The Best Ways to Use the 80K Chase Sapphire Favorite Bonus

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® card has just increased its welcome bonus to a staggering 80,000 points. For a limited time, you’ll earn 80,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points – up to a $1,000 value – after spending $4,000 within three months of account opening.

The Sapphire Preferred is already one of our top travel credit card picks, and the bonus only increases its value for travelers who want to maximize daily spend on future trips.

But Chase offers many different redemption options for your Chase Ultimate Rewards points, and some have greater value than others.

Here’s how you can get the 80,000 point bonus and a few ways to ensure you get the maximum value from your trades:

How to Earn the Chase Sapphire Preferred Welcome Bonus

To earn the $80,000 welcome offer, you’ll need to meet Chase’s minimum spending requirement of $4,000 within three months of account opening.

This equates to an average of $1,334 in the first three months. Before applying, review your regular expenses to determine if they are already in your monthly budget. If not, you might consider waiting to apply until you have saved up to make a major purchase or book an upcoming vacation. Whatever you do, you shouldn’t spend too much just to get a welcome offer. The interest you will earn on any revolving balance can quickly exceed any value you will earn from the bonus.

The purchases you make for your bonus will also help you earn rewards, depending on where you spend. The Sapphire Preferred offers bonus rewards at multiple levels, in travel and everyday categories. Here’s what you’ll earn:

• 5X on trips booked with the Chase Ultimate Rewards Portal
• 3X on meals (including take-out and delivery)
• 3X on online grocery purchases
• 3X on select streaming services
• 2X on all other travel purchases
• 1X points on all other purchases

The best ways to use your Chase Sapphire Preferred Welcome Bonus

You can redeem your Chase Sapphire Preferred bonus points in several ways. The Sapphire Preferred card’s 80,000 point welcome offer can be worth up to $1,000, but you’ll only get it with certain redemption options.

If you choose to redeem your points for account credits, cash back, gift cards, or to make purchases online, you can only earn less than one cent per point. Here are some redemption options that can best maximize your rewards:

Book a trip with Chase Ultimate Rewards

One of the most lucrative ways to use the points you earn with the Chase Sapphire Preferred card is to take trips booked through Chase Ultimate Rewards. There are no restrictions or blackout dates when you book with the portal, you will get a cash value of 1.25 cents per point.

This 25% increase in the value of your points means you can use your 80,000 bonus points to book $1,000 worth of travel – including airfare and hotels – through the Chase portal.

Transfer to airline partners

Another way to maximize points is with Chase’s many travel partners. You can transfer your points in a 1:1 ratio with Chase airline partners, including:

• Aer Lingus
• Air Canada
• British Airways
• Emirates
• Flying Blue (Air France and KLM)
• Iberia
• JetBlue
• Airlines to Singapore
• South West
• United Airlines
• Virgin Atlantic

Some airlines have blackout dates and the redemption value will vary depending on the airline’s loyalty program, as well as your travel route and destination. Here are some examples of what you could get with air transfer partners:

Say you live in Charlotte, North Carolina, and you want to take a friend to Disney World from September 2-5. You can transfer your points to Southwest Airlines at a 1:1 value and reserve two seats on the flights below for 83,350 points (excluding taxes and fees).

Alternatively, let’s say you live in Chicago and want to book a solo long weekend in Miami with JetBlue Airlines, another travel partner. Between October 28 and 31, you can book a round-trip flight for only 37,700 points in total (taxes and fees not included):

Transfer to hotel partners

Chase also has three hotel partners – World of Hyatt, IHG Rewards Club and Marriott Bonvoy – to which you can also redeem points at a 1:1 ratio. Here is an example of using your bonus points with hotel partners:

During the same September trip to Orlando, Florida, you can transfer your remaining points to your Hyatt account to use for your stay. Currently, the Hyatt House across from Universal Orlando Resort is offering a studio suite with kitchen for 9,000 points per night on the same weekend dates.

If you’re considering a luxury resort or brand new hotel, you can save and redeem your points for an experience that could otherwise cost you hundreds of dollars per night. Or you can use part of the points for a free night to extend your vacation. Here are some ways to redeem your points for a weekend getaway.

Here are some examples of luxury international hotel exchanges available from Chase’s hotel partners for the coming week between June 8 and June 11:

• The Regent Singapore for 38,000 IHG ​​Points per night (totalling 114,000 Points)
• The Hana-Maui Resort in Hawaii for 30,000 Hyatt points per night (totalling 90,000 points)

Chase Refund Program

During the pandemic, Chase introduced Pay Yourself Back as a way to take advantage of Sapphire Preferred’s 25% point boost on non-travel redemptions. Currently, Chase Sapphire Preferred cardholders can choose between two different self-refund options:

First, you can redeem points at a value of 1.25 cents per point for Airbnbs purchases on your card statement. So if you’re booking a summer vacation, you might be able to increase your value when you redeem your points for an Airbnb stay. Airbnb is an eligible Pay Yourself Back category until June 30, 2022.

The other Pay Yourself Back option – until December 31, 2022 – is to select charities. You can redeem points at 25% increased value when you use your card to make purchases at eligible charities, including the American Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity, NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, World Central Kitchen, etc