If you have Chase Sapphire Preferred…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't really get why people love it so much. We live overseas and people constantly talk about how it's awesome, but even with a ton of travel, I wouldn't spend $300 on lounges in a year, nevermind the opportunity cost of losing points for Amazon, etc.

Using the Chase trifecta has funded a significant portion of my families' travel each year. This year, it's covering our hotels in Europe. Last year, it covered our stay at an all inclusive Hyatt resort in Mexico and flights. The previous year, flights to Disney World and various hotel stays throughout the year. Etc. etc. ever year since the Chase Reserve was introduced (except during the height of COVID).

The lounges were great the first couple of years, but they're overcrowded now and it seems that there are a lot less that are accessible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For those of you who fly United, any tips for transferring Chase points to United? Do you try to find a flight and then transfer? Or transfer and then look for the flights?

Find the flight and then transfer the points. Try to book about 330-350 days in advance of the flight you want for the cheapest points, or last minute. You can google to see what the typical saver award flights cost to see if you're getting the "best" deal. If you have a United credit card (any of them), you'll see the cheapest points fares. Another tip is to try to book a United flight through one of their partners (Air Canada for example), you can often get even better deals this way.

Playing the points game is a decent amount of work and effort. There is a learning curve. For those of you suggesting the portal, you're not getting the most out of your points. If that method works for you, there's nothing wrong with it. But the Chase Sapphire Preferred has a $95 annual fee, and your points are worth 1.25 cents in the portal (the Reserve is 1.5 but it's a $550 fee). A bit of research will show you that people easily and often exceed 2 cents per point all the way up to 5, 6 and 7 cents per point by transferring directly to airlines and hotels.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We love it. Use it regularly for the lounge benefit when we travel for all four of us which is easily worth $100 a time. Get about $2k worth of free hotels per year either through the portal or exchanging points for hotel points.

That’s the Reserve. OP is asking about the Preferred.

OP we have it and use it often for travel insurance as well as to transfer to airline and hotel partners. The portal is almost always a bad deal compared to transfer partners. You can also get Chase points with business Ink cards if you have a small business.

You get travel insurance through the card? So you don’t have to buy separate trip insurance?

Right. That's why I think it's worth the $250 net annual fee apart from the lounge access. Just book our plane tickets paying any costs with the card, and the insurance is active.

https://www.chasebenefits.com/sapphirereserve2

But that’s free for the preferred card.

Note I once went to claim on travel insurance and the paperwork defeated me but it is nice to have.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We love it. Use it regularly for the lounge benefit when we travel for all four of us which is easily worth $100 a time. Get about $2k worth of free hotels per year either through the portal or exchanging points for hotel points.

That’s the Reserve. OP is asking about the Preferred.

OP we have it and use it often for travel insurance as well as to transfer to airline and hotel partners. The portal is almost always a bad deal compared to transfer partners. You can also get Chase points with business Ink cards if you have a small business.

You get travel insurance through the card? So you don’t have to buy separate trip insurance?

Right. That's why I think it's worth the $250 net annual fee apart from the lounge access. Just book our plane tickets paying any costs with the card, and the insurance is active.

https://www.chasebenefits.com/sapphirereserve2

But that’s free for the preferred card.

Note I once went to claim on travel insurance and the paperwork defeated me but it is nice to have.

The Preferred card annual fee is $95. It has very good coverages as well, but not as extensive as the Reserve. Good chart comparing them here.

https://frequentmiler.com/chase-sapphire-reserve-vs-preferred/#Travel_Protection_Comparison

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We love it. Use it regularly for the lounge benefit when we travel for all four of us which is easily worth $100 a time. Get about $2k worth of free hotels per year either through the portal or exchanging points for hotel points.

That’s the Reserve. OP is asking about the Preferred.

OP we have it and use it often for travel insurance as well as to transfer to airline and hotel partners. The portal is almost always a bad deal compared to transfer partners. You can also get Chase points with business Ink cards if you have a small business.

You get travel insurance through the card? So you don’t have to buy separate trip insurance?

Right. That's why I think it's worth the $250 net annual fee apart from the lounge access. Just book our plane tickets paying any costs with the card, and the insurance is active.

https://www.chasebenefits.com/sapphirereserve2

But that’s free for the preferred card.

Note I once went to claim on travel insurance and the paperwork defeated me but it is nice to have.

The Preferred card annual fee is $95. It has very good coverages as well, but not as extensive as the Reserve. Good chart comparing them here.

https://frequentmiler.com/chase-sapphire-reserve-vs-preferred/#Travel_Protection_Comparison

Thanks for sharing this. It looks like neither card offers medical evacuation coverage. I wonder if it’s possible to buy trip insurance that covers only what the chase card does not cover (like med evac).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We love it. Use it regularly for the lounge benefit when we travel for all four of us which is easily worth $100 a time. Get about $2k worth of free hotels per year either through the portal or exchanging points for hotel points.

That’s the Reserve. OP is asking about the Preferred.

OP we have it and use it often for travel insurance as well as to transfer to airline and hotel partners. The portal is almost always a bad deal compared to transfer partners. You can also get Chase points with business Ink cards if you have a small business.

