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Chase Sapphire Preferred® vs Chase Sapphire Reserve®
One of the questions I get most often…Zach, should I get a Chase Sapphire Preferred® or a Chase Sapphire Reserve®. Well, simply put, I think Chase has made the Chase Sapphire Preferred® so good…they kind of killed the Chase Sapphire Reserve®. Let’s take a look at two leviathans of the transferrable credit card point space and then you can make a decision on which is best for your wallet.
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Table of Contents
Current Welcome Offers and Annual Fee
Remember both cards come with travel credits that lower the effective cost, but there is still over $200 of difference after you take that into account.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
Chase Sapphire Reserve®
The Chase Sapphire Reserve® is the grandaddy of all Chase cards. It’s a super premium card that comes with a bevy of benefits, travel credits, increased earn rates, and points worth 1.5c in Chase Travel℠.
Welcome Offer
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$550
Points Earned
Transferrable Ultimate Rewards
- $550 Annual Fee
- $300 Annual Travel Credit
- Each anniversary Year
- 3x on dining
- Earn rates via Chase Travel℠
- Earn 5x total points on flights
- 10x total points on hotels and car rentals when you purchase travel through Chase Travel℠
- Bonuses starts after the first $300 is spent on travel purchases annually.
- Redeem points at 1.5c valuation in the Chase Travel℠ portal
- Earn 3x points on other travel and dining & 1 point per $1 spent on all other purchases
- Chase Sapphire lounge access
- Priority Pass membership
- $100 application fee credit every four years for
- Global Entry,
- NEXUS,
- or TSA PreCheck(R)
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- No Fx fees
- Trip Cancellation/Interruption Insurance, Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver, Lost Luggage Insurance and more.
When the Chase Sapphire Reserve® first hit the market in 2016 it had a 100k offer, but the highest in recent years has been 80k after $4k spend in 3 months.
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists what the highest offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Reserve® has perks like a $300 annual travel credit, full Priority Pass membership with access to great lounges + restaurants all around the world for you and 2 guests, 3x points on dining and travel worldwide, and points that are worth 1.5c in the Chase Travel Center.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash , Ink Business Unlimited you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners.
Personally, I think the Chase Sapphire Preferred® may offer more value for the annual fee, and if you want the super premium benefits, take a look at the Capital One Venture X to pair with it.
Earn Rates
This is where the Chase Sapphire Reserve® used to really pull away from the Chase Sapphire Preferred®. Not so much anymore. The biggest differences are within the Chase Portal on travel and on Peloton.
Personally, I don’t book much of my travel within portals, and typically I never book hotels within a portal since you don’t earn hotel points or get elite credit. Airline purchases could still give you elite miles and credit, but the CSP and CSR earn the same rate on airlines, 5x.
The biggest difference is when it comes to travel outside of the portals whereChase Sapphire Reserve® gets 3x and Sapphire Preferred gets 2x. Preferred even has 3x categories for online groceries and select streaming.
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| 1x on every single purchase without limit | 1x on everything |
Purchases in the Chase Travel℠ Portal
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Purchases in the Chase Travel℠ Portal
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Annual Credits
As mentioned earlier, both of these cards give credits towards travel. The Chase Sapphire Preferred® gives a $50 hotel credit when you book through the Chase Travel℠ Portal vs the Chase Sapphire Reserve® which gets a broader $300 travel credit that is valid on travel purchases outside the Chase Travel℠ portal.
- Chase Sapphire Preferred® cost after using the travel credit is $45
- Chase Sapphire Reserve® cost after using the travel credit is $250
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You could use the travel credit at hotels that don’t have elite programs, like Peninsula Bangkok
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
Chase Sapphire Reserve®
The Chase Sapphire Reserve® is the grandaddy of all Chase cards. It’s a super premium card that comes with a bevy of benefits, travel credits, increased earn rates, and points worth 1.5c in Chase Travel℠.
