Chase Sapphire card vs 2% cash back?

[explanade]

100k miles depending on the airline may be worth more than $1200-1400.

 

[BlueberryPie]

you also get $50 credit per year for hotels booked through their website, so if you remember about it and use hotels once a year, you get 1/2 the yearly fee back with that.

I mentioned in a different thread that I missed out on some tickets because the low fare available through Google Flight and the airline direct were not available in the chase web site

 

[PaunchyPirate]

I hit my $4K Chase spend requirement and received my 100,000 points in the app maybe 4 days later. Impressive. We will probably blow that dough on hotels in Spain through the app in early November. We already have our plane tickets with 150,000 Delta points. I’d planned to just convert the new Chase points to $1,000 cash but it looks like we can get maybe $1,200-$1,400 value in hotels booking through the app with no extra effort, so why not?

I think I’m going to be a fan of this $98 card, 5x travel points and great app vs. the $250 Delta Platinum Amex I’ve had for years.

It's a shame you already have your tickets to Spain. You can find roundtrip business class tickets on Iberia to Madrid from JFK for 64,000 points. Of course, that's just one ticket. I just got one for my trip in March. The price of the flight using dollars was around $2800 I think.

Maybe you need to plan a second Europe trip and launch it from Madrid! I think once my points get back above 64,000 I will use them on the JFK to Madrid flight again (if it's still there) and then hop on to Switzerland on my own dime.

 

[OldConch]

100k miles depending on the airline may be worth more than $1200-1400.

After the minimum spend it's at least 104k miles. We used 105,000 x 2 for 2 business class tickets from Hong Kong to Miami on Virgin Atlantic upper class. At the time cash prices were about ten times 1,400. Would never have spent that in cash but on points it was a very, very pleasant way to get home.

The flight to SEA was only 70k AA miles on JAL business class. Also very nice. Can't wait to travel overseas again.

 

[sengsational]

I just booked a hotel through the Chase travel site. I compared it to the price that was on the hotel's web page and the pricing was identical, and got the 25% uplift. 5 nights there, two nights on this past weekend's AirBnB, so chewing through the 100K!

 

[Markola]

I just booked a hotel through the Chase travel site. I compared it to the price that was on the hotel's web page and the pricing was identical, and got the 25% uplift. 5 nights there, two nights on this past weekend's AirBnB, so chewing through the 100K!

That’s what I’m leaning toward and it raises an interesting question: Is it better to blow this form of dough on one business class flight for two or a few days in a nice hotel? You’d sleep through most of both experiences but perhaps you’d get a few more hours of enjoyment in a hotel. Hmmmm.

 

[calmloki]

Spending big money soon? A card to consider: American Express Platinum. We have big money going out to a contractor who is an American Express Small Business, and if everything goes right we stand to get about $2800 back from a $31,000 spend vs $620 if we used our 'Ol Faithfull Fidelity card. A 9% return beats a 2% return.

Read the details at DoctorofCredit, but the high points are 125,000 points bonus after $6000 spend + 15 points/dollar spent at AmEx Small Business up to $25,000 in six months. So 500,000 possible points that are worth .7 cents/point at Amazon. Oh - and there is a $700 annual fee.

AmEx has other goodies attached to the card hotel and flight-wise and cell phone and entertainment stuff, but first I look at the purse.

Check it out

 

[Markola]

^^^^^ I have checked this out and, actually, I think I got a mailing offer for 150,000 bonus reward points. How does the Amazon .7 thing work? I must have missed that.

 

[BlueberryPie]

Another disappointing experience with Sapphire travel: their price for the B&B of my choice for a vacation in December was $40/night over booking directly with the inn, erasing most of the $50 hotel credit built in the card.

So I booked using my Capital one Venture, I saved $40, will get 2% back and didn't have to waste my time going to a dedicated site. Moral of the story is don't ever assume you are getting the "normal" price with Chase, always check.

 

[Chuckanut]

I just booked a room for a winter break via the Chase portal. Same price as booking.com and the hotel itself. Chase will give me 5x points which is pretty good, so I used my Chase card.

But, others have told me that sometimes the Chase portal can be a bit pricier than booking directly with the hotel, or some booking sites that might be discounting rooms for their own purposes. One has to do the 'due diligence' and shop around. I also like the cards travel insurance, another plus. Time will tell if it's worth $95 a year to me.

 

[Luvtoride]

Spending big money soon? A card to consider: American Express Platinum. We have big money going out to a contractor who is an American Express Small Business, and if everything goes right we stand to get about $2800 back from a $31,000 spend vs $620 if we used our 'Ol Faithfull Fidelity card. A 9% return beats a 2% return.

