Chase Sapphire Preferred Card vs. Marriott Boundless Card [Detailed Comparison]

Does getting a hotel credit card or a transferrable rewards card make sense? We’ll cut straight to the chase. Getting a transferrable rewards card is usually better, but in some situations, a hotel credit card might be ideal.

For example, suppose you focus almost exclusively on staying at a specific hotel chain and never wish to venture outside that specific company. In that case, you should probably get the hotel chain’s credit card.

But if you tend to book travel beyond hotels, such as flights, car rentals, or even cruises, it might be more valuable for you to focus on getting a transferrable rewards card so your everyday purchases can reward you more.

This article will walk you through the ins and outs of the Chase Sapphire Preferred^® Card and the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless^® Credit Card to help you decide which card might be best for your situation.

Chase Sapphire Preferred Card vs. Marriott Boundless Card — Overview

Before we dive into the specifics of each card’s benefits, let’s see what you can expect from both cards at a high level:

Feature/Benefit	Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card	Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® Credit Card
Welcome Offer	Earn 75,000 points after spending $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months.	Earn 5 Free Nights (each night valued up to 50,000 points) after spending $5,000 in the first 3 months.
Earning Potential	5x points on travel purchased through Chase Travel 5x points on Lyft purchases through March 31, 2025 5x points on select Peloton purchases over $250 through March 31, 2025 3x points on dining 3x points on online grocery purchases 3x points on select streaming services 2x points on all other travel 1x points on all other purchases 10% anniversary rewards bonus based on the dollar amount spent	Up to 17x total points at hotels participating in Marriott Bonvoy 3x points on the first $6,000 spent in combined purchases each year on grocery stores, gas stations, and dining 2x points on all other purchases
Redemption Options	Transfers to travel partners Travel booked through Chase Travel (25% redemption bonus) Pay Yourself Back (up to 25% redemption bonus) Gift cards Merchandise Amazon.com and BestBuy.com purchases Charity Cash-back/statement credits	Reward Marriott Bonvoy hotel nights, cash + points, PointSavers Dining, concerts, and sports experiences through Marriott Bonvoy Marriott Bonvoy Moments Transfer points to Rakuten Uber products
Hotel Program Benefits	Access to the Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection	Reward night award every year after your account anniversary (up to 35,000 points) 15 Elite Night Credits each calendar year Automatic Silver Elite status (plus the ability to get Gold Elite status when you spend $35,000 on purchases each calendar year) The ability to earn 1 Elite Night Credit for every $5,000 spent
Statement Credits	Up to $50 in annual Ultimate Rewards hotel credits Up to $15 in quarterly Instacart+ credits after activating by July 31, 2024	None
Travel Insurance and Protections	Primary rental car insurance Trip cancellation and interruption insurance Trip delay reimbursement Lost luggage reimbursement Baggage delay insurance Travel accident insurance Roadside assistance Travel and emergency assistance services	Trip delay reimbursement Lost luggage reimbursement Baggage delay insurance
Shopping Benefits and Protections	A minimum of 1 year of DoorDash DashPass membership when you activate by December 31, 2024 Purchase protection Extended warranty No foreign transaction fees	A minimum of 1 year of DoorDash DashPass membership when you activate by December 31, 2024 Purchase protection No foreign transaction fees
Annual Fees	$95	$95
Authorized Users	No additional annual fees for authorized users	No additional annual fees for authorized users

Bottom Line:

If you’re looking for an all-around credit card that will get you the best return on your spending, the ability to use points flexibly beyond hotels, and travel insurance, you simply can’t go wrong with the Chase Sapphire Preferred card. But if you’re all-in on Marriott Bonvoy, the Marriott Boundless card could suit you well.  

The Value of a Welcome Offer

Both of these credit cards usually have impressive welcome offers, which is one of the best ways to accelerate your rewards in the short term.

Although you’ll want to make sure that whatever card you apply for makes sense for you as a long-term fit, the welcome offer is the cherry on top.

Here are what both cards have to offer at the moment:

Chase Sapphire Preferred Card

Marriott Boundless Card

Chase Ultimate Rewards Points vs. Marriott Bonvoy Points

Let’s kick-start our discussion of Chase Ultimate Rewards points versus Marriott Bonvoy points! First, you should understand point valuations.

We believe Ultimate Rewards points are worth around 2.0 cents each, while Marriott Bonvoy points are worth 0.7 cents.

