Chase Sapphire Preferred Review: Still the Premier Travel Card in 2024?
No doubt, if you’ve seen any blog, influencer, or friend promoting a credit card over the past few years, there’s a good chance it’s been the Chase Sapphire Preferred (CSP). In the world of travel credit cards, the CSP is viewed by many as both the ultimate starter card and a great entry point into the Chase ecosystem, with both pros and beginners alike benefitting from the card.
However, the CSP has been out for years, and competitors have stepped up their offerings in response. This begs the question:
In 2024, is the Chase Sapphire Preferred still the right travel card to get?
In this article, we’re going to discuss how the CSP compares to key competitor cards in 2024 and for which people, if any, this card still makes sense to apply for.
Without further background, let’s start with reviewing the basics of the Chase Sapphire Preferred.
Chase Sapphire Preferred Basics
The Chase Sapphire Preferred is Chase’s most popular travel card. Unlike the cheaper Freedom series (Unlimited/Flex) which comes with no annual fee, and the more expensive Sapphire Reserve (with an almost doubled annual fee), the CSP operates in the cost middle ground while still providing a wide range of spending benefits.
Before we dive deeper into the comparison, let’s review some basics for the Chase Sapphire Preferred:
Annual Fee: $95
Current Sign-On Bonus: 60,000 Ultimate Reward Points after spending $4,000 in 3 months
Spending Bonus: 5x points on travel made through the Chase Portal, 3x points on online groceries, 3x points on certain streaming services, 3x points on restaurants and takeout/delivery, 2x points on all travel, 1x points on all other spending
Other Benefits: $50 annual Chase Travel hotel credit, 6 month Instacart+ membership, complimentary DashPass membership
The Chase Sapphire Preferred is designed to be the go-to card for people’s main categories of expenses, with bonus points on travel, online groceries, and dining. This is a card that’s designed to be easy to use and easy to get value out of—this is why it’s one of the most popular travel credit cards on the market. If you consistently use the $50 travel credit, the effective annual fee is only $45, and from there, you only need to spend $1500 on travel annually to come out with net positive value!
However, the best way to figure out if the CSP is the right travel card for you is to look at its benefits compared to those from some of the card’s major rivals. Let’s compare the Sapphire Preferred to some key competitors:
American Express Gold
In my opinion, the biggest competitor to the CSP for everyday spending is the American Express Gold card. Both of these cards have great sign-on bonuses, bountiful spending rewards, and interesting benefits for cardholders.
Let’s review the basics of the AmEx Gold card:
Annual Fee: $250
Current Sign-On Bonus: 90,000 Membership Reward points after spending $6,000 in 6 months (up from the normal 60,000 points)
Spending Bonus: 4x points on all food (groceries, restaurants, delivery, etc.), 3x points on flights booked with the airline, 1x points on all other spending
Other Benefits: $120 annual Uber credit, $ Grubhub credit
Compared to the CSP, the AmEx gold on paper is superior in almost every way:
The Gold offers a higher sign-up bonus
The Gold gives more points on flights booked directly with the airline (3x vs. 2x)
The Gold gives 4x points on grocery spending (on average, one of people’s biggest spending areas) while the CSP only gives 1x
Therefore, it might seem like the Gold card is an obvious improvement on the CSP. However, one of the major benefits of the Sapphire Preferred over the Gold card is that it costs less than half of the annual price, complicating the comparison. In a perfect world, I’d recommend applying for both of these cards. While having points in two different ecosystems may seem complex, it’s easier than expected to combine your points. However, given the higher annual fee, the CSP will be easier to get value out of for the travel card beginner or anyone already in the Chase ecosystem.
On the other hand, for anyone who has flights, groceries, and/or Uber/Uber Eats as a major portion of their annual spending, the AmEx Gold can likely net you more total points, even with the greater annual fee. If you’re interested in learning more, check out our full comparison of the CSP vs. the AmEx Gold.
