The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (see rates and fees) has long been one of the easiest travel rewards cards to recommend.
It earns valuable Chase Ultimate Rewards points, offers solid travel protections and carries a reasonable $95 annual fee — a rarity as more travel cards push well beyond the $100 mark.
Now, one of the card’s most useful perks has gotten significantly better.
As part of the Sapphire Preferred refresh, Chase doubled the card’s annual Chase Travel℠ hotel credit from $50 to $100 while keeping the annual fee at $95.
That may not sound revolutionary, but that one change dramatically improves the card’s value proposition.
The annual fee now easily pays for itself
Before this update, the Sapphire Preferred‘s annual fee was easy enough to justify, but it still required some effort.
Under the old setup, cardholders received a $50 annual hotel credit and paid a $95 annual fee. That left another $45 to make up through the card’s bonus categories, travel protections, redemption options or other perks.
That remaining $45 wasn’t particularly difficult to offset, especially for travelers who regularly redeem Chase Ultimate Rewards points. Still, you needed to use multiple card benefits to feel like you were truly coming out ahead.
Now, the math looks very different:
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- $95 annual fee
- $100 annual Chase Travel hotel credit
- $5 ahead
Of course, you still need to use the credit to get the value.
But one hotel booking per year can now effectively offset the card’s entire annual fee before you even consider the points you earn, the travel protections you receive or the flexibility of Chase Ultimate Rewards.
Everything else becomes icing on the cake.
Related: Best ways to redeem Chase Ultimate Rewards points for hotel stays
The refreshed Sapphire Preferred hotel credit now feels more useful
As a Sapphire Preferred cardholder, I appreciate the extra $50 in value. What stands out even more, though, is how much more useful the credit feels now.
When the benefit was worth $50, I always viewed it as a nice discount rather than a reason to book through Chase Travel. Saving $50 is great, but it wasn’t always enough to change my behavior.
Consider a one-night hotel stay that costs $129. Under the old setup, the $50 credit would bring your out-of-pocket cost down to about $79. That’s certainly better than paying full price, but it may not have been enough savings to make the credit feel especially valuable.
With the new $100 credit, that same stay would cost just $29.
While the old credit felt like a discount, the new one can cover a significant portion of a stay.
This can be especially useful for one-night stays, such as an airport hotel before an early-morning flight, a roadside motel during a road trip or a budget-friendly weekend getaway. In many cases, $100 could cover a substantial portion of the total cost.
Even better, Chase didn’t make the benefit any harder to use. There is no minimum stay requirement, no complicated enrollment process and no need to track multiple credits throughout the year. You simply book and prepay a hotel through Chase Travel and receive the credit.
As always, it’s worth comparing Chase Travel pricing against booking directly with the hotel before using the credit, since rates can sometimes differ.
Eligible hotel bookings made through Chase Travel also earn points. However, cardholders won’t earn points on the portion of the purchase covered by the up-to-$100 statement credit
That’s refreshingly simple compared to many card benefits today.
Who benefits most from the Sapphire Preferred card changes?
This update is especially useful if you like the idea of a travel rewards card but don’t want to spend a lot of time optimizing every benefit.
If you already transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points to airline and hotel partners for maximum value, the Sapphire Preferred likely made sense for you before this change.
But if you’re a more occasional traveler, the new $100 hotel credit is much easier to appreciate. You don’t need to learn transfer sweet spots, hunt for award availability or track a long list of credits to come out ahead.
You just need to book a hotel through Chase Travel once a year.
The Sapphire Preferred still costs less than $100 per year, and its biggest annual credit remains simple enough for many travelers to use without changing their habits.
Bottom line
The Sapphire Preferred® Card was already one of the best travel rewards cards available, even with its $95 annual fee.
Now, Chase has doubled the card’s annual hotel credit to $100 without raising the fee.
You still need to book a hotel through Chase Travel to use the benefit, but one stay per year can now effectively offset the cost of keeping the card. Everything else the card offers — the points, travel protections and redemption flexibility — comes on top of that.
The Sapphire Preferred has always been easy to recommend. This change makes that recommendation even easier.
Related: Who should (and shouldn’t) get the Chase Sapphire Preferred?
