Who should get the Sapphire Preferred — and who should skip it
Four things decide this: whether you have ever transferred points, whether you were buying it for a specific transfer partner, whether you are under 5/24, and — the one that overrides the other three — whether you carry a balance.
If this would be your first or second travel card
Take it, and take it before you open anything else. The transfer list is the teacher: the day you move points into a hotel program with a published chart and see a room price in points that has nothing to do with its cash rate, the whole hobby stops being abstract. Two things make this the right place to learn rather than a premium card. The fee is small enough that a year of getting it wrong costs you very little, and the protections — primary rental-car cover, trip delay, trip interruption — pay out whether or not you ever learn to transfer, which is not true of a lounge card. The one condition: put it first in the queue, because Chase counts every card you open anywhere against you and the other issuers do not.
If you were buying it for Hyatt
Read the ratio column before you decide, because the answer changed in June 2026 and it changed by card rather than by program. At 4:3 a Hyatt night still costs fewer cents through this card than the same night booked with points through Chase Travel — the transfer is still the better of the two — but the margin that made it the automatic answer is gone, and the number of nights a year at which the card pays for itself on Hyatt alone has risen sharply. If Hyatt is genuinely the whole reason you are collecting Chase points, the Sapphire Reserve is the only Chase card that still transfers 1:1, and the fee difference is the honest price of that ratio. If Hyatt was one reason among several, this card is still the right one and Aeroplan is now the partner doing the heavy lifting.
If you are already at four cards in twenty-four months
This is your last Chase approval for a while, so spend it deliberately. A fifth card opened anywhere — a store card, an authorized-user account, a no-fee card you took for a single promotion — generally ends your access to the whole Chase ecosystem for two years, and the declined application still costs a hard inquiry. The corollary most reviews leave out: taking this card’s welcome offer also locks out the Sapphire Reserve’s for 48 months, because Chase treats the family as one product. So the question is not which bonus is larger this quarter but which of the two cards you would still be holding in year three.
If you carry a balance
None of the rest of this page applies to you, and that is not a hedge — it is the arithmetic. At this card’s purchase APR the interest on a revolving balance overtakes everything the card earns inside two statement cycles, and it keeps compounding while the points sit still. No welcome offer, no transfer partner and no rate of return on this page survives contact with a balance carried month to month. The correct card for you is the cheapest one you can pay off, and the correct move is to close this tab and go and find it.
What is the Sapphire Preferred welcome offer worth?
The offer is points, and the number that matters is not the headline — it is what the headline converts to at a rate this card can actually reach. Here is the whole calculation.
- The current offer
- 75,000 points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening†
- Best rate this card can reach — Air Canada Aeroplan at 1:1
- 1.5¢ per point $1,125 for the bonus
- The guaranteed floor if you never transfer — Chase Travel℠
- 1.0¢ per point $750 for the bonus · every booking, every date, nothing attached
- Points Boost — the same channel, on selected bookings only, not part of the totals
- 1.25¢ – 1.75¢ per point $938 – $1,313 for the bonus, if the bookings you want happen to carry it
- What the offer is worth on this card
- $750 – $1,125 floor to best partner, at the ratios in the transfer table below
- Spending required to earn it
- $5,000 in 3 months
- Which means, per month
- $1,667on ordinary purchases, from account opening
- First-year value: offer + credits we count − year-one fee
- $735 – $1,110
Our published blended valuation for Chase Ultimate Rewards is 1.9¢ per point. We do not use it above: it is a median across every card that earns the currency, and this card's own best documented route does not reach it. How we value points.
What Points Boost does to the floor — and what it does not
Chase flags selected flights and hotels in Chase Travel at an elevated rate — around 1.5¢ on hotels and standard fares and up to 1.75¢ on premium-cabin fares. Which bookings carry it varies by route, property, cabin and date, so it raises what a lucky redemption pays without raising what any redemption is guaranteed to pay. That makes it a real upside and a poor floor. Every dollar figure on this page that describes a reader who never transfers is priced at 1.0¢, the rate Chase Travel℠ pays on any booking on any date, because that is the only rate nobody has to get lucky to reach. Points Boost is shown in the table above as its own row for the same reason it is not folded into the totals: it is a range you may or may not be offered on the flight you actually want.