Welcome Offer
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$550
Points Earned
Transferrable Ultimate Rewards
- $550 Annual Fee
- $300 Annual Travel Credit
- Each anniversary Year
- 3x on dining
- Earn rates via Chase Travel℠
- Earn 5x total points on flights
- 10x total points on hotels and car rentals when you purchase travel through Chase Travel℠
- Bonuses starts after the first $300 is spent on travel purchases annually.
- Redeem points at 1.5c valuation in the Chase Travel℠ portal
- Earn 3x points on other travel and dining & 1 point per $1 spent on all other purchases
- Chase Sapphire lounge access
- Priority Pass membership
- $100 application fee credit every four years for
- Global Entry,
- NEXUS,
- or TSA PreCheck(R)
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- No Fx fees
- Trip Cancellation/Interruption Insurance, Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver, Lost Luggage Insurance and more.
When the Chase Sapphire Reserve® first hit the market in 2016 it had a 100k offer, but the highest in recent years has been 80k after $4k spend in 3 months.
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists what the highest offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Reserve® has perks like a $300 annual travel credit, full Priority Pass membership with access to great lounges + restaurants all around the world for you and 2 guests, 3x points on dining and travel worldwide, and points that are worth 1.5c in the Chase Travel Center.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash , Ink Business Unlimited you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners.
Personally, I think the Chase Sapphire Preferred® may offer more value for the annual fee, and if you want the super premium benefits, take a look at the Capital One Venture X to pair with it.
Using points
Both of these cards earn premium Chase Ultimate Rewards that are fully transferrable to any of the over a dozen transfer partners. Please check out our 20 best uses of Chase Ultimate Rewards for some of our favorite uses, but transfer partners are how we are able to travel in some of the finest cabins in the world.
The biggest distinction here is when you’d use your points in the Chase Travel℠ Portal. There, the Chase Sapphire Preferred® only gets 1.25c vs the Chase Sapphire Reserve® gets 1.5c per point when used on travel.
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Book Lufthansa First Class for 100k points one way with Air Canada Aeroplan
Lounge Access
This is where Chase Sapphire Reserve® pulls ahead of Chase Sapphire Preferred®. The Chase Sapphire Reserve® has one of the best Priority Pass memberships in the business because it includes restaurant access. However, this is the same memberships that the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card provides which is why I keep a Venture X and a Chase Sapphire Preferred® in my wallet instead of a Chase Sapphire Reserve®.
We have heard rumblings that Chase will be rolling out their own network of lounges, but the details aren’t explicit and we aren’t fully aware of who will have access aside from knowing Chase Sapphire Reserve® members will have access. Will Sapphire Preferred members get a few passes a year? Pay for entry? We just don’t know.
The other rumor is that Priority Pass Select members will have access…so that potentially means that Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card members could access via their Priority Pass membership? That sounds too good to be true.
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Other Benefits
This isn’t an extensive list of benefits, but what you start to see is how good the coverage is on Chase Sapphire Preferred® for just $95 a year. While there are small differences, like trip delay starting at 12 hours vs 6 hours with the Chase Sapphire Reserve®, and emergency medical coverage, I’d say they are pretty tight competitors.
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| Primary Rental Car coverage excluding High Value, exotics, etc some exclusions | Primary, up to $75k, some exclusions |
Trip Cancellation
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Trip Cancellation
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Trip Delay
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Trip Delay
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Baggage delay
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Baggage delay
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Lost Baggage
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Lost Baggage
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Emergency Medical
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Emergency Medical
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Purchase Protection
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Purchase Protection
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Overall
Personally, without this increased CSR offer, I don’t see a reason to spend the extra money to have the Chase Sapphire Reserve® when the Preferred earns nearly the same rates of return, offers a bevy of benefits, has transferrable points, and you could add a Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card to your wallet to earn 2x everywhere and get some more premium benefits that the Chase Sapphire Reserve® offers for lower out of pocket total cost. Every situation is different, but for most people, this is the combo I would say would give you more options for redemption for lower out of pocket cost.
The Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card comes with a $300 travel portal credit and a 10k anniversary points bonus all for a $395 annual fee.
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.