Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card Review 2024

As the preferred travel credit card for beginners and travel pros alike, the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card earns its name.

Expert take: The Chase Sapphire Preferred’s popularity in the travel rewards card space makes sense—it earns valuable Chase Ultimate Rewards points, offers perks like an annual travel credit and charges just a $95 annual fee. With so much to offer, and for a modest fee, it’s a great choice for beginner travelers and seasoned pros alike. 

Pros

• Valuable food-related bonus categories
• Welcome offer is worth $750 when redeemed for travel through Chase Travel℠
• Earn a 10% point bonus each account anniversary

Cons

• $95 annual fee could be too much for beginners 
• Redeeming for the highest value can be complex
• Not as many perks as travel rewards cards with higher fees

Vault’s Viewpoint on the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card

The Chase Sapphire Preferred is a great card for travelers of all frequencies. Whether you’re just starting out with travel rewards or already have a handful of travel cards, the Chase Sapphire Preferred can be a useful tool for earning rewards toward free or discounted travel.

The Chase Ultimate Rewards points you earn with this card can be redeemed for flights, hotel stays, rental cars and more through the Chase Travel portal—and for 25% more value. Further, if you’re able to meet the minimum spending threshold within the first three months of account opening, you can start off with enough points to fund or partially cover your next trip.

Still, there are a few reasons you might pass on the Sapphire Preferred. Though it can easily pay for itself, the presence of an annual fee is a dealbreaker for some. In the same vein, some people prefer simplicity over learning a rewards currency’s intricacies, and there’s definitely a learning curve with Chase Ultimate Rewards. 

Chase Sapphire Preferred Highlights

Annual fee: $95

Welcome bonus: Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first three months from account opening, equal to $750 when you redeem for travel through Chase Travel

Learn more about the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card.

Earning Rewards With the Chase Sapphire Preferred Credit Card

For most people, the bulk of everyday rewards earning is going to be done at restaurants and on online groceries. Here’s a look at the Chase Sapphire Preferred’s rewards structure: 

• 5X points on travel purchased through Chase Travel
• 5X points on qualifying Lyft rides (through March 31, 2025)
• 3X points on dining (including eligible delivery services, takeout and dining out)
• 3X points on online groceries (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
• 3X points on select streaming services
• 2X points on other travel purchases
• 1X points on all other purchases

Redeeming Rewards

When it’s time to cut into your points balance, you have a lot of options. Redeem your points for travel purchases through the Chase Travel portal at 1.25 cents apiece or transfer your points to a Chase hotel or airline partner for even greater value. 

Other options include cash back, gift cards, paying with points on Amazon and via PayPal, exclusive experiences, dining through Chase and credits for previous purchases through Chase’s Pay Yourself Back program.

Rates and Fees

There’s more to know about the Chase Sapphire Preferred’s fee structure than just the annual fee. Like most travel cards, it’s not a great option for carrying a balance—especially since there’s no 0% introductory APR offer.

• Annual fee: $95
• Intro APR: None
• Regular APR: 21.49% – 28.49% variable
• Foreign transaction fees: None
• My Chase Plan fee: Monthly fee of 1.72% of the amount of each eligible purchase or amount selected to create a My Chase Plan
• Balance transfer fee: Either $5 or 5% of the amount of each transfer, whichever is greater
• Late payment fee: Up to $40
• Penalty APR: 29.99% maximum
• Cash advance fee: Either $10 or 5% of the amount of each transaction, whichever is greater
• Cash advance APR: 29.99%

Chase Sapphire Preferred Benefits

Travel Perks

• Annual hotel credit: Get up to $50 in annual credits on hotel stays purchased through Chase Travel.
• Anniversary points bonus: On each account anniversary, get a point bonus that equals 10% of your spending from the previous year.
• 25% points boost: Get 25% more value for your Chase Sapphire Preferred points when you redeem for travel through Chase Travel
• Chase transfer partners: Transfer points to Chase’s travel partners, including JetBlue, Southwest, United, Hyatt and Marriott, for heightened value.

