Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card benefits: Annual hotel credit and more

A hotel employee stands at the lobby desk assisting a family with check in.Image: A hotel employee stands at the lobby desk assisting a family with check in.
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The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card has strong points and redemption options — and its benefits offer some useful value for the annual fee.

While the card doesn’t offer the wealth of benefits seen with the Chase Sapphire Reserve® and other premium cards with big annual fees, it features several useful perks at a more-reasonable annual fee of $95.

Is the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card’s annual fee worth it?

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card doesn’t feature the wealth of benefits you see from more-expensive cards like the Chase Sapphire Reserve®.

But that doesn’t mean it’s difficult to justify the card’s $95 annual fee.

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card features several bonus spending categories and plenty of redemption options through the Chase Travel℠ portal, including point transfers to airline and hotel partners. If you use your points for travel redemption and do a little work to find the best deals, you can get lots of value from the card.

Plus, its benefits can cover the $95 fee on their own, depending on your spending habits. With an annual $50 hotel credit and several spending credits and memberships, there’s considerable value available even before you redeem your points.

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card’s top benefits

$50 annual hotel credit

The card’s top premium benefit covers more than half the annual fee in one go. You’ll get an annual statement credit that covers the first $50 you spend on hotel accommodations directly through Chase Travel every year.

Needing to use the Chase portal limits how you can earn this credit, and you won’t earn rewards points on that $50 in hotel spending. But if you plan to book at least one hotel stay through Chase every year, you can make use of this benefit without putting in much extra work.

More value for your points

Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is a strong rewards card, with earning potential in numerous categories, but that’s not the only way to get great value from your points.

Your points have 25% more value when you redeem through Chase Travel℠. That means 10,000 points are worth $125 on these redemptions. Just keep in mind that you won’t get that 25% boost when you transfer your points to one of Chase’s numerous airline and hotel partners — though your redemption value may still be worth more when you transfer.

Spending credits and memberships

There are ways to get value outside of the travel world, too. The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card features the following complimentary memberships and spending credits:

  • DoorDash DashPass subscription — Cardholders can get a complimentary membership to DoorDash’s DashPass service for a minimum of 12 months when they activate by Dec. 31, 2027. DashPass includes $0 delivery fees on eligible orders.

Keep in mind that the available offers are unlikely to cover the full cost of your deliveries. It’s more useful to think of them as discounts on services you already use, not completely free benefits.

Travel insurance and coverages for peace of mind

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card brings added security with a number of travel insurances and purchase coverages you won’t find on all premium credit cards.

With trip cancellation and interruption insurance, baggage delay insurance, purchase protection and more, the card can help ensure a difficult travel situation doesn’t also wreck your finances. While not everyone will use these protections, benefits like these can really come in handy in a crisis.


About the author: Eric Freeman is a writer and editor at Credit Karma, specializing in credit cards and credit scores and reports. He strives to make personal finance relatable for readers and to ground complicated issues in everyday e… Read more.