I’m a Texan, however I reside in Colorado. In addition to any deliberate holidays I take, I journey to the Lone Star State a number of occasions a yr to go to household and pals, which provides as much as plenty of flying. I take advantage of a number of bank cards to assist me cowl the price of these journeys, however the stalwart Chase Sapphire Most well-liked® Card is well crucial card in my pockets.
In contrast with different playing cards in its class, this $95-annual-fee card may not appear that flashy. It received’t assist you to skip the road at airport safety or sip a cocktail in a lounge earlier than your flight. However though it received’t do a lot to make you are feeling fancy on the airport, its suite of perks may also help you save vital cash on journeys and assist you to cowl any mishaps you would possibly encounter alongside the way in which.
Journey protections might be extraordinarily beneficial
First issues first: should you’re a traveler, the Chase Sapphire Most well-liked® Card might be price getting only for the journey protections alone. You’ll get:
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Main rental automotive insurance coverage.
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Journey cancellation/interruption insurance coverage.
The cardboard’s cancellation and delay protection can come in useful in case your flight is considerably delayed or the airline loses your baggage.
However the true star for me is main rental automotive insurance coverage. After a single wreck in a rental automotive precipitated my automotive insurance coverage to spike for a number of years, I’m a giant believer in having separate rental automotive protection other than my private automotive insurance coverage. However the price of the protections rental automotive firms supply can add up rapidly.
In the meantime, the insurance coverage you’ll get with the Chase Sapphire Most well-liked® Card is free and robotically covers your rental automotive, assuming you utilize the cardboard to pay for the total quantity and decline the rental firm’s insurance coverage. Say you hire a automotive with an insurance coverage payment of $35 a day. It might take simply three days to utterly cowl the price of the Chase Sapphire Most well-liked® Card’s annual payment.
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The Chase Sapphire Most well-liked® Card doesn’t cost international transaction charges, making it a superb companion for worldwide journey.
Strong rewards charges assist me rack up factors
As a result of I reside a airplane journey away from household, I prefer to preserve a wholesome stash of bank card rewards readily available. And the Chase Sapphire Most well-liked® Card provides me a number of methods to high up my reward steadiness. It earns:
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5 factors per $1 spent on journey bought by way of Chase Final Rewards®.
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3 factors per $1 spent on eating, choose streaming providers and on-line grocery purchases.
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2 factors per $1 spent on all different journey.
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1 level per $1 spent on different purchases.
Store Via Chase
In addition to these common rewards, cardholders even have entry to Store Via Chase, a purchasing portal that provides elevated rewards on sure on-line retailers. These factors are stacked with rewards you’d already earn. For instance, as of January 2024, Safeway.com earns 2 factors per greenback by way of Store Via Chase. Since on-line grocery purchases already earn 3 factors per greenback, you’d earn a complete of 5 factors per greenback.
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Cardholders additionally obtain a ten% level bonus every cardholder anniversary. So should you spent $10,000 per yr, you’d earn a further 1,000 factors.
Mix rewards with different Chase playing cards
In case you favor to maintain just one card in your pockets, the Chase Sapphire Most well-liked® Card is a superb one-and-done possibility. However you can even mix your rewards with these from different playing cards that earn Chase Final Rewards®.
I pair my Chase Sapphire Most well-liked® Card with the Chase Freedom Flex℠, which earns 5% again on rotating classes (on as much as $1,500 every quarter). I often earn extra rewards on my Flex than my Most well-liked, so this selection permits me to maximise my earnings whereas nonetheless profiting from the Most well-liked’s superior redemption choices.
How redeeming factors helped me have fun the World Sequence
Rising up, I spent my summers watching Texas Rangers video games with my household. After we weren’t on the sport, we watched it on TV or listened on the radio. Now that I am dwelling out of state, I often take heed to the radio broadcast alone in my Colorado condominium. However when the Rangers clinched a 2023 playoff spot, I knew in the event that they made it to the World Sequence I wanted to not less than watch with my household if I could not make it to the video games.
I already had a deliberate journey to Texas for a marriage the week after the World Sequence. However, name it baseball superstition or perhaps heartbreak from loving a workforce that hadn’t ever received a championship, I couldn’t convey myself to maneuver my flight up till I knew my workforce was headed to the Fall Basic.
However last-minute ticket costs will not be so nice for my pockets. Fortunately, I used to be in a position to redeem Chase Final Rewards® factors, not solely to be in Texas through the World Sequence, but in addition to make a journey to Florida with my sister a number of weeks earlier to observe our workforce play within the Wild Card spherical.
Transferring my factors helped me get outsize worth
My favourite approach to redeem rewards is to switch them to considered one of Chase’s journey companions, which incorporates a number of airline and lodge loyalty packages. Rewards switch at a 1:1 ratio, and sensible redemptions can usually offer you extra worth in your factors.
You’ll be able to switch Chase Final Rewards® to a lot of U.S.-based airways, together with United, JetBlue and Southwest, plus a lot of U.S.-based motels. However I usually get probably the most worth out of the issuers’ worldwide airways — even for home journey. My traditional go-to’s are British Airways and Air Canada, as a result of you possibly can usually use rewards to guide flights for fewer miles on alliance companions American Airways and United Airways, respectively.
Full record of Chase switch companions
It’s these transfers that helped my sister and me guide a number of last-minute flights to observe the Rangers play. Between our journey to Florida and my further flight to Texas, we took a complete of 5 last-minute flights inside a month. We had been in a position to snag nice redemption charges by transferring Chase factors on three of them:
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My sister’s flight from Tampa to Dallas: 9,000 British Airways Avios rewards.
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My flight from Tampa to Denver: 12,500 Air Canada Aeroplan miles.
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My flight from Denver to Dallas: 10,000 Air Canada Aeroplan miles.
For reference: Reserving last-minute flights with miles on United would usually price me round 15,000 miles one-way. (Observe that every airline’s program prices various taxes and costs along with the required miles.)
Scoring nice offers by transferring factors is not all the time a assure. My Chase Sapphire Most well-liked® Card could not, for example, conjure up an reasonably priced flight to Phoenix that may have let me watch my workforce win the World Sequence in particular person. Nevertheless it did assist me make it house in time to catch the Rangers’ victory from the sofa with my household and pizza, with out blowing my finances.