Looking for a card with GREAT travel benefits, low annual fee and the flexibility to transfer to multiple loyalty programs, including Southwest Airlines?
You’ll find it in my very favorite Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card, which lets you earn 60,000 points after a $4,000 minimum spend on the card in the first 3 months.
But this AMAZING offer is ending VERY SOON: May 31 at 6pm ET/3pm PST.
The current offer is 20,000 MORE points than usual for the SAME minimum spend.
I recommend you — and everyone you know — grab it, as this is a key part of my Fly Free Formula because there are SO many things you can do with these points!
My family saves more than $8,000 every year flying free and I can show your family how to make flying free a LIFESTYLE too, and maximize these 100,000 points! Join my Families Fly Free program to get access to my simple Fly Free Formula, so you can start making more priceless travel memories before your kids — or grandkids — leave home. Learn more below…
This card provides travel lovers immediate benefits from the time you’re approved with a high sign-on bonus, and it pairs perfectly with Southwest Airlines, the top airline I recommend if you want to easily fly your family free.
The flexible Chase Ultimate Rewards points that it earns can be quickly transferred to many different hotels and airlines — for an instant boost of points wherever you need them most.
It is also the card my family most frequently uses day-to-day, and it’s a no-brainer for anyone who wants to travel free.
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Chase Sapphire Preferred Quick Look
Bonus Offer: 60,000 points after a $4,000 minimum spend in first 3 months
Annual Fee: $95
Offer End Date: Unknown
Card Benefits:
- Points transfer instantly at a 1:1 ratio to Southwest Airlines, British Airways/Aer Lingus Avios, United, IHG, Marriott, Hyatt and more
- Earn 3 points per $1 on dining, online grocery and select streaming purchases
- Earn 2 points per $1 on travel expenses
- Get 5 points per $1 when purchasing Lyft rides
- Get a 10% points bonus on your anniversary date based on your previous year’s spending where $10,000=1,000 points
- Complimentary DashPass from DoorDash, which grants you one year of free delivery for orders more than $12.
- No foreign transaction fees
Hot Tip: You can only hold ONE Sapphire card at a time, though you CAN be an authorized user on one and HOLD the other.
I’m going to tell you more about this card and show you why I think all travel enthusiasts need to have it in their wallets!
All About Chase Sapphire Preferred
Chase Sapphire Preferred now offers 60,000 points after a $4,000 minimum spend on the card within three months
Because it earns at least 1 point per dollar spent, you should have a total of 84,000 points after meeting the minimum spend.
But by stacking the opportunities above to earn DOUBLE and TRIPLE points, you could potentially earn up to 8,000-12,000 additional points simply by completing your minimum spend.
While the card’s points, which are called Chase Ultimate Rewards points, are not the same as Southwest points, they can be transferred INSTANTLY at a 1:1 ratio to Rapid Rewards, Southwest’s frequent flyer program.
This makes it a great travel credit card for those who fly Southwest Airlines a lot as we do.
It extends the 135,000 Southwest points you have accrued by signing up for two Southwest Rapid Rewards Visa cards and earning the Southwest Companion Pass, stretching your points to allow you to fly even more places nearly free!
Read my post below on creative ways to use this card to earn Southwest points…
[4 Ways to Use Chase Sapphire Preferred to Earn Southwest Points]
Please note, however, that Chase Ultimate Rewards points transferred to Southwest Rapid Rewards DO NOT qualify for the 135,000 points needed to earn the Southwest Companion Pass, but they CAN be used for free flights!
What Does It Cost to Hold This Card?
This card comes with a reasonable $95 annual fee, and if you read through the benefits below, you’ll see how easy it is to cover that cost.
I am in my sixth year of holding this card, and it’s the card I use for most day-to-day expenses.
Plus, you can quickly earn points with expenditures on airfare, hotels, car rentals, dining (including take-out and delivery) and cruises.
Now, more about the benefits that I believe are so great for travelers!
Chase Sapphire Preferred Benefits I Love
1. More Points for FREE Flights!
These 80,000 points (plus, at least 4,000 points you earn for meeting the minimum spend) can be a great addition to your Southwest Rapid Rewards account to help you continue to book free flights for yourself and family members while bringing someone along for free on the Southwest Companion Pass.
This is how we stretched our points far enough to fly to six destinations for less than $100 per flight for ALL four of my family members over the period of just ONE year.