It also decides how the transfer table below should be read. Against the guaranteed 1.0¢, nearly every partner clears the portal, and the table says so. Against a 1.75¢ Points Boost booking, not one of the 14 partners clears it. So the order of operations is concrete: price the booking in Chase Travel℠ first, see whether it carries Points Boost, and transfer only if a partner beats the rate you were actually shown. Transferring is irreversible; checking is free.
If you have seen a higher fixed rate quoted for this card, it is a legacy rate rather than a current one. Cardholders approved before 23 June 2025 keep 1.25¢ on points earned before 26 October 2025, until 26 October 2027. Reviews still quoting 1.25¢ as this card’s portal rate are quoting that grandfathered rate. A reader applying today does not get it, so this review does not price anything at it.
The spend requirement is the easy kind: a three-month window on ordinary purchases, with no channel restriction and no enrollment. Divided across the window it is a figure most households already spend on rent-adjacent bills, groceries and fuel, which is why this offer converts for people who would fail a six-month, higher-threshold requirement on a premium card.
Do not manufacture spending to reach it. A bonus is worth its points value once; interest on a balance you floated to hit the threshold compounds monthly. If the requirement needs invented purchases, the honest answer is that this is not your card this quarter.
How fast does the Sapphire Preferred earn?
The multiplier is only half of an earn rate. The other half is what the currency is worth, and a high multiplier on a weak currency loses to a low multiplier on a strong one. The right-hand column below is the one to read: it multiplies each rate by our published valuation to give what a dollar of spending in that category actually returns.
| Rate | What earns it | Back per dollar |
|---|---|---|
| 5× |
| 5.0¢ – 7.5¢ |
| 3× |
| 3.0¢ – 4.5¢ |
| 2× |
| 2.0¢ – 3.0¢ |
| 1× |
| 1.0¢ – 1.5¢ |
Everything outside those categories earns 1×, which is 1.0¢ – 1.5¢ back per dollar — the fixed-redemption floor to the best transfer partner, same basis as the table above. That is the rate most of a normal household’s spending earns, so it deserves more weight than the headline multiplier when you compare cards.
The June 2026 refresh widened this table rather than the fee. Fuel and EV charging joined the bonus tier, and so did vacation home rentals booked with the major brands — the two categories a 2026 shopper is most likely to be comparing on, and the two that most mid-tier travel cards still treat as base spending. Every row in the table above carries its own start date where it has one, so you can see which rates are new and which have been there since 2009.
Dining still carries the card for most holders, because restaurant spending is the one discretionary line that rises with income and never gets substituted away. The online-grocery rate excludes the big-box stores where most American grocery spending happens, so treat it as a bonus rather than a plan.
The travel rates split in a way worth understanding: the top rate applies only inside Chase’s own booking channel, and the general travel rate applies to everything else coded as travel. Booking through the portal to chase the higher multiplier usually costs more in fare than it returns in points — check the cash difference before you take it.
What are the Sapphire Preferred perks actually worth?
Issuers publish a benefits total that assumes you claim every credit, in the right channel, in the right month, every year. Almost nobody does. So we discount each credit by how hard it is to claim, and we publish the discount rather than the conclusion — if you think a discount is wrong for your own habits, the table gives you everything you need to redo the arithmetic yourself.
| Benefit | Face value | Our discount | What we count |
|---|---|---|---|
| Annual hotel creditStatement credit on hotel bookings made through Chase Travel, each cardmember year. Raised from $50 to $100 in the June 2026 refresh. | $100 | −20% | $80 |
| Total | $100 | −$20 | $80 |
These benefits carry no dollar value in our model, either because they are insurance that pays only on a claim or because their value depends entirely on circumstances we cannot generalize. They are real, and they are excluded from the arithmetic above deliberately — counting them would let us inflate the card’s value without evidence.
- 10% anniversary points bonus. Each account anniversary, earn bonus points worth 10% of the prior year’s total purchases.
- Primary rental car collision damage waiver. Primary coverage when you decline the rental company’s waiver and pay with the card.
- Trip cancellation and interruption insurance. Up to $10,000 per person, $20,000 per trip.
- Points transfer to 14 airline and hotel partners. The reason to hold this card. Thirteen partners take points 1:1; World of Hyatt converts at 4:3 on this card for anyone approved on or after June 15, 2026. See our transfer partner guide.
