent to one mile or point with all of these loyalty programs, once transferred.

Anecdotally, transfers to all these partners are relatively instantaneous, with one exception: transfers to Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer usually take 24 hours to process.

Chase hotel transfer partners

Chase points transfer at a 1:1 ratio to the following hotel partners.

IHG One Rewards
Marriott Bonvoy
World of Hyatt

On the whole, transferring points to hotels rarely maximizes the value of your points, with the exception of transfers to World of Hyatt. You’re better off sticking to points transfers to airlines to get the most value out of your points.

Welcome offer on the Chase Sapphire Preferred® card

The current welcome offer is: bonus_miles_full

Here are some ideas of what to do with them (based on past Going with Points deals):

One roundtrip, business class ticket to Amsterdam or Paris on KLM or Flying Blue. (Or, two roundtrip economy tickets for the same price!)
Four roundtrip, economy tickets to the Bahamas on JetBlue or United (family trip, anyone?)
Two or three roundtrip, economy tickets to Hawai’i on United (honeymoon idea?)
One roundtrip, economy ticket to Beijing on Air France
Three nights stay at a Hyatt all-inclusive resort in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico

Additional benefits of the Chase Sapphire Preferred® card

In addition, the Chase Sapphire Preferred® card comes with several other perks:

Trip Cancellation/Interruption Insurance: Up to $10,000 reimbursed per person if your trip is cancelled or cut short by sickness, severe weather or other covered situations.
Auto rental collision damage waiver: Primary coverage
Baggage delay insurance: Reimburses baggage delays over 6 hours up to $100 a day for five days.
Trip delay insurance: Up to $500 per ticket when your carrier is delayed more than 12 hours or requires an overnight stay. Can include meal and lodging expenses.
Extended warranty and purchase protections.
Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
Instacart+ subscription for six months. (Activate by July 31, 2024.)

Chase Travel Portal vs. Transferring points

This is one of the big benefits that Chase loves to advertise: When you hold the Chase Sapphire Preferred® card, each of your Chase points are worth "25% more" in the Chase Travel (SM) portal. Let me give you some context.

In most travel portals offered by credit card issuers, a credit card point is worth one cent (1¢). They’re essentially offering you a way to use your points as you would cash-back: If you pay off the $2,000 on your credit card bill, you get $20 in cash back, at a rate of one cent earned per dollar paid off.

So if you have 100,000 credit card points, valued at 1¢ each in a travel portal, you have $1,000 you can use to purchase flights, lodging, or other travel experiences.

However, if you have the card_name, the rate becomes 1.25¢ per point. (With the card_name, the rate becomes 1.5¢ per point.) Otherwise, Chase gives the same valuation of 1¢ per point—the same as all the other card issuers.

Put into practice: Say you want to buy a plane ticket that costs $500. At any other credit card travel portal, that would cost you 50,000 points because each point is worth 1¢. But if you book through the Chase Travel portal and you hold the Preferred, you’d only need 40,000 points because each of your points is worth 1.25¢ (40,000 x $0.0125 = $500).

Again, I cannot emphasize enough that this will rarely get you the bang for your buck you deserve. If you transfer those 40,000 points to an airline loyalty program, you could book flights easily worth more than $500, thus stretching the value of your points.

All that said, there’s at least one other reason to use the Chase Travel portal: the annual travel credit of $50. When you use the Preferred for hotel accommodations purchased through the Chase Travel portal, a statement credit worth $50 will automatically be applied to your account within one or two billing cycles. This effectively reduces the annual fee; just be sure you use the credit every year on a purchase worth at least $50. (For what it’s worth, I like to use the credit to knock $50 off the bill for airport transit hotels, since they’re relatively cheap anyway.)

Alternatives to the Chase Sapphire Preferred® card

If the Chase Sapphire Preferred® card isn't right for you--or you already have it in your wallet--there's a few other options to consider.

