The best first travel credit card: Chase Sapphire Preferred

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There are many travel credit cards on the market today. It can be difficult to choose the right card for you, especially if you’ve never had a travel credit card before. Should you be concerned about the insurance premium in the first place? Are you worried that you won’t be able to buy your glasses easily? Or is travel protection the most important aspect of a travel credit card for you?

If you’re looking to dive into the world of travel rewards, the Chase Sapphire Preferred® card is one of our favorite entry-level options. Introduced more than 10 years ago, the Sapphire Preferred is still one of the best all-in-one credit cards, especially for beginners. With its low $95 annual fee, easy-to-use points, and extensive redemption options, it’s a card that can grow with you over time.

But don’t take our word for it. Let’s take a look at the Chase Sapphire Preferred and compare it to other entry-level travel credit cards available today.

The Chase Sapphire Preferred is one of those credit cards that always offers a relatively large signing bonus, so you know you’re getting value for your money when you first get the card. However, if you’re looking to apply for your first travel credit card now, you’re in luck, because Sapphire Preferred is currently offering the highest bonus we’ve ever seen for this card.

Those who apply for the Chase Sapphire Preferred card today can earn 80,000 bonus points if they spend $4,000 on card purchases within the first three months of account opening. In addition, new cardholders receive a credit of up to $50 for grocery store purchases in the first year of using the card.

You may have seen that the Capital One® Venture® Rewards credit card currently offers 100,000 miles as a signing bonus. And while it’s a great offer, the actual value of the Capital One bonus is less than the Chase Sapphire Preferred bonus.

Miles saved with the Capital One Venture card are worth 1% per mile when used for travel purchases with the card. On the other hand, if you redeem your favorite Chase Sapphire travel points on the Chase website, you will receive 1.25 cents per point.

That means 80,000 bonus points on the Chase Sapphire Preferred is worth as much as $1,000 worth of travel as 100,000 bonus points on the Capital One Venture. But with the Sapphire Preferred card, you also get $50 worth of grocery deals, which means the bonus is worth a little more.

To get the full sign-up bonus for the Preferred Sapphire card, you’ll also need to spend significantly less than with the Venture Capital One card – $4,000 with the PSC versus $20,000 with Venture Capital One.

There is no better way to learn about traveler loyalty programs than to start with a large number of points. The 80,000 Chase Sapphire Preferred bonus points will get you excited and you can redeem your rewards right away for a great vacation.

Click here to earn 80,000 bonus points at Chase Sapphire Preferred.

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You can easily redeem the points you earn for a post-pandemic vacation with Chase Sapphire Preferred.

We promise that using your travel points is not as hard as you think – especially if you earn points with the right program. One of the main reasons we think the Chase Sapphire Preferred is one of the best travel credit cards is that the points it earns are very easy to use.

The Chase Sapphire Preferred earns points under the Chase Ultimate Rewards® name. When it comes to using Ultimate Rewards points for travel, you have two options: You can redeem them on the Chase website or transfer them to one of Chase’s partner loyalty programs.

If you’re looking for the easiest way to exchange your glasses, booking through the Chase website is simple. Chase has partnered with Expedia to launch its travel site. This means that any flight or hotel that you would normally book through Expedia, you can also book through Chase. There are no closing dates or limited awards – you can choose the flight and hotel of your choice.

This process works just like any other travel site: You search for a flight or a hotel, choose the one you want and book it. But when you book, you can pay with points instead of cash. You can even pay for part of your trip with points and the rest in cash if you don’t have enough points to cover all your expenses or if you don’t want to use all your points at once. In all cases, your points are worth 1.25 cents per hotel room or flight.

How does it compare to other Travel Star credit cards? Now, we’ve already talked about the Capital One miles being just street-centric. How about American Express?

The Amex EveryDay® credit card from American Express also earns points that can be used for travel. However, if you use AmexTravel.com to redeem your points, you will only earn 1% of the points, and only on airline tickets. For hotel reservations, your points are worth even less. In addition, Citi ThankYou points cost just one cent when used to book travel on the Citi website.

