Chase Sapphire Preferred Card – Full Review [2026]

Great Card If

• You want a card that offers flexible redemption options
• You spend a lot on travel, online grocery purchases, gas, dining, and food delivery
• You travel frequently for work
• You’re new to the world of points and miles

Don’t Get If

• You seldom dine out and prefer cooking at home
• You don’t enjoy traveling
• You prefer a card with premium offerings such as airport lounge access or hotel elite status

Chase Sapphire Preferred^® Card — Is It Worth It?

The Chase Sapphire Preferred card is a workhorse when it comes to earning points on purchases that you likely spend the most on.

From travel to dining, gas and EV charging, vacation rentals, online grocery purchases, and even streaming services, the card will help you rack up points on all of these purchases.

Right now, the Chase Sapphire Preferred card features a limited-time welcome offer of 100,000 bonus points after you spend $5,000 in eligible purchases in the first 3 months. This is the best welcome offer we’ve ever seen on this card, and it’s a massive opportunity to earn a ton of points at once.

Once you’ve earned those points, Chase gives you plenty of redemption options. This includes cash-back, redeeming with an up to 75% bonus through the Chase Travel portal on select bookings, a 25% bonus with the Pay Yourself Back feature, or our favorite — redeeming with one of the Chase transfer partners.

The card offers more than just the opportunity to earn and redeem points, though. Cardholders also get a $100 annual hotel statement credit when booking through Ultimate Rewards. Additionally, your card helps keep you covered when things go wrong with protections including trip delay insurance, lost/delayed baggage insurance, rental car insurance, purchase protection, and emergency evacuation and transportation.

Not only is the Chase Sapphire Preferred card one of the best first credit cards, but the card often remains a long-time favorite, as it has for our Compliance Editor and Content Contributor Stella Shon, who said:

“The Chase Sapphire Preferred card is essential to my personal life, whether at home or on the go. As a frequent traveler, I love that this rewards card earns handsomely across 2 of my largest expenses: dining and travel. It doesn’t take much to justify the $95 annual fee since that breaks down to under $8 per month — and with that cost, I get a variety of travel and purchase protections, no foreign transaction fees, and access to key travel transfer partners like World of Hyatt.”

Stella Shon, compliance editor and content contributor

So, is the Chase Sapphire Preferred card worth it? If you’re looking for a card that’s great at earning points, offers flexible redemption options, and includes solid benefits and travel protections, then yes — the Chase Sapphire Preferred card would be very worth it to you.

What Benefits Do You Get With the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card?

Travel Protections

The Chase Sapphire Preferred card comes with several benefits to keep you insured while traveling. You’ll receive:

• Trip Delay Insurance — Receive reimbursements of up to $500 per ticket if your flight is delayed 12 hours or requires an overnight stay. This includes items such as lodging and food.
• Trip Cancellation and Interruption Insurance — If you need to cancel a trip due to illness, severe weather, or any other covered circumstance, you’ll receive a reimbursement of up to $10,000 per person and $20,000 per trip in non-refundable travel expenses if you need to cancel your trip or end it early.
• Baggage Delay Insurance — If your checked baggage is delayed more than 6 hours, you’ll receive $100 in reimbursements for essential items per day for up to 5 days.
• Lost Luggage Insurance — The costs you incur to repair or replace checked and/or carry-on baggage due to physical loss, theft, or damage are covered up to a maximum of $3,000 per person.
• Travel Accident Insurance — In the case of accidental death or loss of speech, sight, or hearing during your travels, you can receive up to $500,000 when the incident happens on a common carrier (airline, cruise ship, etc.) or $100,000 at any other part of your trip.
• Emergency Evacuation and Transportation — Receive coverage for emergency evacuation or transportation if you become injured or severely ill and need to reach medical care.

Annual Hotel Credit

Cardholders receive $100 in annual statement credits when purchasing a hotel stay through the Chase Travel portal. This $100 statement credit is easy to use and effectively offsets the card’s annual fee.

Points Boost

For bookings made via Chase Travel using Ultimate Rewards points, cardholders have access to Points Boost offers. On top-booked hotels and flights with select airlines, points are worth up to 1.5 cents (as much as 50% more than the standard redemption value). For premium cabin tickets on select airlines (e.g., business and first class), the point value could be as high as 1.75 cents, which could mean a 75% bonus.

Rental Car Insurance

An auto rental collision damage waiver (CDW) is a form of insurance that offers protection against damage or theft of your rental car. The Chase Sapphire Preferred’s car rental insurance is primary, so you don’t have to file a claim with any other insurance first.

This coverage applies to rentals in the U.S. and in most other countries worldwide. Your coverage extends to any additional drivers listed on your rental agreement, plus any authorized users on your card and additional drivers listed on their car rental agreements.

To activate your coverage, decline the policy offered by the car rental agency and pay for your entire rental with your card. You’ll also earn 2x Ultimate Rewards points when renting a car.

Purchase Protection

Chase purchase protection provides reimbursement or repair for qualifying items purchased with your card in the event of theft or accidental damage. To qualify, at least part of your purchase must be made with your Chase Sapphire Preferred card or with points from your Chase Sapphire Preferred card account.

If the item you purchased is stolen or accidentally damaged within 120 days from the date of purchase, you can receive a replacement, repair, or reimbursement for your item at the discretion of the benefits administrator.

The card’s purchase protection policy is capped at $500 per claim and $50,000 per account.

Extended Warranty Protection

Extended warranty coverage increases the U.S. manufacturer’s warranty of an item by 1 year if the original warranty is less than 3 years. At least part of the item must have been purchased with your Chase Sapphire Preferred card or points in your Chase Sapphire Preferred card account.

