If you spend $4,000 in the first 3 months of your account opening, you'll get 60,000 bonus points.
For a long time, the Chase Preferred card was the best card for earning rewards points. It is a great starter card for rewards and a rich initial bonus.
If you want to apply for other cards before you apply for the Chase card, you should get a Chase card that has gotten fewer than 5 new cards in the past 2 years. If you have received a card bonus in the last 48 months, you cannot be eligible for a bonus on this card.
After all these years, I have 14 favorite things about Sapphire Preferred.
Initial Bonus 60,000 points are worth a minimum of $750, but I value Chase points at around 1.7 cents apiece because of all of the transfer opportunities. That’s $1020 in value just for spending $4000 on the card within the first 3 months of opening the account.
Double Points on All Travel and Triple on DiningThat’s what most of my spend is, especially reimbursable spend — not just air and not just hotels, but both and cars and taxis and tolls, plus meals on the road.
The Reserve earns 3 points per dollar on travel, but I get asked a lot if I should keep it after the first year, and it's a tougher card to get approved for in readers.
Ultimate Rewards MallAdditional points for your online shopping through access to the Chase Ultimate Rewards mall, a mileage-earning shopping portal that often has the most lucrative opportunities to earn extra points for the online purchases you’d make anyway.
Points transfer to Singapore Airlines — one of the best airlines in the world, with great premium cabin availability, stopovers for a fee even on one-way awards, and very low feesIt’s very rare indeed that you can ever use miles from Star Alliance partner programs like United MileagePlus, Aeroplan, or LifeMiles for long haul premium cabin travel on Singapore. But Singapore offers members using their own miles fantastic award availability on most of their routes. In the past Suites Class has even been regularly available between Europe and Singapore as well as Australia.
What’s more Singapore Airlines is refreshing the cabins on its Airbus A380s, the most luxurious commercial aircraft flying, while other carriers consider retiring theirs. So their Suites class is expected to return.
Points transfer to United Airlines MileagePlus which is great because it’s one of the few airlines in the world that does not add fuel surcharges onto any awards and because that gives you access to availability across the Star Alliance and with easy online bookings. Chase transfers to Aeroplan with no fuel surcharges as well, but for a U.S. member United also gives you access to awards on their own flights (for more miles) that partners do not have.
Points transfer to Air France which offers great business class award availability and discounts on awards up to 50%.In my experience they make far more award space available on Air France and KLM flights to their own members than they do to partners. I find really good space between the US and Europe, even on West Coast routes.
Flying Blue offers promo awards discounting certain markets 20% – 50% that let you book travel between that city and anywhere Air France or KLM flies in Europe (depending on the gateway that is on sale).
Points transfer to Hyatt which gives you access to high-end hotel redemptions, reasonably-priced suite awards, and room upgrades with points.Hyatt lets you redeem ~ 60% more points than a standard room for a suite on a free night. And Hyatt lets you spend 6000 points per night on a qualifying paid rate stay to upgrade to a suite — at booking. And that 6000 point price is the same regardless of the price level of a hotel. For additional points you can even book a premium suite.
You have to pay the standard Hyatt daily rate to upgrade a paid reservation to a suite, and at a resort you have to book at least a deluxe room to be eligible to use points for upgrades.
Park Hyatt Aviara
Points transfers with most airline and hotel partners are instant.This is great because you don’t risk awards disappearing this way. And you don’t need to transfer points to an airline or hotel program until you need them, since transfers happen quickly. (Singapore Airlines transfers in my experience take 12-24 hours but have taken as long as 36 – which is ok since Singapore has let me put awards on hold, then I’ll transfer the points).
Use Points For Statement Credits The new Pay Yourself Back tool lets you redeem points at 1.25 cents apiece in value against eligible card charges.
Purchase ProtectionIf you buy something and the merchant won’t take it back and it’s within 120 days of your purchase, they can pay you back instead up to $500.
When I dropped my Android phone on the sidewalk two months after I bought it, I smashed the glass screen — and I wound up with a check for $314.99.
They will cover a second year if the warranty lasts a year. They will cover a third year if it lasts two years. If your stuff breaks, get in touch with Chase and they will send you a check.
Baggage Delay CoverageIf your checked bags are delayed more than 6 hours they’ll reimburse you for things like toileteries and clothing you need to buy, up to $100 a day for 5 days (or until your bags are delivered, if less).
If your carry-on bags are lost or damaged permanently, they will provide coverage up to $3,000 per passenger.
Primary Rental Collision CoverageIf you rent a car with this card you don’t just earn double points (for travel) but get extra protection. Most premium cards offer secondary collision coverage, they pay what your insurance doesn’t (which usually means they cover your deductible). With Sapphire Preferred’s primary coverage, rental a qualifying vehicle and charge it to the card and your insurance company may not even need to know…
Trip Delay CoverageBuy airline tickets with the card and if you’re delayed 12 hours or overnight you can get reimbursed for hotel costs and meals.
You have to be on a round trip ticket and have charged at least a portion of it to the card.
The $500 benefit applies to each spouse or dependent who is delayed whose ticket you charged to the card.
Since you only have to charge a portion of a ticket to the card, coverage applies even to award travel, so it's best to pay award ticket taxes with a Sapphire Preferred Card.
The Card Has a Great Look and FeelThis isn’t a reason to get a card but it’s a sleek card, heavier than what you’re used to and without any raised numbers (and in fact, no numbers on the front of the card).
Andy decided to change his Chase card to a regular card with no fee. He tried to throw the card away. With a torch.
I applied for this card in 2011. It is still a great role-player, especially as a Chase hub, where you earn points at accelerated rates with Chase and then transfer them to the Chase Preferred.
My favorite card for earning rewards points is the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card, which has a best-ever public offer that lets you earn 50,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. Even more is earned by Citi Prestige.
In the featured section.
My favorite card for earning rewards points has gotten better with an offer of 50,000 points as a sign up bonus. These points can be used for airline miles and hotel points. There was a test of 50,000 points with a higher annual fee.
In the featured section.
A month ago it was a strong rumor. The good news is that the improvements are still there.
