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Today I’m sharing a perk of one of my FAVORITE travel credit card, the Chase Sapphire Preferred. Chase Sapphire Reserve also offers the perk too! If you missed it, I shared 5 reasons the Chase Sapphire Preferred is the best travel credit card in this post (the post went live prior to the unveiling of the Chase Sapphire Reserve – you can compare the two travel credit cards here!). (If you’re looking to upgrade your Sapphire Preferred to the Sapphire Reserve, read this post first!)
Chase Sapphire Preferred Travel Protection
Both the Chase Sapphire Preferred and the Chase Sapphire Reserve offer travel protection. You may not think much of this perk, and most people often overlook it. But let me tell you, when you need it, it comes in SO handy! It saved Michael and I roughly $500 on a recent trip! I’m going to tell you exactly how to utilize the perk so that you NEVER have to worry about the expenses that come along with derailed travel plans.
Check out my older post for all of the additional perks of the card. Today, I’m just focusing on the travel protection. 🙂 So first, let me explain the perk. The Chase Sapphire Preferred card offers what they call Travel and Purchase Protection. Essentially, if you book your flights with the Chase Sapphire Preferred or Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card, and your travel is delayed by more than 12 hours OR requires an overnight stay, you, and any other person that you booked a ticket for with your Sapphire Preferred or Reserve, are covered for unreimbursed expenses, such as meals and lodging, up to $500 per ticket.
NOTE: You must pay for the expenses with the Preferred or the Reserve.
How It Saved Me $500
Now, let’s put the perk to use with a real life example. Michael and I booked Southwest Airlines flights with our Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card to Mobile, Alabama for a wedding last summer. Our flight out of DCA was delayed so we missed our connecting flight from Nashville to Mobile (technically, Pensacola). The Nashville to Pensacola flight was the last one out that night, which meant our travel delay required an overnight stay! Since we booked our flights with the Chase Sapphire Preferred, the Travel and Purchase Protection kicked in. It’s also important to know that we didn’t accept any reimbursements or offers from Southwest Airlines as compensation. This is key. You are not covered by the protection if you accept other forms of reimbursement. Southwest rebooked us on the next available flight out the next morning at no additional cost to us.
Michael immediately called Chase to confirm that Chase would reimburse any expenses incurred (hotel, meals etc.). Chase confirmed they would! So long as we paid for them with the Chase Sapphire Preferred card.
Our Expenses
We booked a hotel downtown since I’d never been to Nashville before (no janky airport hotel, yay!), took a Lyft to our hotel, and went out to dinner downtown! It was actually such a fun place to get stuck for the night.
In total, we paid for the hotel, transportation from the airport (Lyft), dinner, breakfast the next morning, and another Lyft back to the airport all with the Sapphire Preferred. In total, we spent $471.
To receive the reimbursement, you must go through the claims process with Chase. The process is a bit cumbersome. But it’s not too bad so long as you’re organized. Keep all screenshots of delayed/canceled flights and copies of all of your receipts! Michael handled the claim filing process, and lucky for you, he wrote an entire post explaining, step-by-step, what you need to do should you ever need to file a claim for reimbursement! Check out his post for all the dirty details.
Long story short, Chase reimbursed us in-full for all of our expenses that we incurred because of the travel delay!
Just another reason why the Chase Sapphire Preferred or Chase Sapphire Reserve is one of my favorite credit cards to have in my wallet!
Interested in checking out the perks of the Sapphire for yourself?! You can check out all the card details here! And if you’re interested in seeing how it compares to other travel credit cards, check out this super helpful comparison list.
If you have any questions about the card or other travel credit cards, feel free to shoot me an email at [email protected], and I can walk you through any questions you might have!
Disclaimer: If you click and/or sign up for a credit card through certain links on this site or any of my related social media platforms, I may make a commission from that click through. The editorial content on this page is not provided by any of the companies mentioned, and has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities. Opinions expressed here are mine alone.