Read the details at DoctorofCredit, but the high points are 125,000 points bonus after $6000 spend + 15 points/dollar spent at AmEx Small Business up to $25,000 in six months. So 500,000 possible points that are worth .7 cents/point at Amazon. Oh - and there is a $700 annual fee.

AmEx has other goodies attached to the card hotel and flight-wise and cell phone and entertainment stuff, but first I look at the purse.

Check it out

Calm, that’s an excellent haul of Amex reward points for your major purchase. I’m surprised that the contractor accepts a credit card for such a large spend without charging you an additional fee.

Why would you use the points for a .7 cent value on Amazon? According to the Points guy, Amex reward points are worth consistently 2 .0 cents per point when used for travel awards.
If you don’t plan on traveling maybe it’s fine to use for Amazon purchases but Amex rewards don’t expire.
I have the Platinum card and it is by far one of the best value Travel cards I have ever carried. Their points will transfer to almost every major airline (except United) and Hotel chain in the world.

American Express Membership Rewards
2.0 Aug
2.0 Sept
2.0 Oct
Transfer points to Hilton Honors and Marriott Bonvoy with a 30% bonus.

 

[Markola]

Another disappointing experience with Sapphire travel: their price for the B&B of my choice for a vacation in December was $40/night over booking directly with the inn, erasing most of the $50 hotel credit built in the card.

So I booked using my Capital one Venture, I saved $40, will get 2% back and didn't have to waste my time going to a dedicated site. Moral of the story is don't ever assume you are getting the "normal" price with Chase, always check.

That’s too bad but good to know that we should always compare first as we embark to Europe tomorrow and start spending our new 100K Chase points. Already I booked an Air BnB with the Chase card and a couple of days later the app offered to erase the cost through the Pay Yourself Back function, with 25% less points required. Not a terrible return. I know that even better points spending deals can be found on airlines, but this is probably the last such trip for a while and we’d already bought our plane tickets last spring with Amex points.

 

[Luvtoride]

That’s too bad but good to know that we should always compare first as we embark to Europe tomorrow and start spending our new 100K Chase points. Already I booked an Air BnB with the Chase card and a couple of days later the app offered to erase the cost through the Pay Yourself Back function, with 25% less points required. Not a terrible return. I know that even better points spending deals can be found on airlines, but this is probably the last such trip for a while and we’d already bought our plane tickets last spring with Amex points.

Mark, great to hear you used Amex reward points for your airfare to Europe. Did you book a premium class? Did you calculate the “value” you got from the points compared to the cash price for the same itinerary?
Two years ago we did that with business class tickets to Paris on Air France transferring Amex points to “Blue” their rewards program. I forget exactly the value we received but those tickets would have cost $19,000 buying with cash!

Generally, I have found the best use of “generic” credit card points (Chase, Amex ) and travel websites is for premium airfares vs. Hotel/ accommodation rates.

Specific Hotel rewards/ credit cards such as Marriott Bonvoy offer the best accommodation reward values.

Mark, Have a safe and great trip!

 

[Markola]

^^^^. You got quite a steal!

Thank you but I misspoke. We used Delta points we accumulated with the Delta Amex, not Amex points. Yes, it was a better value last spring than paying cash. I didn’t explore whether I could have transferred them to another airline in the Sky Team alliance. As it happened, we were rebooked on KLM and the plane was about 25% full. We stretched out in their Economy Comfort on our own rows and it was one of our best crossings. We fly back on Air France, which Delta put us on. It looks like coach but at least we have a two row seat. For $92/pp RT in fees, we’ll just suck it up and deal with it. I mean, to fly from Europe in a few hours in a climate controlled metal tube with food and videos is a miracle, no matter what cabin one is in.

 

[sengsational]

That’s what I’m leaning toward and it raises an interesting question: Is it better to blow this form of dough on one business class flight for two or a few days in a nice hotel? You’d sleep through most of both experiences but perhaps you’d get a few more hours of enjoyment in a hotel. Hmmmm.

You are of course right on target... if you have somewhere to go business class and you can find and airline that accepts the points transfer, and you can find flight dates that work with points, you're much better off transferring the points to an airline. I went on the site and wrote down all of the airlines that took points. I don't think any of those airlines flew out of Charlotte directly to anywhere I wanted to go. It was quite an exercise, and I hadn't even gotten to finding dates where the point prices were in range. But your idea was indeed where I started. At this point, I'm just trying to spend the points at 125%, if I can.