- Global Entry, TSA PreCheck or NEXUS application fee credit. Up to $120 as a statement credit for one application fee every four years, added in the June 2026 refresh. Carried at no value in our model: it pays once per four-year cycle, and only if you are not already enrolled.
- Complimentary Apple TV subscription. One year of Apple TV when you activate by December 31, 2026. Carried at no value in our model because it is a launch promotion with a fixed end date, not a recurring benefit you can count on in year two.
- DashPass membership and monthly DoorDash promotion. Complimentary DashPass for 12 months on activation, plus a $10 monthly DoorDash promotion. Carried at no value in our model: it requires activation, it expires, and it only pays if you were going to order delivery anyway.
One credit does the work in the table above, and it is the hotel credit, which the June 2026 refresh doubled. It is channel-locked to Chase Travel, so we discount it — a credit you can only spend in a shop that is not always the cheapest shop is not worth its face value.
The refresh also added an application-fee credit for Global Entry or PreCheck, a year of Apple TV and a DoorDash arrangement. None of the three carries a dollar in our arithmetic, and the reason is stated next to each one in the list below the table: a credit that pays once every four years, a subscription with an activation deadline and a delivery promotion you have to already want are not annual value, whatever the marketing totals them at. Count them if they happen to fit your life; we will not count them for you.
The anniversary points bonus is the quiet one. It pays a percentage of the prior year’s spending back in points every account anniversary, with no enrollment and no channel, which for a household running most of its spending through the card offsets a meaningful slice of the fee before any credit is claimed. Our model does not count it as a statement credit, so the net annual cost below is conservative.
The protections are where the real money is, and they are invisible until they are not. Primary rental coverage, trip cancellation and interruption, and trip delay reimbursement all pay out on a claim rather than on a promotion, which is why they do not appear in the marketing and do appear in our rating.
What a claim actually looks like. Chase’s benefit administrator asks for four things: the signed rental agreement showing the waiver was declined, the itemised repair estimate, the card statement showing the full rental was charged to the card, and a short written account of the incident. "Primary" means the claim goes to the administrator and never touches your own auto policy — no record on your insurance, no premium effect. The exclusion to know about in advance is loss-of-use: rental companies bill it as a flat daily rate, and administrators routinely refuse it unless it is documented against a fleet-utilization log, so expect that line of the invoice to be contested even when the repair itself is paid. We have not yet filed a claim under this benefit ourselves; the process above is the one the issuer’s own benefits guide documents, and if we ever file one, the dates, the amounts and whatever gets refused will be published here.
What the card really costs each year
This is the number to compare across cards, and it is the one almost nobody publishes: the annual fee minus the credits a realistic person claims. A negative figure means the card pays you to keep it.
- Annual fee
- $95
- Credits we count (from the table above)
- −$80
- Net annual cost, year two onward
- $15What holding the card costs you once realistic credits are counted.
How do you redeem Chase Ultimate Rewards?
What the June 2026 Hyatt ratio cut changed
Read the ratio column before you read anything else on this page. In June 2026 Chase cut the World of Hyatt transfer ratio on this card and on the Ink Business Preferred, immediately for anyone approved from June 15 and from October 1, 2026 for everyone approved before it. The Sapphire Reserve was not touched. Hyatt is the reason most people bought this card, so this is the single most consequential fact in the review, and it is the one the table below resolves into what a point is actually worth after the transfer.
The redemption itself survives the cut — a fixed-chart room at a peak cash rate is still the best hotel value in points, and it is still the only one governed by a published chart. What does not survive is the reflex. On this card a Hyatt transfer still returns more than booking the same night with points through Chase Travel, so it is still the right move; but the margin has collapsed to a fraction of what it was, which means it now has to be justified by a specific booking rather than assumed. If Hyatt is your whole reason for holding a Chase card, the Reserve is the card that still transfers 1:1, and the fee difference is the price of that ratio.
The arithmetic behind that claim, worked once. Take a Category 4 Hyatt property on a weekend it is selling rooms at $400 a night before tax — a rate city and resort properties in that category routinely reach. The published chart prices a standard award at 15,000 points a night regardless of the cash rate: 30,000 points against $800 of room, or 2.67 cents per Hyatt point. On the old 1:1 ratio that stay cost 30,000 Chase points; at 4:3 it costs 40,000, and the same $800 of value works out at 2.0 cents per Chase point rather than 2.67. Both figures sit above what Chase Travel would pay on those nights, which is the point of the table above. This is a worked illustration against the published chart, not a booking we are claiming to have made — and either way, one good stay is a ceiling, not a valuation.