Travel Protections

• Trip cancellation/interruption insurance: If your trip is canceled or cut short by illness, severe weather or other protected situations, you can be reimbursed up to $10,000 per person and $20,000 per trip for your prepaid, nonrefundable travel expenses. This includes passenger fares, tours and hotels.
• Auto rental collision damage waiver: If you decline the rental company’s collision insurance and charge the entire rental cost to your card, this primary coverage reimburses up to the actual cash value of the vehicle for theft and collision damage for most rental cars both in the U.S. and internationally.
• Baggage delay insurance: Get up to $100 per day in reimbursement for essential purchases like clothing and toiletries for baggage that’s delayed by more than six hours for up to five days.
• Trip delay reimbursement: This covers unreimbursed expenses, such as meals and lodging, for up to $500 per ticket. It applies when your common carrier travel is delayed more than 12 hours or requires an overnight stay. 
• Emergency assistance services: Get help with legal and medical referrals or other travel and emergency assistance while away from home.  

Shopping Benefits

• Instant use: Receive instant access to your card upon approval by adding it to a digital wallet like Apple Pay. 
• Pay over time: With My Chase Plan, break up eligible purchases of $100 or more into monthly payments with no interest—just a fixed monthly fee of 1.72%.
• Lyft rewards: Earn 5X points on qualifying Lyft rides through March 31, 2025.
• Doordash DashPass: Get a complimentary one-year DashPass membership, which includes $0 delivery fees and lower service fees on eligible orders when you activate by December 31, 2024.
• Instacart+ membership: Get six months of complimentary Instacart+ membership and up to $15 in quarterly statement credits when you activate by July 31, 2024.
• Peloton rewards: Earn 5X points on Peloton equipment and accessory purchases over $150 (up to 25,000 total points) through March 31, 2025.

Shopping Protections

• Purchase protection: Your new purchases are covered for 120 days against damage or theft, up to $500 per claim and $50,000 per account.
• Extended warranty protection: This extends the time period of the U.S. manufacturer’s warranty by an additional year on eligible warranties of three years or less.

Who Is the Chase Sapphire Preferred Best For?

First-time travel rewards credit card holders will love the value they get from this card. The annual fee cuts into the Chase Sapphire Preferred’s value a little, but the current welcome bonus pays for that fee about six to seven times over if you redeem your points through Chase Travel.  

You’ll get even more value if you transfer your points to hotel or airline transfer partners. These are just some examples we put together of what you can get for 60,000 points or less, plus taxes and fees where applicable:

• Two round-trip economy tickets from select cities in North America to select cities in Europe via Air France/KLM Flying Blue starting from 30,000 miles each, or one round-trip premium economy ticket for the same route from 60,000 miles 
• 17 nights at a Category 1 Hyatt hotel during off-peak dates (from 3,500 points/night) or 12 nights during standard dates (from 5,000 points per night)
• One one-way ticket from the U.S. West Coast to Singapore or several other countries in Southeast Asia in economy (from 42,000 miles)

With enough points to fully or partially cover your next roundtrip flight or hotel stay, this is a gratifying card right off the bat. 

The rewards categories are also beginner-friendly, not requiring outlandish spending on travel to earn a great rate. Plus, with the inclusion of categories for dining and online groceries, you can use this card for some of your daily spending—helping your points pile up more quickly.

The Sapphire Preferred’s more complicated redemption options, including transferring to Chase travel partners, keep the card interesting for rewards maximizers who aren’t afraid to do some math to get the best bang for their buck. 

If you travel a lot, you’ll want this card in your wallet for the travel protections. One thing you can guarantee if you’re catching flights often is that, at some point, you’re going to run into a baggage delay, inclement weather or something else. When you do, the Sapphire Preferred has you covered.

Who Should Consider an Alternative to the Chase Sapphire Preferred?

Though it’s a great card for beginners, not everyone begins from the same place or with the same goals. For example, maybe you really don’t love the idea of an annual fee. If you’re just hoping to earn enough points for a domestic flight every year or so, there are cards that offer travel points or miles with no annual fee. 

What’s more, the rewards structure isn’t the simplest. Some people would rather earn a flat rate of rewards on all purchases and know the standard value per point for every redemption.

How Does the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card Stack Up to Its Competitors?

As one of the top travel credit cards, the Chase Sapphire Preferred is always being compared to other premier travel cards. Here are a few options you should consider:

Chase Sapphire Preferred vs. Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card

These two travel rewards card titans are often compared with each other. They both offer generous ongoing rewards rates and welcome bonuses worth hundreds of dollars in travel redemptions while only charging $95 annual fees. Further, both cards let you transfer rewards to airline partners (though Chase’s roster of airline partners is likely more useful for most people). 

