Use This Increased Chase Sapphire Preferred Bonus to Offset Your Summer Travel Costs

The Chase Sapphire Preferred card is once again offering an 80,000 point sign-up bonus for those eligible to earn it (see Application Tips below).

And, currently, there is a 90,000 point bonus offer for applications made in a Chase Bank branch.  Not sure how long that will be an option, though.

The 80,000 point bonus is available on Chase’s website and via referral links.

Now, on to the specifics of the offer and the card itself for those not familiar with the Sapphire Preferred.

The 80,000 bonus points will be earned after spending $4,000 in the first 3 months from card approval. The spend requirement may seem daunting, but it’s really just over $1,300 a month – use the card for groceries, dining out, gasoline and various extraneous expenses and you might be surprised how quickly you hit that monthly spend amount. Especially with the cost of everything significantly inflated these days.

There is no end date for the increased bonus, but about a month has traditionally been the norm for how long an increased bonus is available.

Here’s an overview of the Chase Sapphire Preferred card for those who aren’t familiar with the card’s earning power and benefits.

CHASE SAPPHIRE PREFERRED

• 5x total points on all travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards Travel Portal
• 3x points on dining, including eligible delivery services, takeout and dining out 
• 3x points on select streaming services
• 3x points on online grocery purchases (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
• 2x points on travel purchases
• $50 Annual Credit on hotel stays purchased through the Ultimate Rewards Travel Portal (after account’s first anniversary).
• 10% Anniversary Point Bonus. Each account anniversary, cardmembers will earn bonus points equal to 10% of total purchases made the previous year. That means, $25,000 in spend will earn an additional 2,500 bonus points.

Annual Fee: $95 (will be billed on your first statement)

The primary benefit of the Sapphire Preferred card is its ability to transfer points at a 1:1 rate to many airline and hotel travel providers where outsized value can really be obtained. If you’re not familiar with this benefit, you can read about it in our post here.

And a close second being the ability to get 25% more value when using Ultimate Rewards points to redeem for travel via the Chase Ultimate Rewards Travel Portal.

Which means this card is a great pick for anyone interested in reducing their travel expenses.

And with its ongoing earning structure changes that were made in 2021 – increased dining, added streaming services and online grocery purchases – it’s a much better option as an everyday use card.

You can read more about the Sapphire Preferred card and apply at the link below. The link is our referral link, providing us a points bonus for every approved application. Thank you if you use our link to apply.

CHASE SAPPHIRE PREFERRED LINK

IMPORTANT APPLICATION TIPS

Keep in mind Chase’s 5/24 rule which unofficially states that if you’ve applied for 5 or more credit cards from any bank in the previous 24 months, you will not be approved for a Chase credit card.  Although, in the last week or so (end of April 2023) there have been some reports of applicants being approved while being over 5/24.  If you’re over 5/24 and a gambler, might be worth a try.  No guarantees it’ll work, though.

And, specific to the Chase Sapphire family of cards (Sapphire Preferred, Sapphire Reserve and plain Sapphire) you will not receive a sign-up bonus if you’ve received a sign-up bonus from any Sapphire card in the previous 48 months. And that clock starts ticking from the time you received the last bonus, not from when you were approved for the card.

You cannot currently hold a Sapphire card and apply for another. You can, however, product change a current Sapphire card to a Freedom Flex or Freedom Unlimited card, which would then make you eligible for the new Sapphire Preferred card.  You’ll want to wait about a week after product changing to apply.

If you apply and are denied, you can call the reconsideration line at 1-888-270-2127 and ask if the decision can be reconsidered and if there is additional information you can provide to help with an approval. If you have other Chase credit cards, sometimes moving available credit to the new card will help reverse a denial.

WRAP UP

The Chase Sapphire Preferred card has long been one of the better travel-related cards available.

And with the revamping of its earning structure and benefits, it’s an even more beneficial card to hold.

The 90,000 point in-branch bonus offer is close to the card’s all-time high, so if you’re okay with sitting face-to-face, having a Chase banker input and submit your application, it’s definitely something to consider.

But, this 80,000 point bonus is really good, too, and for anyone considering a new credit card, especially one that will help offset travel expenses, I’d jump on this deal and not look back.