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

[purbeast0]

Does the Sapphire Reserve use a different portal than the normal CUR one?

 

[ponyo]

Does the Sapphire Reserve use a different portal than the normal CUR one?

Same portal but different redemption rates. You get 50% more point redemption value with Sapphire Reserve so everything is noticeably cheaper than normal CUR card like Freedom or Freedom Unlimited.

 

[purbeast0]

Same portal but different redemption rates. You get 50% more point redemption value with Sapphire Reserve so everything is noticeably cheaper than normal CUR card like Freedom or Freedom Unlimited.

How do they know where the points come from? All of my CUR points are in one lump sum pool from various cards.

 

[ponyo]

How do they know where the points come from? All of my CUR points are in one lump sum pool from various cards.

It doesn't matter where the points come from. It only matters what card you select to enter the portal with. Since the Sapphire Reserve card has the 50% points bonus, you want to transfer all the points from other cards to the Reserve card and enter the portal by selecting the Reserve card.

 

[purbeast0]

It doesn't matter where the points come from. It only matters what card you select to enter the portal with. Since the Sapphire Reserve card has the 50% points bonus, you want to transfer all the points from other cards to the Reserve card and enter the portal by selecting the Reserve card.

I mean maybe it's because I don't have one anymore, but I have multiple cards on 2 accounts (business and non business) and I don't "pick a card" when I log into CUR. I just login by going here:

https://www.chase.com/personal/credit-cards/ultimate-rewards

And then it has all of my points, combined from the cards on the account, in one.

 

[Exterous]

I mean maybe it's because I don't have one anymore, but I have multiple cards on 2 accounts (business and non business) and I don't "pick a card" when I log into CUR. I just login by going here:

https://www.chase.com/personal/credit-cards/ultimate-rewards

And then it has all of my points, combined from the cards on the account, in one.

You can combine separate business and non-business points into one account. The big banks have been changing the rules around so I don't remember if "same household" is still a valid transfer consideration or not (so wife's to your's) for Chase but a business card in your name to a personal card in your name still works. If you don't have a prompt to select a card then all the UR points in an account are eligible for the best UR points redemption considerations of your 'best' card. If you are asked to select a card then you may need to transfer your points to the other card to be able to get the best redemption. IIRC I had to transfer points from my Ink Cash to my Ink Business preferred so they became full UR points instead of cash back points.

 

[purbeast0]

Ah okay so that explains why I don't have the selection. Damn I think I will get a Sapphire Reserve card in my wife's name this weekend. 1.5x points for travel is great. We may be going to a wedding in Spain next year and that would be helpful.

 

[ponyo]

Sapphire Reserve 1.5X points redemption is why I have the card. It effectively turns each

• Chase Freedom 5X quarterly points into 7.5% CB points
• Chase Freedom Unlimited 1.5X points into 2.25% CB points
• Chase Sapphire Reserve 3X travel/dining points into 4.5% CB points.

Which is why I have two Chase Freedom cards so I can double the Freedom 5x quarterly points. I only use the Freedom cards for the quarterly categories. Sapphire Reserve gets all my travel/dining purchases. Freedom Unlimited gets all my regular purchases.

 

[Sho'Nuff]

Got this card with the 100k bonus a few years ago and it has been awesome ever since. For the last 3 years it has paid for the airfare for my family of 4 to go on vacation to the caribbean. This year it is picking up the cost for flights to costa rica. With the annual fee, I am netting ~$2000 in rewards each year.

 

[Scarpozzi]

Got this card with the 100k bonus a few years ago and it has been awesome ever since. For the last 3 years it has paid for the airfare for my family of 4 to go on vacation to the caribbean. This year it is picking up the cost for flights to costa rica. With the annual fee, I am netting ~$2000 in rewards each year.

How much did the flights cost in dollars vs points?

I took my kids on their first flight this past weekend to Orlando on Spirit airlines ($150 round trip per ticket which is about double what Spirit usually is for that trip)

We're flying to Hawaii for Spring Break next year and if that goes well, we may do more family flights... We were able to get our Hawaii tickets for about $450 each from ATL and I'm using my Hilton Aspire Amex to get all my hotels comped for the week with free breakfast (diamond status comes with the card).

I'd consider getting the CSR card, but wasn't sure how the benefits would work out since we typically drive to our beach destinations within 10 hours of here.

 

[Sho'Nuff]

How much did the flights cost in dollars vs points?

I took my kids on their first flight this past weekend to Orlando on Spirit airlines ($150 round trip per ticket which is about double what Spirit usually is for that trip)

We're flying to Hawaii for Spring Break next year and if that goes well, we may do more family flights... We were able to get our Hawaii tickets for about $450 each from ATL and I'm using my Hilton Aspire Amex to get all my hotels comped for the week with free breakfast (diamond status comes with the card).

