Learn how to save on travel this summer with the Chase Sapphire Preferred Credit Card by following these 4 tips!
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This year, we've seen the cost of everything rise: from gas, to groceries, to rent prices. The travel industry has also been significantly impacted by inflation, with flight and hotel prices skyrocketing this summer. If you don't have a plan, summer travel expenses can easily get out of hand...even to the point of halting travel plans altogether. But there are certainly ways to reduce your travel and dining spending. One way that I've learned to shave costs is by making the most of my Chase Sapphire Preferred Credit Card.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred Card easily has a reputation for being one of the most (if not THEE most) popular travel credit cards for American travelers. It offers amazing perks that are simply unmatched by other credit cards, especially for its relatively low annual fee of just $95.00. I'm relatively new to the Chase Sapphire family (since April 2022), but here are 4 ways that I've already managed to save using this popular credit card:
1. Take Advantage of the Sign-Up Bonus
When I applied for the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card in April 2022, the sign-up bonus offer was 80,000 bonus points. This was major. 80,000 bonus points in the travel hacking world has a value of ~$800.00 to $1000.00, depending on where you choose to spend your points. This is a guaranteed sign-up bonus if you spend a qualifying $4000.00 on the credit card in the first 3 months of opening the account. Since earning the points, I have purchased two round-trip Southwest flights for this summer: one to Philadelphia, PA and one to Scottsdale, AZ. Both round-trip fares were worth around ~$300.00 each, and I still have about 28,000 of the original points left over from the original sign-up bonus. These remaining points can be redeemed for hotels, flights, as well as for activities and excursions. Additionally, these points can be combined with your existing points and miles from other rewards programs when you transfer your Chase Ultimate Rewards Points to Chase partners' rewards programs. The transfers are 1:1 for all of Chase's partners.
2. Use Chase Sapphire for your Rental Car
Arias and I have gotten to the point in our travels where we really value flexibility and the ability to get up and go whenever we get ready. As such, our go-to means of ground transportation on domestic and increasingly more international trips is a rental car. Having a rental car means we can take our time, explore destinations, and leave whenever we feel compelled. Rental cars also allow for a more authentic experience wherever we are. They're wonderful. But they can also get expensive, especially with such variability in rental insurance pricing offered by the rental companies. During our recent trip to Costa Rica (before Chase Sapphire), the cost of collision insurance nearly DOUBLED our final price for the car rental, relative to the base price of the car. This is where Chase Sapphire comes in.
One of the benefits of the Chase Sapphire Preferred card is the Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver. If you charge the entire price of the rental car to your Chase Card, you can actually DECLINE the rental company's collision insurance, and Chase will provide primary insurance coverage. This includes theft and collision damage for most rental cars domestically and internationally. This benefit was a HUGE game changer for us. In fact, for an upcoming trip, we have already declined the company's collision insurance on our current reservation, almost an additional $150-200 in savings.
3. Make Use of the Card's Travel Insurance Benefit
The COVID-19 pandemic really forced us to see the benefit of having travel insurance. We have not gone on a single trip since 2020 without travel insurance. Especially for trips where we spend sometimes thousands of dollars, there are simply too many variables to leave to chance: COVID-19, weather, lost baggage, delayed flights.
We've spent anywhere from $40 to $160 per trip on travel insurance. And we travel ALOT! Luckily with Chase Sapphire's travel coverage benefit, we no longer have to spend extra dollars on travel insurance. This benefit of the credit card covers up to $20,000 in trip cancellation and interruption insurance, reimburses essential purchases for baggage delays, and covers $500 per ticket for trip delay.
4. Have your Meals On-the-Go Delivered with DashPass
A rather unexpected benefit of the Chase Sapphire Preferred Credit Card has been its partnership with DoorDash. Members of Chase Sapphire can expect to receive at least 12 months of DashPass when they activate this benefit. For those of you who are unfamiliar, DoorDash is a delivery app, for not only restaurants, but also grocery and convenience stores. The beauty of DashPass is that delivery fees are waived! Frequently, there are also significant discounts offered through the app for DashPass members. This has saved us a ton of money during vacations when were were too lazy to leave our hotels for food!
The Chase Sapphire Preferred card is truly an excellent travel credit card for any beginning travel hacker. It offers a pretty good bang for your buck in terms of travel perks, and points accumulate pretty quickly with purchases. Get the gift of free travel for the summer with 60,000 BONUS POINTS and sign up for Chase Sapphire Preferred TODAY! If you're already a Chase Sapphire member, share in the comments what you love about this credit card!
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