PSA -Sapphire Reserve with 100K points bonus, LAST CHANCE is Saturday 3/11 at branch...

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RossMAN

Grand Nagus
Feb 24, 2000
78,794
266
116
Ross, that link is broken.

Hmmn that's weird, it wasn't anything important. Just a copy/paste of a Chase transaction that earned 5x UR points.

Unfortunately NFC payments are all over the place, sometimes they work, sometimes they don't, sometimes employees are surprised they offer it, etc. It's definitely hit or miss but worth the effort considering the 5x UR I'm earning.

Ordered an Uber tonight and earned 5% since I paid with Android Pay.
 

GoodRevrnd

Diamond Member
Dec 27, 2001
6,803
581
126
So Freedom Unlimited earns 1.5% cash back, which you can convert to UR points. Since UR points go 50% further in travel redemption, does this mean your effective earning rate is actually 2.25%? So without going overboard min/maxing 5 different Chase cards, I can get 4.5% on SR travel/dining and 2.25% on FU everything else?
 

GeekDrew

Diamond Member
Jun 7, 2000
9,100
13
81
So Freedom Unlimited earns 1.5% cash back, which you can convert to UR points. Since UR points go 50% further in travel redemption, does this mean your effective earning rate is actually 2.25%? So without going overboard min/maxing 5 different Chase cards, I can get 4.5% on SR travel/dining and 2.25% on FU everything else?

That’d be the effective rate *if any only if* you remember to consolidate your points into UR and only use them for travel redemption.
 

GoodRevrnd

Diamond Member
Dec 27, 2001
6,803
581
126
Do you have to regularly manually consolidate the points to prevent getting cash back? I don't see why you'd use UR points for anything other than travel.
 

GeekDrew

Diamond Member
Jun 7, 2000
9,100
13
81
Do you have to regularly manually consolidate the points to prevent getting cash back? I don't see why you'd use UR points for anything other than travel.

Some people simply don’t travel. No, you don’t have to taken action to prevent getting cash back (at least as far as I know, and in my experience), but consolidating points is a manual process.
 

RossMAN

Grand Nagus
Feb 24, 2000
78,794
266
116
Ouch, that's the main reason I use Chase.

My main use is the generous 3x on restaurants/travel and their relaxed definition of travel. Bus/train transit tickets, parking, hotels, airfare is all travel. If they were to ever reduce it to 2x or add some hurdles, I would seriously consider downgrading to FU.
 

Exterous

Super Moderator
Jun 20, 2006
20,348
3,426
126
I hope this rumor isn't true, I wonder if there are any downside to pooling UR points into a single account?
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/rumor-chase-to-end-chase-ultimate-rewards-points-pooling/

For me that wouldn't make things too much trickier but its always sad to see a reduction in benefits. I pretty much always transfer points to partners and rarely add an AU due to how chases counts 5/24. Coincidental timing though - I drained most of my UR yesterday anyway to book a United flight and taking advantage of the Excursionist perk
 

zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
110,512
29,098
146
Do you have to regularly manually consolidate the points to prevent getting cash back? I don't see why you'd use UR points for anything other than travel.

I had Freedom points sitting around for more than a year before I converted them all to UR points. You only get cash back when and if you request it. I have the regular Freedom card. I briefly considered trying to switch it out for the FU, but I still think the quarterly 5% offers for Freedom are better in the end...assuming you actually can use them. I rarely if ever max that out, though, because it has more recently been offered at options that I never use.

I put most everything on my SR card, anyway. Freedom is just used when I have 5% bonus
 

Exterous

Super Moderator
Jun 20, 2006
20,348
3,426
126

As an aside additional business class award space opened up when I was booking my full itinerary. Before booking I verified space segment by segment (United multi-city likes to error out if there are no award options on the dates you pick in a multi-city) and only economy was available for the excursionist segment. This was fine since we were still saving $450 a piece on that leg and the flights weren't that long. But when I pieced everything together to book, business class magically appeared as an option for both that day and the day after. Its not universal since the day before remained unbookable but it was a nice surprise. No idea how widespread that might be or if its unique to the partner I was booking (Ethiopian Airlines) but it might be useful to verify availability on a full multi city before discounting a trip because of an undesirable economy segment if you just search for space individually.
 

RossMAN

Grand Nagus
Feb 24, 2000
78,794
266
116
As an aside additional business class award space opened up when I was booking my full itinerary.

How did you know award space became available, did you use expertflyer (free or paid), another service or manually checked yourself?
 

Exterous

Super Moderator
Jun 20, 2006
20,348
3,426
126
How did you know award space became available, did you use expertflyer (free or paid), another service or manually checked yourself?

