Compare the Features and Benefits of Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and
Chase Sapphire Reserve®

We consider the Chase Sapphire Preferred® the best starter travel rewards credit card available today. For a modest $95 annual fee, you’ll earn bonus points in several categories, get up to a $50 statement credit for hotel stays purchased through Chase Travel℠, plus get a slew of travel protections.

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® credit card earns bonus points on travel purchases, dining, online grocery shopping, and select streaming services. Plus you’ll earn an annual Ultimate Rewards bonus of 10% of the prior year’s spending. Although the credit card doesn’t earn bonus points on other purchases, you can pair the card with other Chase credit cards to boost your Chase Ultimate Rewards earning rate.

Chase Ultimate Rewards points have a cash value of 1 cent each. But, you can get more value when you redeem points for travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards (1.25 cents), through Chase Pay Yourself Back, or when you transfer points to airline and hotel partners.

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® card justifies its annual fee year after year by providing the best set of travel protections on a card with under a $100 annual fee. Your car rentals will be automatically covered against theft and damage when you use your card and primary coverage means your own insurance won’t have to get involved. You’ll be protected against weather delays, lost luggage, and trip interruptions or outright cancellations.

Additionally, you’ll get benefits from several partners. For example, earn 5 points per dollar on Lyft rides through March 2025. Plus, you can get lower service fees when you use DoorDash by enrolling to get one complimentary year of DashPass through December 2024.

The Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card is the one that, in a sense, started it all. While rewards cards have been around for decades, The Chase Sapphire Reserve quickly became a must-have upon its launch in 2016. With a huge bonus offer, the Priority Pass airport lounge access, the easy to use $300 travel credits, and 3X Chase Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent on all dining and travel made it an easy sell.

Today, it remains one of the strongest travel credit cards on the market, even if other cards like the newer Capital One Venture X and The Platinum Card® from American Express both get solid market share.

The beauty of the Chase Sapphire Reserve lies in its simplicity.

The $300 annual travel credit works itself off without you even noticing, since travel purchases are automatically applied. With the Venture X, for instance, you also get a $300 annual travel credit but can only use it in the Capital One portal.

Then the Chase Sapphire Reserve is just plain “easy” when it comes to earning, knowing that just about every possible travel or dining purchase (including eligible delivery services) will earn 3X Chase Ultimate Rewards points.

And to that end, with a MilesTalk value of 1.75 cents per point when used via transfer partners like World of Hyatt or for First and Business Class airfare via its many airline partners, you know you’ll get value for those points you earn. In fact, your travel and dining purchases (earning 3X points) have a minimum return on spend value of 4.5% (if you redeem through Chase Travel at 1.5 cents each or an average redemption yield of around 5.25% (3X * 1.75) when you use the Ultimate Rewards airline and hotel partners.

The card is also full of the most important benefits, namely the Priority Pass select membership for airport lounge access for you and 2 guests, including Priority Pass experiences (but not airport restaurants) as well as primary collision/damage coverage on car rentals and trip delay coverage that kicks in after just a 6 hour delay as well as lost luggage insurance. And then there are the somewhat smaller but still valuable perks like your Global Entry fee reimbursement and 10x total points on hotels and car rentals purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards® and Chase dining purchases.

And of course, there’s that huge bonus when you spend $4,000 on purchases in your first 3 months from account opening….

So yes, it does have a high annual fee, but after the $300 travel credit, it’s effectively just $250 which the card gives you back via it’s earn rate, redemption rate (1.5 cents per point at Chase Travel) and rich benefits.