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The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is one of the few cards that we consider a “must-have” for anyone playing the miles and points game. While it doesn’t come with the flashy benefits that its more expensive competitors offer, or the metal weight that some “status” cards boast, it remains a solid TFM favorite thanks to its versatility, its reasonable annual fee, and the fact that it earns one of the most valuable currencies in the game.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® card
In brief
The Chase Sapphire Preferred (CSP) is the cornerstone of a solid miles and points strategy because it allows you to unlock the full power of the Ultimate Rewards ecosystem without breaking the bank.
Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned traveler, the ability to transfer points to high-value partners like United Airlines and the World of Hyatt is an invaluable tool that you should almost certainly have access to.
- Annual fee: $95
- Current welcome offer (at the time of writing): Earn 75,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
- Earning rates:
- 5 points/dollar on travel purchased through Chase Travel℠.
- 3 points/dollar on dining, select streaming services, and online grocery purchases.
- 2 points/dollar on all other travel.
- 1 points/dollar on all other eligible spending.
- Key benefits:
- Points are worth 25% more when redeemed for travel through Chase Travel℠.
- No foreign transaction fees.
- Primary rental car cover.
- Transfer partners: 1:1 transfers to select airline and hotel programs (including Hyatt, United, and British Airways).
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More Details
The Welcome Bonus
At the time of writing, the sign-up bonus is sitting at a very healthy 75,000 points. We value Chase Ultimate Rewards points at around 1.5 cents each (at a minimum) based on the value we know we can get out of them with relative ease. That makes the welcome offer worth, to us, at least $1,125 in travel.
However, if you’re smart about how you use your points and transfer them to the right partners, it’s not hard to see that value climb even higher. For those who can meet the $4,000 spending requirement in three months, this is a fantastic way to jumpstart a points balance for a business-class flight or a luxury hotel stay.
Earnings
You may be looking at the 1x “everything else” category and wondering why we’re such big fans of this card, but the answer to that is simple: the bonus categories cover a very large portion of what most people actually spend money on.
- 2 x on most travel: From taxis, tolls, and subway fares to cruises, flights and hotel bookings, the CSP earns 2 points/dollar on most travel purchases not made through the Chase Travel portal.
- 3x on dining: This includes everything from a high-end Michelin-starred dinner to a quick Starbucks run.
- 3x on online groceries: This is a very useful category in 2026, though it’s important to remember that it excludes Target, Walmart, and wholesale clubs.
- 5x on travel (via Chase): While we usually prefer booking direct with airlines (to avoid having to deal with intermediaries) and booking direct with hotels (to ensure we earn loyalty points and make the most of our elite statuses), earning 5x points on travel through the portal is a very big return on spend and shouldn’t be ignored.
Most importantly, the CSP acts as a “booster” for other Chase cards.
If you hold a Chase Freedom Flex® Card or Chase Freedom Unlimited® Card, the “cash back” those cards earn can be moved to the Sapphire Preferred and then transferred to all of the airlines and hotels with which Chase partners. Without a Sapphire card (or an Ink Business Preferred® card), your Freedom Card points are “stuck” at a 1 cent/point value.
Why transfer partners are key
A big reason why the CSP is a “must-have” is because even though its annual fee comes in at under $100, it earns a flexible currency which can be transferred (converted) to a good variety of loyalty programs in a 1:1 ratio.
In the miles and points world, versatile transferable currencies rule. While you could use your points to pay for a flight at 1.25 cents each through the Chase portal, the real wins happen when you move those points to partners like:
- World of Hyatt: Currently still the best value in the hotel world (but this may change following the upcoming devaluation)
- British Airways Club: Fantastic for short-haul “Avios” redemptions (especially within Europe).
- Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer: One of the few ways to book their legendary Suites.
- United MileagePlus: Great for domestic travel and Star Alliance awards.
By transferring points to these programs, it’s likely that with a little bit of effort, the overall effective return from your spending will be much higher than any “fixed-value” cash-back card can offer.
Protections and Credits
Even for a $95 card, Chase hasn’t skimped on the “peace of mind” benefits. The CSP offers Primary Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver—a benefit often reserved for premium (expensive!) cards. This means if you have an accident and need to make a claim, you don’t have to involve your personal insurance first.
You also get a $50 annual Chase Travel hotel credit. If you stay in a hotel even once a year and book through the portal, your “effective” annual fee drops to just $45. To us, that’s a negligible price to pay for the insurance protections alone, which include Trip Cancellation/Interruption and Baggage Delay coverage.
Bottom line
The cards that usually get the most publicity are the ones that offer lounge access and big welcome bonuses, but in the real world, most people just want a card that earns valuable points on their daily spending and offers protection when things go wrong.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is a workhorse. It’s the card we recommend to friends and family more than any other because it’s simple, relatively cheap to hold, and incredibly rewarding if you know how to use the transfer partners.
We’ve been playing the miles and points game for longer than most and we hold this card (proving that it’s not just a great starter card) because it offers such good value.
It earns us valuable Ultimate Rewards points on things we frequently spend money on, it covers us when we rent cars, we can use it outside the US without incurring foreign transaction fees, and it’s inexpensive to hold.
What’s not to like?
If you don’t have this card in your wallet yet, now is probably good a time as any to consider how well it would work for you.
