Is the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card Worth it in 2024?

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card gets A LOT of hype. 

But there are plenty of other cards on the market these days, some that are direct competition.

So is the Chase Sapphire worth it still in 2024?

Let’s take a looksy at 9 of the biggest benefits, and I’ll let you decide for yourself. 

1. The welcome offer 

Right now you can score a massive 60,000 point bonus when you open the Chase Sapphire Preferred card and spend $4,000 in your first 3 months.

Those 60,000 points are worth at least $750 when you book travel through the Chase Travel℠ portal. And I’ll show you how to squeeze even more value out of those points in a sec.

But no matter how you decide to spend those 60,000 points, you’ll get magnitudes more value back than the teensy $95 annual fee you pay.

It’s essentially like trading $95 for $750+ worth of travel.

2. Boosted earning rates

The Sapphire Preferred is one of the best travel rewards cards for beginners because it offers higher earning rates in categories that most travelers spend a lot of money in. 

The current earning rates are:

• 5x points on travel booked through Chase Travel^SM
• 3x points on dining, select streaming services, and online grocery (excluding Target, Walmart, and wholesale clubs)
• 2x points on other travel purchases
• 1x points on everything else

I travel a lot. And I eat out a lot (almost every day while traveling). So if you’re like me, you can rack up points 2-3 times as fast. 

If you’re a frequent traveler or eater-outer, the bonus points you earn could potentially cancel out the $95 fee all by itself…and that’s before we even start considering all the other perks.

3. Annual $50 hotel credit

An even easier way to help cancel out that $95 annual fee is with the $50 hotel credit you get every year. 

This credit is valid through bookings made through the Chase Travel℠ portal, which — if we’re being honest — isn’t my favorite place to book my hotels.

But still, if you use this credit, you only have to justify $45 of that annual fee, which as you’ll see, is pretty easy to do. 

4. Epic Hyatt redemption opportunities

Opening the Sapphire Preferred card unlocks the ability to use all Chase’s transfer partners to get even more value out of each point. 

And one of the awesomest places to transfer these points is to Hyatt at a 1:1 transfer ratio.

This is often one of BEST ways to maximize the value of your points, and here’s why…

Hyatt has this cool fixed award chart that lets you book rooms for as little as 3,500 points a night. That’s not a typo – 3,500 points!

When redeemed for cash, those 3,500 points would only get you $35. 

But when transferred to Hyatt, you could use those same 3,500 points to book a hotel room that normally would cost $100+ per night.

So now let’s think back to that welcome offer we talked about earlier. 

You can earn 60,000 bonus points plus a minimum of 4,000 more points from hitting the minimum spend. That’s 64,000 points (and likely more). 

Which could potentially score you EIGHTEEN free nights at any of the Hyatt properties that cost 3,500 points/night. That’s nuts.

5. Surprise points rebate

Every year on your card anniversary, you’ll get a surprise boost of extra points equal to 10% of your total spend during the previous year.

So if you racked up 35,000 points during the year, bam! An extra 3,500 points magically appear in your account (enough for a free night at certain Hyatt properties!). 

It’s a sweet deal that rewards you for using your card often. 

6. Boosted rewards redemptions

Normally, when you book travel through the Chase Travel℠ portal, you get a value of 1 cent per point.

But if you hold the Sapphire Preferred, you points magically become worth 1.25 cents each.

Put another way, it’s like you’re getting a 25% sale when you pay with points in the Chase Travel℠ portal.

So, let’s say you’re eyeing a $469 getaway. Instead of shelling out cash, you can use just 37,520 points.

You can pay for flights, hotels, and rental cars all through the Chase Travel℠ portal, which can be a great option if you’re looking for simplicity — 1.25 cents per point ain’t bad!

But if you really wanna squeeze the juice out of those points, I recommend using their transfer partners.

By doing so strategically, you can often get 2 cents per point or more. 

7. Long list of valuable transfer partners

Speaking of transfer partners, Chase has some of the most enticing partners in the industry. 

Here’s a full list of where you can transfer your points:

• Aer Lingus (1:1 transfer ratio)
• Air Canada 1:1
• Air France/KLM 1:1
• British Airways 1:1
• Emirates 1:1
• Iberia 1:1
• JetBlue 1:1
• Singapore Airlines 1:1
• Southwest Airlines 1:1
• United Airlines 1:1
• Virgin Atlantic 1:1
• IHG One Rewards 1:1
• Marriott Bonvoy 1:1
• World of Hyatt 1:1

If you’re willing to do a bit of research, you can use these partners to REALLY stretch those points. 

For example, you could shoot 47,500 Ultimate Rewards Points over to Virgin Atlantic to score a business class flight to Europe worth around $3,000.

That’s over 4 cents per point – holy crap!

I don’t wanna beat a dead horse here, but essentially this means you could pay $95 for a card, get a $50 hotel credit, get a $3,000 flight, and still have points left over to spare. 

We’re talking about splurging on business class here. But if you’re like me, you might prefer multiple free flights in economy over one free flight in business — which you can totally do.

8. Limited-time transfer bonuses

If that weren’t enough, Chase loves to sweeten the deal with awesome transfer bonuses. 

These deals pop up regularly and last for a limited time. 

Some recent examples are:

• 30% bonus to Virgin Atlantic
• 25% bonus to Air France/KLM Flying Blue
• 60% bonus to IHG One Rewards
• 25% bonus to JetBlue

If you time your transfer around one of these bonuses, it’s crazy how far your points will stretch.

Let’s take a 30% transfer bonus to Flying Blue, for example.

Suddenly, you only need to move 11,500 Ultimate Rewards points to snag a Flying Blue Promo Reward ticket from the US to Europe. That’s bonkers.

With a deal like this, the welcome bonus from this $95 card could potentially get you four flights between the U.S. and Europe…and you’d still have extra points to spare.

9. Special Chase offers

Chase Ultimate Deals are an extra perk that not many people talk about. 

You can activate these offers to get extra cash back at different retailers. 

Many of these offers focus on travel, which is right up your alley. 

To be honest, I usually forget about this perk. But if you take advantage of them, they can help offset the annual fee (but I think we’ve established plenty of ways to do that already).

The final verdict: Is the Chase Sapphire Preferred worth it?

In my opinion, there are no other cards that can hold their weight against the Chase Sapphire Preferred at the $95 annual fee price point.

Other banks offer cards that seem like they’re meant to compete with Sapphire Preferred — like the Capital One Venture Rewards Card.

And while there are decent alternative options, they don’t quite stack up. 

I’m not trying to poop on these competing cards or anything — I’ve actually had several of them personally.

But I only opened them because I already had the Sapphire Preferred in my wallet. 

Trust me…if you’re looking for which card to get FIRST, then the Chase Sapphire Preferred is the way to go.

Click here to learn more or sign up for the card and start earning those precious points!