Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card review and guide

July 8, 2025: The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is Chase’s flagship travel rewards card. The Sapphire Preferred offers elevated rewards in useful categories like travel, online grocery, dining, and select streaming services and best-in-class travel insurance protections.

Our review of the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card

Cards and Points Rating: 4.0/5.0
Read more about our star ratings.

Chase recently updated how you could redeem your points on the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card. The card still offers excellent travel insurance protections and earns a fair number of points on travel, but it isn’t as easy to recommend as it once was.

First, let’s start with the card’s biggest strengths: Travel insurance protections and transfer partners. Overall, the Chase Sapphire Preferred offers best-in-class travel insurance benefits in its market segment, plus it has essential consumer insurance benefits like extended warranty and purchase protection. And Chase’s Ultimate Rewards program offers several point transfer partners that are both easy to use and offer consistently good-value rewards.

But we’re not a fan of the recent changes Chase made to one of the easiest ways to redeem your points. Chase took away the ability to use points for 25% more value for any booking through Chase Travel and replaced it with what it calls Points Boost–occasional opportunities to use points for 50% or 75% more value with select bookings. Now instead of having an easy way to consistently get better value for your points, you have to hunt for deals.

Of course, we like the idea of being able to get more value from our points, but we don’t think that the possibility of getting more value outweighs the simplicity of the easy redemption option that was taken away.

Overall, the Sapphire Preferred still delivers on its promise of being a solid travel card. And we think that the Chase Ultimate Rewards ecosystem is still a great choice for someone getting into travel rewards, but the card is no longer clearly the frontrunner in this space.

Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card at a glance

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card offers excellent travel insurance protections, additional points on travel and enables transfers to Chase’s loyalty program transfer partners.

Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card

Earn 60,000 bonus points after $5,000 in purchases in your first 3 months from account opening.

Learn how to apply.

This bonus is earned as Chase Ultimate Rewards® points.
Chase occasionally offers a better in-branch exclusive offer on this card.
Annual fee: $95

Rewards: Ultimate® rewards on a variety of travel purchases.

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card earns Ultimate Rewards® points, which can be redeemed for a variety of cash back and travel rewards. Here’s what the Sapphire Preferred earns:

• 5x on travel purchased through Chase Travel℠, excluding hotel purchases that qualify for the $50 annual Chase Travel hotel credit.
• 5x on Lyft rides through September 30, 2027.
• 5x on Peloton equipment and accessory purchases over $150, on up to $5,000 of total purchases, through December 31, 2027.
• 3x on dining, including eligible takeout and delivery services.
• 3x on online grocery purchases, excluding Target, Walmart, and wholesale clubs.
• 3x points on select streaming services.
• 2x on other travel purchases.
• 1x on other purchases.

Bonus points: 10% anniversary bonus rewards

With the Sapphire Preferred, you’ll receive a “10% reward bonus” at the end of your cardmember year based on the amount you spent on your card in the prior year. If you spend $10,000 on your card in your cardmember year, you will receive 1,000 bonus points. Spending in bonus categories does not increase the amount of the reward bonus you receive.

Being phased out: Chase Travel redemptions for 25% more value

If your Chase Sapphire Preferred account was opened prior to June 23, 2025, you will have the ability to redeem your points for 25% more value through Chase Travel for some time. Here are the important dates to be aware of:

• June 23, 2025. If your Chase Sapphire Preferred card was opened before this date, you get grandfathered-in to using your points for 25% more value through Chase Travel.
• October 25, 2025. Points earned on or before can be redeemed for the higher of 25% more value or the current Points Boost offer through Chase Travel. This includes points transferred to your card by this date.
• October 27, 2027. Redeeming points for 25% more value for all bookings ends. All non-Points Boost Chase travel redemptions will get you 1 cent per point.

If you opened a Chase Sapphire Preferred account on or after June 23, 2025, your points are worth 1 cent each toward any Chase Travel booking that isn’t marketed as a Points Boost option.

Benefits: Best-in-class travel insurance benefits

The core of the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card‘s benefits are its travel insurance protections, but the card also offers solid consumer insurance benefits, plus a few ways to eke a bit more value out of the card.

Consumer insurance benefits

• Extended warranty protection provides additional warranty coverage on items you purchase with your card. Chase extended warranty protection extends the time period of the U.S. manufacturer’s warranty by an additional year, on eligible warranties of three years or less.
• Purchase protection protects the things you buy with your card from damage or theft for a certain amount of time after you buy them. Chase Sapphire Preferred® purchase protection covers your new purchases for 120 days against damage or theft up to $500 per claim and $50,000 per account.