Why Aeroplan now leads
The cut promotes Air Canada Aeroplan to first place on this card, and the transfer table below agrees: partner business class priced off a distance-and-region chart rather than off the cash fare, bookable one-way, with a stopover for a nominal number of points, no fuel surcharges on most carriers, and at an unchanged 1:1 ratio. It is also the only partner on the list whose best redemptions stay clearly ahead of what Chase Travel pays on a boosted booking, which is the test that now separates a partner worth planning around from one worth using opportunistically.
The partners that are insurance, not strategy
Below those two the list is insurance rather than strategy, and the reason has changed. Most of the remaining partners clear Chase Travel comfortably now — but they clear it because the portal’s guaranteed rate fell, not because the partners improved, and a margin that exists only against a devalued portal is not a reason to hold a card. Marriott and IHG destroy value at any ratio Chase has ever offered. Emirates sits close enough to the portal that a single boosted booking erases the gain, and its surcharges erase it again outside Asia. Use any of them when a specific award calls for them; do not build a plan on them.
The portal is the floor, not the plan
The floor is real, and it moved. Chase Travel used to pay this card an elevated fixed rate on every booking; it now pays a base rate on every booking and an elevated rate only on the flights and hotels Chase chooses to flag. Every dollar figure on this page that describes a reader who never transfers is priced at the guaranteed rate rather than at the boosted one or at the model’s blended number, because the guaranteed rate is the only one nobody has to get lucky to reach. It is still the reason this currency cannot become worthless. But it is a lower floor than most reviews of this card still quote, and the distance between it and the two partners worth using is now the whole case for holding the card.
Every partner the program publishes appears below, including the ones we would tell you not to use — an incomplete list is worse than none, because you cannot tell whether a missing partner means “not a partner” or “we forgot”. The final column resolves each ratio into what one point becomes after the transfer, which is the only honest way to rank them.
Gain and loss below are measured against Chase Travel℠ at 1.0¢ per point, not against our blended valuation of Chase Ultimate Rewards. That is the comparison a cardholder actually faces: a transfer is worth making only if it beats what these points are worth when you do nothing with them. Baselining against the blended figure instead would be circular — that median is set by the Aeroplan and Hyatt redemptions in this very table — and it would mark all 14 partners a loss, including the two this review tells you to use.
| Transfer timeTypical, not guaranteed | Sweet spot — what to actually book | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| World of Hyatt | 4:3fewer points out than inReduced from 1:1 on June 15, 2026. The 4:3 ratio applies immediately to Sapphire Preferred and Ink Business Preferred cardholders approved on or after that date, and from October 1, 2026 to everyone approved before it. Sapphire Reserve and Sapphire Reserve for Business keep 1:1. | Instant to 1 hour | 1.42¢Gains value+0.42¢ vs. redeeming through Chase Travel℠ | Category 1–4 standard rooms, where the fixed chart still means a 12,000-point night at a hotel selling for $400 during a conference. At 4:3 that night now costs 16,000 Chase points rather than 12,000, so the redemption survives the cut — it still returns roughly 1.42¢ per Chase point against the 1.0¢ Chase Travel floor, a real gain — but the margin is a third of what it was, so it now has to be justified by a specific booking rather than assumed, and anyone whose Chase strategy is mostly Hyatt should be holding a Sapphire Reserve instead, which kept the 1:1 ratio.Transfer bonuses: Chase has never run a transfer bonus to Hyatt. It has now run a devaluation instead: anyone who wants 1:1 from a Chase card needs a Sapphire Reserve. |
| Air Canada Aeroplan | 1:1 | Instant to 24 hours | 1.5¢Gains value+0.50¢ vs. redeeming through Chase Travel℠ | Star Alliance business class from North America to Europe, priced off Aeroplan’s published distance-and-region table, with a stopover added anywhere on a one-way for 5,000 points.Transfer bonuses: Occasional — Chase has run bonuses of 25–30% to Aeroplan roughly once a year since 2023. Not frequent enough to plan around. |
| Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer | 1:1 | 12–48 hours | 1.4¢Gains value+0.40¢ vs. redeeming through Chase Travel℠ | Saver awards in Singapore Suites and Singapore long-haul business class — seats the airline releases to its own members and almost never to Star Alliance partners.Transfer bonuses: Rare from Chase. Note that KrisFlyer miles carry a hard three-year expiry from the date they land, so speculative transfers here are riskier than anywhere else on this list. |
