Chase Sapphire Preferred Review: A Must-Have for Travelers
You get 2 points per dollar on travel and dining, and 1 point per dollar elsewhere. Points are worth more when used to book through Chase.
Our Take
4.5
The bottom line: The big sign-up bonus and high-value points have long made this a favorite among travelers.
Full Review
on Chase's website
on Chase's website
Annual Fee
$95
Regular APR
15.99% - 22.99% Variable APR
Intro APR
N/A
Recommended Credit Score
Quick Facts
Pros & Cons
Pros
A large bonus
No foreign transaction fee
Cool factor - metal card
Earn more points on travel and dining at restaurants
Premium travel protection benefits
Cons
$95 annual fee
Alternate Pick: No annual fee
Discover it® Miles
Solid flat-rate travel rewards on everything
With no annual fee, this card gives you 1.5 miles for every $1 you spend. It comes with a new-cardmember bonus offer, and points are redeemable for statement credit against many kinds of travel expenses.
Compare to Other Cards
Annual Fee$95 | Annual Fee$0 | Annual Fee$250 |
Regular APR15.99% - 22.99% Variable APR | ||
Intro APRN/A | Intro APR0% intro APR on Purchases for 14 months and 10.99% intro APR on Balance Transfers for 14 months | Intro APRN/A |
Recommended Credit Score |
Recommended Credit Score |
Recommended Credit Score |
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Full Review
For travelers, the $95-annual-fee Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card stands out as a versatile and valuable choice.
With this card, you can move your rewards to a wide variety of loyalty programs, such as United Airlines or Hyatt, at a 1:1 ratio. This makes it possible to get far more than 1 cent out of each point with strategic redemptions. For travelers who can benefit from these valuable redemption options — and especially for those who delight in finding ways to get the most value out of their rewards — it's a must-have.
Key features of the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Card type: Travel.
Annual fee: $95.
Sign-up bonus: Earn 80,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. That's $1,000 when you redeem through Chase Ultimate Rewards®. Plus earn up to $50 in statement credits towards grocery store purchases within your first year of account opening.
Ongoing rewards:
2 Chase Ultimate Rewards® points per $1 spent on travel and dining at restaurants.
1 point per dollar on everything else.
Foreign transaction fees: None.
Other benefits:
Hotel and airline transfer partners.
How much is a point worth?
Chase Ultimate Rewards® points earned on this card are worth 1.25 cents each when redeemed for travel booked through Chase. However, you can often get a better value by transferring points to the card’s 1:1 transfer partners, then making high-value redemptions. Here are the transfer partners:
In addition to travel redemptions, the card also offers a handful of other, less-valuable redemption options, including cash back, gift cards and merchandise.
Benefits of the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card offers versatility for travelers that's hard to find at a similar price point.
Big sign-up bonus
The card features a generous sign-up bonus: Earn 80,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. That's $1,000 when you redeem through Chase Ultimate Rewards®. Plus earn up to $50 in statement credits towards grocery store purchases within your first year of account opening.. It's an outstanding deal when compared with other cards with similar annual fees — especially when you consider that, with some well-placed points transfers, the bonus could prove even more valuable.
Use NerdWallet’s pre-qualification tool to see if you qualify.
Bonus rewards on travel and dining
With the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, you earn 2 points per dollar spent on travel and dining, and 1 point per dollar on all other purchases. That's not the richest rewards structure around, but it can still offer decent value. For example, if you got 1.25 cents per point, you would effectively have a 2.5% rewards rate on travel and dining.
Chase’s definition of “travel” is also quite broad; in addition to airfare and hotel stays, you can also earn bonus rewards on parking garage fees, bus fares and charges from rideshare companies like Uber and Lyft, for example. And these bonus rewards aren’t just available for travel and dining in the U.S. — they can be earned worldwide.
Transfer partners
This card’s valuable 1:1 transfer partners make it a keeper, especially if you're willing to look for good redemption opportunities. Say you spot a nice deal with one of Chase’s airline transfer partners — maybe a flight that normally costs thousands of dollars going for a mere 50,000 miles plus taxes and fees. With this card, you have the ability to transfer your Chase Ultimate Rewards® points into that airline’s loyalty program and pounce on that deal.
Complementary cards
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is an excellent sidekick, especially when it comes to the other cards in the Chase Ultimate Rewards® family. That’s because you can move points to this card from your other cards that earn Chase Ultimate Rewards®, potentially opening up more redemption options.
Consider the Chase Freedom Flex℠, which earns 5% cash back on rotating quarterly categories (on up to the first $1,500 in purchases, upon activation) and 1% cash back on all other purchases. You could potentially move the rewards you earn on that card to the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card. From there, you could get more value out of your points by transferring points at a 1:1 ratio to other loyalty programs or redeeming them for 1.25 cents apiece when booking travel through Chase.
