This isn’t a site that is focused on points and loyalty programs. I’m not one of those dorks. However, a selection of cards and the perks that come with them are essential to frequent travelers whether they love the Points Hobby or not. The Chase Sapphire Preferred is one of the most popular cards in that space.
A recent six week trip to Asia provided a good opportunity to sign up for a new credit card, and the timing was right to choose a CSP. In this post I want to share an overview of what the whole process was like, from the initial application to receiving the welcome bonus.
Where’s the Money? This site may contain affiliate links. Many travel sites include such links to earn a commission at no cost to readers.
Chase Sapphire Preferred: Who’s It For?
This card is often recommended as a great choice for someone looking for their first card, or who is new to travel rewards. As such you won’t need a very high income or a stellar credit score to qualify. As long as your credit challenges aren’t extreme you should be good to go.
I agree that this is a good ‘starter’ card for a few reasons. The most attractive feature of the Chase Sapphire Preferred is that several points transfer partners that are exclusive to Chase. Those partners are in bold/italics:
- Aer Lingus
- Air Canada
- Air France
- British Airways
- Emirates
- Iberia
- JetBlue
- Singapore Airlines
- Southwest
- United
- Virgin Atlantic
- IHG Hotels
- Marriott
- Hyatt
If your goals are geared toward general trips and vacations you ought to find this list very helpful. For domestic travel Chase is the only bank that will offer you Southwest and United. JetBlue is also useful domestically, and you can book flights on American via JetBlue easily. For foreign travel you’ve got enough options to go anywhere in the world, or combine with points from other credit cards.
On the hotel side you have three of the big four loyalty programs to choose from. Hyatt is particularly attractive because their points are worth more than their competitors when compared to the cash rate.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred is a valuable complement to Chase’s co-branded offerings like the IHG Premier card. It makes sense to spend on this card and hold the others for their perks.
The Cost of a Chase Sapphire Preferred
The annual fee for a Chase Sapphire Preferred Card is $95, which is added to your first monthly statement. Technically it is possible to make this card pay for itself by fully utilizing the perks offered with it. However I value things like GoPuff and Instacart credits at $0 and am not going to go through the hassle of redeeming them.
The main perk offered here is a $50 hotel credit each year. This is so easy to use that I do value it at the full $50. The Chase Sapphire Preferred also comes with an annual points bonus equal to 10% of your yearly spend on the card. i.e. If you spend $20,000 per year you will receive 2000 Ultimate Rewards points as bonus. If you value them at 2 cents each that is $40. if you value them at the 1.25 cents they are worth in the Chase travel portal that is $25. So the effective cost of the card each year after just these two credits is $10-20. At that price it is a no brainer for almost anyone, because this card does have something to offer everyone.
The 5/24 Rule and Credit Card Strategy
The Chase Sapphire Preferred is often recommended as a great first card is because it is definitely going to be one of the cards you will want to select if you think you may ever be over Chase’s 5/24 rule.
Looking ahead, it can be very helpful to start an account with this card and let the account age. Age of accounts is a big factor the bureaus use to determine credit scores. One might find it useful to have and use this card for up to four years after collecting the welcome bonus. After that four years has passed you will be eligible for another welcome bonus on a Chase Sapphire Preferred. If you then want to downgrade this account to a Chase Freedom card the age of the account will be unaffected. You may also want to upgrade to a Chase Sapphire Reserve down the road, which may be somewhat easier to do if you have been making on-time payments on this card for four years.
Applying for a Chase Sapphire Preferred
Online application is very straightforward. The first step is to click on over to Chase. I’ve got a link to the Sapphire Preferred right here which won’t cost you anything and will give me a little referral bonus, so thanks for that.
When I applied I was not approved instantly, which I thought was a bit strange. I was working onboard a ship at the time and it wasn’t until the ship reached a port that I got a voicemail from Chase saying my application had been flagged for potential identity fraud and that I should call their dedicated identity fraud customer service line. a quick call cleared up the matter and I was approved for a $20,000 limit on the phone that day.
Unfortunately this card does not have a spend instantly feature where they give you a full card number and details in the Chase app upon approval. I would have liked to use the card to book my flight home from the ship, and to pay for other travel expenses that are Sapphire bonus categories. Instead they send the card via USPS and it takes 5-7 business days to arrive.
Using the Chase Travel Portal
One of the main draws of the Chase Sapphire Preferred is the ability to earn 5x points on bookings made through the Chase Travel Portal. That sounds like a great deal until you have the card in your hand and actually begin looking at the portal. It is practically unusable. It does not display the prices of rooms on the map the way every other travel app does.
The way I have mostly used this so far is to search hotels on Expedia and when I find one I like switch to the Chase app and then search that particular property by name.
Unfortunately even that method seldom results in making a booking in the Chase app because it is consistently more expensive than other travel apps.The same search for a Holiday Inn in Miami in the Chase portal vs. its competitors finds it showing a higher nightly rate.
The results are slightly better but similar for flights. The Chase app will not always find you the lowest price for a route on a given day. However if you want a specific flight Chase might be the same price as other apps or booking direct. It is a hassle to take the extra steps to check, especially since the Chase app is continually logging you out and is very slow to search. Fortunately the Chase Sapphire Preferred does count Online Travel Agencies as part of its travel category. Most cardholders will be much better off taking the 2x points for the travel category and booking their travel direct on Expedia.
Chase Sapphire Preferred Bonus Categories
The bonus categories offered by the Chase Sapphire Preferred card are:
- Travel (2-5x)
- Dining (3x)
- Select Streaming Services (3x)
- Online Grocery (3x)
- Lyft Rides (5x)
I got this card for the travel and dining categories. My main card is a Capital One Venture X. I love that card and would recommend it highly. The Chase Sapphire Preferred matches it on flights and rental cars booked through a portal. It also matches it on hotels booked directly, which is the preferred method for many travelers wanting to collect the hotel’s own points and elite nights along with the 2x points offered by these cards.
I wanted to carry this card to Asia where I knew I would be booking many flights and hotels, and where most meals would fall within the dining category. At 3x, the Chase Sapphire Preferred does beat the Venture X on dining. Because I have a good amount of Capital One Miles already, I am now using the CSP for dining, and in any category where it matches the Venture X. I see an advantage in accumulating points I can use with Chase’s partners.
Unfortunately I don’t see any value in the online grocery and streaming categories.
Earning the Bonus
At the time of writing the Chase Sapphire Preferred is offering a bonus of 80,000 points. I expected this would happen after watching increased welcome offers rotate among some other Chase cards. Unfortunately I didn’t have the luxury of sitting at home and waiting for the increased bonus. The offer I took was 60,000 points.
Even so, you can see in the images above that by using the card exclusively in its bonus categories I was able to amass almost 80k points by the time I received the bonus.
I spent more than double the required $3000 in that time, because the bonus isn’t awarded until the completion of the billing cycle in which the requirement is satisfied. This is true even if your account is paid in full before then. Points earned in a billing cycle will show as “pending points” in the Chase app until the end of that cycle.
By using the card in its bonus categories only, I have so far seen an effective rewards rate of 2.76 points per dollar. With a little effort you may be able to do even better than me. By finding a deal in the travel portal, taking more Lyft rides, watching more streaming or using online grocery it is reasonable to expect to see a 3x return on spending on the card on average. 3x Per dollar would mean a 60,000 point bonus would yield 69,000 points, and an 80k bonus would see you collecting 89,000, just at the level of minimum spend.
That’s a big bonus and a very good return. It should be enough to make this card a keeper for anyone.