| Virgin Atlantic Flying Club | 1:1 | Instant | 1.4¢Gains value+0.40¢ vs. redeeming through Chase Travel℠ | ANA round-trip business class between the US and Japan, priced off a fixed partner table and unavailable through any other transferable currency at that rate.Transfer bonuses: Chase runs a Virgin Atlantic bonus of 25–30% roughly once a year; Amex and Citi bonus it more often. |
| British Airways Executive Club | 1:1 | Instant | 1.35¢Gains value+0.35¢ vs. redeeming through Chase Travel℠ | Short-haul American and Alaska segments priced by distance band — the cheapest way to buy a domestic hop with points. Avoid BA’s own long-haul metal, where surcharges swallow the value.Transfer bonuses: The most frequently bonused Chase partner: 25–50% bonuses to British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus have run roughly twice a year since 2023. |
| Iberia Plus | 1:1 | Instant to 24 hours | 1.35¢Gains value+0.35¢ vs. redeeming through Chase Travel℠ | Off-peak transatlantic business class on Iberia’s own metal between Madrid and the US East Coast, at a fraction of British Airways pricing on the same alliance and with far lower surcharges.Transfer bonuses: Bonused alongside British Airways and Aer Lingus in the periodic IAG promotions, typically 25–50%. |
| Southwest Rapid Rewards | 1:1 | Instant | 1.35¢Gains value+0.35¢ vs. redeeming through Chase Travel℠ | Any Southwest flight while you hold the Companion Pass — the companion flies for taxes only, so every transferred point effectively buys two seats.Transfer bonuses: Chase has never bonused Southwest. Points transferred in do not count toward Companion Pass qualification. |
| United MileagePlus | 1:1 | Instant | 1.35¢Gains value+0.35¢ vs. redeeming through Chase Travel℠ | Multi-city Star Alliance awards that trigger the Excursionist Perk, where a whole segment in a second region prices at zero miles. Partner business class to Europe also prices off a semi-fixed table rather than the cash fare.Transfer bonuses: Chase has never run a public transfer bonus to United. Assume 1:1 permanently. |
| Aer Lingus AerClub | 1:1 | Instant | 1.3¢Gains value+0.30¢ vs. redeeming through Chase Travel℠ | Off-peak transatlantic business class from Dublin to the US East Coast, which prices below BA for the same crossing and carries materially smaller surcharges.Transfer bonuses: Included in the periodic IAG (BA/Iberia/Aer Lingus) bonuses, 25–50%. |
| Air France-KLM Flying Blue | 1:1 | Instant to 24 hours | 1.3¢Gains value+0.30¢ vs. redeeming through Chase Travel℠ | The monthly Promo Rewards list, which discounts selected Air France and KLM routes by 25–50% in business class. Transfer only after you have confirmed the award prices at the promo level.Transfer bonuses: Occasional from Chase, typically 20–25%. Amex and Citi bonus Flying Blue far more often, so compare before you move Chase points. |
| JetBlue TrueBlue | 1:1 | Instant | 1.3¢Gains value+0.30¢ vs. redeeming through Chase Travel℠ | Mint transcontinental seats during ordinary (non-peak) pricing, when TrueBlue’s revenue-based formula happens to lag the cash fare. Check the cash price first; often it does not.Transfer bonuses: None from Chase. |
| Emirates Skywards | 1:1 | Instant to 24 hours | 1.1¢Gains value+0.10¢ vs. redeeming through Chase Travel℠ | Emirates first class on routes departing Asia, where the carrier surcharge is a fraction of what it is out of the US or Europe. Everywhere else the surcharge makes this a poor transfer.Transfer bonuses: Occasional, typically 20–30%, and usually timed to an Emirates route launch. |
| Marriott Bonvoy | 1:1 | 24–48 hours | 0.7¢Loses value−0.30¢ vs. redeeming through Chase Travel℠ | There isn’t one worth naming. A 1.9¢ point becoming a 0.7¢ point destroys nearly two-thirds of the value; use it only to complete a Bonvoy balance you are a few thousand points short on.Transfer bonuses: Chase has run occasional Bonvoy bonuses of 25–30%. Even at 30% the transfer loses money against our valuations. |
| IHG One Rewards | 1:1 | 24 hours | 0.6¢Loses value−0.40¢ vs. redeeming through Chase Travel℠ | A four-night InterContinental stay for a Premier cardholder, where the fourth night is free — that discount is the only thing that makes a 1.9¢-to-0.6¢ conversion defensible, and only when the cash rate is unusually high.Transfer bonuses: Rare. IHG runs its own points sales near 0.5¢, which is usually a better way to top up than transferring. |
Transfers are one-way and permanent. No bank has ever reversed one. Confirm the ratio on Chase Ultimate Rewards’s own transfer page and find award space in the partner’s program before you move a single point — a transfer made against space that turns out not to exist cannot be undone. Points do not expire while you hold at least one open Ultimate Rewards-earning account in good standing. Closing your last such account forfeits the balance immediately, so transfer out before you close a Sapphire or Ink card. Points are also forfeited if Chase closes the account for cause, and they cannot be inherited or transferred to another person’s account except to a household member of the same address.
