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