Chase Sapphire Preferred Review (2026): Benefits, Credits and Who It’s For

Card image: Chase · Part of my Credit Card Reviews · Last checked: October 14, 2026

Card benefits change often, and this page may be out of date by the time you read it. Always check the bank’s page and your card’s guide to benefits for the current terms before you rely on a benefit.

The Sapphire Preferred is Chase’s mid-tier travel card: a $95 annual fee, a $100 Chase Travel hotel credit each account year, 3x on dining, gas, streaming and online grocery, some of the best travel insurance you’ll find at this price, and Ultimate Rewards points that transfer to airlines and hotels.

The June 2026 refresh added a lot (3x on gas, a bigger hotel credit, a Global Entry credit, emergency evacuation coverage) but took away two things people loved: the 10% anniversary points bonus and 1:1 transfers to World of Hyatt, which are now 4:3. Below is how it earns, what each credit takes, the protections in Chase’s own numbers, and my verdict.

Jump to: Highlights · Earning · Credits · Other perks · Insurance · Transfers · Application rules · My take · The catch · Keep it? · Offer history · Quick Answers

The highlights

• 5x Chase Travel; 3x dining, gas stations, EV charging, select streaming, online grocery and vacation homes at select brands; 2x other travel; 1x elsewhere
• $100 hotel credit each account anniversary year on hotel stays booked through Chase Travel, applied automatically
• 5x on Lyft through 9/30/2027 and 5x on Peloton equipment over $150 through 12/31/2027
• DoorDash: DashPass (through 12/31/2029 if you activate by then) plus a $10 monthly promo on non-restaurant orders
• Apple TV free for 12 months, activate by 12/31/2026 (Apple One subscribers get an $8 monthly discount instead)
• Points transfer to 14 airline and hotel partners, but World of Hyatt is now 4:3, not 1:1 (the Sapphire Reserve still transfers 1:1)
• Global Entry, TSA PreCheck or NEXUS credit every four years
• Primary rental car coverage up to $60,000, trip cancellation up to $10,000, trip delay at 12 hours, baggage delay for up to 5 days, lost luggage, emergency evacuation and purchase protection; no foreign transaction fees

How it earns

Category	Rate	Caps and fine print
Chase Travel	5x	No cap. FROSCH and Valerie Wilson Travel bookings earn 2x. The first $100 of Chase Travel hotel purchases each year (the part the hotel credit covers) earns nothing.
Dining	3x	Includes takeout and eligible delivery.
Gas stations and EV charging	3x	New in June 2026.
Select streaming services	3x	Chase’s list of top streaming services.
Online grocery	3x	Online only; excludes Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs. In-store supermarkets earn 1x.
Vacation homes at select top brands	3x	Brands such as Airbnb and Vrbo, per Chase’s announcement; booked through Chase Travel they earn 5x.
Other travel	2x	Airfare, hotels and rentals booked direct, transit and so on.
Lyft rides	5x	Through 9/30/2027, in the Lyft app.
Peloton equipment and accessories over $150	5x	Up to $5,000 in purchases, through 12/31/2027.
Everything else	1x	—

Points are worth 1 cent each in Chase Travel, or up to 1.75 cents with Points Boost on select hotels and flights (per Frequent Miler; Chase’s card page doesn’t give a number). Transfers to partners are usually the better use. The 10% anniversary points bonus is gone: new cardholders since June 15, 2026 never get it, and older cardholders stopped earning it on purchases after October 1, 2026.

Credits and how to use them

The Preferred doesn’t have a long coupon book, which in my eyes is a good thing. Here’s what each credit takes.

Credit	Amount	How often	Where / how	The catch
Chase Travel hotel credit	Up to $100	Each account anniversary year	Automatic statement credit on hotel stays purchased through Chase Travel	Portal only, and portal prices aren’t always the same as booking direct. The $100 it covers earns no points. Doubled from $50 in June 2026.
DoorDash promo (non-restaurant)	$10 a month	Monthly	One promo on grocery, retail and other non-restaurant DoorDash orders, with the included DashPass	Restaurant orders don’t qualify, so it needs a separate grocery or convenience order each month. Doesn’t roll over. Through 12/31/2029.
DashPass membership	Valued at $120 a year	Until 12/31/2029 or 12 months, whichever is longer	Activate by 12/31/2029 with the card as your DoorDash payment method	Activating now covers you through the end of 2029.
Apple TV	Valued at $180	12 months	Activate on chase.com or the Chase app by 12/31/2026	If you already pay for Apple One, you get an $8 monthly Apple One discount instead of a free Apple TV subscription. Only worth something if you’d watch it.
Global Entry, TSA PreCheck or NEXUS	Up to $120	Once every 4 years	Pay the application fee with the card	—

Other perks

• No lounge access. If that matters, the Sapphire Reserve adds Chase Sapphire Lounges and Priority Pass for $795.
• Points Boost: some hotels and flights in Chase Travel are marked with a boost, which means your points are worth more than the normal 1 cent toward that booking (up to 1.75 cents on this card, per Frequent Miler). Offers rotate, so check before you transfer points out.
• Travel and emergency assistance: legal and medical referrals while you’re away from home (you pay for the services themselves).
• Roadside assistance dispatch: Chase’s provider sends help, and the service fees are billed to your card.
• 24/7 access to a customer service specialist.
• No foreign transaction fees, and authorized users are free.

Insurance and protections

Green highlights mark where this card is at the top of the cards I review.

