How to get points on chase sapphire preferred

With this card, you can earn rewards — known as Ultimate Rewards® points — in a variety of ways and redeem them strategically for travel, like transferring those points to a variety of loyalty programs, including United Airlines or Hyatt, for example. And it dovetails nicely with some other Chase cards that also earn Ultimate Rewards® points.

Overall, it’s not an easy card to use optimally — a Swiss Army knife compared with the butter knife that simpler cards are. But it’s a go-to card for travelers who delight in finding ways to reap big value from their rewards.

Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card: Basics

Annual fee: $95.

Sign-up bonus: Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. That's $750 toward travel when you redeem through Chase Ultimate Rewards®.

Ongoing rewards:

• 3 points per $1 spent on dining (including eligible delivery services and takeout).

• 3 points per $1 spent on select streaming services.

• 3 points per $1 spent on online grocery purchases (not including Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs).

• 2 points per $1 spent on travel not purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards®.

• 1 point per $1 spent on other purchases.

• Through March 2025: 5 points per $1 spent on Lyft.

Interest rate: The ongoing APR is 18.99%-25.99% Variable APR.

Foreign transaction fees: None.

Other benefits:

• A $50 annual credit on hotel stays purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards®.

• Each account anniversary, cardmembers will earn bonus points equal to 10% of total purchases made the previous year.

• Hotel and airline transfer partners.

How much is a point worth?

Chase Ultimate Rewards® points earned on this card are worth 1.25 cents each when redeemed for travel booked through Chase. Using points this way, or transferring them to travel partners, is key to getting the most value from the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card. Otherwise, it’s not quite as lucrative to use points for less-valuable redemption options, including cash back, gift cards and merchandise.

Why you might want the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card offers versatility for travelers that's hard to find at a similar price point.

Solid sign-up bonus

The card features a generous sign-up bonus: Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. That's $750 toward travel when you redeem through Chase Ultimate Rewards®.

Bonus rewards for spending

You earn extra points in a bunch of spending categories, which is good, but also makes it complicated:

• 5 points per $1 spent on all travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards®.

• 3 points per $1 spent on dining (including eligible delivery services and takeout).

• 3 points per $1 spent on select streaming services.

• 3 points per $1 spent on online grocery purchases (not including Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs).

• 2 points per $1 spent on travel not purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards®.

• 1 point per $1 spent on other purchases.

• Through March 2025: 5 points per $1 spent on Lyft.

• Each account anniversary, cardmembers will earn bonus points equal to 10% of total purchases made the previous year.

Triple points on dining and streaming services is useful, while online grocery purchases may or may not be, depending on your lifestyle. Travel-related purchases are far more lucrative if you’re willing to book through the Chase Ultimate Rewards® travel portal. Even if you’re not, Chase’s definition of "travel" is fortunately broad; in addition to airfare and hotel stays, you can also earn bonus rewards on parking garage fees, bus fares and charges from rideshare companies like Uber. And these bonus rewards aren’t just available for travel and dining in the U.S., they can be earned worldwide.

Those earnings rates are, in effect, slightly higher because of the 10% anniversary bonus boost. For example, streaming services rewards effectively have a rewards rate of 3.1%. (The anniversary bonus applies to dollars spent, not points earned.)

And if you’re willing to use points to book through the Chase Ultimate Rewards® travel portal, which gets a 25% bonus (points are worth 1.25 cents.) All told, a dollar spent at a restaurant or for a streaming service, for example, would earn a total value of 3.875 cents when used for travel through Chase.

Transfer partners

This card’s valuable 1:1 transfer partners make it a keeper, especially if you're willing to look for good redemption opportunities. Say you spot a nice deal with one of Chase’s airline transfer partners — maybe a flight that normally costs thousands of dollars going for a mere 50,000 miles plus taxes and fees. With this card, you have the ability to transfer your Chase Ultimate Rewards® points into that airline’s loyalty program and pounce on that deal.

Here are the transfer partners:

Full list of Ultimate Rewards® transfer partners

Airlines

• Aer Lingus (1:1 ratio).

• Air Canada (1:1 ratio).

• Air France-KLM (1:1 ratio).

• British Airways (1:1 ratio).

• Emirates (1:1 ratio).

• Iberia (1:1 ratio).

• JetBlue (1:1 ratio).

• Singapore (1:1 ratio).

• Southwest (1:1 ratio).

• United (1:1 ratio).

• Virgin Atlantic (1:1 ratio).

Hotels

• Hyatt (1:1 ratio).

• InterContinental Hotels Group (1:1 ratio).

• Marriott (1:1 ratio).

Complementary cards

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is an excellent companion to other cards in the Chase Ultimate Rewards® family. That’s because you can move points to this card from your other cards that earn Chase Ultimate Rewards®, potentially opening up more redemption options.