Travel insurance benefits

• Auto rental collision damage waiver protects you against damage to or theft of your rental vehicle. For coverage to apply, you need to reserve and pay for your vehicle using your card and decline your car rental company’s collision damage waiver. The coverage provided by your Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is primary to your personal auto insurance. It covers rentals up to 31 consecutive days.
• Baggage Delay Insurance reimburses you for essential purchases like toiletries and clothing for baggage delays over 6 hours by passenger carriers up to $100 per day for five days.
• Lost luggage reimbursement offers reimbursement if your bags are lost, damaged or stolen while traveling on a common carrier. Coverage is included up to $3,000 per passenger, per trip.
• Roadside dispatch service provides a single number that you can use to get connected to local providers for roadside services like towing, lockout service, tire changes, fuel delivery, and more. Services are provided for a pre-negotiated, per-service fee.
• Travel accident insurance pays set benefit amounts for loss of life or limb while traveling, as long as you book your common carrier tickets with your card. Chase travel accident insurance provides coverage both while being transported by a common carrier and during your trip.
• Trip Cancelation and Interruption Insurance: If your trip is canceled or cut short by sickness, severe weather and other covered situations, you can be reimbursed up to $10,000 per person and $20,000 per trip for your pre-paid, non-refundable travel expenses, including passenger fares, tours, and hotels.
• Trip delay reimbursement can cover your incidental expenses or a hotel room when your travel is delayed for a covered reason. Chase Sapphire Preferred trip delay insurance covers delays of 12 or delays requiring an overnight stay and up to $500 for each ticket purchased.
• Travel and emergency assistance services can provide local referrals to legal help, medical professionals, transportation providers and many other services. This benefit does not cover the cost of these services; it only provides referrals.

Statement credits and partner benefits

• $50 for Chase hotel bookings. Receive up to a $50 statement credit each cardmember year when you book hotel stays through Chase Travel℠.
• DashPass DashPass. Receive 12 months of complimentary access to DashPass when you activate by December 31, 2027. Additionally, DoorDash members get up to $10 off each month on non-restaurant DoorDash orders.

Should you upgrade, downgrade, or cancel?

If you’ve had the Chase Sapphire Preferred® for a year or more, Chase may offer you the option to a no-annual-fee card or an upgrade to the Chase Sapphire Reserve. Here’s what we think of these options.

Downgrading to the Freedom Unlimited or Freedom Flex

Chase will typically let you downgrade to the Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the Chase Freedom Flex®. Of these two, we like the Freedom Flex option better. If you’re not getting enough value out of the Sapphire Preferred to justify its annual fee, considering downgrading as an alternative to closing.

A downgrade can be a way to get a second card of the same product. Typically, Chase won’t approve you for a Freedom Unlimited or Freedom Flex if you already have the card, but you may be able to get a second card through a downgrade.

Now, this doesn’t make much sense for the Freedom Unlimited—there’s no real benefit to having a second Freedom Unlimited card. But since the Freedom Flex’s 5% rotating quarterly categories are limited to $1,500 in spending per quarter, having a second Freedom Flex card can get you an additional $1,500 of spending that you can earn 5% on.

If you are downgrading to a card product you don’t already have, consider applying directly for that card instead. You can earn a welcome offer on the Freedom Unlimited or Freedom Flex with a new application, but you won’t get a welcome offer if you’re downgrading.

Downgrading to the Chase Sapphire Card

Chase has a secret no-annual-fee “Chase Sapphire” card. For a short time, this card was available to new cardmembers, but the last several years it has been available as a downgrade option from the Chase Sapphire Preferred and Chase Sapphire Reserve.

A downgrade to the Chase Sapphire card could be a good option if you want to keep your credit line and punt on what to do with your card, while avoiding annual fees.

Upgrading to the Chase Sapphire Reserve®

If you’ve had the Sapphire Preferred for a year or more, you may qualify to upgrade to the Chase Sapphire Reserve, Chase’s high-end travel card. The card has a hefty annual fee, so you’ll need to weigh the benefits against the additional cost of the premium card. Recently, Chase upped the annual fee and, in our view, made the product a lot more complex—there’s too much to cover comprehensively here, but here are some of the big things to think about:

• Earning points on Chase Travel, flights and hotels: The Chase Sapphire Reserve earns more points on Chase Travel bookings (8x) and on direct bookings of flights and hotels (4x). The marginal rewards you’ll earn are directly proportional to the amount you spend in these categories.
• You redeem points for luxury hotels through Chase Travel: If you frequently pay to stay in luxury hotels, you might do better thanks to Chase’s Points Boost redemption scheme, which gives you more value for some bookings, which typically skew toward luxury hotels.
• Airport lounge access: The Chase Sapphire Reserve does come with a Priority Pass lounge access and access to Chase’s own lounge network. But there are cheaper cards that offer airport lounge access.
• Statement and partner credits: Chase recently added a bunch of statement and partner credits to the Sapphire Reserve. If your spending matches up with the credits on offer, that may provide additional value.