Ultimate Rewards points are generally worth more because of their attractive transfer ratios to travel partners such as United MileagePlus and British Airways Executive Club.

For example, you can transfer around 100,000 to 125,000 Ultimate Rewards points to Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer and book a one-way business class flight to Asia, which is easily worth $3,000 or more.

One little-known fact is that Ultimate Rewards points can also be transferred to Marriott Bonvoy, though there are many reasons why you wouldn’t want to do that.

Meanwhile, Marriott Bonvoy points are typically best used for reward hotel nights. However, in some cases, you might find it valuable to transfer points at a 3:1 ratio (mostly) to other airline partners such as Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan and book an award flight in business or first class.

Bottom Line:

Because the transfer ratio from Marriott Bonvoy is 3:1 while the transfer ratio from Chase Ultimate Rewards is 1:1, we believe Ultimate Rewards points are significantly more valuable than Marriott Bonvoy points.

Earning Potential

Now, let’s look at how points can be earned with both cards.

Earning Category	Chase Sapphire Preferred Card	Marriott Boundless Card
Travel Purchased Through Chase Travel	5x points	N/A
Lyft (Through March 31, 2025)	5x points	2x points (since these purchases would count as “all other purchases”)
Select Peloton Purchases Over $250 (Through March 31, 2025)	5x points	2x points (since these purchases would count as “all other purchases”)
Dining	3x points	3x points (on the first $6,000 in combined purchases each year on grocery stores, gas stations, and dining)
Gas Stations	1x points	3x points (on the first $6,000 in combined purchases each year on grocery stores, gas stations, and dining)
Online Grocery Purchases	3x points	2x points (since these purchases would count as “all other purchases”)
Grocery Stores	1x points	3x points (on the first $6,000 in combined purchases each year on grocery stores, gas stations, and dining)
Select Streaming Services	3x points	2x points (since these purchases would count as “all other purchases”)
Purchases at Hotels Participating in Marriott Bonvoy	2x points	Up to 17x total points
All Other Travel Purchases	2x points	2x points (since these purchases would count as “all other purchases”)
All Other Purchases	1x points	2x points

The table above demonstrates the strength of the Chase Sapphire Preferred card as a rewards credit card. It’s possible to earn up to 5x points, worth a return on spending of around 10%, as each point is worth approximately 2 cents.

The area where the Marriott Boundless card sets itself apart is the bonus points earned at participating Marriott Bonvoy properties. You’ll earn up to 17x total points, equal to a return on spending of 11.9% based on our valuations.

And although you can earn up to 3x Marriott Bonvoy points on categories like gas stations and grocery stores, this equals a 2.1% return on spending, which isn’t much better than the Chase Sapphire Preferred’s 1x points (equal to a 2.0% return on spending).

Realistically, unless you’re a Marriott Bonvoy road warrior staying at properties multiple times per month, you’ll probably come out ahead on your spending with the Chase Sapphire Preferred card.

10% Anniversary Points Boost

Even better, when you renew your Chase Sapphire Preferred card every anniversary year, you’ll get a 10% anniversary points boost, which is based on the dollar amount you spend on the card in the last cardmember year. For example, if you spend $25,000 on your card in a year, you’ll get a bonus of 2,500 Ultimate Rewards points.

The Marriott Boundless card doesn’t have an anniversary points boost.

Redemption Options

Redemption Option	Chase Sapphire Preferred Card — Ultimate Rewards Points	Marriott Boundless Card — Marriott Bonvoy Points
Transfer to Airline and Hotel Partners	Yes (1:1 ratio)	Yes (mostly a 3:1 ratio)
Travel via Chase Travel	Yes	No
Pay Yourself Back	Yes	No
Cash-back	Yes	No
Statement Credits	Yes	No
Merchandise	Yes	No
Gift Cards	Yes	No
Amazon.com or BestBuy.com Purchases	Yes	No
Charity	Yes	Yes
Reward Marriott Bonvoy Hotel Nights, Cash + Points, PointSavers	No (but you can transfer points to Marriott Bonvoy)	Yes
Dining, Concerts, and Sports Experiences through Marriott Bonvoy	No (but you can transfer points to Marriott Bonvoy)	Yes
Marriott Bonvoy Moments	No (but you can transfer points to Marriott Bonvoy)	Yes
Transfer Points to Rakuten	No (but you can transfer points to Marriott Bonvoy)	Yes
Uber Products	No (but you can transfer points to Marriott Bonvoy)	Yes

This section may end up being one of the most confusing sections (at least initially) in this guide, so bear with us as we explain how Chase Ultimate Rewards points and Marriott Bonvoy points can be maximized. 