Consider the Chase Freedom Flex℠. It earns 5% cash back on rotating quarterly categories (on up to the first $1,500 in purchases, upon activation) in addition to rewards for other spending. You could potentially move the rewards you earn on that card to the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card. From there, you could get more value out of your points by transferring points at a 1:1 ratio to other loyalty programs or redeeming them for 1.25 cents apiece when booking travel through Chase.

Extra

• Other redemption options. With Pay Yourself Back, your points are worth 25% more during the current offer when you redeem them for statement credits against existing purchases in select, rotating categories.

Sapphire Preferred vs. Sapphire Reserve

If you have your eye on the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, you might also be checking out the pricier Chase Sapphire Reserve®. This premium travel card comes with an annual fee of $550 and several rich perks and benefits, including airline lounge access and an annual $300 travel credit. If you travel enough, going for the more expensive option could be well worth the cost.

Here’s a look at how the cards stack up on major features:

	Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card	Chase Sapphire Reserve®
	Complete card details and application link: NerdWallet rating  Learn More OR Read our full editorial review	Complete card details and application link: NerdWallet rating  Learn More OR Read our full editorial review
Annual fee	$95.	$550.
Sign-up bonus	Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. That's $750 toward travel when you redeem through Chase Ultimate Rewards®.	Earn 80,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. That's $1,200 toward travel when you redeem through Chase Ultimate Rewards®.
Rewards	5 points per $1 spent on all travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards®. 3 points per $1 spent on dining (including eligible delivery services and takeout). 3 points per $1 spent on select streaming services. 3 points per $1 spent on online grocery purchases (not including Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs). 2 points per $1 spent on travel not purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards®. 1 point per $1 spent on other purchases. Through March 2025: 5 points per $1 spent on Lyft. Points are worth 1.25 cents apiece when redeemed for travel through Chase Ultimate Rewards®.	10 points per $1 spent on Chase Dining purchases through Ultimate Rewards®. 10 points per $1 spent on hotel stays and car rentals purchased through Ultimate Rewards®. 5 points per $1 spent on air travel purchased through Ultimate Rewards®. 3 points per $1 spent on travel and dining not booked with Chase. 1 point per $1 spent on other purchases. Through March 2025: 10 points per $1 spent on Lyft. Points are worth 1.5 cents apiece when redeemed for travel through Chase Ultimate Rewards®.
Other benefits	A $50 annual credit on hotel stays purchased through Ultimate Rewards®. Each account anniversary, cardmembers will earn bonus points equal to 10% of total purchases made the previous year. 1:1 transfer partners, including United, Southwest, JetBlue, Marriott and Hyatt.	$300 annual credit, automatically applied to travel spending. 1:1 transfer partners (same as the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card). Access to more than 1,000 airport lounges worldwide through Priority Pass Select. Up to $100 reimbursement every four years for NEXUS, Global Entry or TSA PreCheck application fees charged to your card. Access to “Reserved by Sapphire” restaurant-booking feature.

Why you might want a different card

Complicated

All those reward categories with different rates, an anniversary bonus and a 1.25 cents per point redemption for travel through Chase? Dizzying.

Additionally, the best rewards and redemptions are tightly tied to the Chase Ultimate Rewards® travel portal or to transferring points to a different loyalty program, which is more to figure out. And to really boost your points, many people will use the card in conjunction with other Chase cards.

Phew.

In the end, optimizing the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card requires a learning curve and an ongoing juggling act that some consumers simply don’t want to deal with.

Few premium perks

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is an excellent card for travelers in general. It even has a few travel perks, such as primary rental car insurance, trip cancellation/interruption insurance and lost luggage insurance.

But for those who love to travel in style, the more expensive Chase Sapphire Reserve® could be a better fit.

The Chase Sapphire Reserve® with an annual fee of $550 comes with an annual $300 travel credit and Priority Pass Select access, which gets you into several airport lounges for free and includes meal credits for certain airport eateries. And it comes with a credit for TSA PreCheck or Global Entry (or NEXUS), worth up to $100 once every four years.

To see how these cards compare to the competition, check out NerdWallet's list of best credit cards to get.

Is the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card right for you?

Using the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card for simple rewards — say, earning cash back — would be akin to buying a beautiful Swiss Army knife just to use the nail file. The card offers outstanding value, but to fully appreciate it, a traveler needs to take advantage of its versatility. If that’s you, this card is an excellent choice.

How much is $1000 worth in Chase points?

How do I get 100000 Chase Sapphire points?

How do you get 5X points with Chase Sapphire?

How long does it take to get Chase Sapphire Preferred bonus points?