The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is a top recommended beginner travel reward credit card and my personal favorite credit card! I think this card is a long term keeper in every household! I love Chase Ultimate Rewards points and that you can book almost any kind of travel through Chase Travel℠ or by transferring your points to other travel partners like Hyatt, Southwest, United and more!

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The Chase Sapphire Preferred is the card that I started with and if I had to only have one credit card for the rest of my life, this would be the one!

Travel Benefits

$50 Annual hotel credit on hotel stays purchased through Chase Travel℠
No foreign transaction fees
Primary rental car insurance
Baggage delay insurance
Trip delay/interruption insurance

Redeeming Your Points & Redemption “Sweet Spots”

Cardmembers can redeem points in Chase Travel℠ for up to 1.5x on thousands of hotels and flights and up to 1.75x on premium cabin tickets on select airlines through Points Boost. Points can be redeemed at a 1:1 rate for all Chase Travel purchases that are not eligible for Points Boost offers. You can learn more about Points Boost here.

HOWEVER, I usually recommend TRANSFERRING YOUR POINTS to transfer partners to get a lot more value out of your points! (You can often get 2x-3x more value when you transfer to partners like Hyatt!)

Transfer Partners

I’ll say it again and i’ll say it again. TRANSFERRING YOUR POINTS is the KEY to unlocking SO MUCH MORE VALUE out of your points. There is a reason why people are OBSESSED about their travel reward credit cards and not their cash back credit cards.

You can transfer your Chase Ultimate Rewards points to 11 airline partners and 3 hotel partners at a 1:1 ratio. For example, if I transfer 20,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points to Hyatt, my points will turn into 20,000 Hyatt points. Then I can book a Hyatt stay with Hyatt points on Hyatt’s website.

Not all transfer partners are a good value and sometimes it’s a better deal to book through Chase Travel℠ than to transfer your points. However, transferring to certain transfer partners like Hyatt and Southwest are very beginner friendly “sweet spots” where you can get a lot more value out of your points.

Airline Transfer Partners:

Aer Lingus, AerClub
Air Canada Aeroplan
British Airways Executive Club
Emirates Skywards®
Flying Blue AIR FRANCE KLM
Iberia Plus
JetBlue TrueBlue
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards®
United MileagePlus®
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

Hotel Transfer Partners:

IHG® Rewards Club
Marriott Bonvoy®
World of Hyatt®

Ideas for Redeeming Chase Ultimate Reward Points

See this blog post for some ideas on how to redeem Chase Ultimate Reward points for maximum value! (I like to use most of my Chase Ultimate Reward points for Hyatt stays!)

Category Spending

Earn 5x points for travel booked through Chase Travel℠
Earn 3x points on dining
Earn 3x points on select streaming services
Earn 3x points on online grocery purchases (excluding Target, Walmart, and wholesale clubs)
Earn 2x points on travel booked outside of Chase Travel℠.
Earn 1x points on all other purchases

Anniversary Bonus

Each account anniversary you'll earn bonus points equal to 10% of your total purchases made the previous year. For example, if you spend $15,000 on purchases, you'll get 1,500 bonus points.

Referral Bonus

You earn 15,000 bonus points for each friend who gets the Chase Sapphire Preferred and you can earn up to 100,000 referral points per year. If you have a spouse or travel partner, I recommend REFERRING them to their own card instead of adding them as an authorized user. That way, you can both earn the welcome offer plus you will earn referral points as well!

Combining Points in Your Household

You can combine your Chase Ultimate Rewards points with one other member in your household. Sometimes you first have to call Chase to move points over and to link your accounts.

Combining Points From Other Cards

You can combine points with ANY other Chase card that earn Chase Ultimate Rewards! There are no-annual fee Chase credit cards like the Chase Freedom Flex ®, the Chase Freedom Unlimited®, the Chase Ink Business Cash® Credit Card or the Chase Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card that are advertised as cash back credit cards. However they actually earn points that can be redeemed for travel if you move your points to the Chase Sapphire Preferred! This is how you can unlock SO MUCH MORE VALUE out of your no-annual-fee Chase credit cards!

Downgrade/Upgrade Option

If you no longer want to pay the $95 after the first year, you can downgrade to one of the no-annual-fee Freedom cards and still keep the line of credit open (which will not hurt your credit score). If you downgrade your card, you will keep your Chase Ultimate Reward points but lose the ability to transfer your points to transfer partners. For this reason, I suggest keeping at least one Chase Sapphire Preferred open in your household!

You can also upgrade your card to a Chase Sapphire Reserve®, which has a higher annual fee but more benefits.

Sapphire Family Rules

I will continue to update this as new data points come in, but here’s what we know so far.

If you currently hold the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, you are not eligible for the welcome offer on the Chase Sapphire Reserve and vice verse. However, you can downgrade your Chase Sapphire to a Freedom card, and then apply for the other Chase Sapphire card and still be eligible for the welcome offer.
You are eligible to earn the welcome offer on a personal Sapphire card while holding the Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business and vice verse.

Until June 23, 2025, cardmembers were only eligible to earn one welcome offer on ANY personal Sapphire card (the Sapphire Preferred or the Sapphire Reserve) once every 48 months. You can now earn the welcome offers on both personal Sapphire cards with no time restraints, as long as you don’t currently hold the other personal Sapphire card. (This would look like closing or downgrading your personal Sapphire card before applying for the other personal Sapphire card.)

“Once in a lifetime language” - New terms and condition language suggest you will not be eligible for a welcome offer on a Sapphire card if you have earned the welcome offer in the past.

New offer details say: “This credit card is unavailable to you if you currently have one open. The new cardmember bonus may not be available to you if you currently have any other personal Sapphire cards open, previously held this card or received a new cardmember bonus for this card. We may also consider the number of cards you have opened and closed, as well as other factors in determining your bonus eligibility.”

Chase 5/24 Rule

I recommend opening a Chase Sapphire Preferred as one of your first cards because of the 5/24 rule. Chase will not approve you for any of their cards if you have opened 5 or more cards from ANY bank within 24 months. Read more about it here.

Bottom Line

I can’t recommend the Chase Sapphire Preferred enough! It is an amazing all around travel credit card and very beginner friendly!

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Ultimate Guide to the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card