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.

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:

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.  

Welcome Offer Comparison

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

BEST BEGINNER CARD

Chase Sapphire Preferred^® Card

U.P. Rating 

The rating for this card has been determined by our own industry experts who know the in's and out's of credit card products. Bonuses, rewards as well as rates and fees are all taken into account. Compensation from the issuer does not affect our rating. We only recommend products we either use ourselves or endorse.

A fantastic travel card with a great welcome offer, good benefits, and perks for a moderate annual fee.

Apply Now(at Chase's secure site)

Chase Sapphire Preferred^® Card

A fantastic travel card with a great welcome offer, good benefits, and perks for a moderate annual fee.

Welcome Offer

Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.

60,000 bonus points

UP's Bonus Valuation*:

$1,200

Annual Fee

$95

APR

20.74% - 27.74% Variable

Credit Recommended

Upgraded Points credit ranges are a variation of FICO^®Score 8, one of many types of credit scores lenders may use when considering your credit cardapplication.

Good to Excellent (670-850)

Why We Like This Card

The Chase Sapphire Preferred^® card is one of the best travel rewards cards on the market. Its bonus categories include travel, dining, online grocery purchases, and streaming services, which gives you the opportunity to earn lots of bonus points on these purchases.

Additionally, it offers flexible point redemption options, no foreign transaction fees, and excellent travel insurance coverage including primary car rental insurance. With benefits like these, it’s easy to see why this card is an excellent choice for any traveler.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• 5x points on all travel booked via the Chase Travel portal
• 5x points on select Peloton purchases over $150 (through March 31, 2025)
• 5x points on Lyft purchases (through March 31, 2025)

Cons

• $95 annual fee
• No elite benefits like airport lounge access or hotel elite status

Read Full Review

Card Highlights

• Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
• Enjoy benefits such as 5x on travel purchased through Chase Travel℠, 3x on dining, select streaming services and online groceries, 2x on all other travel purchases, 1x on all other purchases, $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit, plus more.
• Get 25% more value when you redeem for airfare, hotels, car rentals and cruises through Chase Travel℠. For example, 60,000 points are worth $750 toward travel.
• Count on Trip Cancellation/Interruption Insurance, Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver, Lost Luggage Insurance and more.
• Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
• Member FDIC

Financial Snapshot

• APR: 20.74% - 27.74% Variable
• Foreign Transaction Fees: None

Rewards Center

Chase Ultimate Rewards

Marriott Boundless Card

Marriott Bonvoy Boundless^® Credit Card

U.P. Rating 

The rating for this card has been determined by our own industry experts who know the in's and out's of credit card products. Bonuses, rewards as well as rates and fees are all taken into account. Compensation from the issuer does not affect our rating. We only recommend products we either use ourselves or endorse.

Marriott loyalists will love this card's annual Free Night Award, automatic elite status, and up to 17x points per $1 on Marriott hotel stays.

Apply Now(at Chase's secure site)

Marriott Bonvoy Boundless^® Credit Card

Marriott loyalists will love this card's annual Free Night Award, automatic elite status, and up to 17x points per $1 on Marriott hotel stays.

Welcome Offer

Earn 125,000 bonus points after spending $5,000 on purchases in your first 3 months from your account opening.

125,000 points

UP's Bonus Valuation*:

$875

Annual Fee

$95

APR

20.74% - 27.74% Variable

Credit Recommended

Upgraded Points credit ranges are a variation of FICO^®Score 8, one of many types of credit scores lenders may use when considering your credit cardapplication.

Good to Excellent (670-850)

Why We Like This Card

If you’re a frequent traveler and a Marriott loyalist, there’s a lot to love about the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless^® Credit Card. The card comes packed with several great benefits like a free hotel night once a year, automatic Silver Elite status (with a fast-track to Gold Elite status), and multiple options for redeeming points.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Earn big when you use your card at thousands of participating Marriott Bonvoy hotels
• Earn big at grocery stores, gas stations, and dining
• Automatic Silver Elite Status

Cons

• $95 annual fee
• Marriott Silver Elite Status is the lowest status tier

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Card Highlights

• Earn 3 Free Night Awards (each night valued up to 50,000 points) after qualifying purchases.
• Earn 3X points per $1 on the first $6,000 spent in combined purchases each year on grocery stores, gas stations, and dining.
• Earn 1 Elite Night Credit towards Elite Status for every $5,000 you spend.
• 1 Free Night Award (valued up to 35,000 points) every year after account anniversary.
• Earn up to 17X total points per $1 spent at thousands of hotels participating in Marriott Bonvoy^® with the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless^® Card.
• Receive 15 Elite Night Credits annually, automatic Silver Elite status, and path to Gold Status when you spend $35,000 on purchases each calendar year.
• No Foreign Transaction Fees. Your points don't expire as long as you make purchases on your card every 24 months.
• Member FDIC

Financial Snapshot

• APR: 20.74% - 27.74% Variable
• Foreign Transaction Fees: None

Rewards Center

Marriott Bonvoy

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 Comparison

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

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

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. 

Statement Credits Comparison

The Chase Sapphire Preferred card has 1 main statement credit available.

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

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.

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.

Travel Insurance and Protection Comparison

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 Protection and Benefits Comparison

DoorDash Benefits

Both of these cards offer a complimentary DoorDash DashPass subscription valid for a minimum of 1 year after activation.

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.

Fees and Adding Additional Users

No Foreign Transaction Fees

Both of these cards have no foreign transaction fees.

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.