Many credit cards include automatic travel protections when you use your card to purchase travel. I’ve separately compared these protections for ultra premium cards, here: Ultra-Premium Credit Card Travel Insurance. In this post, I compare protections provided by each of Chase’s Ultimate Rewards cards including the Sapphire Reserve, Ink Business Preferred, Sapphire Preferred, and more.
The following chart summarizes travel insurance provided automatically by each Ultimate Rewards card. Cells in green indicate best in class coverage, yellow indicates good coverage, red indicates worse than peers’ coverage. “Pay partial” means that you can get full coverage even if you pay only part of your transportation costs with this card. For example, you could pay just the taxes and fees for an award flight. Or, you could pay part of a cruise with gift cards and the rest with the credit card.
| Sapphire Reserve |
Sapphire Preferred | Ink Business Preferred | Ink Cash, Ink Business Unlimited | Freedom, Freedom Unlimited | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver | Primary | Primary | Primary for Business* |
Primary for Business* | Secondary* |
| Roadside Assistance | 4X per year limit |
Pay per use |
Pay per use | Pay per use | Pay per use |
| Trip Cancellation and Interruption | Pay partial | Pay partial | Pay partial |
N/A | Pay partial |
| Trip Delay | 6 hour delay Pay partial |
12 hour delay Pay partial |
12 hour delay Pay partial |
N/A | N/A |
| Lost Luggage | Pay partial | Pay partial |
Pay partial | N/A | N/A |
| Baggage Delay | 6 hour delay Pay partial |
6 hour delay Pay partial |
6 hour delay Pay partial |
6 hour delay Pay partial |
N/A |
| Travel Accident Insurance | Pay partial | Pay partial |
Pay partial | Pay partial | N/A |
| Emergency Evacuation and Transportation | $100K limit Pay partial |
N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Emergency Medical and Dental | $2,500 limit Pay partial |
N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
* Each of these cards offers primary coverage outside of your country of residence. Unfortunately, the Ink Cash, Ink Business Unlimited, Freedom, and Freedom Unlimited cards all incur foreign transaction fees outside of your country of residence.
Based on the above chart, we can conclude that:
- Chase Sapphire Reserve has the best all around coverage compared to other Ultimate Rewards cards (it also has the best when compared to ultra-premium cards).
- The Sapphire Preferred and Ink Business Preferred cards have nearly identical coverage. The only obvious difference is that the Sapphire Preferred offers primary coverage within your country of residence for personal or business travel. The Ink Business Preferred offers primary coverage within your country of residence only for business purposes. Outside of your country of residence, all of the cards in this roundup offer primary coverage.
| Caution: I’m far from an expert on this stuff. I did my best to read through the benefit guides to figure out what was covered and when, but I can’t promise that I got all of the details correct. |
Card comparison for other travel related perks
| Sapphire Reserve |
Sapphire Preferred | Ink Business Preferred | Ink Cash, Ink Business Unlimited | Freedom, Freedom Unlimited | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Foreign Transaction Fee? | Waived | Waived | Waived | Yes | Yes |
| Points per dollar for travel | 3X |
2X |
3X | 1X (Ink Cash) 1.5X (Unlimited) |
1X (Freedom) 1.5X (Unlimited) |
| Points per dollar for dining | 3X | 2X | 1X |
2X (Ink Cash) |
3X |
| Cents per point redeemed for travel | 1.5 |
1.25 |
1.25 |
1 |
1 |
| Transfer points to partners? | Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
No* |
No* |
| Priority Pass Select Lounge Membership | Yes |
No |
No |
No |
No |
* Points earned on the fee-free Ink and Freedom cards cannot be directly transferred to airline and hotel partners, but you can move the points to your or a household member’s Preferred or Reserve card and then transfer.
Card overviews
| Card Name w Details & Review (no offer) |
|---|
Conclusion
It should be no surprise to anyone that the ultra-premium Sapphire Reserve card offers the best travel protections and perks. For those who use points primarily to transfer to airline and hotel partners, the much cheaper Sapphire Preferred and Ink Business Preferred cards may be good alternatives. Like the Sapphire Reserve, both of these cards provide very good travel protections (not as good, but very good), no foreign transaction fees, and the ability to transfer points to airline and hotel programs. The Ink Business Preferred has the edge over the Sapphire Preferred in offering 3X for travel, but the Sapphire Preferred counters with 2X for both travel and dining.
Overall, I continue to be a big fan of the Sapphire Reserve card, but it’s definitely worth considering one of the less expensive Preferred cards if the Sapphire Reserve’s annual fee is too much to swallow.
