[Credit Card Review] The Chase Sapphire Preferred: an Excellent Travel Reward Credit Card!

From time to time, I review various credit cards on this blog.

Whenever someone who is interested in accruing points and miles for travel asks me what credit card I recommend, I immediately recommend the Chase Sapphire Reserve Card or the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card. Without question, many of the trips that I have taken would not have been possible without the benefits of cards such as these.

You can compare these cards here.

Despite the great benefits, not everyone wants to pay the hefty $450 Chase Sapphire Reserve annual fee, especially if you’re not traveling too much and you don’t care about airport lounge access.

Enter the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card  – right now you can earn 50,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.

50,000 Ultimate Reward points translates to $625 toward travel when you redeem through Chase Ultimate Rewards! Plus, Ultimate Reward points transfer 1:1 to many leading airline and hotel loyalty programs – as a result, the value you can get out of 50,000 points can significantly exceed $625. On top of this, you get the versatility that a typical co-branded card doesn’t give you.

Airline Travel Partners

• Aer Lingus AerClub
• British Airways Executive Club
• Flying Blue AIR FRANCE KLM
• Iberia Plus
• JetBlue TrueBlue
• Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
• Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards^®
• United MileagePlus^®
• Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

Hotel Travel Partners

• IHG^® Rewards Club
• Marriott Rewards^®
• The Ritz-Carlton Rewards^®
• World of Hyatt^®

How and where you spend those points is up to you. Do you want to splurge on that ultimate dream trip, or take many smaller trips? It’s your call!

Earning Ultimate Reward points with the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card is pretty easy. For each dollar you spend on travel and dining at restaurants worldwide you earn 2x. For all other purchases, you earn 1 point per dollar spent.

I’ve had a lot of credit cards where it’s easy to accrue points, but difficult to redeem. I find that it is easy to redeem Ultimate Reward points, which is a big plus in my book.

Other benefits of the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card include no foreign transaction fees and additional 25% value when you redeem Ultimate Reward points for airfare, hotels, car rentals and cruises through Chase Ultimate Rewards. Furthermore, when redeeming directly for flights there are no blackout dates or travel restrictions – as long as there’s a seat on the flight, you can book it through Chase Ultimate Rewards.

Did I mention that the $95 annual fee is waived the first year?

(Note that per Chase’s terms, the 50,000 point welcome bonus . . .  is not available to either (i) current cardmembers of any Sapphire credit card, or (ii) previous cardmembers of any Sapphire credit card who received a new cardmember bonus within the last 48 months”).

Feel free to shoot me any questions about travel or any credit cards you may be interested in. Please, always make sure that you are financially able to pay off credit cards each month before applying for them.

So where are you going on your next trip? I’m going to Quebec, Canada.