The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is well-known in the travel community for being one of the best travel credit cards for both beginners and experts alike!
And if you’re planning for retirement (or are already there), your wallet won’t be complete without the Sapphire Preferred in it.
Below, you’ll find our list of the five best reasons why the Sapphire Preferred is a great option for retirees.
1. The welcome offer
The Sapphire Preferred’s current welcome offer is: Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening..
To put it this way—that’s a generous amount of points. And once or twice a year, we’ll see an even better offer come through! 👀
It’s important to know that this card earns Chase Ultimate Rewards, or more simply, Chase points.
They’re some of the most valuable credit card points in the business thanks to Chase’s airline and hotel transfer partners.
This gives you a TON of flexibility in booking your travel, which we’ll talk more about next.
💡 Pro tip: If you’d like a step-by-step walkthrough of how to actually transfer your Chase points, check out this guide.
2. Use it for domestic and international travel
Maybe you’re looking for an all-inclusive resort in Mexico or the Caribbean. Or perhaps you just want to fly across the country to visit the grandkids ☺️
The Sapphire Preferred can help in either situation!
If you’d like a more stress-free and simple option, you can keep your points in your card’s online account to book flights, hotels, and car rentals through the Chase TravelSM portal.
Your points will be worth a fixed 1.25 cents a piece if you redeem them this way—it’s not the best value, but it’s also not the worst.
However, if you transfer them to the World of Hyatt program, as one example, you could book a dreamy stay in Mexico starting at just 5,000 points per night!
This is GREAT value for your points.
You could even transfer your points to Southwest or United to catch a flight down south.
Example route from Houston to Cancun
The possibilities are endless, and by having the Sapphire Preferred in your wallet, you’ve got the wonderful world of travel at your fingertips 😎
3. The low annual fee
It might be challenging to justify a card with a high annual fee, but that’s not the case here!
The Sapphire Preferred has an annual fee of just $95.
And we get it, being retired means sticking to a defined budget.
With the amount of points and additional perks you get with this card (more on that later), it’s easy to see you’re getting far more value despite paying a low annual fee.
4. Good earning rates
The Sapphire Preferred truly embraces both travel and everyday spending as ways to earn points.
Here are its spending categories:
5x per $1 on Chase Travel purchases and qualifying Lyft rides (through 03/2025)
3x per $1 on dining, select streaming services, and online grocery (excluding Target, Walmart, and wholesale clubs)
2x per $1 on travel purchases
1x per $1 on all other purchases
I don’t know about you, but a large majority of my recurring purchases include food and travel.
Being able to earn 2-3x points per dollar on those purchases is one of the easiest ways to accelerate your points-earning potential!
Just think… With your daily purchases, you’ll earn another 5,000 Chase points in no time, and that could be redeemed for another free night down in Mexico (or elsewhere) 😉
5. Additional travel benefits
The Sapphire Preferred is no premium credit card, but it still offers some additional perks:
10% anniversary points bonus (you’ll earn 10% of your total spend in points) each account anniversary year
$50 statement credit for hotel stays booked through Chase Travel every year
DashPass membership (12 months free for DoorDash and Caviar if activated by 12/31/2027)
Travel insurance such as primary rental car coverage, trip delay and cancellation insurance, baggage delay insurance, lost luggage reimbursement, purchase protection, and extended warranty protection
Bottom line
This truly is one of the best credit cards that earns transferable points and therefore allows you to book travel with many different airlines or hotels.
It may not be a premium travel card, but it certainly has plenty to offer!
And as a retiree, you certainly deserve to sit back, relax, and enjoy time spent with family (or on a beach!).
If you’d like to learn more or apply for this card, you can do so HERE.
