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!