To start off, the most common way to use Chase Ultimate Rewards points is to book travel via the Chase Travel at a value of 1.25 cents per point. So if a plane ticket or hotel night costs $125, you can redeem 10,000 Ultimate Rewards points for this.

Sure, you can use your Ultimate Rewards points for cash-back, gift cards, and Amazon.com purchases, but this is offered at a poor ratio, so you wouldn’t be getting that much out of your points. 

The best way to use Ultimate Rewards points is to transfer them to airline and hotel partners such as Air France-KLM Flying Blue or World of Hyatt. Once this is done, you can book luxury award travel, including business and first class flights and high-end luxury hotels.

And if you’re in a pinch, you can even transfer Ultimate Rewards points to Marriott Bonvoy, though we wouldn’t recommend doing this unless you’re only planning on topping off your balance.

The story with Marriott Bonvoy points is similar — you can use Marriott Bonvoy points towards a variety of different redemptions, but we recommend sticking to 2 redemptions:

• Reward nights at Marriott Bonvoy hotels
• Transfers to airline partners

When you crunch the numbers, redeeming Marriott Bonvoy points for luxury hotel stays or strategically transferring your points to unique airline partners such as American Airlines AAdvantage for business or first class award travel will get you the best bang for your points.

Even though Marriott Bonvoy has more airline partners than Chase Ultimate Rewards, the 3:1 transfer ratio is much weaker than Chase’s 1:1 transfer ratio. 

Hotel Program Benefits

We believe the most obvious justification for picking the Marriott Boundless card over the Chase Sapphire Preferred card is if you need substantial benefits at Marriott Bonvoy hotels.

In this section, we’ll spell out the hotel benefits you’ll enjoy for both cards. Let’s first start with the Chase Sapphire Preferred card.

Although there are no hotel-specific benefits you get with this card, you will have access to the Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection, which is a series of over 1,000 luxury properties that offer exclusive benefits to certain Chase cardholders, including:

• Complimentary breakfast for 2 guests daily
• Room upgrade, if available
• Early check-in and late checkout, if available
• Complimentary Wi-Fi
• A special amenity unique to the property, usually valued at around $100

With the Marriott Boundless card, you’ll start off with reaching 15 Elite Night Credits each calendar year to help you get to elite status.

You’ll also enjoy automatic Silver Elite status plus the ability to earn Gold Elite status when you spend $35,000 on purchases each calendar year.

The unique feature of this card is that you can spend your way to top-tier Titanium Elite status (requires 75 Elite Night Credits per calendar year) with credit card spending alone. Specifically, you will earn 1 Elite Night Credit for every $5,000 you spend on the credit card.

Counting the 15 Elite Night Credits, you’d need to spend $300,000 on the Marriott Boundless card to earn the 60 Elite Night Credits remaining for Titanium Elite status.

Of course, there’s even the 1 reward night award every year after your account anniversary (up to 35,000 points), which could be worth easily $200.

Statement Credits

The Chase Sapphire Preferred card has 3 main types of statement credits available.

To start, you’ll get an annual hotel credit of up to $50 when booking a hotel through Chase Travel, based on the cardmember year.

Lastly, you’ll find that you can get up to $15 in quarterly statement credits for Instacart+ when you activate your complimentary 6-month membership of Instacart+ through July 31, 2024.

And although the Marriott Boundless card doesn’t offer any statement credits, the 1 reward night award every year worth up to 35,000 points is easily worth $200.

Travel Insurance and Protections

This section will walk you through the various travel protections and insurance policies you get with each card. There’s a lot of ground to cover, so let’s get right into it.

Car Rental Loss and Damage Insurance

The Chase Sapphire Preferred card offers industry-leading primary rental car insurance, up to $50,000 in coverage. Notably, this card’s coverage isn’t secondary, so you don’t need to file a claim with your own insurance first.

To get coverage, pay for your rental car reservation using this card and decline the rental car company’s collision damage waiver/loss damage waiver (CDW/LDW).

The Marriott Boundless card doesn’t currently offer rental car insurance.

Trip Interruption and Cancellation Insurance

A key benefit of the Chase Sapphire Preferred card is the trip interruption and cancellation insurance, which kicks in when you have any prepaid nonrefundable expenses lost due to covered interruptions or cancellations, including eligible weather, illness, or other incidents.