 

[Markola]

We have been traveling for 3 weeks and I realized we are getting 30-40% off of hotel rooms and AirBnBs by stacking:

1) Chase Preferred Card gives 3 points/dollar spent on hotels and travel (3% discount); Note that the Chase Reserve card gives 10 points/dollar!

2) I use the Chase card to book rooms at most any hotel or rental apartment through Hotels.com, which rewards us with 1 free night after ten stays (effectively a 10%/night discount)

3) I choose rooms offering a Hotels.com “Secret Price”, which is usually a 5 - 10% or so discount off the room’s normal price.

4) I apply my accumulated Chase points to the room purchases after the fact using the Pay Yourself Back benefit (points used that way are worth 25% more).

Can even more discount be scraped through buying AirBnB or Hotels..com gift cards or doing something else, I wonder?

 

[BlueberryPie]

You don't need to book through the Chase travel card to get 3 points back? If so how do you also get hotel.com?

 

[Markola]

I pay for hotels.com reservations using the hotels.com app, in which my Chase card is the payment form. I can tell via the Chase app that those hotels.com purchases are accumulating the 3 Chase points.

 

[Sunset]

We have been traveling for 3 weeks and I realized we are getting 30-40% off of hotel rooms and AirBnBs by stacking:

1) Chase Preferred Card gives 3 points/dollar spent on hotels and travel (3% discount); Note that the Chase Reserve card gives 10 points/dollar!

2) I use the Chase card to book rooms at most any hotel or rental apartment through Hotels.com, which rewards us with 1 free night after ten stays (effectively a 10%/night discount)

3) I choose rooms offering a Hotels.com “Secret Price”, which is usually a 5 - 10% or so discount off the room’s normal price.

4) I apply my accumulated Chase points to the room purchases after the fact using the Pay Yourself Back benefit (points used that way are worth 25% more).

Can even more discount be scraped through buying AirBnB or Hotels..com gift cards or doing something else, I wonder?

I think optimistically the discount is:
free night + secret price + chase % raised by 1.25%

In numbers this is:
10% + 10% + (3% * 1.25%) => 10% + 10% + 3.75 = 23.75% Total

 

[Markola]

^^^^ Yes, you’re right, I realized my mistake, too. Thanks for doing the math. I think we’re still in the 30% + range, because we do collect points from all other purchases, which I apply. 10 points from the Chase Reserve card would be even better, if I had that card. I’m thinking about it.

 

[fh2000]

Early this year, DW received an email from Chase to apply for a pre-approved Chase Sapphire Preferred card. The card is worth about $1200 after $4000 spend.

Today, she received another email from Chase to apply for a pre-approved United Explorer card with 60K points. This card is worth about $700 after $3000 spend according to my internet research. We will cancel the card before annual fee hits.

So why not?

 

[BlueberryPie]

I tried to apply for the United Explorer but unfortunately got denied because "Chase extended sufficient credit for my needs". Too bad I could have used the mileage on United.
OTH I got both a trip to Martinique for two and a round trip to France for two out of (mostly) the Sapphire sign up bonus so in the end I can't complain.

 

[fh2000]

I tried to apply for the United Explorer but unfortunately got denied because "Chase extended sufficient credit for my needs". Too bad I could have used the mileage on United.
OTH I got both a trip to Martinique for two and a round trip to France for two out of (mostly) the Sapphire sign up bonus so in the end I can't complain.

DW and I share all accounts and file MFJ taxes. Only she was targeted by Chase but not me. The only difference I can tell is that I own more Chase cards already with higher total credit line with them.

 

[OldConch]

DW and I share all accounts and file MFJ taxes. Only she was targeted by Chase but not me. The only difference I can tell is that I own more Chase cards already with higher total credit line with them.

You don't need to be "targeted" to apply for Chase cards. There's currently a publicly available offer for 60,000 bonus with $3k spend. Anyone can apply. Also, if YOU want the card have DW refer you for an extra 20k miles. She can refer others up to 100k per year.

https://www2.theexplorercard.com/re...L1Rx0iPmocDBxZ_4huH1JGwnCDLuZpwxoCmmwQAvD_BwE

https://www.chase.com/referafriend/unitedmileageplusfamily

 

[Markola]

I squeezed about $1,500 in value on our trip to Europe by spending the 100,000 Chase UR points for AirBnBs at 25% more per point using the Pay Yourself Back function ($1,250 value) plus the same using up the additional points we generated during the trip of maybe $200. It was a good experience, the card has no international fees, I like the Chase app and I appreciate the free $1,500. However, we’re back to the simplicity of using our Citibank Double Cash Rewards for everything domestically. I’m an 80/20 guy at heart.