The Great Sapphire Bonus of 2024
Tl;dr: I think these cards are wildly overrated, but they’re still good, and this is a great bonus.
After a year of chugging along at a respectable 60k points, the welcome offer on the Chase Sapphire cards (Preferred and Reserve) recently jumped to 75,000. Some people are really excited. While I have never understood why these middling cards are quite so beloved, the secret sauce of travel hacking is recognizing and jumping on really good bonus offers, and this is exactly that.
How good is the deal?
Really good. Although it is typically offered about once a year for 80k points, most of the time your bonus opportunity will be 60k points. So this is a significant ($150+) increase in value and close to the best you can expect on this card.
Ultimate Rewards can be redeemed for travel through the Chase Portal at 1.25¢ each if you have a Preferred card, or 1.5¢ each if you have the Reserve. That means this bonus is worth $937.50 if you earn it with a Reserve or $1125 if you earn it with a Reserve. That will broaden most people’s travel horizons.
How good are the cards?
They’re good! I don’t love them because they are not free and they don’t offer anything that you can’t get for free. The Preferred has a $95 annual fee and you only get a $50 hotel credit to offset that. The Reserve has a $550 annual fee with only $300 in travel credits to balance that out. The Reserve offers Priority Pass lounge access, but so does the $0-net-fee Capital One Venture X.
But for those annual fees, you at least get excellent protections, earning rates, and rewards. Chase’s Ultimate Rewards combines a high guaranteed minimum points value (that 1.25¢ or 1.5¢ per point towards travel with Chase), the flexibility to use them for statement credits at 1¢ each in a pinch, the highest-value transfer partner (Hyatt), useful domestic airline partners (United, Southwest, JetBlue), and a decent selection of international airline transfer partners offering opportunities to snag deals or luxury trips at big discounts.
Is it time to get a Sapphire?
Even I am seriously considering it! The cards are imperfect, but $1,000 in rewards papers over an awful lot. More importantly, the main reason to get one of these cards is for that bonus, so if you think you might want to take advantage of the Sapphire bonus, now is the time to strike—you likely won’t see an offer like this come around for another year.