The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is considered one of the best travel cards in the credit card world, and for good reason. Offers travel and dining purchases, many useful travel and non-travel perks, and perhaps most importantly, the ability to transfer your points to travel partners and get more value from a simple cashback card I will.
You can easily offset the $95 annual fee by taking full advantage of the card’s myriad benefits. But if you don’t take advantage of everything your card has to offer, you might be leaving your money on the table. From earning and redeeming rewards to earning free perks, here are my tips for getting the most out of your Chase Sapphire Preferred.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card earns great travel benefits and has one of the best rewards programs available.
1. You get the best value when you transfer your points to a travel partner
Chase highlights a 25% redemption bonus when you redeem rewards for traveling with Chase Travel, offering a flat 1.25 cents per point. However, you can get even more value out of your points without having to visit the portal.
When you transfer points to Chase’s 14 airline and hotel transfer partners and book travel directly through their own loyalty programs, you earn an average of 2 cents per point, as rated by The Points Guy. owned by The Points Guy). (by the same company as CNET). If you’re willing to do your research, you can find great deals and “sweet spots” like Iberia’s multi-thousand dollar business class flight to Europe for just 34,000 Ultimate Rewards points plus taxes and fees. If you don’t use partner transfers and redeem for travel through the portal, you’ll only earn $425 in value, or $340 in cash back, from your points.
2. Use a $50 commemorative hotel credit through Chase Travel.
There are good reasons to use the Chase Travel Portal. Chase Sapphire is prioritizing up to $50 in anniversary credits for hotel bookings through its portal. To take advantage of this credit, you must book your hotel through the Chase Travel portal and pay with your Sapphire Preferred card. Chase says the statement credit will be posted to your account within one to two billing cycles. Please note that you will not earn points on your first $50 hotel purchase made through the Chase Travel portal as you will earn a credit instead.
This credit may not be enough for a completely free stay, but if you are already planning to book a hotel through the portal, this is a great discount. This credit covers more than half of the card’s $95 annual fee.
3. Activate your travel protection benefits by paying with your card
Chase offers a lot of travel coverage to help you if something goes wrong during your trip. They include:
Trip Cancellation and Interruption Insurance: If your trip is canceled or cut short due to a covered reason, such as illness or inclement weather, you can be reimbursed for up to $10,000 of prepaid non-refundable travel expenses per person and $20,000 per trip. . Travel Delay Coverage: If your flight or transportation is delayed for more than 12 hours or requires an overnight stay, you and your family will be reimbursed for meals and lodging not covered by the airline. I’ll refund you. Coverage limit is $500 per ticket. Travel Accident Insurance: If you pay for your ticket with your card, you’ll be covered up to $500,000 in the event of accidental death or dismemberment. Lost Baggage Coverage and Baggage Delay Insurance: If your baggage is delayed for more than 6 hours, Chase will reimburse you up to $100 per day for up to 5 days on the purchase of essential items (like toiletries and clothing). If your or your next of kin’s luggage is lost or damaged by the carrier, you will be reimbursed up to $3,000 per passenger. Rental Car Collision Damage Waiver: This benefit covers damage caused by theft or collision in most rental cars. In the U.S. and abroad, up to the car’s actual cash value. To receive this benefit, you must decline the rental car company’s own collision damage coverage and pay the entire rental fee with Chase Sapphire Preferred or Ultimate Rewards points.
To benefit from these protections, you must pay for some or all of your trip with your card or Ultimate Rewards points. Even if you’re booking your trip using miles or points from an airline or hotel loyalty program, you can still benefit from travel protection by paying taxes and fees on your reservations with Chase Sapphire as your preferred option.
Please see the Chase Sapphire Preferred Benefits Guide for full terms and conditions for the travel coverage listed above.
4. Save on food delivery with a free trial of DashPass membership
The Chase Sapphire Preferred is a great card for travelers who eat out, but it also has perks for ordering takeout. Cardholders can get a free trial of Dashpass, Doordash’s premium membership, for a year or more (depending on when they activate their benefits).
