Chase Sapphire Preferred vs Capital One Venture: How to decide which travel rewards credit card is best for you

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The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card has long been a favorite among travelers with its useful spending categories and top-notch travel and purchase protections. It even comes with an increased offer worth an average of Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card - Featured Reward Value in travel, per Insider's valuations.

But it faces stiff competition from the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card, which comes with a fantastic intro offer of its own.

While both of these travel rewards credit cards are a terrific choice for beginners and experts alike, each offers a unique set of rewards, benefits, and costs. Depending on where you spend most and how you like to travel, one may make more sense for your needs than the other (though it's certainly possible to have both).

Here's a head-to-head face-off between these cards to help you decide which best fits your situation.

We're focused here on the rewards and perks that come with each card. These cards won't be worth it if you're paying interest or late fees. When using a credit card, it's important to pay your balance in full each month, make payments on time, and only spend what you can afford to pay.

Chase Sapphire Preferred vs Capital One Venture: Card comparison

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card are both travel rewards credit cards with similar annual fees. The way you earn and redeem rewards with each card is different, so it's important to look at what sets them apart to decide which could be best for your needs.

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card offers:

• 5 points per dollar on Lyft rides through March 2025
• 5 points per dollar on all travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards®
• 3 points per dollar on dining, select streaming services, and online grocery purchases (excluding Target, Walmart, and wholesale clubs)
• 2 points per dollar on other travel
• 1 point per dollar on everything else

That's comparatively many bonus categories when compared to the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card, which earns 5 miles per dollar on hotels and car rentals booked through Capital One and an unlimited flat 2 miles per dollar on all other purchases. This card trades bonus categories for a substantial return on all spending.

Chase Ultimate Rewards points and Capital One miles work differently, and each may appeal to a different type of traveler. In general, the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is better for those who want to squeeze out more value per point and are willing to put in a little time to figure out the best way to redeem points with the Chase Ultimate Rewards® program's airline and hotel transfer partners.

The Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card is better for those looking for really easy and flexible redemptions. To understand why, let's dive into the details of each program and how the redemption options work.

How to use Chase Ultimate Rewards points from the Chase Sapphire Preferred

Chase points are worth 1.25 cents apiece toward travel reservations booked through the Chase Ultimate Rewards travel portal when you hold the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card.

Points can be worth a lot more, however, when you transfer to partner airlines. You can also transfer to hotel partners, but airlines tend to offer the best value. For example, I got a huge value when I took my dad to Israel in business class with Chase points transferred to my United account.

All Chase Ultimate Rewards® transfers are at a 1:1 ratio, meaning 1 Chase point = 1 airline mile or 1 hotel point.

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card card lived in my wallet for a very long time until I decided to upgrade it to the ultra-premium Chase Sapphire Reserve®. But I still think the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is the best card for people new to travel rewards. It gives you a ton of value and a lot of protections. If you ever have any trouble, Chase customer support for these cards is very good.

Don't overlook the value of the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card's other benefits, too. Chase helped my sister get her money back after a bad experience with an African tour guide operator. But that's a story for another day.

The card charges a Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card annual fee and currently has an intro bonus offer of Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card. That can get you Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card in travel (based on Insider's valuations) when you transfer points to airline and hotel partners.

How to use Capital One Venture miles

The easiest way to use Capital One miles is to redeem them to cover travel charges from your Venture card statement posted within the past 90 days. All you need to do is open your online account, find the charge in your transaction history, and erase it with miles at a rate of 1 cent per mile.

If you're willing to get a bit more complicated, Capital One now offers 18 airline and hotel partners with which you can receive outsized redemption value.

The list offers a wide array of international airlines, including some of the most aspirational in the world — Singapore, Emirates, and Etihad often battle for the title of the world's most luxurious airline.

Because flights sometimes go on sale, you might get the best value by redeeming right through the Capital One portal. Similar to Chase, you can always run the numbers for a specific flight to compare.

The card charges a Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card annual fee and currently offers a substantial bonus: Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card - Intro Bonus.

Chase Sapphire Preferred and Capital One Venture benefits comparison

Both the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card waive foreign transaction fees and a wide range of travel and purchase coverage.

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card includes trip cancellation insurance, primary car rental insurance, baggage delay insurance, trip delay insurance, and travel emergency assistance. At the checkout counter, it offers purchase protection and extended warranty on eligible items. It also offers up to $50 in credit each year toward hotels booked through the Chase travel portal.

The Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card comes with travel assistance service***, secondary car rental insurance***, travel emergency assistance***, and extended warranty on eligible purchases***. One big benefit you don't get with the competitor, in this case, is up to $100 credit for TSA's Global Entry or PreCheck programs when you pay with the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card.

For benefits, Capital One's card is a little lighter than what you get from Chase. Depending on how much you travel and the anticipated costs along the way, those insurance and protection benefits can be very valuable.

Should you choose the Chase Sapphire Preferred or Capital One Venture?

If I had to pick a winner, it would be the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card.

While the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card gives you more miles per dollar across the board and offers more transfer partners, its airline partners won't be as useful to many US travelers, so it's harder to get outsized value.

Advanced travelers and those who are willing to research award availability on major US travel partners can get the best results from Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card. Those who just want to keep things easy and flexible will enjoy the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card's structure a little more.

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card also has the edge when it comes to travel protections like primary car rental insurance and trip delay insurance — hopefully, you don't have to put these benefits to use, but if you do they can save you some serious cash. You've also got plenty of non-travel redemption options with the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card if you're not ready to stray too far from home just yet.

Either way, regular travelers looking to get a travel rewards card with an annual fee of around $100 will do very well with one of these cards.