You get travel insurance through the card? So you don’t have to buy separate trip insurance?

Right. That's why I think it's worth the $250 net annual fee apart from the lounge access. Just book our plane tickets paying any costs with the card, and the insurance is active.

https://www.chasebenefits.com/sapphirereserve2

But that’s free for the preferred card.

Note I once went to claim on travel insurance and the paperwork defeated me but it is nice to have.

The Preferred card annual fee is $95. It has very good coverages as well, but not as extensive as the Reserve. Good chart comparing them here.

https://frequentmiler.com/chase-sapphire-reserve-vs-preferred/#Travel_Protection_Comparison

Thanks for sharing this. It looks like neither card offers medical evacuation coverage. I wonder if it’s possible to buy trip insurance that covers only what the chase card does not cover (like med evac).

From the chart (under the Reserve, Preferred doesn't have this):

Emergency Evac & Transport: Up to $100K

[Anonymous]

I have reserve and I love it

[Anonymous]

I love this card - the Reserve. I've used it for free road side assistance to jump start the car and another time to fix a tire and another time for something else - way better than AAA and included. I've used points to book flights. Excellent trip cancellation insurance when we needed to cancel our reservations due to illness. Lounge access is a plus but there are restrictions. Also knock on wood have never had issues with fraudulent charges. Oh yeah and all the perks for Lyft etc do add up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I love this card - the Reserve. I've used it for free road side assistance to jump start the car and another time to fix a tire and another time for something else - way better than AAA and included. I've used points to book flights. Excellent trip cancellation insurance when we needed to cancel our reservations due to illness. Lounge access is a plus but there are restrictions. Also knock on wood have never had issues with fraudulent charges. Oh yeah and all the perks for Lyft etc do add up.

Yeah I read a comment online suggesting saving their 800 number for roadside assistance in your phone. I did that to make it quicker to find if I have to use it- which I haven't had to do yet thankfully.

But yes good small example of how the "minor" perks from the card can be long run valuable because they allow you to do away with other things which cost money like AAA, travel insurance, car rental supplemental insurance, etc. In fact I value those things more than I do the lounge access, because the overall quality of the PP lounges in the US isn't that great, and most of our travel is domestic. I have used the restaurant PP credit a few times in the past year so that has been worth probably over $100. Also note that it takes some effort/attention to set all of this up and use it, so again may not be for everyone who doesn't have an interest in doing that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those of you who fly United, any tips for transferring Chase points to United? Do you try to find a flight and then transfer? Or transfer and then look for the flights?

Find the flight and then transfer the points. Try to book about 330-350 days in advance of the flight you want for the cheapest points, or last minute. You can google to see what the typical saver award flights cost to see if you're getting the "best" deal. If you have a United credit card (any of them), you'll see the cheapest points fares. Another tip is to try to book a United flight through one of their partners (Air Canada for example), you can often get even better deals this way.

Playing the points game is a decent amount of work and effort. There is a learning curve. For those of you suggesting the portal, you're not getting the most out of your points. If that method works for you, there's nothing wrong with it. But the Chase Sapphire Preferred has a $95 annual fee, and your points are worth 1.25 cents in the portal (the Reserve is 1.5 but it's a $550 fee). A bit of research will show you that people easily and often exceed 2 cents per point all the way up to 5, 6 and 7 cents per point by transferring directly to airlines and hotels.

We got tix to Hawaii last year for Presidents Day week for like 27K roundtrip on United; we booked it only about 6 weeks out due to some special being run by United if you had status + a United card. The value was 5.5 cents per point. It was absurd.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For those of you who fly United, any tips for transferring Chase points to United? Do you try to find a flight and then transfer? Or transfer and then look for the flights?

Find the flight and then transfer the points. Try to book about 330-350 days in advance of the flight you want for the cheapest points, or last minute. You can google to see what the typical saver award flights cost to see if you're getting the "best" deal. If you have a United credit card (any of them), you'll see the cheapest points fares. Another tip is to try to book a United flight through one of their partners (Air Canada for example), you can often get even better deals this way.

Playing the points game is a decent amount of work and effort. There is a learning curve. For those of you suggesting the portal, you're not getting the most out of your points. If that method works for you, there's nothing wrong with it. But the Chase Sapphire Preferred has a $95 annual fee, and your points are worth 1.25 cents in the portal (the Reserve is 1.5 but it's a $550 fee). A bit of research will show you that people easily and often exceed 2 cents per point all the way up to 5, 6 and 7 cents per point by transferring directly to airlines and hotels.

We got tix to Hawaii last year for Presidents Day week for like 27K roundtrip on United; we booked it only about 6 weeks out due to some special being run by United if you had status + a United card. The value was 5.5 cents per point. It was absurd.

That was almost surely XN award inventory that you had access to- it's economy award inventory that is more frequently available than general population X award inventory. XN is available to any United elite or any United card holder- even the $0 annual fee Gateway card. It's a great perk and yes can save tens or hundreds of thousands of miles if booking for a family.