What It's Really Like to Own a Chase Sapphire Preferred Card

Can this card possibly live up to the hype?!

No matter who you talk to -- or which forums you haunt -- the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is usually considered one of the cornerstones of a good travel rewards strategy. Where the more expensive Chase Sapphire Reserve® has largely fallen out of favor, its less-expensive sibling is still one of the most frequently recommended travel rewards cards I see.

As a bit of a free travel hacker myself, I've had my eye on the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card as a way to enter the Ultimate Rewards ecosystem. But having fallen afoul of the Chase 5/24 Rule -- which says you can't open a Chase card if you have too many recent new accounts -- it wasn't until last year that I got a Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card of my very own.

I'm now in my second year of ownership, which means I've had time to use (or not use, as the case may be) many of the features and perks. All in all, I'm happy with the card so far, and it's actually offered some pleasant surprises.

Travel rewards (mostly) meet expectations

Other than "everyone else has one" -- which, sadly, works more often than it should -- I had two main motivators for getting my Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card. The first was the sign-up bonus. But the other, perhaps larger, motivator was to unlock the ability to transfer my existing Ultimate Rewards points to travel partners.

(You see, if you have a card from the Freedom family -- I have a Chase Freedom Unlimited®, which I adore -- you technically earn Ultimate Rewards points. But you can't transfer them to travel partners unless you have a Sapphire card.)

This particular feature worked great. While your Ultimate Rewards don't pool automatically like American Express Membership Rewards points, Chase does make it very easy to combine points. I was able to move my existing points to my Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card account instantly, and from there I could transfer them to any of Chase's partners.

So far as transfer partners go, Chase has some really great options, including two that are hard to find elsewhere: United and Hyatt. The latter is one of the most compelling for me, as Hyatt points are easy to redeem for a decent value, so the transfer is worthwhile in many cases. Points transfer very quickly and at a 1:1 ratio.

My experience with using points to book travel through the Chase portal was a little less smooth. Sure, Chase gives a decent per-point value (you get an extra 25% with the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card), so while not as great as a partner transfer, it's still a solid return.

The problem comes if you need a room type outside the standard fare. In my case, we needed to book adjoining rooms on one occasion and an accessible room on another. Unfortunately, the Chase portal didn't offer options for these room types for the hotels we wanted (even though the hotel websites did). We were left calling the specific hotels shortly before our stay and hoping they had the room types we needed.

Surprisingly useful beyond regular travel

Despite the Chase portal hiccups, I'd hold onto the card for the transferrable points alone. But I was pleasantly surprised to find that my Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card has an honest place in my rewards maximization strategy, both for travel and beyond.

Of course, there's the 2X points per dollar on travel not purchased through Chase (that gets 5X). This category is very broad, so while I have cards that are better for things like airline tickets, my Chase card is my go-to for transit, toll, and parking expenses. (Though I did manage to use up the $50 annual hotel credit by booking a quick overnight stay through Chase.)

As for the dining rewards -- well, I use my American Express® Gold Card for that, so sadly, my Chase card doesn't see a lot of restaurant action. The exceptions? When I find a good Chase Offer I can add to get an extra discount. Which is often enough that I keep an eye on the Offers page. And this goes for the online grocery rewards category, too.

Oddly enough, it's the streaming category on this card that wound up having me change my billing habits. All of my streaming services -- which had previously been on other cards based on issuer deals more than anything else -- have migrated to my Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card. Not only does it earn triple points on these purchases, but the Chase Offers portal has regular discounts on most of the services we use.

Happy to give it another year

When all is said and done, I'm happy with my Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card so far. It has a practical place in my card lineup and has been worth the annual fee. Will this always be the case? Maybe, maybe not. But I've paid the $95 annual fee twice so far and don't regret it yet.