And we still CONTINUE to FLY FREE across the U.S. on Southwest!
You can also redeem these points for airfare, hotels, vacation rentals, car rentals and cruises through the Chase travel portal. Each point you have is worth 1.25 cents.
So to book a $250 hotel room, you’d first need to figure out how many “cents” that is. So you divide $250 divided by .0125 = 20,000 cents, which is also the number of points you need.
You don’t actually have to figure it out yourself, as it’s already calculated for you in the portal when you choose to book in points, but wanted to make sure you understand how that works. Hope that’s clear as mud ;-).
2. Earn More Points on Dining and Travel Expenses
I have made this my day-to-day card, which I use for most expenses, as it earns DOUBLE POINTS on travel expenditures and TRIPLE POINTS on dining, online grocery and select streaming services, which really add up, especially if you travel frequently!
“Travel” is defined as airfare, hotels, taxis (I used my Chase Sapphire to pay for our New York City taxis and subways) and trains.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred benefits of DOUBLE and TRIPLE points are excellent!
3. Flexible Points
I also like the fact that Chase Ultimate Rewards can be used for other airlines besides Southwest.
I like having a bank of points ready to transfer if needed.
You can leave your Chase points until you are ready to use them and then transfer them for instant use on your preferred airline (some airlines take longer than others for the points to post, though Southwest points — and British Airways — have posted INSTANTLY for us).
Other partner airlines include:
- Air Canada
- Singapore KrisFlyer (which you can use to fly to Hawaii nearly free; learn how to fly to Hawaii free in one of many travel courses inside my Families Fly Free membership)
- Virgin Atlantic
- United
- JetBlue
- British Airways
- Aer Lingus
We used Chase Ultimate Rewards transferred to British Airways to pay for all four of us to fly to Europe entirely on miles AND pay for most of our intra-Europe flights, including from Dublin to Paris and Bologna, Italy to Dublin.
You can ALSO learn how to fly free to Europe for only 26,000 miles roundtrip per person inside my Families Fly Free membership.
5. Get FREE Hotel Stays
Ultimate Rewards can also be transferred to cover hotel stays.
Partners include:
- IHG (EVEN Hotels, Holiday Inn, InterContinental, Hotel Indigo, Crowne Plaza) – 100,000 points = 10 free hotel nights at 10,000 points/night + 2 more FREE nights when you hold IHG Premier
- Marriott
- Hyatt (has some great options, especially for all-inclusive resorts in Mexico!)
- Ritz Carlton
6. No Foreign Transaction Fees
If you travel out of the country, you can use this card and not worry about added overseas fees.
We used both Chase Sapphire Preferred AND Chase Sapphire Reserve on our trip to Europe to earn 2X and 3X points on travel and dining expenses with NO foreign transaction fees.
7. Insurance
This card has great insurance benefits when you use it to pay for airfare and car rentals.
They include:
- $3,000 for lost or damaged luggage, primary auto rental theft and collision damage for the cash value of the vehicle (primary is better than secondary, meaning NO CLAIMS need to be filed with your insurance company, potentially increasing your premiums)
- Trip cancellation insurance if canceled or interrupted due to weather, illness, etc. up to $10,000
- Baggage delay coverage of up to $100 a day for five days for essential purchases like clothing and toiletries
- Return protection for items a store won’t take back within 90 days up to $500
Want more? Check out this post:
7 Ways Chase Sapphire Preferred Can Get You Free Travel
Who’s Eligible to Apply for This Card?
You’re eligible to be approved for this card if you meet the following criteria…
- You don’t already have this card OR Chase Sapphire Reserve
- You haven’t earned the sign-on bonus for either Chase Sapphire Preferred OR Chase Sapphire Reserve in the last 48 months
- You haven’t been approved for another Chase card in the last 30 days
- You haven’t opened 5 or more new cards of ANY type in the last 24 months (aside from Chase, Citi and AMEX business cards)
If you DO already have Chase Sapphire Preferred or Reserve AND it’s been at least 48 months since you last earned the bonus on these cards, you can close your card, wait about 7 to 30 days and re-apply.
If get declined because the credit bureaus have not recognized that your original card is closed, wait another 7 days and then call the Chase Reconsideration Line.
Another alternative is to have a spouse or traveling companion apply for the card if you already have it or Chase Sapphire Reserve.
I recommend one spouse hold Preferred, while the other holds Reserve.