I'd consider getting the CSR card, but wasn't sure how the benefits would work out since we typically drive to our beach destinations within 10 hours of here.

Points are worth $0.015/point for travel.
Here are the last 3 big trips I have taken on points

2017 - Flights to Jamaica for 4 totaled $2340 round trip - $400 annual travel credit = $1940 = 129,333 points
2018 - Flights to Aruba for 4 totaled $1648 round trip - $400 annual travel credit = $1248 = 83,200 points
2019 - Booked Flights to liberia Costa Rica for 4 totaled $1886 round trip - 400 annual travel credit = $1486 = 99,066 points.

No, I did not spend close to $100,000 a year on the credit card. IN 2017 Chase offered 100,000 bonus points for new members if you spent more then $3000 in the first three months on the card. That was easy to do.
In 2018 I got 50,000 points for referrals, and took advantage of a number of multi point per dollar bonuses (e.g., I bought an iphone off the apple store when there was 10 point per dollar bonus running for apple store purchases). I did essentially the same thing this year, though with more referrals.

Speaking of referrals - if anyone decides to apply for the card please PM me and I will give you my info so that you can list me as a referral. Will send you a gift (e.g., $25 gift card) if you do and are approved for the card.

 

[RossMAN]

No, I did not spend close to $100,000 a year on the credit card. IN 2017 Chase offered 100,000 bonus points for new members if you spent more then $3000 in the first three months on the card. That was easy to do.

I wish they'd bring this back, I know someone who is interested in applying but may go for CSP instead of CSR. My wife and I each have a CSR and it's well worth the $150 (net) annual fee esp for restaurant/travel spend. I love how broad their travel category is, airlines/hotels/mass transit/lots more.

Now I'm working on getting the "Amex trifecta" of cards, 2 down, 1 to go.

 

[purbeast0]

Got an email today that starting 2020 the SW companion pass will require 125k points instead of 110k points in a calendar year.

I'm looking for the best CUR card right now that isn't a Chase Sapphire Reserve card. I might just go with the United Mileage card and 50k points. I think I have like 80k CUR points which transfer over to United 1:1, and I saw flights for 3 of us to get to Saint. Marteen is like 140k. Would be nice to have the points ready for next year.

 

[zinfamous]

No I understand that - which is why I said it can have higher value... It's just you're often restricted to certain days of travel or certain times... or even doing a certain plane ride (e.g. not a direct flight)

Personally, I don't have problems finding cheap flights monetarily.

Not with CUR points. You're definitely limited to the flights that are offered through the portal (which, as RCPratt mentioned, is Expedia), but I haven't yet encountered those type of restrictions.

On my big trip last year, I compared through the CUR portal and Travelocity...and I think Expedia (These are technically all the same company though, right? lol), and all the same flights were available, except that some of the carriers weren't available through Chase? I could be wrong, though. Of the 3 or 4 options we put together for that trip, all dates and routes were equally available through Chase and the others.

 

[Jeeebus]

I think I have like 80k CUR points which transfer over to United 1:1, and I saw flights for 3 of us to get to Saint. Marteen is like 140k. Would be nice to have the points ready for next year.

Because of Avios (British Airways or Iberia) and its distance based system, I can get just about anywhere in the caribbean for dirt cheap on Chase points. Tickets to St Kitts last year were stupid expensive (like $850 each) but I think it was 12k - 15k roundtrip using avios. instant transfer from chase.

 

[purbeast0]

Because of Avios (British Airways or Iberia) and its distance based system, I can get just about anywhere in the caribbean for dirt cheap on Chase points. Tickets to St Kitts last year were stupid expensive (like $850 each) but I think it was 12k - 15k roundtrip using avios. instant transfer from chase.

How are you finding trips to the Caribbean from the states using British Airways or Iberia? I just checked out both sites and couldn't find anything going there from around here.

I put in St. Kitts on the British Airway map and it only showed stuff going to/from Europe.

 

[Exterous]

Got an email today that starting 2020 the SW companion pass will require 125k points instead of 110k points in a calendar year.

I'm looking for the best CUR card right now that isn't a Chase Sapphire Reserve card. I might just go with the United Mileage card and 50k points. I think I have like 80k CUR points which transfer over to United 1:1, and I saw flights for 3 of us to get to Saint. Marteen is like 140k. Would be nice to have the points ready for next year.

I'm surprised they haven't made getting it even harder. The signup bonuses have been creeping higher so this is just moving the bar back up a bit.

