There’s never been a better time to consider applying for one of the Chase Sapphire cards, with both cards currently offering elevated welcome bonuses for a limited time only. These are the highest bonuses we have seen on these two popular cards in over a year.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card currently offers 75,000 bonus Ultimate Rewards points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first three months from account opening, as well as:
- 5 points per dollar spent on Lyft (through March 2025)
- 5 points per dollar spent on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3 points per dollar spent on dining, including eligible delivery services, takeout and dining out
- 3 points per dollar spent on select streaming services
- 3 points per dollar spent on online grocery purchases (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- 2 points per dollar spent on all other travel
- 1 point per dollar spent on all other purchases
The Sapphire Preferred has no foreign transaction fees and has many travel perks, including delayed baggage insurance, trip interruption/cancellation insurance and primary car rental insurance.
Meanwhile, the Chase Sapphire Reserve® currently offers 75,000 bonus Ultimate Rewards points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first three months from account opening and also earns:
- 10 points per dollar spent on Lyft (through March 2025)
- 10 points per dollar spent on Chase Dining booked through Ultimate Rewards
- 10 points per dollar spent on hotel and car rental purchases through Chase Travel
- 5 points per dollar spent on airline travel booked through Chase Travel
- 3 points per dollar spent on travel not booked through Chase
- 3 points per dollar spent on other dining purchases
- 1 point per dollar spent on all other eligible purchases
Other perks include an easy-to-use annual travel credit worth $300, a fee credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck (up to $100 once every four years) and Priority Pass Select lounge access, as well as entry to the growing list of new Sapphire lounges. Cardholders also get primary car rental coverage, trip interruption/cancellation insurance and other protections.
Chase points are really valuable because of the number of ways you can use them. We generally recommend maximizing these points by transferring them to airline and hotel partner programs but recognize this could be complex to navigate if you are a beginner.
If you are new to Chase cards and haven’t earned Ultimate Rewards, you may be daunted by the plethora of redemption options — but don’t fret. We are looking at easy ways a Chase Ultimate Rewards beginner can get real value from 75,000 points with minimal effort.
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Related: The complete guide to Chase Ultimate Rewards
Book travel via Chase Travel
You can use your Ultimate Rewards points to easily reduce the cost of virtually any plane ticket, hotel stay, rental car or experience when you book worldwide travel through the Chase Travel portal. You don’t need to worry about airline partners, alliances or award availability using your Chase points in this way.
As a Chase Sapphire Preferred cardholder, when you redeem your points for travel, each point is worth 1.25 cents. If you have the Chase Sapphire Reserve, your points are worth 1.5 cents each toward travel redemptions in the portal. This means the current 75,000-point welcome bonus would be worth $937.50 if you have the Preferred card or $1,125 if you have the Reserve card.
If you wanted to book a Main Cabin flight from New York’s LaGuardia Airport (LGA) to Miami International Airport (MIA) for $129 through Chase Travel, you could choose to reduce the price to $0 by redeeming Ultimate Rewards points.
If you have the Chase Sapphire Preferred, your points would be worth 1.25 cents each, so you could use 10,320 Ultimate Rewards points to reduce the price to zero (or a mix of cash and points, if you prefer).
If you have the Chase Sapphire Reserve, your points would be worth 1.5 cents each, so you could use just 8,600 Ultimate Rewards points to reduce the price to zero. Another way of thinking about this is that the 75,000-point welcome bonus on the Sapphire Reserve would be enough to fly a family of four round trip to Florida on American Airlines for no cash if redeeming Ultimate Rewards through Chase Travel.
Get additional cash back for gas and pet purchases and charitable donations
Chase’s Pay Yourself Back option allows cardholders to use points at a redemption value similar to booking travel. This won’t typically give you the maximum value for your Ultimate Rewards points you can get when strategically using transfer partners; however, it could be a good choice if you’re looking for a simple return or are sitting on a pile of points without immediate use.
You can redeem your Ultimate Rewards points at a rate of 1.25 cents each on the Chase Sapphire Preferred or 1.5 cents on the Chase Sapphire Reserve as statement credits for donations you make to the following charities until June 30:
- American Red Cross
- Equal Justice Initiative
- Feeding America
- GLSEN
- Habitat for Humanity
- International Medical Corps
- International Rescue Committee
- Leadership Conference Education Fund
- Make-A-Wish America
- NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund
- National Urban League
- Out & Equal Workplace Advocates
- SAGE
- Thurgood Marshall College Fund
- United Negro College Fund
- UNICEF USA
- United Way
- World Central Kitchen
If you have the Reserve card, you can use the Pay Yourself Back feature to redeem Ultimate Rewards points for 1.25 cents each for purchases at gas stations, pet supply stores and services, wholesale clubs and cardholder annual fees.
If you wish, you could reduce the annual fee of the Reserve card to zero in the first year by redeeming 44,000 Ultimate Rewards points while still enjoying all the perks of the Reserve card.
Requesting a credit through Chase’s Pay Yourself Back program is relatively straightforward. Log in to your eligible Chase account via the mobile app or desktop and select the “Pay Yourself Back” option in the redemption menu.
Next, you’ll see a list of eligible purchases to redeem points. Points can be redeemed for purchases as far back as 90 days. You can offset the full purchase amount, assuming you have enough points to cover it, or you can redeem a smaller amount if you prefer.
From there, you can confirm the redemption value and amount of points required and then choose to complete the transaction. Your statement credit should be posted within three business days.
Save money on all purchases
Another no-fuss way to use your Ultimate Rewards is to earn statement credits on every purchase. You can redeem 1 Ultimate Rewards point to save 1 cent on any purchase you make on either card. This means 75,000 points could save you $750 on any purchase you like, even if you don’t travel.
If you want to save money on the purchases you are making every day, this could be an easy way to do it. When you receive your monthly credit card statement, you can apply as many Chase points as you wish to reduce the balance owed.
Bottom line
While you’ll get the most value from your Ultimate Rewards by transferring them to airline and hotel partners to redeem for premium cabin flights and luxury hotel stays, you may want a simpler way to save money on your everyday purchases.
If you are new to Ultimate Rewards, these are simple daily ways to save. Don’t miss out on the elevated 75,000 Ultimate Rewards welcome bonuses available on the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card and the Chase Sapphire Reserve.
