The Chase Sapphire Preferred has long been a favorite card in the points and miles community. the card currently offers 50,000 bonus points when you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. The card’s currency, Ultimate Rewards points remain one of the most valuable rewards currencies out there. If you recently picked up a Chase Sapphire Preferred card, here are some ways to ensure you’re getting maximum value out of the card’s sign-up bonus:
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Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
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$0 intro first year
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Earn 50,000 bonus points when you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. That's $625 in travel when you redeem through Chase Ultimate Rewards® Read Review » |
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Book Premium Airline Awards. Nothing gets you more value per point than a business or first class award ticket. With Ultimate Rewards, it’s possible to book premium awards with a huge variety of airlines, thanks to their partnership with United MileagePlus and Singapore Krisflyer. Both airlines are part of the Star Alliance, which is a huge network of airlines that can take you pretty much anywhere you want to go in the world. Not only is Star Alliance a huge network, but they have some of the best airlines as members. So if United doesn’t float your boat and a Singapore Suites award is just too decadent, you can opt to redeem miles for business or first class travel on premium airlines like Lufthansa, Turkish Airlines, Austrian, Eva Air, Thai Airways, and Aegean, to name a few.
My philosophy on award redemptions is that I can afford economy travel, but unless there’s a really good premium fare sale, I probably can’t pay for business or first class travel. So I use my miles for those aspirational awards that I can’t afford to pay for myself. I get maximum value out of my miles, which is important since the mile accrual process does involve some fees, and I get to experience premium travel that would otherwise be out of reach.
Hotel and Airline Promo Awards. Two Ultimate Rewards partners, Flying Blue and IHG Rewards Club, run promotional awards that require a fraction of the points and miles normally needed for an award. For example, IHG’s Pointbreak awards allow redemptions at select hotels for just 5,000 points per night. Considering IHG normally requires 10,000 – 60,000 points per night, that’s a massive discount! The same goes for Flying Blue Promo Awards, which can knock 50% off award redemptions, including international business class awards.
Hyatt Points + Cash Awards. Hyatt Gold Passport continues to have one of the most reasonable hotel award charts out there, but in the past couple of years, top-tier awards have become more and more out of reach. Hyatt’s Points + Cash awards are not only often cheaper than booking award nights, but they open up the possibility of booking suites since Diamond Suite Night awards can be applied to these bookings.
Amazing Airfare Deals. I’ve expressed my love for Southwest on numerous occasions. I would fly economy class on a long-haul international flight if it was operated by Southwest. But it isn’t, so I stick to cheap short-haul flights. Southwest has a fare-based award program, which can mean incredible redemption rates for cheap airfare. For example, when booked in advance, a roundtrip flight between Sacramento and Los Cabos can be booked for around $312 or less than 15,000 Southwest/Ultimate Rewards points roundtrip! That’s preferable to redeeming 35,000 United miles.
Book Through the Ultimate Rewards Travel Portal. I can’t emphasize enough the amazing travel deals that can be found through the Ultimate Rewards Travel portal. Ultimate Rewards Points are worth 1.25 cents each towards travel, but that’s not the amazing part – you can find substantial savings on hotel bookings and activities – even all-inclusive hotels can be booked for up to 50% off the normal rate! If you’re planning a trip to Vegas, don’t shell out thousands of Hyatt points on an MLife hotel redemption – booking through Ultimate Rewards can save you thousands of points and cash. So stop by Ultimate Rewards Travel Portal before booking your next award or paid hotel stay or activities and you may end up stretching your Ultimate Rewards balance a lot further than you thought possible.
What are some of your favorite ways of maximizing your Ultimate Rewards points balance?
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