What makes the Chase Sapphire Preferred such a appealing travel card: An in-depth look at the CSP

The Chase Sapphire Preferred or CSP for short is one of the most travel friendly cards on the market and one of my favorite cards to date. Known for it's rewards in the categories of travel and dining it makes for one of the most competitive cards around but these aren't the only things that make the CSP one of the most sought after cards for novice travelers, with only a $95 annual fee and a hefty 60,000 point sign up bonus it stacks up very well against it's counterpart the Green Card from amex. Now, the CSP may not have those sweet $100 statement credits that the Amex Green has for airport lounges and CLEAR but what it lacks in perks it gives back in very useful travel benefits that are every bit as important and essential to flyers everywhere, plus, it also has zero foreign transaction fees, so you can swipe it without remorse when traveling abroad and I should also mention that it's also a metal card, which adds the cool factor to it.

Before we get into the ever important travel benefits, let's first start with the rewards part of the CSP, this card gives you 2x back on everything travel and 2x back on dining worldwide, sure, it may not be as good as the green cards 3x back in these categories but the pros to the CSP is that it's a Visa card and you will have no problem with it being accepted in any corner of the world that you decide to go to, aside from the rewards you also get that sweet 60,000 sign up bonus if you spend 4k on purchases within the first three months of opening your account, now, a little kink that the CSP has is that every point that is on your card is worth 25% more, for example, the sign up bonus is a 60,000 points bonus, normally on any other non sapphire chase card those 60k would be worth $600 in cash but with them being worth 25% more on the CSP the cash value goes up to $750 which is very good value especially when it's time to use those points for hotel stays or airfare. Other rewards benefits that were added to the CSP for a limited time include a new partnership with Lyft that nabs you 3x back on every ride plus the 2x that you get on travel, making for a total of 5x back every time you ride Lyft, the only downside to this is like I said, it's a limited time thing and it only lasts until March 2022 and the other benefit is a complimentary Dashpass membership for your Doordash account that waives restaurant delivery fees and reduces service fees on orders over $12, which is also very good value if you use Doordash often.

Finally, moving on to the meat and potatoes of the CSP let's get into the travel benefits that make this card stand out. First off you get Trip Cancellation/Trip Interruption Insurance, this means that if your trip gets cancelled or interrupted be it by sickness, severe weather or other covered situation you can get reimbursed up to 10k per person and up to 20k per trip. Next up is the Auto Collision Damage Waiver, you can just decline the insurance for your rental car and charge the entire cost of the rental to your card, you get primary coverage for the vehicle up to its actual cash value for theft and collision damage for most rental cars in the U.S. and abroad. This next one is arguably the one that you'll be taking more advantage of and that is the Baggage Delay Insurance, this basically reimburses you for purchases like toiletries or clothing for baggage delays over six hours by passenger carrier up to $100 a day for five days. The next one is Trip Delay Reimbursement, this is insurance for when your common carrier travel gets delayed for 12 hours or more or requires a overnight stay, if this happens, you and your family are covered for unreimbursed expenses like meals and lodging for up to $500 per ticket. You also get Lost Luggage Reimbursement, so if you or an immediate family members check or carry-on luggage is damaged or lost by the carrier you get covered for up to 3k per passenger and last but not least there is the Travel Accident Insurance so when you pay for air, bus, train or cruise with your CSP card you are eligible to receive accidental death and/or dismemberment coverage of up to $500,000. All of these benefits are part of what makes the CSP such a popular card among travelers, but make no mistake, these aren't the only benefits it has, you also get access to some of the most popular events in music, sports, entertainment and dining like the Sundance Film Festival and the Chase Sapphire Private Dining Series. There's also one last bit that makes the CSP an easy choice for travelers and that is it's points transfer program which let's you transfer your ultimate rewards points to different travel partners (hotels and airlines alike) on a 1:1 ratio which is actually pretty good because a lot of other transfer programs actually give you less value when you transfer points to other partners. All of these things make the CSP a favorite among travelers, from it's rewards on travel and dining to it's added points value when the points are in your sapphire account and not mention all the travel benefits and insurances that the card provides, so if you're looking for a good travel card but don't want to go with a high annual fee one, the CSP most definitely should be on your radar.