That’s how we do it! 🙂
Other Details
Here are some other key details about Chase Sapphire Preferred…
- It has a high interest rate, so you’ll want to pay your balance in full BY the due date every month, if not every few days
- $95 annual fee
- After meeting the minimum spend, allow 6-8 weeks for the points to be applied to your balance
- You can only hold ONE Chase Sapphire card (the other is Chase Sapphire Reserve)
- Your points never expire as long as your account remains open
- Named the best credit card for flexible travel redemption by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance
Since you can only hold either Chase Sapphire Preferred or Chase Sapphire Reserve, let’s go over the difference between the two.
Chase Sapphire Preferred or Chase Sapphire Reserve?
In 2016, Chase released a brand new card that was so popular they literally ran out of the material they used to manufacture the card.
The Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card offered a 100,000-point bonus, but came with a hefty $450 annual fee (currently $550).
The annual fee for this card, however, is offset with a $300 travel credit and free TSA PreCheck sign-up (worth $85) every four years, effectively costing you a $165 annual fee the first year, which is competitive with many travel credit cards.
The bonus has now been dropped to 50,000 points.
The catch is you can only hold ONE of these two cards, though you CAN have one partner or spouse hold Preferred and the other hold Reserve.
That’s what we’ve done!
I recommend Reserve only to those who have been navigating the art of traveling nearly free for a year or so and who travel frequently.
You’ll need to be able to quickly recoup the $550 annual fee, which is charged to your first statement, through the $300 travel credit and purchasing TSA PreCheck.
You’ll also need to pay this fee by the card’s due date to avoid paying interest on the charge.
If you’re new to traveling free, I’d recommend starting with Chase Sapphire Preferred, as it has a lower out-of-pocket spend, and it nets you an instant 104,000 points toward FREE TRAVEL after meeting the $4,000 minimum spend.
It couldn’t get any easier!
You can always later “upgrade” to Chase Sapphire Reserve if you want.
Have I convinced you yet?
Here’s one MORE reason to love Chase Sapphire Preferred.
An Easy Way to Earn MORE Chase Ultimate Rewards Points
With this credit card, you can ALSO earn 20,000 points per person you refer to the card up to a maximum of 100,000 points per year.
By sharing the amazing travel you’ve completed thanks to this card and its points with your friends, family and colleagues, they may be interested in getting their own card using your referral link.
To find your referral link, you’ll need to use the Chase Refer a Friend feature.
Simply visit ChaseReferaFriend.com, enter your Last Name, zip code and last 4 digits of your card number to see if your card is eligible and to get your link.
Now, on to a question I am asked ALL the time just to make the answer absolutely clear!
Do Chase Ultimate Rewards Points Qualify for the Southwest Companion Pass?
Chase Ultimate Rewards points DO NOT qualify for the Southwest Companion Pass when transferred to your Southwest Rapid Rewards account, but they CAN BE USED FOR FREE TRAVEL on Southwest.
These Ultimate Rewards points balance transfers can continue to add to your Southwest points balance.
This is the quickest and easiest way to add to your Southwest points balance after the 135,000 points you can earn with these one or two SOUTHWEST CREDIT CARDS (1 personal, and 1-2 business cards if you can get them) to keep you and your traveling companions flying free even longer.
I don’t know about you, but that’s my goal: to keep my family of four flying free everywhere we want to go!
To Sum It Up
Chase Sapphire Preferred is a great addition to the wallet of anyone looking to travel nearly free and I truly think everyone who loves to travel should have it.
Not only do the Chase Sapphire Preferred benefits grant you points that can be used for air travel on many airlines including Southwest, but they can be redeemed for hotel stays, as well.
The ability to earn DOUBLE points on travel and TRIPLE points on dining, online grocery and streaming helps to build your points balance more quickly and the flexibility to transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points quickly to many different airlines and hotel chains is unbeatable.
Two thumbs up! A MUST-HAVE for anyone who wants to travel free!
Thanks again for using the links within this post to sign up for this and any other credit cards.
Read More:
- Chase Sapphire Preferred Hidden Benefits
- Reader Question: Do Points From Chase Sapphire Preferred Qualify for the Southwest Companion Pass?
- How I Use Chase Sapphire Preferred Points for Free Hyatt Stays
- Reader Question: Which Card Should I Use for Purchases: Southwest or Chase Sapphire Preferred?
- How I Use Chase Sapphire Preferred to Book Travel in the Chase Portal