Each claim has a $10,000 maximum, and each account has a maximum of $50,000.

Global Entry, NEXUS, or TSA PreCheck Fee Credit Benefit

Your Chase Sapphire Preferred card provides you with a $120 credit for Global Entry, NEXUS, or TSA PreCheck once every 4 years. Pay the application fee for any of these programs with your card, and you’ll be reimbursed as a statement credit.

We recommend applying for Global Entry, as you will also receive TSA PreCheck benefits upon approval.

Apple TV Subscription

Cardholders receive a complimentary Apple TV subscription for 1 year when you activate this benefit by December 31, 2026. An Apple TV subscription normally costs $12.99 per month or $99 per year, so if you’re already paying for this service, your Chase Sapphire Preferred card can provide you with a nice savings.

Why Is the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card So Popular?

The Chase Sapphire Preferred card is often the first card people select when starting out in points and miles. It combines an excellent rewards program, great bonus categories, plus solid perks and protections, all for a relatively low annual fee compared to other travel rewards credit cards.

With the 100,000-point welcome offer back for a limited time only, there has never been a better time to apply for this card.

Who Is the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card For?

The Chase Sapphire Preferred card can be a good fit for those new to the world of points and miles and experienced pros. It depends on what you are looking for in a new card.

If you’re looking for a card with flexible redemption options, including access to Chase transfer partners, bonus categories for travel, dining, gas and EV charging, select streaming services, and online grocery purchases (excluding Walmart, Target, and wholesale clubs), plus perks with partners like DoorDash and Apple TV, then the Chase Sapphire Preferred card could be the perfect fit for you.

Best Ways To Earn and Redeem Your Chase Points

Aside from using your Chase Sapphire Preferred card for everyday purchases, there are many other great ways to earn Chase Ultimate Rewards points.

While Chase gives you multiple redemption options for your points, we’ve put together an ultimate guide that covers the best ways to redeem your Chase points for maximum value.

You’ll notice when reading our redemption guide that most of our favorite ways to redeem our Chase points are through Chase transfer partners to book travel experiences in programs such as Air Canada Aeroplan, Air France-KLM Flying Blue, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, and World of Hyatt.

While these redemptions require a bit more legwork, they are by far the best way to get huge value from your points — especially if you want to stay in luxury hotels and fly in first or business class cabins.

Alternative Cards to the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card

Interested in the Chase Sapphire Preferred card, but curious to learn about your other options? Check out these other offerings:

Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card

There’s a lot to love about the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card. With a variety of Capital One airline and hotel transfer partners and 2x miles minimum on all purchases, it’s easy to see why this is a direct competitor of the Chase Sapphire Preferred card.

If the majority of your daily spending comes from purchases outside of dining and travel categories, then the Capital One Venture card might be a great option for you.

For more information, check out our detailed analysis of the Chase Sapphire Preferred card vs. the Capital One Venture card.

Citi Strata Premier℠ Card

The Citi Strata Premier card is one of the few travel credit cards on the market to offer a high return on gas and EV charging purchases. This makes the card an excellent choice for those who drive often for work or love taking road trips.

Review a detailed comparison in our head-to-head article on the Chase Sapphire Preferred card vs. Citi Strata Premier card.

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The Chase Sapphire Preferred is one of several cards worth comparing, and reviewing the full range of Chase card options can help narrow down the right fit.

We’ve also compared the Chase Sapphire Preferred card with other popular cards:

• Chase Sapphire Preferred card vs. American Express^® Gold Card
• Chase Sapphire Preferred card vs. Bank of America^® Customized Cash Rewards Credit Card
• Chase Sapphire Preferred card vs. Bank of America^® Premium Rewards^® Card
• Chase Sapphire Preferred card vs. Bank of America^® Travel Rewards Credit Card
• Chase Sapphire Preferred card vs. Blue Cash Everyday^® Card from American Express
• Chase Sapphire Preferred card vs. Blue Cash Preferred^® Card from American Express
• Chase Sapphire Preferred card vs. Chase Freedom Flex^®
• Chase Sapphire Preferred card vs. Chase Freedom Unlimited^®
• Chase Sapphire Preferred card vs. Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card
• Chase Sapphire Preferred card vs. Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card
• Chase Sapphire Preferred card vs. Chase Sapphire Reserve^®
• Chase Sapphire Preferred card vs. Costco Anywhere Visa^® Card by Citi
• Chase Sapphire Preferred card vs. Marriott Bonvoy Boundless^® Credit Card
• Chase Sapphire Preferred card vs. the Platinum Card^® from American Express
• Chase Sapphire Preferred card vs. Prime Visa
• Chase Sapphire Preferred card vs. Southwest Rapid Rewards^® Plus Credit Card
• Chase Sapphire Preferred card vs. Southwest Rapid Rewards^® Premier Credit Card
• Chase Sapphire Preferred card vs. Southwest Rapid Rewards^® Priority Credit Card
• Chase Sapphire Preferred card vs. The World of Hyatt Credit Card

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UP’s Card Review Methodology

Every card we review is assigned a "U.P. Rating" – our star-based system that encompasses all the key details to showcase a card’s standout features, where it falls short, and how it stacks up for travelers to maximize rewards.

These ratings range from 0 to 5 stars and are determined by carefully weighing crucial factors like:

• Bonus categories
• Benefits and perks
• Quality of associated loyalty programs
• Annual fees and other costs
• Size of the welcome bonus (and relative to the annual fee)
• And several more

You can learn more about how Upgraded Points reviews and rates credit cards.