Ultimate Guide to the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
The content listed on this page is accurate as of its posting date; however some offers mentioned may have expired.
⚡️ Fast Facts:
$95 annual fee
Annual $50 Chase Travel hotel credit
Earns 3x points on dining, online grocery, and select streaming purchases
Earn 5x points on Chase Travel purchases or 2x points on all other travel purchases
Earns 5x on Lyft purchases
Complimentary DoorDash Subscription plus a monthly $10 DoorDash credit
This card is our Roman Empire.
If we had to choose just one travel rewards credit card, the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card would be it.
With the reasonable annual fee, strong welcome bonus, insanely valuable Chase Ultimate Rewards®, travel protections, and great category bonuses— it’s one of the first cards you need to build your strategic points and miles wallet.
We used Ultimate Rewards to book our free stay at Secrets Moxché in Playa del Carmen, Mexico!
The Perks
Category Bonuses, baby.
We are big foodies, so being able to get 3x on all dining is a huge seller for us. Not to mention 3x on online grocery for when we’re in a pinch and need to make a Kroger pick-up order.
The bonuses on this card for travel, dining, streaming, Lyft, and more will give you more bang for you buck and you’ll see those points add up fast!
Travel Benefits & Protections
First off, we love a card with no foreign transaction fees because— well, we’re all travelers here, so now none of us have to worry when we make charges on our adventures!
You will annually receive a $50 hotel credit for stays booked through $50 Chase Travel℠. The $50 credit will automatically be applied as a statement credit after you complete your stay.
We like to use this credit for one-night stays that make life a little easier.
For example: Last year we went to a comedy show downtown and we booked a cheap night so we could leave the late show and not have to drive the hour back home.
The Chase Sapphire also comes with a hefty list of travel protections like:
Primary rental car coverage
Trip delay insurance
Trip cancellation insurance
Baggage delay insurance & lost luggage reimbursement
Hello, DashPass! 🥡
Cardholders receive a complimentary DoorDash DashPass membership for at least 12 months — which you need to activate by adding your Chase Sapphire into your DoorDash account!
If you love using DoorDash, now you can enjoy free delivery and reduced service fees.
Plus, a new benefit added: cardholders can enjoy a monthly $10 credit on DoorDash non-restaurant purchases. Simply start a grocery or retail store order, head to your “Promo codes, rewards, & gift cards” and apply the Chase x DashPass coupon to your order. You get this every month too!
Anniversary Boost
Finally! Someone who will never forget your anniversary. 😉
When you hold the Chase Sapphire, you will receive a 10% anniversary bonus every year you have the card. The bonus is based on your total spending for the year at a 1 point per $10 rate. Keep in mind this means your additional category bonuses don’t come into play here.
So if you were to put $10,000 on your card, you’d get an additional 1,000 point bonus on your account anniversary.
Redeeming & Transferring Your Points
Chase Sapphire gives you an extra 25% boost on your points when you book through Chase Travel. If you choose to use your points to purchase airfare, hotels or car rentals in Chase Travel, you can redeem your points at a fixed 1.25 cent per point.
You can also redeem your points for cash back or gift cards at a 1-cent per point ratio. But…
Oftentimes bonus offers are available to really add more value to your points!
The best way to maximize the value of your points is by transferring them to travel partners.
You can get upwards of 1.5, 2, or even 5-cents per point when you transfer your points directly to one of Chase’s 14 airline and hotel partners (listed below)! To date, our highest redemption was a business class flight booked at 8.4 cents per point! 🤯
And if you want our recommendation, our favorite transfer partner is Hyatt! With second runner up as Southwest. This is because the Chase is the only major bank to transfer to these two very beginner-friendly programs.
Hyatt also is the only hotel program on a fixed award chart, making it easy to plan out how many points you need for your award bookings.
Chase Transfer Partners
✈️ Airline Partners
🏨 Hotel Partners
We used Chase Ultimate Rewards to book the luxurious Qatar Airways QSuites for mid-October 2024! Photo Credit: Business Traveler USA
Chase 5/24
Since this is a personal card, it will count toward your Chase 5/24. #worthit!
This also means you need to be under 5/24 in order to apply for this card. If you are at or above 5/24 you will automatically be ineligible to apply for this card.
We keep track of our 5/24 window by entering our cards into our Travel Freely app. 📲 This app is free to use and we swear by it—especially for beginners— as it keeps track of welcome bonus deadlines, upcoming annual fees, and gives personalized card recommendations. Did we mention it’s FREE?
Referral Bonuses
The referral bonus for the Chase Sapphire is currently up to a total of 75,000 Ultimate Rewards
For anyone who uses your link to apply, you will earn 10,000 Ultimate Reward points, and by the 8th person you will only receive a partial bonus of 5,000 points. The 75k referral points is the maximum amount of referral points you can earn per calendar year.
We transferred 120,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards to World of Hyatt to book 3-nights at Secrets Moxché in Playa del Carmen, Mexico for FREE!
Exit Strategy: Keep, Downgrade, or Cancel?
Before we open any card, we always take a minute to consider what we’ll do with the card after the first year (you don’t have to have an exact answer just yet, but at least think it through!) 🧐
For us, this card is a “Keep FOREVER” — it’s one of only three Chase cards that gives you the ability to transfer to airline and hotel partners. We call it the “Master Key” for its ability to unlock all the value of your Chase Ultimate Rewards.
👑 Bottom Line
In summary: THE SAPPHIRE IS KING.
It will forever remain our #1 choice for anyone starting in points and miles.
With outrageously valuable points that we can redeem for our dreamiest of vacations, the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is one we’ll be recommending for many years to come! ✅
Head to our Best Offers Page to apply — by using our links (at no additional cost to you!), you’ll help support all our free content we provide! We appreciate it so much!! 🫶
Editorial Disclosure: Opinions expressed here are the author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.