Let’s look at another one of the Chase Sapphire Preferred’s major competitors:
Capital One Venture X
The other major competitor to the Chase Sapphire Preferred is the Venture X from Capital One. The Venture X in 2024 is still one of the newest major travel cards, making waves in the credit card scene when it launched in 2022.
Let’s look over the basics of the C1 Venture X:
Annual Fee: $395
Current Sign-On Bonus: 75,000 Capital One Miles after spending $4,000 in 3 months
Spending Bonus: 10x Miles on hotels & rental cars booked through Capital One Travel, 5x Miles on flights booked through Capital One Travel, 2x points on all other spending
Other Benefits: $300 annual travel credit, $100 Global Entry/TSA Precheck credit, 10,000 mile anniversary bonus
Compared to the Chase Sapphire Preferred, the Venture X is an even simpler card. To get net positive value out of the card, you simply need to use the $300 travel credit and then spend $4750 on the card in a calendar year ($4750 on the card = $95 worth of points at one cent per point value), with anything you spend beyond $4750 giving you even more positive value during the year. If you’re hoping for a simple travel card, the Venture X will likely be the more straightforward option compared to the CSP, and we often recommend the Venture X for anyone who wants to use one main card for everything.
Related Article: AmEx Gold vs. Capital One Venture X
Now that we’ve compared the CSP versus competitors, we can get to the heart of the review:
Is the Chase Sapphire Preferred worth it in 2024?
With so many options out there. is the Chase Sapphire Preferred still the premier travel card in 2024?
We’ve discussed how some of the benefits of the American Express Gold and the Capital One Venture X give cardholders some key advantages over the Chase Sapphire Preferred. Many people are going to be able to earn more points with one of the other cards compared to the CSP. However, we haven’t touched on one major area in the comparison:
Elite Transfer Partners
No matter how much easier it is to earn points with other cards, I still don’t think that, even in 2024, any other bank transfer ecosystem rivals Chase’s. With major transfer partners like United, Southwest, and particularly Hyatt, I find it is consistently easier to get exceptional value out of rewards from a Chase card than an American Express or a Capital One card. The Chase-Hyatt partnership is a staple of the credit card reward world, as it is easy for even complete beginners to get great value out of their points.
Relevant Article: How to Transfer Points From Chase to World of Hyatt
Therefore, despite everything else we’ve discussed, as long as the CSP’s annual fee doesn’t increase, and Chase retains their main transfer partners, the Chase Sapphire Preferred should continue to be the definitive travel card, especially for people new to the credit card world; there’s a reason we give the CSP an “S-tier” rating in our Chase card tier list.
The AmEx Gold and the Venture X may likely earn you more points for your everyday spending; however, it’s unlikely that you’ll get more overall value with a greater point total in the AmEx/Capital One ecosystem than you would with fewer Chase points. Unless you do the math based on your spending and can show that the AmEx Gold or the Venture X would give you more points, the CSP is likely the best option.
The only exception to this rule is for sign-on bonuses. Occasionally, the banks will give one of these cards a dramatically increased bonus to get the card (such as we mentioned with the AmEx Gold). In these cases, you should consider getting one of the other cards first, as generally, these promotions don’t last very long. It’s also worth keeping in mind that Chase is (at some point in the future) going to shake up the CSP. If Chase ever decides to add a non-online grocery spending multiplier to the CSP, the card would instantly become the best credit card on the market, possibly even taking a major share away from Chase’s other cards (and would also likely come with an increase in the annual fee).
We hope this review was helpful! If you’re interested in other card reviews, make sure to explore our analysis of the World of Hyatt card and the BILT Mastercard. And if you’re interested in tutorials, we’ve got guides on how to combine Chase and AmEx points, Chase points and Capital One miles, and AmEx points and Capital One miles, and tutorials on both transferring Chase points to Hyatt and booking Hyatt hotels with points!