Just manually checked myself. I'd been watching the routes for a bit waiting for some united miles to post and it had never shown business availability for this segment. Checked 2 minutes before booking and still just Y. But as soon as I did the multi-city it showed up. ExpertFlyer might have shown it but I'm not sure
 

Svnla

Lifer
Nov 10, 2003
17,999
1,396
126
Uh oh, good things come to an end?

  • Elimination of price protection on purchases. Previously, customers could get a refund of up to $500 per item — up to $2,500 per year — if the price dropped in the 90 days following the purchase.
  • Limiting the number of guests a cardholder can bring to a Priority Pass lounge to two. Previously, the complimentary Priority Pass membership allowed cardholders to bring an unlimited number of guests to the more than 1,200 lounges in the program. Authorized users also get two guests, but any additional guests will cost $27 each.
  • Eliminating accelerated earning on travel purchases that go toward the annual $300 travel credit. All travel and dining purchases had received 3x in Ultimate Rewards points. This slight tweak means only travel purchases above and beyond the $300 annual travel credit earn Ultimate Rewards points. That's a reduction in 900 Ultimate Rewards points, which is worth $13.50 when cashed in through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/internal-documents-show-changes-coming-104900767.html
 

zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
110,512
29,098
146
Hoping that Chase reduces the travel/food credits to 2% from 3% on CSR because it would be virtually impossible for RossMAN to not comment about it!
 

purbeast0

No Lifer
Sep 13, 2001
52,834
5,713
126
I just got a new Southwest card today with the 50k bonus. I did however have to sign up for it while at the FLL airport because it's only one of the few that does it. I have a companion pass the rest of this year with my wife's account, however we're low on points and I haven't had the card in 3 years so I got a new one. I'm hoping to find another one that I can get 50k points on with the premiere card (since I got the Plus) but if not, I may just sign up for the 40k one and I'm sure I'll spend 20k total this year if I use it for everything.
 

JEDIYoda

Lifer
Jul 13, 2005
33,981
3,318
126
I would jump on thias...except for one thing -- When I travel its always business and on Uncle Sams dime...lolol
 

zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
110,512
29,098
146
I would jump on thias...except for one thing -- When I travel its always business and on Uncle Sams dime...lolol

Are you paid through reimbursements, though, or is everything done through an internal travel service? Reimbursement works wonders for accruing points on travel cards.
 
Nov 8, 2012
20,828
4,777
146
I would jump on thias...except for one thing -- When I travel its always business and on Uncle Sams dime...lolol

When my wife travels for government she gets to spend the travel charges on any card of her choosing... Which I'm totally jealous of. For me in the corporate world it's always has to be on the designated corporate card.

Also lame for bumping this thread. I was hoping the Sapphire bonus went back up to 100k. It sucks that I wasn't able to get it at the time because I was way over 5/24.
 

zinfamous

No Lifer
Jul 12, 2006
110,512
29,098
146
When my wife travels for government she gets to spend the travel charges on any card of her choosing... Which I'm totally jealous of. For me in the corporate world it's always has to be on the designated corporate card.

Also lame for bumping this thread. I was hoping the Sapphire bonus went back up to 100k. It sucks that I wasn't able to get it at the time because I was way over 5/24.

Yeah, that isn't likely to ever going to happen. They've only ever been removing some of the benefits/point-swapping tricks since then. The standard Sapphire rewards card has the same 50k bonus miles, though, with, I think, only $75 annual fee? You lose the $300 annual travel reimbursement, but with that, it still makes the annual fee for the Premiere card $150, so it's not like a "real" improvement in direct comparison.
 
Nov 8, 2012
20,828
4,777
146
Yeah, that isn't likely to ever going to happen. They've only ever been removing some of the benefits/point-swapping tricks since then. The standard Sapphire rewards card has the same 50k bonus miles, though, with, I think, only $75 annual fee? You lose the $300 annual travel reimbursement, but with that, it still makes the annual fee for the Premiere card $150, so it's not like a "real" improvement in direct comparison.

Still - was hoping that promotion would come back at least once. I've been working on using my miles and points lately. I racked up so many damn Amex Points over the years I had to get rid of them. I ended up signing up for the Amex Platinum Schwab and it is FREAKING awesome. It allows you to cash out AMEX MR for straight cash at 1.25 cent each. I had over 350,000 points - so basically came out with ~$4.5k in cash.

Finding ways to effectively use points/miles is (in all honesty) a pain in the ass that I'm tired of dealing with. No matter how hard I tried with AMEX points for example, their stupid travel portal sucks and I could never find an effective means of using them. I still have a ton of miles/points with airlines and hotels that I really need to use somehow though. Maybe I can find a site where I can straight cash them out or sell them somehow... hrmm...

Now I'm finally below 5/24 and ready to ramp up applications though.