Earn up to $1,000 in travel credit with 80,000 bonus points on the Chase Sapphire Preferred.

Now that you’re ready to take your credit card rewards to the next level, you can also transfer the Ultimate Rewards points you earn with the Chase Sapphire Preferred to any of Chase’s 13 airline or hotel partners:

Ultimate Rewards points will be transferred to these partners on a 1:1 basis. So 80,000 bonus points from a registered offer equals 80,000 points or miles in any of these 13 airline or hotel programs. You can also transfer as many or as few points as you like at any time – the only rule is that points must be transferred in blocks of 1000 points.

When you transfer points to another Program, you use those points in that Program and are subject to that Program’s rules and availability of rewards. The process is more complicated than just booking on the Chase website, but once you understand the basics, it’s not that difficult, especially if you target certain domestic flight and hotel programs, and you can get even more value for your points.

For example, Hyatt hotels have incredible properties both in the US and abroad, and having 80,000 points under your belt can make for a fantastic luxury vacation. The spectacular Grand Hyatt Baja Mar costs 20,000 World of Hyatt points per night, which means that, depending on availability for the dates you want, you can easily transfer 80,000 Chase points to your World of Hyatt account and redeem them directly with Hyatt for a free four-night stay.

While American Express, Citi and Capital One have their own airline and hotel partners, Chase partners are popular because they include convenient domestic options like United Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Hyatt and Marriott. And the more you learn about Ultimate Rewards and international airlines, the endless possibilities for world travel become.

Access to Chase Sapphire Preferred transfer partners with Chase Sapphire Preferred.

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If your flight is delayed or canceled, Chase Sapphire Preferred can help cover unexpected expenses.

While it’s a relatively inexpensive travel credit card, the Chase Sapphire Preferred offers an incredible level of protection when it comes to covering you before and during your trip.

By simply using the Sapphire Preferred card to pay for your flights, hotels and other non-refundable travel arrangements, you will automatically receive trip cancellation insurance, trip delay insurance, baggage delay insurance and primary car rental insurance.

What is the role of each of these protective measures? Well, with travel cancellation insurance, if you have to cancel your trip due to a covered situation like illness or severe weather – or, yes, even a quarantine restriction due to a coronavirus pandemic – you’ll be reimbursed for lost expenses, up to $10,000 per person and $20,000 per trip for all prepaid, non-refundable travel expenses.

Protection from travel delays is another of our favorite benefits of the Chase Sapphire Preferred, which you may use more often than you think. If your flight is delayed 12 hours or more (or requires a layover), you can claim up to $500 for cash expenses (hotels, taxis, meals and even clean clothes), not just for the cardholder, but for all family members who made the same reservation.

And while many travel credit cards today offer coverage for rental car damage, the Chase Sapphire Preferred is one of the few travel credit cards that offers primary rental car damage coverage. Primary coverage means that if you are involved in an accident with your rental car, you can file a claim directly with Chase instead of first with your personal auto insurance company and then with your credit card. This means that it is easier to keep your personal auto insurance premiums with less damage.

Compare the travel benefits package of the Sapphire Preferred card to that of Citi’s entry-level card, the Citi Premier® card, which offers no travel protection even though it costs the same $95 per year. Knowing that you have travel insurance in case of an unfortunate situation is huge and will definitely help give you peace of mind when you book your trip with Chase Sapphire Preferred.

Find out if you qualify for the Chase Sapphire preference.

Chase

If you’re looking for your first travel credit card, the Chase Sapphire Preferred is our first choice.

When you compare the Chase Sapphire Preferred card to other competing travel credit cards from American Express, Capital One and Citi, it’s easy to see how the Sapphire Preferred card has stood the test of time and why it remains such a popular choice in travel credit cards.

So, if you’re itching to travel again as the pandemic slowly subsides, and you think it’s time to add a travel credit card to your wallet, consider the Chase Sapphire Preferred with its 80,000-point signature bonus to break down the walls and get one step closer to booking your dream vacation.

Learn more and apply for the Chase Sapphire Preferred with an 80,000 point bonus.

Find out which CNN cards have been named the best travel credit cards of 2021.

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