While the Chase Sapphire Preferred offers 1X points on general purchases and boosted rates in bonus categories, the Capital One Venture keeps it simple: earn a flat 2X miles on all purchases (plus 5X miles spent on hotels and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel). When it’s time to redeem your rewards, you’ll likely get a slightly higher value from Chase Sapphire points. 

Travel benefits are another differentiator for these cards. While the Chase Sapphire Preferred offers a long list of travel protections, the Capital One Venture’s setup is pared down. It offers rental car coverage and travel accident insurance, but that’s about it in the way of protections. However, the Venture does offer a Global Entry or TSA PreCheck credit of up to $100—a huge missing piece for the Chase Sapphire Preferred. 

The bottom line is that you have the opportunity to get more value out of your rewards redemptions with the Chase Sapphire Preferred. But if simplicity is valuable to you and you aren’t worried about maximizing every reward, the Capital One Venture is another solid option. 

Chase Sapphire Preferred vs. American Express® Green Card

Another mid-level travel credit card with food-focused rewards, the Amex Green Card is a common choice for beginners in the points and miles space. Both cards offer elevated rewards rates on dining and travel, but there’s a key difference in the third category: the Chase Sapphire Preferred offers 3X points on online groceries, while the Amex Green offers 3X points on transit, including trains, taxicabs, rideshare services, ferries, tolls, parking, buses and subways.

It’s also worth making a distinction about the Amex Green Card’s travel category. The card offers 3X points on travel, while the Chase Sapphire Preferred rewards 5X points on travel purchased through Chase and 2X points on all other travel purchases.

The Amex Green Card’s annual fee is a bit steeper at $150, but you get access to additional credits that, if you use them, more than make up for the cost of the annual fee. Those credits include a $189 CLEAR credit and a $100 LoungeBuddy credit. 

Still, most people will find the Chase Sapphire Preferred to be a more versatile and lucrative card, considering the inclusion of rewards on online groceries and higher rewards rates on travel. Plus, the Sapphire Preferred’s welcome bonus is higher.

All information about the American Express® Green Card has been collected independently by Newsweek.com. The American Express® Green Card is no longer available through Newsweek.com.

Chase Sapphire Preferred vs. Chase Sapphire Reserve®

The Chase Sapphire Reserve is the upgraded version of the Preferred, offering more travel perks and a larger collection of rewards categories. It also comes with a far heftier annual fee—$550, compared to the Sapphire Preferred’s $95 annual fee. 

Still, the Sapphire Preferred has a few things the Reserve does not. Most importantly, the Reserve does not offer an anniversary point bonus or a boosted rewards rate on online groceries. It justifies its annual fee with a long list of travel benefits, though, including a Global Entry or TSA PreCheck credit, airport lounge access and a $300 annual travel credit.

Paying the annual fee for the Sapphire Reserve might be worth it if you’re traveling all the time and value luxury perks. But if you don’t consider yourself a luxury traveler, you’ll get plenty of value from the Chase Sapphire Preferred for a far lower fee. 

Is the Chase Sapphire Preferred Worth It?

For a $95 annual fee, the Chase Sapphire Preferred packs a ton of value. Between the welcome bonus (worth $750 when redeemed for travel through Chase Travel and potentially much more if you transfer your points to travel partners), 3X points on valuable categories like dining and online groceries and its list of travel perks and protections, even those who only take a trip or two a year can get plenty of value out of this card. 

If you use the $50 annual hotel credit, that makes up for over half of the annual fee’s cost. Between the rewards you’ll earn on your spending and all of the perks available, it’s hard not to get your money’s worth with this card.

Valuations by Vault: Our Thoughts on the Chase Sapphire Preferred’s Value 

Newsweek values Chase Sapphire Preferred points at 1.38 cents apiece when redeemed toward high-value transfer partner travel—which is higher than the rewards value of competitors like American Express Membership Rewards points (1.19 cents apiece) and Capital One Venture miles (1.21 cents apiece). Also remember that, when redeeming rewards for travel through Chase Travel, your Chase Sapphire Preferred points are worth 1.25 cents apiece.

Point valuations are based on a sampling of the face values of the most usable Chase Sapphire Preferred redemption options. We ignore low-value redemptions and redemptions requiring extensive knowledge of international airline programs.