The Chase Sapphire Preferred, affectionately nicknamed the CSP, is a staple among Points and Miles collectors south of the border. Even people who don’t know what a transfer partner is, know this is a card you apply for if you want travel rewards. The Chase Sapphire Preferred Card has an easy redeeming strategy for a basic points user but also sits at the top of the food chain for 5/24 counts and is an integral part of an advanced points strategy.
One note of caution before rushing to apply. Chase does like to see at least one year of US credit history before approving applicants for their products (however, this can be subverted by applying in branch and/or having a Chase bank account).
Below, I’ll cover the ins and outs of the very rewarding Chase Sapphire Preferred Card and why a savvy Canadian Points and Miles enthusiast should invest in an ITIN.
Overview
Welcome Bonus
The Chase Sapphire Preferred Card currently has a welcome bonus in which new cardholders can earn up to 75,000 Ultimate Rewards points:
- Earn 75,000 Ultimate Rewards upon spending $5,000 in the first 3 months
The Chase Sapphire Preferred card is an incredibly valuable US credit card that earns Ultimate Rewards points which can be transferred to numerous frequent flyer and hotel loyalty programs.
Check out our Chase Sapphire Preferred card review for more details.
75,000 Ultimate Rewards points
$5,000
$1,275+
$95
No
–
Earning Rates
The earning rates are not fantastic on this card, but it’s OK for everyday use while you get your relationship with Chase and your US credit score up and running. There are three different bonus categories for spending, which are:
- Earn 5 Ultimate Rewards points for every dollar spent on travel purchased through the Chase Ultimate Rewards travel portal.
- Earn 3 Ultimate Rewards points for every dollar spent on dining (including eligible delivery services, takeout, and dining out), online grocery purchases (excluding Target, Walmart, and wholesale clubs), and on select streaming services.
- Earn 2 Ultimate Rewards points for every dollar spent on all other travel purchases.
- Earn 1 Ultimate Rewards point for every dollar spent on all other purchases.
Annual Fee
The Chase Sapphire Preferred Card has an annual fee of $95 USD.
This is a relatively easy-to-justify annual fee for the host of travel rewards and benefits the card offers, not to mention that holding the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card unlocks the ability to turn cashback from the Chase Freedom lineup of cards into much more valuable Ultimate Rewards points.
Benefits
No Foreign Transaction Fees
We at Frugal Flyer avoid foreign transaction fees like the plague and getting your ITIN to apply for US credit cards is the best way to do that, as a large majority of US credit cards are without these fees. The Chase Sapphire Preferred Card is an excellent second or third US-issued card to add to your lineup that you can use for purchases around the globe.
Related: Best No Foreign Transaction Fee Credit Cards for Canadians
Unlocking Hotel & Airline Transfer Partners
One of the most significant benefits the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card affords cardholders is the ability to turn cashback into Ultimate Rewards points. Chase also offers Freedom Flex and Freedom Unlimited cards that market themselves as cashback, but those cashback “points” can be transferred to your Chase Sapphire Card product and then redeemed by transferring them to hotel and airline partners.
Anniversary Bonus Chase Ultimate Rewards Points
Chase offers an interesting incentive on the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card: a 10% points anniversary bonus. For example, if you spend $10,000 on the card in the first year, you’ll receive 1,000 UR points for your trouble. Not a huge reward, but an effective $20 in value to shave off the annual fee is better than nothing!
Chase Offers
Just like Amex Offers that most readers will be familiar with, Chase has their own offer system. We’ve found them somewhat useful, with about $30 redeemed in Cashback after holding the card for ten months.
Insurance Coverages
The Sapphire Preferred has excellent insurance, but just like other cards that are US issued, it’s tough to make a claim and not be a US resident. One thing we take for granted in Canada is Primary Car Rental Insurance on most premium cards. The Sapphire Preferred is one of the few that offers this coverage for US residents on a $95 card.
Below are the rest of the insurance coverages.
- Trip Cancellation / Interruption Insurance: If your trip is canceled or cut short by sickness, severe weather, and other covered situations, you can be reimbursed up to $10,000 per person and $20,000 per trip for your pre-paid, non-refundable travel expenses, including passenger fares, tours and hotels.
- Trip Delay Reimbursement: If your common carrier travel is delayed more than 12 hours or requires an overnight stay, you and your family are covered for unreimbursed expenses, such as meals and lodging, up to $500 per ticket.
- Travel Accident Insurance: When you pay for your air, bus, train or cruise transportation with your card, you are eligible to receive accidental death or dismemberment coverage of up to $500,000.
- Lost Luggage Insurance: If you or an immediate family member check or carry on luggage that is damaged or lost by the carrier, you’re covered up to $3,000 per passenger.
- Baggage Delay Insurance: Reimburses you for essential purchases like toiletries and clothing for baggage delays over 6 hours by passenger carrier up to $100 a day for 5 days.
- Travel and Emergency Assistance: If you run into a problem away from home, call the Benefit Administrator for legal and medical referrals or other travel and emergency assistance. (You will be responsible for the cost of any goods or services obtained.)
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver: Decline the rental company’s collision insurance and charge the entire rental cost to your card. Coverage is primary and provides reimbursement up to the actual cash value of the vehicle for theft and collision damage for most rental cars in the U.S. and abroad.
$50 Hotel Credit
A newer perk that the Sapphire Preferred offers is $50 off a hotel booking once per cardmember year when booked through the Chase Travel Portal. While this credit looks great on the surface, I haven’t found much use for it. Unlike booking through Amex’s Fine Hotels and Resorts program, you won’t earn any hotel loyalty points or credit toward your status.
The only use case I can see this being beneficial is if you’re looking at an independent hotel that also happens to be on the Chase Travel portal, which is a niche situation. If you can find a great use case for this, let me know in the comments!