Benefit	What the bank says
Auto rental collision damage waiver	Top tier for a $95 card: primary, up to $60,000 for theft and collision damage on most rentals with an MSRP of $125,000 or less (secondary inside the U.S. for New York residents). Primary coverage is rare: of the cards I review, only the Sapphire Reserve, the Venture X and the United Explorer and Quest also have it, and only the Reserve has a higher limit.
Trip cancellation / interruption	Up to $10,000 per covered traveler and $20,000 per trip for prepaid, non-refundable travel (fares, tours, hotels) One-way and award tickets: Award tickets count: the guide covers trips where all or a portion of the cost (such as award taxes) is charged to the card or paid with Ultimate Rewards points. It doesn’t mention a round-trip requirement.
Trip delay	Up to $500 per covered traveler after a delay of more than 12 hours or an overnight stay One-way and award tickets: Yes to both: the guide covers a common carrier fare charged all or in part to the card or paid with points, with no round-trip requirement, so a one-way and an award ticket with the taxes on the card both count.
Baggage delay	Top tier: up to $100 a day for up to 5 days after a 6-hour delay (the same as the $795 Reserve; most cards with this cap it at 3 days) One-way and award tickets: Yes to both: the guide covers round-trip or one-way fares paid all or in part with the card or points.
Lost luggage	Up to $3,000 per covered traveler (New York residents: $2,000 per bag, $10,000 per trip) One-way and award tickets: Yes to both, same payment rule as trip delay.
Emergency evacuation and transportation	Up to $100,000 on trips 100+ miles from home (new in June 2026)
Travel accident insurance	Up to $500,000 when you pay for the air, bus, train or cruise fare with the card
Purchase protection	120 days, up to $500 per item (90 days for New York residents)
Extended warranty	Adds one year to U.S. warranties of three years or less

Coverage rules for one-way and award tickets come from Chase’s Guide to Benefits for the Sapphire Preferred (effective 06/14/26); claims always need receipts and the carrier’s delay confirmation.

For how this compares with other cards, see my card travel benefits comparison.

Transfer partners

Ultimate Rewards points transfer to 14 partners: Aer Lingus, Air Canada Aeroplan, British Airways, Flying Blue (Air France/KLM), Iberia, JetBlue, Singapore KrisFlyer, Southwest, United and Virgin Atlantic on the airline side, and IHG, Marriott, World of Hyatt and Wyndham on the hotel side. The big change is Hyatt: new cardholders since June 15, 2026, and everyone else since October 1, 2026, transfer to Hyatt at 4:3 (4 Chase points for 3 Hyatt points). The Sapphire Reserve still transfers at 1:1, and Doctor of Credit notes you can move points to a Reserve to get that rate. Ratios and transfer times for every partner are in my transfer partners guide.

This is also the card that makes a Freedom Unlimited or Freedom Flex worth more: those cards earn “cash back” that is really Ultimate Rewards points, and once you combine them into a Sapphire Preferred account they can be transferred like any other points from this card.

Application rules for this card

• You can’t get this card if you have it open now. You can hold the Sapphire Preferred and the Reserve at the same time: Chase has allowed that since June 23, 2025.
• The bonus is once per card. Chase’s January 2026 memo says you can earn a bonus on each Sapphire card “one time per card,” even if you hold the other one, and the card page says the bonus may not be available if you previously held this card or received its bonus. Chase may also consider how many cards you’ve opened and closed (the Sapphire pop-up).
• Chase’s 5/24 rule applies: you’ll be denied if you’ve opened 5 or more personal cards from any bank in the last 24 months.

The full rules for every bank are in my credit card application rules guide.

My take

A $95 fee, and the $100 Chase Travel hotel credit covers it if you’d book even one hotel a year through Chase Travel, which makes the real fee roughly zero in my eyes. If you’d never use the portal, it’s a $95 card, and it still earns that back for most people through 3x on dining and gas plus insurance that beats almost every other card at this price.

Where it got worse: Hyatt was the best reason to hold Chase points, and the Preferred now transfers at 4:3, so 60,000 Hyatt points cost 80,000 Chase points instead of 60,000. If Hyatt is your main use, either pair this with a Sapphire Reserve or think about the World of Hyatt card. For airlines (United, Southwest, Aeroplan, Flying Blue, Avios) nothing changed.

It’s still the card I’d point most people to first for Chase points, and the one that turns a Freedom card’s cash back into transferable points.

In any case, I personally would hate to sign up at 75,000 points when 100,000 was available as recently as August 2026.

The catch

The hotel credit only works on hotels booked through Chase Travel, and the $100 it covers earns no points, so it’s only “free” if you’d book there anyway. Points in Chase Travel are worth a penny unless a Points Boost applies, so most of the value is in transfers, and the best transfer (Hyatt) just got 25% more expensive. The 10% anniversary bonus is also gone.

Trip delay needs 12 hours, not the Reserve’s 6, and there’s no lounge access at all.

The DoorDash promo, Apple TV and the Lyft and Peloton multipliers are truly bad unless you already spend there. Chase, like other banks with these kinds of hard-to-use credits, hopes that you forget to use them.

Keep it after year one?

The fee to me is $95 minus the $100 Chase Travel hotel credit, which is roughly nothing if you book one hotel a year through the portal. Even without it, I’d keep it if you hold a Freedom card and transfer points, or if you’d want the primary rental coverage and trip insurance. If you don’t transfer points and never use the portal, you can product-change it to a no-fee Freedom card and keep your points, though I’d rather you earn the Freedom bonus by applying for one.

Offer history

Offer	Ended
100K after $5K in 3 months (best ever)	2026-08
75K after $4K in 3 months	2025
80K after $4K in 3 months	2023

Quick Answers

Last checked: October 14, 2026. Card terms change often, so confirm on the bank’s page before you apply. There are no affiliate or referral links on this site, ever; links go to the bank’s own page.