If you use your Chase Sapphire Preferred card to make these expenses, you can get reimbursed for up to $10,000 per approved claim and up to $20,000 per trip overall. You can qualify for up to $40,000 in reimbursements every rolling 12 months.

This benefit isn’t available on the Marriott Boundless card.

Trip Delay Reimbursement

The Chase Sapphire Preferred card and Marriott Boundless card offer trip delay reimbursement on covered delays of more than 12 hours (or delays that require an overnight stay).

You can get up to $500 in reimbursements with up to 1 approved claim per trip.

Lost and Delayed Luggage Coverage

If you or an immediate family member happen to have a checked bag or carry-on that is lost, damaged, or delayed, you may be eligible for reimbursement.

Both of these cards offer up to $3,000 in lost or damaged luggage reimbursements per passenger and up to $100 per day for 5 days of baggage delay insurance towards essentials like toiletries and clothing for baggage delays of over 6 hours.

Just make sure you booked your common carrier ticket (e.g. airline ticket) using your eligible Chase Sapphire Preferred card or Marriott Boundless card.

Roadside Assistance Service

When you hold the Chase Sapphire Preferred card and you run into issues while driving on the road, you can get roadside assistance 24/7 for a flat, pre-negotiated fee of $69.95 per service call, which includes:

• Fuel delivery (up to 5 gallons, cost of fuel is not included)
• Jump starting (battery boost)
• Lockout service (key replacement is not included)
• Tire changing (must have a good, inflated spare)
• Towing (up to 5 miles)
• Winching (within 100 feet of paved or county-maintained road only)

The Marriott Boundless card doesn’t currently offer this benefit to cardholders.

Emergency Travel Assistance

The Chase Sapphire Preferred card allows you access to certain emergency and travel assistance services should you run into an issue while traveling. This is a referral service only, and all costs are your sole financial responsibility:

Although this benefit is standard on the Chase Sapphire Preferred card, it is not on the Marriott Boundless card.

Travel Accident Insurance

The Chase Sapphire Preferred card offers up to $500,000 in travel accident insurance, but the Marriott Boundless card does not offer travel accident insurance.

Shopping Benefits and Protections

DoorDash Benefits

Both of these cards offer a complimentary DoorDash DashPass subscription valid for a minimum of 1 year when you activate by December 31, 2024.

Purchase Protection

Both the Chase Sapphire Preferred card and Marriott Boundless card offer up to $500 in purchase protection per item and up to $50,000 in total claims per calendar year to protect your purchase up to 120 days after you bought the item against covered incidents like theft or damage.

Extended Warranty

With the Chase Sapphire Preferred card, you’ll get access to an extended warranty that lengthens the eligible U.S. manufacturer’s warranty by up to 1 year on eligible warranties of 3 years or less. You must make the purchase on the Chase Sapphire Preferred card to get coverage.

The Marriott Boundless card doesn’t offer this benefit.

Foreign Transaction Fees

Both of these cards have no foreign transaction fees.

Annual Fees and Adding Additional Users

Annual Fees

The Chase Sapphire Preferred annual fee of $95 and the Marriott Boundless annual fee of $95 offer you a reasonable annual fee on either card.

Authorized Users

Neither the Chase Sapphire Preferred card nor the Marriott Boundless card charge additional annual fees for authorized users.

Final Thoughts

These 2 credit cards have many features in common, but they’re quite different upon closer inspection. For example, the Chase Sapphire Preferred card prioritizes earning bonus points on lifestyle, dining, and travel purchases, while the Marriott Boundless card offers the strongest rewards at Marriott Bonvoy properties.

Also, both cards can transfer points to travel partners, but Chase Ultimate Rewards points are generally at a much more favorable ratio than Marriott Bonvoy points.

Where the Marriott Boundless card shines, though, is its benefits at Marriott Bonvoy properties. In particular, you can get 1 reward night award (up to 35,000 points) after every anniversary year, automatic Silver Elite status, 15 Elite Night Credits every calendar year, and the ability to spend your way to higher status tiers.

The Chase Sapphire Preferred card is stronger for travel insurance and protections, though.

We wholeheartedly recommend the Chase Sapphire Preferred card for most consumers. Still, if you’re constantly staying at Marriott Bonvoy properties year-round and could get value from achieving elite status, you might be better off with the Marriott Boundless card or another Marriott Bonvoy-branded credit card.