Alternatives to the Chase Sapphire Preferred® card
card_name	card_name	card_name

card_name	card_name	card_name
Annual fee
annual_fees	annual_fees (See Rates and Fees)	annual_fees
Foreign transaction fees
foreign_transaction_fee	foreign_transaction_fee	foreign_transaction_fee
Earning rate
Earn 5x total points on flights when you purchase travel through Chase Travel℠ after the first $300 is spent on travel purchases annually Earn 10x total points on hotels (excluding The Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection) and car rentals when you purchase travel through Chase Travel℠ after the first $300 is spent on travel purchases annually. Earn 3x points on dining at restaurants, including eligible delivery services, takeout, and dining out. Earn 3x points on other travel worldwide after the first $300 is spent on travel purchases annually. Earn 1x point per $1 spent on all other purchases.	Earn 4X Membership Rewards(R) points per dollar spent on purchases at restaurants worldwide, on up to $50,000 in purchases per calendar year, then 1X points for the rest of the year. Earn 4X Membership Rewards(R) points per dollar spent at US supermarkets, on up to $25,000 in purchases per calendar year, then 1X points for the rest of the year. Earn 3X Membership Rewards(R) points per dollar spent on flights booked directly with airlines or on AmexTravel.com. Earn 2X Membership Rewards(R) points per dollar spent on prepaid hotels and other eligible purchases booked on AmexTravel.com. Earn 1X Membership Rewards(R) point per dollar spent on all other eligible purchases.	2 Miles per dollar on every purchase, every day. 5 Miles per dollar on hotels, vacation rentals and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel.
Welcome offer
bonus_miles_full	bonus_miles_full	bonus_miles_full
Our take
The more premium options gets you a credit to use for Global Entry, TSA PreCheck, or NEXUS; lounge access; and an annual $300 travel credit.	This card is more rewarding on food-related categories, but less stellar on travel and transit.	This card offers a simpler rewards-earning structure for the same annual fee.
Card benefits
$300 annual travel credit Complimentary access to the Chase Sapphire Lounge by the Club Statement credit of up to $100 once every four years for Global Entry, TSA PreCheck®, or NEXUS. No foreign transaction fees. Points transfer 1:1 to a network of airline and hotel partners. Trip cancellation/interruption insurance up to $10,000 per person and $20,000 per trip for your pre-paid, non-refundable travel expenses. Trip delay reimbursement up to $500 per ticket if you're delayed more than six hours or require an overnight stay. Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver up to $75,000 for theft and collision damage for rental cars in the U.S. and abroad. Priority Pass Select membership (enrollment required) which gives you access to a network of 1,300+ airport lounges. Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.	$120 Uber Cash on Gold: Add your Gold Card to your Uber account and each month automatically get $10 in Uber Cash for Uber Eats orders or Uber rides in the U.S., totaling up to $120 per year. $84 Dunkin' Credit: With the $84 Dunkin' Credit, you can earn up to $7 in monthly statement credits after you enroll and pay with the American Express(R) Gold Card at Dunkin' locations. $100 Resy Credit: Get up to $100 in statement credits each calendar year after you pay with the American Express(R) Gold Card to dine at U.S. Resy restaurants or make other eligible Resy purchases. That's up to $50 in statement credits semi-annually. Enrollment required. $120 Dining Credit: Satisfy your cravings, sweet or savory, with the $120 Dining Credit. Earn up to $10 in statement credits monthly when you pay with the American Express(R) Gold Card at Grubhub, The Cheesecake Factory, Goldbelly, Wine.com, and Five Guys. Enrollment required. Explore over 1,000 upscale hotels worldwide with The Hotel Collection and receive a $100 credit towards eligible charges with every booking of two nights or more through AmexTravel.com. Eligible charges vary by property. No Foreign Transaction Fees. Annual Fee is $325. Get the American Express(R) Gold Card in either the Gold, Rose Gold or Limited-Edition White Gold metal design. White Gold design is only available while supplies last. Terms Apply.	Earn unlimited 2X miles on every purchase, every day Earn 5X miles on hotels, vacation rentals and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel, where you'll get Capital One's best prices on thousands of trip options Miles won't expire for the life of the account and there's no limit to how many you can earn Receive up to a $120 credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck® Use your miles to get reimbursed for any travel purchase-or redeem by booking a trip through Capital One Travel Enjoy a $50 experience credit and other premium benefits with every hotel and vacation rental booked from the Lifestyle Collection Transfer your miles to your choice of 15+ travel loyalty programs

Chase Sapphire Reserve® card vs. Chase Sapphire Preferred® card

If you’re ready for something a bit more premium—with higher points-earning rates, lounge access, and a bigger $300 travel credit (as well as a much higher annual fee)—then check out the card_name.

Read our review

American Express® Gold Card vs. Chase Sapphire Preferred®

If you would prefer to earn American Express Membership Rewards points for food-related purchases, check out the card_name. You could pair it with the Chase Sapphire Preferred: earn more Chase points on travel and streaming, then earn more Amex points on food.

Read our review

Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card vs. Chase Sapphire Preferred®

If you don't spend a lot on food or transit--or just don't care to use cards to maximize points--then the card_name may be a great fit for you. It earns 2X points per dollar on every purchase. Plus, it comes with a statement credit for Global Entry/TSA PreCheck. Not bad for a card with an annual fee of annual_fees.

See Rates and Fees for the card_name

Matt Ortile

Marketing

Matt Ortile writes the Going With Points newsletter at Going. He is the author of the essay collection The Groom Will Keep His Name, a columnist at Condé Nast Traveler, and working on a novel about a flight attendant. He lives in Brooklyn.

Published September 22, 2023

Last updated August 9, 2024