Transfers cannot be reversed by any issuer, ever. Confirm the ratio on Chase’s own transfer page before you move points, and never transfer speculatively — transfer only once you have found the award seat you intend to book. Full detail on our Chase Ultimate Rewards program page.
The redemptions that justify holding this card
- Air Canada Aeroplan1:1 · Instant to 24 hours
- Star Alliance business class from North America to Europe, priced off Aeroplan’s published distance-and-region table, with a stopover added anywhere on a one-way for 5,000 points.One Chase Ultimate Rewards point becomes 1.5¢ here.
- World of Hyatt4:3 · Instant to 1 hour
- Category 1–4 standard rooms, where the fixed chart still means a 12,000-point night at a hotel selling for $400 during a conference. At 4:3 that night now costs 16,000 Chase points rather than 12,000, so the redemption survives the cut — it still returns roughly 1.42¢ per Chase point against the 1.0¢ Chase Travel floor, a real gain — but the margin is a third of what it was, so it now has to be justified by a specific booking rather than assumed, and anyone whose Chase strategy is mostly Hyatt should be holding a Sapphire Reserve instead, which kept the 1:1 ratio.One Chase Ultimate Rewards point becomes 1.42¢ here.
- Virgin Atlantic Flying Club1:1 · Instant
- ANA round-trip business class between the US and Japan, priced off a fixed partner table and unavailable through any other transferable currency at that rate.One Chase Ultimate Rewards point becomes 1.4¢ here.
- Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer1:1 · 12–48 hours
- Saver awards in Singapore Suites and Singapore long-haul business class — seats the airline releases to its own members and almost never to Star Alliance partners.One Chase Ultimate Rewards point becomes 1.4¢ here.
- United MileagePlus1:1 · Instant
- Multi-city Star Alliance awards that trigger the Excursionist Perk, where a whole segment in a second region prices at zero miles. Partner business class to Europe also prices off a semi-fixed table rather than the cash fare.One Chase Ultimate Rewards point becomes 1.35¢ here.
Expiry. Points do not expire while you hold at least one open Ultimate Rewards-earning account in good standing. Closing your last such account forfeits the balance immediately, so transfer out before you close a Sapphire or Ink card. Points are also forfeited if Chase closes the account for cause, and they cannot be inherited or transferred to another person’s account except to a household member of the same address. Verified .
Our rating, axis by axis
Every card in the Award Rate database is scored on the same five axes, by the same people, before any commercial arrangement is considered. The rationale below is the reasoning, not a summary of the number.
What we like
- Transfers to fourteen partners, including three that regularly price premium cabins far below cash
- Primary rental car coverage and trip delay protection are genuinely best-in-class at this fee level
- No foreign transaction fees
- The anniversary points bonus quietly offsets a meaningful slice of the annual fee
- The June 2026 refresh added fuel, EV charging and vacation-rental earning at the same annual fee
What we don’t
- World of Hyatt — the partner this card was built around — now converts at 4:3 rather than 1:1 for anyone approved on or after June 15, 2026, and for everyone else from October 1, 2026
- Chase’s 5/24 rule shuts out applicants who have opened five or more cards in 24 months
- The hotel credit only works through Chase Travel, which is not always the cheapest booking channel
- Bonus categories are good, not exceptional, once you leave dining, travel and fuel
Is it worth keeping in year two?