Sapphire Preferred vs. Sapphire Reserve
If you have your eye on the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, you might also be checking out the pricier Chase Sapphire Reserve®. This premium travel card comes with an annual fee of $550 and several rich perks and benefits, including airline lounge access and an annual $300 travel credit. If you travel enough, going for the more expensive option could be well worth the cost.
Read NerdWallet’s full comparison of these two cards to learn more about these cards’ differences. There's a calculator on that page that can help you make your choice.
Here’s a quick look at how the cards stack up:
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card | Chase Sapphire Reserve® |
|---|---|
ANNUAL FEE: $95. | ANNUAL FEE: $550. |
SIGN-UP OFFER: Earn 80,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. That's $1,000 when you redeem through Chase Ultimate Rewards®. Plus earn up to $50 in statement credits towards grocery store purchases within your first year of account opening. | SIGN-UP OFFER: Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. That's $900 toward travel when you redeem through Chase Ultimate Rewards®. |
REWARDS: • 2 points per $1 spent on travel and dining. • 1 point per $1 spent on everything else. | REWARDS: • 3 points per $1 spent on travel and dining. • 1 point per $1 spent on everything else. |
Points are worth 1.25 cents apiece when redeemed for travel through Chase Ultimate Rewards®. | Points are worth 1.5 cents apiece when redeemed for travel through Chase Ultimate Rewards®. |
OTHER BENEFITS: • 1:1 transfer partners, including United, Southwest, JetBlue, Marriott and Hyatt. | OTHER BENEFITS: • $300 annual credit, automatically applied to travel spending. • 1:1 transfer partners (same as the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card). • Access to more than 1,000 airport lounges worldwide through Priority Pass Select. • Up to $100 reimbursement every four years for Global Entry or TSA Precheck application fees charged to your card. |
Why you might want a different card
The perks on the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card aren't particularly simple, and not particularly luxurious, either. As a mass-market travel card, it's right in the middle.
No premium perks
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is an excellent card for travelers in general. But for those who love to travel in style, the more expensive Chase Sapphire Reserve® could be a better fit.
The Chase Sapphire Reserve® comes with a $550 annual fee, and a similarly strong sign-up bonus: Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. That's $900 toward travel when you redeem through Chase Ultimate Rewards®. You’ll get an annual $300 travel credit and Priority Pass Select access, which gets you into several airport lounges for free and comes with meal credits for certain airport eateries. The card earns 3 points per dollar spent on travel and dining, and 1 point per dollar spent on all other purchases, and points are worth 1.5 cents apiece when redeemed for travel through Chase. The card doesn’t charge foreign transaction fees, and it comes with the same 1:1 transfer partners as the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card.
Not a good deal for cash back
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card’s $95 annual fee might seem a little pricey if you’re not interested in squeezing maximum value out of each point — for example, if you’re planning to redeem your points for cash back at 1 cent apiece.
If cash-back rewards are your endgame, you'll get far better long-term value out of the Citi® Double Cash Card – 18 month BT offer. It offers 2% back: You get 1% back on all purchases made, and another 1% back on all balances paid. Its annual fee is $0. There’s one big downside for international travelers, though: It comes with foreign transaction fees of 3% of each transaction.
Is the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card right for you?
Using the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card just for one simple task — say, earning cash back — would be akin to buying a beautiful Swiss Army knife just to use the corkscrew feature. The card offers outstanding value, but to fully appreciate it, it helps to be a traveler who plans to take advantage of its elegant versatility. If that’s you, this card is an excellent choice.
on Chase's website
Frequently asked questions
The standard rewards are 2 points per dollar spent on travel and dining, and 1 point per dollar on other purchases. Occasionally the issuer may offer bonus rewards in specific categories for a limited time.
That depends on how you redeem them. If you use them to book travel through Chase — such as for airfare, hotels, rental cars or cruises — points are worth 1.25 cents each. If you redeem them for cash, they’ll be worth 1 cent apiece. You can also transfer points to about a dozen airline and hotel loyalty programs; the value you get then depends on how you redeem them in those programs.
As long as your account is open, your points won’t expire. There’s no limit to the number of points you can earn.
The Chase Sapphire Reserve® has a much higher annual fee — $550, compared with $95 for the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card — but it offers richer rewards and more perks. Rewards include 3x points on travel and dining (versus 2x for the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card), and points are worth 1.5 cents apiece when redeemed for travel through Chase (versus 1.25 cents for the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card). Perks include an annual $300 travel credit that offsets a big slice of the annual fee. See our comparison article for more.
If you have good to excellent credit and you’re in line with Chase’s 5/24 rule, you could be approved for the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card. Good credit is generally defined as a score of 690 or higher, although issuers also take into account your income, existing debts and other information.
