Don't Qualify For The Current Chase Sapphire Preferred 100K Offer? Here's Why It's Worth It To Be An Authorized User

Forbes

25-04-2025

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is one of the best travel cards on the market, offering a long list of perks for a modest $95 annual fee. But if you already hold a Sapphire card or you received the welcome bonus within the last 48 months, you won't be eligible for the card's 100,000-point welcome bonus.
Becoming an authorized user on someone else's Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card can be a win-win situation for all. Here's why.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card earns Chase Ultimate Rewards®, a flexible rewards currency that can be used as cash back, to book travel through Chase Travel℠ at a 25% increase in value or transferred to one of Chase's hotel and airline travel partners. The latter two are some of the best redemption options for those looking to use their rewards for travel and are a main driver behind the card's overall value.
The Sapphire Preferred earns rewards at a rate of 5 points per dollar on travel purchased through Chase Travel℠, 3 points per dollar on dining, select streaming services, and online grocery purchases (excluding Walmart, Target and wholesale clubs), 2 points per dollar on all other travel purchases and 1 point per dollar on other purchases. That's a solid rewards rate for a card with a $95 annual fee. If you're added as an authorized user on someone's card, you'll both earn rewards at that same rate, and all the earnings will be combined under the primary cardholder's account. This can streamline your combined rewards-earning strategy and help you work toward a common goal.
Chase allows points pooling between two household members, which opens up a lot of ways to make the most of your spending and points redemption strategy. For example, let's say Card Member A has a Chase Sapphire Preferred card and adds Card Member B as an authorized user. Card Member B has a Chase Freedom Unlimited®, which earns 5% cash back on travel purchased through Chase Travel℠, 3% cash back on eligible dining and drugstores and 1.5% on all other purchases.
Card Member A is added to Card Member B's Freedom Unlimited as an authorized user. If both parties used their Sapphire Preferred on travel and dining and their Freedom Unlimited on everything else, they'd earn between 1.5 points to 5 points on every purchase, allowing them to work together to build up a stash.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred makes it easy for novices and experienced travel rewards redeemers alike to squeeze more value out of their points than if those rewards are used for cash back. Choosing to redeem Ultimate Rewards for cash back gives you a value of 1 cent per point. But the Chase Sapphire Preferred gives you two ways to make more out of your stash.
Both the primary cardholder and the authorized user can book travel with rewards directly through Chase Travel, and the points will be worth 25% more—a valuable feature that makes it one of the best Chase cards on the market.
In other words, book a $125 flight through Chase Travel, and it will only cost 10,000 points. Compare that to using cash back to pay for your flight. In that scenario, it would cost you 12,500 points since a point is worth 1 cent each when taken as cash.
The secret sauce to travel rewards is when issuers offer travel transfer partners. The Chase Sapphire Preferred is one of three Chase cards that allow you to transfer your rewards to Chase's travel transfer partners. The other two are the Chase Sapphire Reserve® and the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card.
Transferring rewards directly to travel partners can save you a lot of points, so this is a worthwhile perk for anyone seeking a travel card.
For instance, if we compare the price of a JetBlue (one of Chase's partners) flight Thanksgiving week in November 2025, one way from Fort Lauderdale (FLL) to New York's JFK airport, the lowest cash price is $209.
Since bookings made through Chase Travel are based on the cash price, it would cost you 16,720 Ultimate Rewards points with the Chase Sapphire Preferred's 25% points boost to book this flight through Chase Travel.
That same flight, when booked with points through JetBlue, requires just 13,900 TrueBlue points.
This means you can save 2,820 points by transferring your Ultimate Rewards to JetBlue TrueBlue and booking that way. It may not seem like a huge difference, but the savings can really add up across multiple tickets or travel bookings.
Good news here for authorized users of the Chase Sapphire Preferred: Both primary users and authorized users can transfer their rewards directly to one of Chase's travel transfer partners.
Chase has a widely known (but unpublished) rule known as the '5/24 rule'. This means Chase will not approve you for a new credit card if you have applied for five or more personal credit cards from any issuer within the previous 24 months. If you are over 5/24 but want to utilize the Sapphire Preferred's benefits, it can make sense to become an authorized user on someone else's card.
Related to this, you also cannot earn a welcome bonus on either the Chase Sapphire Preferred or the Chase Sapphire Reserve if you've earned a welcome bonus on any Sapphire card within the previous 48 months or currently own a Sapphire card as a primary card member. Someone who appreciates the benefits of their Chase Sapphire Preferred but wants an opportunity to earn a welcome bonus on the card down the line can go the authorized user route.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred card charges an annual fee of $95, but there's no charge for authorized user cards. Saving that $95 is a nice perk of adding an authorized user instead of having them get their own card.
It's worth noting that most financial institutions no longer offer joint credit card accounts, where both parties share responsibility for the account. So, for couples who want to share a credit card account, having one person as the primary cardholder and the other as an authorized user is the next best thing.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred packs valuable travel protections into a card with an annual fee under $100. The card comes with primary auto rental coverage, trip cancellation and interruption coverage, baggage delay insurance and trip delay reimbursement. The card also offers purchase protection and extended warranty coverage.
Anyone who travels is likely to experience a delay or an unexpected change in plans at some point, so these perks can add value. Additionally, the purchase protections can also save you a bundle if something you bought while traveling breaks or is stolen and you can't return to the merchant for assistance. Authorized Sapphire Preferred users get to enjoy these benefits on their cards.
DoorDash is an online food and grocery delivery service. DashPass is DoorDash's subscription service that offers $0 delivery fees and lower service fees on eligible orders in exchange for a $9.99 monthly plan.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred card offers both primary cardholders and authorized users complimentary DashPass access for a minimum of one-year when you activate the subscription by December 31, 2027. That could add up to major savings for those who frequently use the service.
Becoming an authorized user on the Chase Sapphire Preferred card has loads of benefits. For those chasing a particular card strategy, it can make sense to become an authorized user rather than applying for the card outright. Plus, the opportunity to save money and work toward a shared rewards-earning strategy can help you and the primary cardholder reach shared travel goals.