Year two is where most Sapphire Preferred holders quietly lose money. The bonus is gone, and the question becomes whether the hotel credit, the anniversary points bonus and the protections beat the fee on their own. For a household putting real dining and travel spending on the card, they do. For someone who opened it for the bonus and now uses it twice a month, they do not — and a product change to a no-fee Chase card preserves the points without the fee.
What to consider instead of the Sapphire Preferred
These are the cards we would genuinely put in front of the same reader. Sort the table by whichever column is binding for you — net annual cost matters if you are fee-sensitive, first-year value if you are optimizing a single year.
The Sapphire Preferred also carries the highest score in this set, which is a coincidence of the comparison rather than a thumb on the scale — the badge on its row marks the subject of this page, and the rating column is scored before any commercial arrangement is considered.
| Welcome bonusPoints / spend / window | Apply | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reviewed hereSapphire Preferredverified Terms Apply$95 annual fee · 19.24% – 27.49% variable APR | 75,000 / $5K in 3 mo | $95 | $15After usable credits | 4.7out of 5 | View at Chase for the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card at Chase (opens in a new tab) We are not compensated for this card. It is here because it earned its place. |
| Venture Xverified Terms Apply$395 annual fee · 19.49% – 28.49% variable APR | 75,000 / $4K in 3 mo | $395 | -$191Credits exceed the fee | 4.4out of 5 | View at Capital One for the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card at Capital One (opens in a new tab) We are not compensated for this card. It is here because it earned its place. |
| Amex Goldverified Terms Apply$325 annual fee · 19.49% – 28.49% variable APR | 100,000 / $8K in 6 moElevated offerthe ceiling of an offer American Express varies by applicant — the issuer states welcome offers vary and that you may not be eligible for one at all | $325 | $87After usable credits | 4.5out of 5 | View at American Express for the American Express® Gold Card at American Express (opens in a new tab) We are not compensated for this card. It is here because it earned its place. |
Rates, fees and terms for all 3 cards aboveHide rates, fees and terms
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card Chase
Terms Apply$95 annual fee · 19.24% – 27.49% variable APR
Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card Capital One
Terms Apply$395 annual fee · 19.49% – 28.49% variable APR
See full rates & feesHide rates & fees
- Annual fee
- $395
- Purchase APR
- 19.49% – 28.49% variable
- Balance transfer APR
- 19.49% – 28.49% variable
- Balance transfer fee
- 4% of the amount of each transferred balance that posts at a promotional APR Capital One may offer you. No fee for balances transferred at the standard Transfer APR. Transfers cannot be requested until 10 days after the account is opened, and balances cannot be moved from another Capital One card.
- Foreign transaction fee
- None
- Cash advance APR
- 28.49% variable
- Cash advance fee
- Either $5 or 5% of the amount of each cash advance, whichever is greater.
- Late payment fee
- Up to $40
Credit cards are issued by Capital One, N.A. Offers, benefits, rates and terms are subject to change without notice and may vary by applicant.
Rates and fees reconciled against Capital One’s published pricing and terms on . Issuers may change offers, rates and terms at any time without notice; confirm current terms on the issuer’s own page before you apply. Capital One rates & terms · Capital One card page
American Express® Gold Card American Express
Terms Apply$325 annual fee · 19.49% – 28.49% variable APR
See full rates & feesHide rates & fees
- Annual fee
- $325
- Purchase APR
- 19.49% – 28.49% variable
- Foreign transaction fee
- None
- Cash advance APR
- 28.74% variable
- Cash advance fee
- Either $10 or 5% of the amount of each cash advance, whichever is greater.
- Penalty APR
- Up to 29.99%. May apply if you do not pay at least the minimum payment due by the payment due date, or a payment is returned. Once applied it lasts at least six months.
- Late payment fee
- Up to $40
- Returned payment fee
- Up to $40
- Authorized user fee
- $35 per card
Terms apply to American Express benefits and offers. Enrollment may be required for select benefits. Visit americanexpress.com to view rates and fees.
