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 100,000 bonus points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening..
To put it this way — that’s a very generous amount of points.
It’s important to know that this card earns Chase Ultimate Rewards. Sometimes known as Chase points or UR 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 at varying rates through the Chase TravelSM portal.
However, if you can transfer them to airline and hotel partners to get way more value. For example, you could 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 points on travel booked through Chase Travel℠ (excluding hotel purchases that qualify for the $100 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit), on eligible Lyft rides (through 9/30/27), and on eligible Peloton equipment and accessory purchases over $150 (through 12/31/27)
3x points on dining, select streaming services, and online grocery purchases
3x points on top vacation rentals (like Airbnb and Vrbo)
3x points on gas and EV charging
2x points on all other travel
1x points on everything else
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:
$100 statement credit for hotel stays booked through Chase Travel every year
Up to $120 in TSA PreCheck/Global Entry/NEXUS credit every four years
DashPass membership (12 months free for DoorDash and Caviar if activated by 12/31/2027)
Travel insurance such as primary rental car coverage, emergency evacuation and transportation (up to $100,000 when traveling 100 miles or more from your home), 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.
