Last week, Chase announced a refresh of their $95 annual fee Sapphire Preferred Card.
As I predicted, card launches and refreshes are often accompanied by limited-time bonus offers. The card’s new features go into effect today, and Chase is offering new cardmembers 100,000 points after spending $5,000 in the first three months.
- Points-earning: 3x on dining, streaming, and online grocery; 2x on all travel (but 5x if booked through Chase Travel); plus 5x on Lyft and Peleton. And now 3x on gas stations and EV charging, and 3x on vacation homes at Airbnb/Vrbo and other top platforms.
- Hotel credit: $100 Chase Travel hotel credit each anniversary year, with no night minimum. That’s up from $50 previously.
- Points transfers and travel redemptions: Transfers to Hyatt are reduced from 1:1 to 4:3. (Existing cardmembers keep 1:1 Hyatt transfers through October 1. There’s no change to 1:1 transfers for Sapphire Reserve and Reserve Business cardmembers.)
Use your points to pay for travel through Chase’s portal or transfer to travel partners including:
- Star Alliance: United MileagePlus, Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer, Air Canada Aeroplan
- oneworld: British Airways Executive Club, Iberia Plus
- SkyTeam: Air France KLM Flying Blue, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
- Non-alliance: Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards, Aer Lingus AerClub, JetBlue TrueBlue
- Hotels: World of Hyatt, Marriott Bonvoy, IHG One Rewards, Wyndham Rewards
- Star Alliance: United MileagePlus, Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer, Air Canada Aeroplan
They’ve added up to $120 every four years on Global Entry, Precheck, or Nexus, removed the card’s 10% anniversary bonus, and leaned in further with travel protections.
This was the original ‘it’ card for travelers 15 years ago, with transferrable points and double points on travel and dining, plus a metal card. The annual fee hasn’t ever gone up from $95, which is surprising. The new value proposition is an improvement for most. For me, it wouldn’t work.
Hyatt has been one of the real unique values of the Chase Ultimate Rewards program. I’ve transferred more Chase points to Hyatt than any other partner. I am not reflective of the majority of cardmembers, who when redeeming for travel use the Chase portal and spend points against paid trips and when transferring to a partner program overwhelmingly choose United. I’m glad I have the more premium card (though it’s possible to have both, and move Sapphire Preferred points to Sapphire Reserve and still get 1:1 transfers with Hyatt).
At the $95 tier, Citi Strata Premier is still the more well rounded card for points earning, I think, especially when paired with a DoubleCash. And if you want Hyatt, Bilt exists. But the other strategy is get a CSP/F.Un, enjoy this CSP 100k SUB and earn points, and then when you’re ready to transfer to Hyatt, get a CSR later on to unlock the 1:1. Now that you can earn bonuses on both products, not a bad way to play it.
As for the battle of the CSPs-
Fee – both $95
Hotel coupon – Both now $100 (Chase was $50 and matched, although Citi requires $500 in spend).
Portal spend – Citi 10x, Chase 5x
Air Travel / Hotels – Citi 3x, Chase 2x
Other travel – Citi 1x, Chase 2x (although a $0 DoubleCash gets you 2x on everything so not much of a ‘lead’…)
Airbnb etc. – Citi 3x, Chase matched to 3x
Gas/EV – Citi 3x, Chase matched to 3x
Dining – both 3x
Groceries – Citi 3x, Chase 3x online only
Chase now has GE benefit ($24/year value) and Apple TV subscription for one year and emergency evacuation coverage, so if those things are valuable to you, could tip a scale, or could just be noise.
Chase blew it when they destroyed the CSR card. I dumped them and I have not looked back,
@Peter — That’s a solid comparison. Personally, ever since Citi reclaimed AA transfers (and since Amex and Chase have been butchering its own products), I’ve been drifting back to them recently. Not only are Premier and Double-Cash worthwhile ‘keeper’ cards, but Strata (no fee) is also, especially if you have a P2 with beauty appointments (earns 3x at most hair salons, spas.) I guess, Strata Elite is the Prestige-knockoff (would’ve preferred its 4th night free and 5x dining everywhere all the time, but Elite’s Citi Nights, 6x dining Fri & Sat after 6PM, and the coupon-credits, are ‘fine,’ I guess.) Wish they had not halted Custom Cash, because 5x up to $500/mo categories were kinda helpful, too. (Also, buddy, Knicks in 5!! Woohoo!!)
For me, the addition of the 3x on gas purchasing far and away softens the blow of the loss of the 1:1 transfer to Hyatt. I mean, let’s say I do 30 gallons of gas per week. That’s 1560 gallons per year. At $4 a gallon, that’d be $6240 in gasoline spending per year.
And since my husband and I are retired with only 1 car, I expect our gas usage is less than many other people’s these days.
So with the increase from 1x to 3x, I’m now going to have an additional 12,480 points per year.
By my calculation, it’d take about 50,000 points being transferred under the old (better) transfer ratio (but with no extra earning on my gasoline) in order to feel the loss of points under the new reality of a 4:3 but with gasoline at 3x per $.
@rkt10- $6k of gas a year is a lot! You should get an electric car. Or a Costco card, which gives 4x on gas, 5x on gas at Costco