Chase Sapphire Preferred Review and Extra $300 Sign Up Bonus-Extra SUB Expires 11/14/24

 We are very happy with our new Sapphire Preferred Card. (My sign-up referral link.). Aside from the generous signup bonus (SUB) that we got in branch offer of 70K points in six months with a $6K spend, it has a number of really good features including:

• Primary rental car insurance
• A variety of other travel insurance benefits such as baggage delay insurance, travel accident insurance and more
• $50 annual credit for hotel stays booked through the Chase travel portal
• Ability to consolidate Ultimate Rewards points from Freedom cards and then redeem or transfer
• An excellent lineup transfer partners 
• 5 points per dollar on travel booked through the Chase portal
• 3 points per dollar on dining, select streaming services and online grocery 
• 2 points per dollar on travel not booked through Chase
• Complimentary DoorDash membership until12/31/27 and $10 off per month on a non-restaurant Door Dash delivery
• Access to a wider range of Chase offers
• 1.25 cents per point value when redeeming through the Chase travel portals 
• Extended warranty coverage 
• Purchase protection 

I mentioned primary rental car coverage because this is one of the lowest fee cards that have that benefit.  It allows you to file a claim first with Chase versus with your own auto insurance.  That is a very powerful tool.

And if you take advantage of the $50 annual hotel credit, the net cost of the card is $45 per year, which is very reasonable.

It also has a pretty wide range of other travel benefits that could be of use.  

This card has a similar fee to the CapitalOne Venture Card that I have previously written about.  So how do they compare?

Both have a variety of travel benefits and a range of transfer partners.  The Sapphire Preferred definitely has edges in the area of better travel insurance benefits and it has United Airlines as a points transfer partner which might be of particular benefit depending on your air travel habits.  The Chase card also offers a 1.25 cent per point redemption value when using their own travel portal.  

The Capital One card does offer a TSA Precheck benefit, 2X Points on all purchases and access to the Capital One Lifestyle  collection of hotels.   The Lifestyle Collection includes a $50 experience credit per stay(such as at the restaurant) and when available, room upgrades, late checkout and early check in.  You can use this for multiple bookings, so theoretically the $50 in credits and other perks could really add up. Just two stays at a Lifestyle Collection hotels pay for the annual fee just in experience credits.

Personally , I think the cards compliment each other quite nicely and as I have previously written, being in multiple credit card reward ecosystems is a good idea.

I hope this has been helpful and happy travels!