The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (opens in new tab) has launched a jaw-dropping deal: sign up as a new customer and receive 80,000 points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months. These points are worth $1,000 toward travel when redeemed through Chase Ultimate Rewards®, or you can swap them on a 1:1 basis for a number of airline frequent flyer schemes.
This intro bonus blows away much of the competition among rival rewards credit cards as it’s one of the most generous we’ve seen recently. Once you’ve hit the trigger spend, you then earn 1-5 points per dollar spent so you keep on earning. What’s more, it’s a good card to take abroad as there are no overseas transaction fees.
And because Chase permits transferring points between members of the same household, your spouse may also sign up and earn the same bonus, giving your family up to 160,000 bonus points, or $2,000 in travel value. With good planning, you and your partner could be off to Europe or the Caribbean with airfare covered by these bonus points.
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(opens in new tab)Kiplinger's take
The Chase Sapphire Preferred card is the Swiss-army knife of travel cards, providing solid benefits for frequent travelers from a trusted brand. In addition to the generous bonus offer, cardholders can accrue points quickly, especially if they use the card for travel expenses. There is no limit to the rewards points you can earn, and they never expire as long as you have an open Chase card at the Ultimate Rewards tier.
The Chase Ultimate Rewards program outperforms many of its competitors for ease of use and the value of its points. You can transfer your Chase points to any of its eleven airline partners at a one-to-one rate. And you get 25% more value when you redeem points for airfare, hotels, car rentals and cruises through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal; for example, 10,000 points are worth $125 toward travel.
Finally, this card stands out for its ability to help you rack up frequent flyer miles. Most cards do not let customers earn frequent flyer miles when booking with their travel card; the Chase Sapphire Preferred card allows you to accrue frequent flyer miles when booking air travel, increasing the overall value of your points. Hotel and other travel expenses are excluded from this perk.
What can you spend the bonus points on?
You may use the 80,000 bonus points by transferring them to the frequent flyer or hotel program of your choice, as long as they are Ultimate Rewards program partners. Or you may redeem the points through the Ultimate Rewards portal, where you will be able to to redeem them at a 25% higher value.
As an example of using the bonus points, imagine you are planning to use the 80,000-point bonus on an upcoming trip. Once you’ve spent at least $4,000 in the first three months of owning the card, you will need to wait an additional six to eight weeks for the bonus points to post to your account, so don’t plan on redeeming the bonus points immediately.
Let’s say you have a frequent flyer account with United Airlines. You may transfer the bonus 80,000 points to your United account, adding the equivalent of 80,000 miles. However, if you book your flight through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal, you may redeem them at a 1:25 rate, rather than 1:1, making your United miles worth 100,000 miles on the Chase platform. With 100,000 worth of United frequent flyer miles you can typically book one round-trip ticket to Europe from the US on United. The downside is that you may need to add a stop to you itinerary to get the best deal, but that's not the fault of the card but more a reflection of rising airfare prices. For example, a one-way flight from Chicago O’Hare to Milan, Italy, would require 70,000 points on a non-stop United flight, but only 33,000 points if you are willing to add a stop (and several hours of layover) in Munich.
If anything goes wrong on your trip, you will interact with customer service agents from Chase Ultimate Rewards, rather than United. That’s why understanding how credit card travel portals work is important. Chase tends to get average to high marks for its travel portal customer service. And according to The Points Guy (opens in new tab), the airline prices on Chase’s portal are similar to those booked directly with the airline.
If you book a round-trip ticket using points with an outbound layover, you would have about 17,000 to 37,000 points remaining in your Chase account. You’d be able to afford one or two nights at a small, luxury hotel in Milan, at 12,000 Hyatt points per night.
Could you find cheaper hotels and flights than those offered on the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal? Quite possibly. You’d also find more variation in hotels, and be more likely to get off the beaten tourist track if you find a small hotel or B&B that’s not affiliated with a credit card brand. But still, you just got yourself a trip to Europe for the card’s annual fee of $95, and that’s a good deal any way you look at it.
Rewards cards dos and don'ts
As with any rewards credit card, be sure to weigh these benefits against fees – a $95 annual fee in this case – and make sure you understand how to use the card effectively. That said, $95 is a relatively small price to pay if you max the benefits.
In addition, while reward credit cards are great if you use them wisely, always pay them off in full each month to avoid interest which can dwarf the gain, and only spend what you’d be spending anyway to hit any trigger; otherwise, they can be a false economy as you’d be overspending.
Overview of fees and terms
- Sign-up bonus: 80,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening; that's $1,000 when redeemed for travel through Chase Ultimate Rewards®; offer for a limited time only.
- Interest rate: 20.74% to 27.74% variable APR for purchases and balance transfers, and 29.74% variable APR on cash advances.
- Annual fee: $95
- Foreign transaction fee: None, so this is an excellent card for international travel.
- Rewards: Five points per dollar on travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards® and two points per dollar on other travel spending; three points per dollar on dining, and select online grocery and streaming services; and one point per dollar on other spending.
- Other benefits: Get $50 in statement credits annually for hotel stays booked through Chase; on each yearly anniversary of opening your account, you get a 10% points bonus on total purchases made the previous year.
- Redemption: Get 25% more value when you redeem for airfare, hotels, car rentals and cruises through Chase Ultimate Rewards®; for example, 10,000 points are worth $125 toward travel. You can transfer Chase points to a partner like British Airways at a one-to-one ratio, where one Chase point is equal to one British Airways frequent flyer point. But if you book your trip through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal, your points are worth 1.25 miles on British Airway's frequent flier program. This 25% boost does not expire, but is built in the Ultimate Rewards program.
Chase Ultimate Rewards transfer partners
Chase Ultimate Rewards has partnerships with 11 airlines, allowing cardholders to transfer Ultimate Rewards points to the airlines’ frequent flyer programs. These partners cover destinations across much of the globe, including off-the-beaten-path destinations like Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts and the Canary Islands of Spain.
Chase Ultimate Reward points are worth one point on each of these carriers when you log in to your Chase Ultimate Rewards account, transfer Chase points to the frequent flyer account of a partner, and book your travel on the partner's website. To get more value out of your Chase points, stay in the Chase Ultimate Rewards account to book your travel and get an increased redemption rate of 1.25 points. These Chase transfer partners are:
- Aer Lingus AerClub
- Air Canada Aeroplan
- British Airways Executive Club
- Emirates Skywards®
- Flying Blue Air France KLM
- Iberia Plus
- JetBlue TrueBlue
- Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
- Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards®
- United MileagePlus®
- Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
The Chase Ultimate Rewards program also partners with three hotel chains. Points may be redeemed at these properties, but points cannot be earned when using the card to purchase a hotel room. Chase Ultimate Reward points are worth one point at each of these hotels, but are worth 1.25 points if booked through Chase's travel portal.
- IHG® Rewards Club
- Marriott Bonvoy™
- World of Hyatt®
Pros and cons of the Chase Sapphire Preferred card
Pros:
- Very generous bonus offer
- Unlimited points that do not expire
- 25% point bonus when redeeming travel through Chase
- No foreign transaction fee
- Perks designed for travelers, including trip cancellation/interruption insurance, auto rental collision damage waiver, baggage delay insurance, trip delay insurance, and more
Cons:
- Annual fee of $95
- No airport lounge passes
- You must book through Chase to get the best transfer value for your points
- No credit for Global Entry or TSA Precheck fees
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