Rates and fees reconciled against American Express’s published pricing and terms on . Issuers may change offers, rates and terms at any time without notice; confirm current terms on the issuer’s own page before you apply. American Express rates & terms · American Express card page
How to read the two derived columns. Bonus value is a range, not a point estimate: each card’s offer priced at its own issuer’s guaranteed redemption rate at one end and at the best partner that card actually reaches at the other. It is the same arithmetic as the welcome-offer section above and the same figures as the tile beside it — on the Sapphire Preferred, $750 through Chase Travel℠ to $1,125 through Air Canada Aeroplan. The column sorts on the midpoint, so no card can lead it on a rate this table refuses to print. Net annual cost contains no point valuation at all — it is the annual fee minus the credits we count — so no argument about valuations can move it.
- Venture X
- Wins when you want a premium card whose credits arrive without a channel to remember — the travel credit and the anniversary miles need no enrollment and no monthly window. It is a weaker answer for a couple than it used to be: lounge access for an account user is now a separate annual charge rather than a free benefit. Read the full Sapphire Preferred vs Venture X comparison.
- Amex Gold
- Wins outright on grocery and restaurant earning, provided you will treat its monthly credits as standing errands rather than as free money you keep forgetting to claim. Read the full Sapphire Preferred vs Amex Gold comparison.
Will you be approved? The rules that get people declined
Being declined is the reader’s real risk on this page. A rejection costs a hard inquiry and leaves you with nothing, and in almost every case the reason is an issuer rule rather than your credit score. Chase applies the following to this card. None of them are published as policy, and none of them have an appeal.
Credit profile expected by Chase for this product: Good to Excellent (690+). A score inside that band does not guarantee approval, and nothing on this page should be read as a prediction of one — issuers weigh income, existing exposure and account history alongside the score.
We are not compensated for this card. It is here because it earned its place.
Frequently asked questions
Is the Chase Sapphire Preferred worth the annual fee?
It is worth it if you transfer points and rent cars; it is thin if you only redeem through the portal. The two partners worth using — Air Canada Aeroplan and, even at the reduced 4:3 ratio, World of Hyatt — return more per point than Chase Travel does, and the primary rental-car waiver is worth more than the annual fee the first time you have a claim. A cardholder who does neither is paying to hold a card whose earn rate a no-fee competitor matches, and should take the no-fee card.
What is the Chase 5/24 rule and does it apply to this card?
Yes, and it is the most common reason applicants are declined. Chase will generally reject an application from anyone who has opened five or more personal credit cards from any issuer in the previous 24 months, regardless of credit score or income. The rule is unpublished, has no appeal, and counts cards from other banks. Authorized-user accounts often count too. If you want any Chase card, apply for it before you open cards elsewhere, not after.
Can I get the Sapphire Preferred bonus if I have had a Sapphire card before?
Generally not within 48 months. Chase applies the bonus lockout across the whole Sapphire family — Preferred and Reserve are treated as one product for this purpose — so receiving a new-cardmember bonus on either takes both off the table for four years. You also cannot hold two Sapphire cards at once, which is why a product change between them never pays a bonus.
Does the Sapphire Preferred still transfer to Hyatt 1:1?
No. Chase reduced the World of Hyatt transfer ratio on the Sapphire Preferred and the Ink Business Preferred in June 2026: it applies immediately to anyone approved on or after June 15, 2026, and from October 1, 2026 to cardholders approved before that date. The Sapphire Reserve and Sapphire Reserve for Business keep 1:1. The transfer-partner table on this page shows the current ratio for this card and resolves it into what one Chase point is worth once it lands in Hyatt, which is the number to act on — a transfer cannot be reversed by Chase under any circumstances.
Sapphire Preferred or Sapphire Reserve?
The June 2026 Hyatt change made this a real question rather than a fee question. The Reserve is now the only Chase card that still transfers to World of Hyatt 1:1, so if fixed-chart hotel awards are why you are collecting Chase points at all, the Reserve’s higher fee is the price of that ratio. Otherwise take the Preferred: the Reserve’s flat travel credit is the easiest premium credit in the market to recover, but everything stacked above it runs through Chase’s own booking channels or a fixed partner list, and our model discounts each one heavily. The 48-month lockout means you effectively choose one bonus, so choose the card you would keep in year three.
Do Chase Ultimate Rewards points expire?
Not while the account is open and in good standing. They disappear when the account closes, which is the actual risk — if you cancel the card holding the balance without first transferring the points to a partner program or moving them to another Chase card that earns the currency, they are gone. Points moved to an airline or hotel program then follow that program’s own expiry rules, several of which do run on an inactivity clock.