Dashpass typically costs $9.99 per month and gives you access to $0 delivery fees on orders of $12 or more from eligible restaurants on Doordash and Caviar.
To get this benefit, simply add Chase Sapphire to your Doordash account as your default payment method and follow the onscreen instructions to activate your free Dashpass membership by December 31, 2027.
To receive DashPass benefits on certain orders, you must pay with your Chase Sapphire Preferred card. This card earns 3x points on restaurant dining, takeout, and eligible delivery services (including Doordash), so you’ll never miss a reward.
5. Increase your chances of earning points with Chase Trifecta
One of the things I like about Chase is that as long as you’re earning transferable Ultimate Rewards points, you can pool points between different cards (this includes both cards in the Sapphire line, the Freedom line (includes both cards, and 3 of the 4 cards) Ink Business Line). This feature is the basis of the “Chase Trifecta,” an unofficial but popular strategy devised by credit card rewards enthusiasts to combine multiple Chase cards for maximum rewards.
The exact components of the Trifecta vary depending on who you ask, but it typically involves a Sapphire Preferred or Chase Sapphire Reserve® (you can only hold one Sapphire card at a time) and two other Ultimate Rewards production cards.
Chase Freedom Flex®* and Chase Freedom Unlimited® are two popular options, but you can also redeem for the Ink Business® Credit Card, Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card, or Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card. There’s no official definition of what the Chase Trifecta should be, so choose the three cards (or two or four or five) that best fit your needs and spending habits.
The point is to maximize your benefits by using each card in the spending categories that earn you the most points.
Split benefits between cards
Best Cards with Spending CategoriesBest Cards (Travel booked with Chase Travel) 5x Chase Freedom Flex points (up to $1,500 in quarterly purchases, then 1x) Dining Chase Sapphire Preferred, Chase Freedom Flex or Chase Freedom Unlimited 3x points on drugstore Chase Freedom Flex or Chase Freedom Unlimited points 3x Chase Freedom Unlimited points on purchases outside of the above categories 1.5x
*Chase Freedom Flex and Chase Freedom Unlimited cards earn cash back on purchases ranging from 1% cash back to 5% cash back. However, rewards are distributed in the form of ultimate reward points. This can be redeemed for cash back, statement credits, gift cards, and more. Chase Freedom Flex and Chase Freedom Unlimited points can also be transferred to Chase Sapphire Preferred and then to one of Chase Sapphire Preferred’s travel partners.
Then pool your points with Chase Sapphire to take advantage of your travel partners or 25% redemption bonus when you wish and redeem travel rewards through the Chase Travel Portal. Compared to using just one of the cards above for all your purchases, Chase Trifecta helps you maximize your earning potential by taking full advantage of each card’s bonus categories .
6. Know when not to use Chase Sapphire Preferred
The Chase Sapphire Preferred is one of the best travel cards on the market, but it’s not that great for someone who rarely travels.
Most of the top perks and benefits are travel-related. If you don’t use your rewards for travel, you’ll miss out on the card’s best feature: the ability to transfer points to airline and hotel partners. Some of its features are unique to Chase.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred allows you to redeem points for cash back at a ratio of 1 point to 1 cent, but if you’re only interested in cash back rewards, you can use Freedom Cards or Cash-a-Cash-off. It would be better. Back card from another issuer. That way, you can get nearly the same benefits and potentially better benefits without paying an annual fee.
Even if you do travel and have access to Chase Sapphire Preferred’s transportation partners, it’s not the card you should use for most everyday expenses. The Chase Freedom Card offers equal or higher earning potential on essentials like meals, groceries, gas, and drugstore purchases. Earn more rewards when you use the Freedom Card for everyday expenses, and you can transfer those points to the Chase Sapphire Preferred for travel partners.
*All information about Chase Freedom Flex is independently collected by CNET and has not been reviewed by the publisher.