Redeeming Chase Ultimate Rewards Points
I touched on redeeming Chase Ultimate Rewards points earlier in the article, and like any good flexible points currency, several avenues are available. The most lucrative option is transferring out to airline and hotel partners’ programs.
Chase has a unique place in the rewards ecosystem as it is one of the only transfer partners of Hyatt Hotels. World of Hyatt still uses an award chart (unlike Marriott and Hilton), so it creates consistent value without cherry-picking redemptions. I have only redeemed our Ultimate Rewards points with Hyatt, each time receiving over 2 cents per point in value without trying very hard.
Chase Ultimate Rewards can be transferred to the following airline frequent flyer programs:
- Aer Lingus at a 1:1 ratio
- Air Canada Aeroplan at a 1:1 ratio
- Air France / KLM Flying Blue at a 1:1 ratio
- British Airways Avios at a 1:1 ratio
- Emirates Skywards at a 1:1 ratio
- Iberia Plus at a 1:1 ratio
- JetBlue TrueBlue at a 1:1 ratio
- Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer at a 1:1 ratio
- Southwest Airlines at a 1:1 ratio
- United MileagePlus at a 1:1 ratio
- Virgin Atlantic Flying Club at a 1:1 ratio
Chase Ultimate Rewards can be transferred to the following hotel loyalty programs:
- IHG One Rewards at a 1:1 ratio
- Marriott Bonvoy at a 1:1 ratio
- World of Hyatt at a 1:1 ratio
Chase also offers the ability to redeem in their portal at 1.25 cents per point. While that is a decent value for the points and more generous than Amex’s 1 cent per point, booking through a portal can cause some issues.
When booking through a travel portal, you’re essentially using an online travel agency to book for you. This can get messy if there are flight delays, reservation mix-ups, etc., as the hotel or airline will always refer you back to the entity that made the reservation rather than fixing the problem themselves.
The advisable way to use rewards points is to utilize transfer partners and look for sweet spots within that partner’s award system.
Comparable Cards to the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card
Two main competitors to the Chase Sapphire Preferred are the Citi Strata Premier and Capital One Venture Rewards cards.
| Chase Sapphire Preferred Card | Capital One Venture Rewards Card | Citi Strata Premier Mastercard | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Earn Rate | 5x on travel purchases booked through the Chase travel portal 3x on dining, online grocery, streaming 2x on travel | 5x on Hotels and Car rental booked through Capital One Travel 2x on everything else | 3x on grocery, gas, air and hotel travel purchases, dining |
| Welcome Bonus & Spend Requirement | Earn 75,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards:
| Earn 75,000 Capital One Miles:
| Earn 60,000 Citi ThankYou Rewards:
|
| Annual Fee | $95 | $95 | $95 |
| Net Points Value | $1,180 | $1,293 | $1,105 |
| Hotel Credit | $50 | $0 | $100 |
| Airport Lounge Access | None | 2 Visits | None |
| Foreign Transaction Fees | No | No | No |
Citi Strata Premier Mastercard
The card most like the Chase Sapphire Preferred is the Citi Strata Premier Card. The Citi Strata Premier card offers better multipliers on spending categories, awarding 3x on Travel, Gas Station, Grocery, and Dining, all without any cap on points earned. However, it lacks insurance coverage and notably does not offer any travel protection. It does offer no foreign transaction fees.
The Citi Strata Premier Card earns ThankYou points and is available to individuals in the United States.
This card earns 3 ThankYou Points per dollar spent on travel purchases and offers an annual $100 hotel credit for travel booked through Citi.
60,000 ThankYou Points
$4,000
$1,200+
$95
No
–
Also, like the Sapphire products, you can convert your Citi Cash back from the DoubleCash and CustomCash into ThankYou Points, which can be transferred to travel partners. Citi has some unique transfer partners like Turkish Airlines and Wyndham Rewards.
The Citi Strata Premier card also offers a hotel credit, double that of the CSP at $100, it is only eligible on bookings of $500 or more made through the ThankYou portal. I would say this hotel credit is just as hard, if not harder, to use than the one offered by Chase, thanks to the $500 requirement. If I spend $500 on a hotel stay, I want some points and elite nights!
Capital One Venture Rewards Card
The Capital One Venture Rewards Card currently offers an excellent welcome bonus of 75,000 Capital One Miles and offers similar insurance benefits to the CSP. However, unlike the Citi Strata Premier card, it doesn’t have an ecosystem that allows it to have extra earning rates with other cards.
The Capital One Venture Rewards Card earns 5x Capital One Miles on all hotel and car rentals booked through Capital One Travel and offers a $50 USD credit when booking a stay through the Lifestyle Collection Hotels & Resorts program.
75,000 Capital One Miles
$4,000
$1,388+
$95
No
–
The multipliers are good for uncategorized spending at 2x on everything. However, it has no meaningful multipliers other than 5x on hotels and car rentals through the Capital One travel portal.
To its credit, this is the only card on this list that includes complimentary access to airport lounges, granting two visits to a Capital One or Plaza Premium lounge per cardmember year. Capital One also has access to unique transfer partners in FinnAir, Turkish Airlines, and Wyndham Rewards.
Conclusion
The Chase Sapphire Preferred Card is a staple in the US Points and Miles game for good reason. The ability to offset the annual fee with Chase Offers and Hotel Credit (if you can use it) makes the card a reliable way to access one of the last great hotel programs, Hyatt.
While competitors exist, the Sapphire Preferred is the clear winner by having the best transfer partners, insurance, and ecosystem for generating points.
Daniel Burkett
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Does the points multiplier work for use in Canada or just in the US?
Yes it works in Canada as well.