I'd look at their business cards. IIRC the Preferred is still offering 80k. One benefit of the United card though is that it gives you access to some additional award space - the XN fare bucket. That's been a somewhat useful thing for me since I don't live near a United hub so getting connector flight space can be tough

Edit: Yep. https://creditcards.chase.com/small-business-credit-cards/ink-business-preferred

Get it for the bonus - transfer the bonus to your personal account and then close before the next annual fee hits

How are you finding trips to the Caribbean from the states using British Airways or Iberia? I just checked out both sites and couldn't find anything going there from around here.

I put in St. Kitts on the British Airway map and it only showed stuff going to/from Europe.

BA doesn't fly to the Caribbean from the US but their partner AA does. Easy way to check and see if it will be an option with Avios is to see if AA flies to the location you want to go to AND has Saver Award availability then it SHOULD show up on BAs site when searching for an Avios award. AA's search has a longer calendar to show possible dates and is more reliable. If you then don't see it on BA's site re-do teh search a couple of times since it will occasionally fail to show space that is there. If that doesn't work you can try calling BA to book (I've had to do that before or for Alaska Airlines routes. They'll usually waive the phone booking fee if you ask)

 

[purbeast0]

Hmmm okay. I definitely saw some AA flights going to destinations however I did not see any of those show up on BA's website when searching by Avios rewards. I'll give it another try at some point.

 

[Exterous]

Hmmm okay. I definitely saw some AA flights going to destinations however I did not see any of those show up on BA's website when searching by Avios rewards. I'll give it another try at some point.

They'll only show on BAs website if there are award eligible seats available. Which AA is often stingy with. So if AA doesn't release award seats your BA search won't turn up any flights

 

[purbeast0]

They'll only show on BAs website if there are award eligible seats available. Which AA is often stingy with. So if AA doesn't release award seats your BA search won't turn up any flights

Gotcha. Cause I did a normal search where you pay points and yeah, I saw some flights to some destinations. But then I tried Avios reward search and nothing.

Is it rare to find any good flights with Avios?

 

[Exterous]

Gotcha. Cause I did a normal search where you pay points and yeah, I saw some flights to some destinations. But then I tried Avios reward search and nothing.

Is it rare to find any good flights with Avios?

Anything that depends on AA and BA availability will be heavily location dependent - far more so than Delta and United in my experience. I sat on ~170k Avios points for several years because I could never find seats to book that didn't charge an arm and a leg in fees. Jeebus clearly had better luck than I did so it can work out (especially if you're near an AA hub and don't want to fly to Europe) but AA is known to be stingy on seats and BA is known to charge an excessive amount of fees on a lot of routes if flying on their planes (not all but quite a few). An economy flight from JFK to LHR in July is 20,000 miles and $94 in fees one way. To me thats not worth it when I can find flights for <$300 round trip with a little destination and date flexibility. Business class fees are over $600 one way on that route. Insane. That one BA flight has more fees than I paid for our entire DTW-FRA-ADD-SEZ-ADD-NBO-ZRH-YYZ-DTW business class trip despite being like 1/10 the distance.

In Central and South America its much easier to spend points due to the partnership with LATAM but even then sometimes flights are so cheap it still makes more sense to pay for them outright (like $45 for a flight in Peru). I'm down to 90k Avios after our South America trip. The partnership with LATAM is probably up in the air though since its leaving OneWorld. BA has a decent route network in Africa so thats a not a bad place to spend them assuming you don't mind connecting through South Africa. Haven't tried in SE Asia or Oceania. I haven't found a good use for them in any of our European trips but we're not usually connecting through London. They would probably be more useful if we did.

If you're on the West Coast their partnership with Alaska Airlines would be useful although a bit of a pain since you can only book those by calling. Alaska does have decent award availability though.

 

[RossMAN]

Speaking of BA Avios here's an awesome website definitely bookmark worthy

Avios Destinations by Price

wandr.me

 

[ponyo]

blog

 

[LikeLinus]

<end>blog</end>

Thank you for that totally useless blog post.

 

[LikeLinus]

I wish they'd bring this back, I know someone who is interested in applying but may go for CSP instead of CSR. My wife and I each have a CSR and it's well worth the $150 (net) annual fee esp for restaurant/travel spend. I love how broad their travel category is, airlines/hotels/mass transit/lots more.

Now I'm working on getting the "Amex trifecta" of cards, 2 down, 1 to go.

I just applied for and was approved for the Chase Ink Business Preferred. It's 80k for 5k spent in 3 months. While it's not as good as our CSR cards, it's still 80k in "free" points. I already have the Freedom Unlimited, so I guess I have the trifecta for Chase? I didn't even know this was a thing until I googled it after your comment.

I have an Amex Platinum and the concierge service has been very good to us in the past. The yearly fee has gone up over the years and it's expensive, so use the benefits as much as possible.