Our experiences: We love Ultimate Rewards, but use other cards

I’ve held the Chase Sapphire Preferred card on-and-off since the card’s launch. Sometimes I’ve upgraded to the Sapphire Reserve. Currently, I carry an Ink Business Preferred card, which I think is a better card, on balance. For me, the biggest value of the Sapphire Preferred (and the other Chase cards that carry an annual fee) is the ability to transfer points to Hyatt.

While I am fortunate enough to not have personal experience with Chase’s travel insurance protections, I do have many friends who have said good things about the Chase Sapphire Preferred’s trip delay reimbursement—I’d feel confident in using the card to book travel.

If I went all-in with one travel rewards program, it would probably be Chase Ultimate Rewards. I’d probably upgrade to the Chase Sapphire Reserve since I travel a lot and value the airport lounge access. And if I didn’t, I’d probably use the Ink Preferred instead of the Sapphire Preferred. The Ink Preferred trades off some travel protections for earning more points on general travel, which I’d value more.

Is the Chase Sapphire Preferred® right for you?

If you want to redeem points for travel, chances are that the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is a great card for you. Here’s how to tell if the Sapphire Preferred is a good fit:

• You want to redeem your points for travel rewards. The biggest strength of the Sapphire Preferred (and Chase points in general) is the travel redemption options available with Ultimate Rewards. If you want to redeem points for travel, you’ll get more value from the points you earn.
• You don’t need (or want to pay for) airport lounge access. The card to get for airport lounge access within the Chase ecosystem is the Sapphire Reserve. If that lounge access is important to you, upgrade. If not, it’s probably best to stick with the Sapphire Preferred.

Complements: Cards that pair well with the Chase Sapphire Preferred®

Here are a few other cards that can increase the value you get from the Sapphire Preferred or augment the Sapphire Preferred’s rewards earning:

• For spending everywhere else. The Chase Freedom Unlimited or Chase Ink Business Unlimited are good choices for your “everywhere else” spending. Both of these cards earn 50% more points on general purchases and have no annual fee, plus you can combine the points you earn with either card with your Sapphire Preferred points to get travel rewards faster.
• 5% in rotating categories. The Chase Freedom Flex® is a no-annual-fee card that earns Ultimate Rewards and features 5% back in categories that change quarterly. Using this card can increase the number of Ultimate Rewards you have for travel redemptions.
• For gas and groceries. Chase doesn’t offer cards that offer great rates of return on gas. Check out our list of the best grocery credit cards and our list of the best gas credit cards to find a good cash back card to add to your wallet.

Alternatives: Cards to consider instead of the Chase Sapphire Preferred®

If you’re looking at the Chase Sapphire Preferred, you probably travel a bit and are looking at rewards cards for travel. Here are some alternatives to consider before you apply for the Chase Sapphire Preferred.

• You want increased value with Ultimate Rewards®. To get the most value out of your Ultimate Rewards® points, you’ll need to carry a Chase Ultimate Rewards card with an annual fee. That means either the Sapphire Preferred, Ink Business Preferred, or Sapphire Reserve. Go for the Sapphire Reserve if you want airport lounge access or the Ink Preferred if you have a small business and want to earn more points on your general travel spending.
• You want airport lounge access. There are myriad cards offering airport lounge access. Your best bet is to find a card that offers access to the lounge network(s) that match your travel patterns.
• You’re looking for an everyday spending card. For a good rate of rewards everywhere, the Chase Freedom Unlimited is a good choice within Chase’s ecosystem of cards. But check out our list of the best 2% cash back cards if you want a single card to use everywhere.

Bottom line: A decent mainstream travel credit card

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is a reasonable option if you want to redeem your Chase points for travel, since it opens up the high-value travel redemption options of Ultimate Rewards. You’d do well to pair the card with a few no-annual-fee cards within Chase’s ecosystem if you want to earn more points or upgrade to the Sapphire Reserve if you want airport lounge access.

Frequently asked questions