This is one of the most recommended rewards credit cards — here's why
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- The Chase Sapphire Preferred is one of the most popular credit cards among rewards and travel experts.
- You can transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points to the bank's airline and hotel partners — sometimes, it's possible to book the same flight for a lot fewer points if you go through an airline's frequent flyer program.
- If transferring points isn't the best option, Chase gives you a 25% bonus if you book travel through its own portal.
If you've done any research into the best credit card rewards and travel perks — even just a Google search — you've probably come across the Chase Sapphire Preferred. The card is a favorite among a ton of different experts, ranging from credit card rewards and personal finance writers to frequent travelers and road warriors. While it may be clear that carrying the card has benefits, it isn't always apparent why people are so enthusiastic about it, or why it's so universally considered a great card.
There are a few reasons, including travel and purchase protections and other perks, but from a rewards perspective, Chase's cards are particularly valuable because of the type of rewards currency they earn: transferable points.
That means that you can transfer the points you earn through your everyday spending to certain partners; in this case, nine airline frequent flyer programs and four hotel loyalty programs. The airline partners include carriers in all three of the major airline alliances, which effectively means that you can book frequent flyer tickets — also known as "award flights" — on most airlines.
The value of the points, combined with the fact that the card earns 2x points on all dining and travel purchases, plus the 50,000 bonus points you'll earn after opening an account and spending $4,000 within the first three months, all mean that you can be on your way to traveling with your points before you know it.
Transferable points can save you a ton on your flights
In many cases, it can be better to book flights through an airline's frequent flyer program instead of, say, exchanging points for cash back and using that money to buy plane tickets, or exchanging your points for a statement credit to "erase" travel purchases.
Cash prices for flights are extremely variable, changing all the time thanks to complicated pricing algorithms designed by the airlines. When you exchange points for cash or as a statement credit, generally the best return you can get is one cent for each point applied towards the price of the ticket when you booked it.
However, frequent flyer tickets are different
In many cases, award ticket pricing is different, with the disclaimer that each airline's system varies significantly. For this example, I'm going to focus on United Airlines — a partner of Chase's Ultimate Rewards program — and the way that its MileagePlus frequent flyer program works.
Regardless of what happens to the cash price of a United ticket, an award ticket will cost one of two possible amounts: a "saver" level price in miles, and a "standard" price. You can look at United's interactive awards chart to find the saver and standard prices between any two destinations.
United Airlines
Let's say you wanted to travel round-trip from Chicago to Munich, Germany. That ticket could cost more than $1,200 depending on which month you travel. If you exchanged your Chase Ultimate Rewards points for cash to purchase the ticket, or if wanted to use fixed-value points worth one cent each — such as miles you can earn with the Capital One Venture card — you would need 120,000 points to cover the whole trip.
However, if you transferred your Chase Ultimate Rewards points to United, you could book the same flight for as little as half as many points. United's award chart shows that a saver ticket from the mainland US to anywhere in Europe only costs 30,000 MileagePlus miles each way, or 60,000 total for a round-trip. That saves you a ton of points, or means you can afford the trip sooner.
The difference is even starker if you want to fly in business or first class, something that might be completely unattainable with cash, but doable with points. To use the same United Airlines example between Chicago and Munich, a business class ticket on this route starts at around $4,600 round-trip. That would cost 460,000 fixed-value points, or points exchanged for cash back, if you wanted to use them to "erase" the purchase from your statement.
However, the United award chart shows that business class saver tickets only cost 60,000 each way, or 120,000 round-trip for the same exact flight, a quarter of how many miles or points you would have needed with cash back or a statement credit.
If transferring points doesn't get you the best deal, Chase Ultimate Rewards offers another great way to use your points for travel.
The catch is that most airlines only make a few saver-level tickets available for each flight — and they make them available at various points before traveling — so you may not be able to find saver seats right away. Also, it's possible there will be a time when the cash price of a coach ticket in the above example is less than $600.
In that case, transferring your points to United and getting a saver-level round-trip for 60,000 miles is actually not the best deal. Fortunately, Chase gives you another great option to redeem points for travel in those cases.
Chase operates a travel booking service as part of its Ultimate Rewards website. If you use that service — either online or by phone — to purchase airline tickets or make hotel reservations, you get a 25% bonus in value. In other terms, instead of each point being worth one cent, they're worth 1.25 cents. That means that if you were looking at a $600 flight from Chicago to Munich, you would only need 48,000 Chase points, fewer than you would need for a saver ticket if you were to transfer the points to United.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred offers 50,000 bonus points if you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first three months of opening your account. That's worth $500 as cash back, $625 for travel booked directly through Chase, or potentially even more if you transfer your points to an airline or hotel partner.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred comes with a ton of other benefits, too.
While many credit card and travel experts value the Chase Sapphire Preferred for its rewards, it also comes with some extremely valuable benefits.
Trip delay protection covers you for expenses if you're delayed either for 12 hours or overnight while traveling. Each covered person on the trip can be reimbursed for up to $500 a day in reasonable expenses, including food, toiletries, a change of clothing, and hotel accommodations. This can be extremely useful when you're on the road.
The card also offers a primary auto rental collision damage waiver, or free loss and damage coverage when you use the card to pay for a rental car. Just decline the collision/damage/loss coverage offered by the rental agency.
With additional features including trip cancellation/interruption insurance, various purchase protections, extended warranty coverage, and even luggage delay insurance, the Chase Sapphire Preferred offers an incredible level of coverage considering its $95 annual fee (which is waived for the first 12 months), which makes it a favorite for shoppers and travelers everywhere.