Chase officially announced a new enhancement today for its premier rewards card, the Chase Sapphire Preferred card. Chase Sapphire Preferred cardmembers will now enjoy two points per dollar spent on travel (including air, hotel, car rental, trains, travel agencies, taxis, etc.) and on dining purchases (from fast food and coffee shops to fine dining). Previously, travel and dining purchases earned double points only on purchases made through the Ultimate Rewards portal, but that restriction has now been removed. Purchases of eligible airfare and hotel accommodations made through Chase’s Ultimate Rewards will still earn an additional point per dollar spent (now for a total of 3 points per dollar).
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For a limited time, Chase and Southwest have brought this excellent offer back: Under this promo, you’ll receive 50,000 bonus points with your first purchase — enough for 2 free flights (up to $833 towards Wanna Get Away fares).
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According to a new thread on FW, there is now a targeted promo offering 100,000 bonus points after you spend $500 within the first 3 months, worth either $1250 towards free flights or $1000 in cash. To be eligible for the deal, you must have received a personalized invitation number from Chase in the mail. While the vast majority of us will not be lucky enough to receive this offer, there is still some very good news.

If you’ve taken advantage of the current 50,000 bonus point offer (which is quite generous as it is), it appears that Chase may be willing to basically match the targeted offer. A poster on SD reports:

I applied chase preferred sapphire card a few days ago with 50k bonus points after spending 3000$ in three months. Now I hear there is a better target promotion that is Earn 100,000 bonus points when you spend $500 within the first 3 months. I sent a secure message and asked them to match this offer, and they kindly offer me extra 50K points. Now the 50k points are shown in my account and I can earn extra 50k bonus points after spending 3000$ in three months. Hope you can get it as well!

If you applied recently, it certainly seems worth contacting Chase to see if the offer can be matched.

Edit 6/19: It seems many SD users who applied for the card recently are reporting success getting an additional 50k bonus points. The key appears to be logging into your Chase account and sending a secure message online to ask for the additional points, rather than calling and talking to a rep. Good luck!

Edit 6/22: Based on multiple reports, it appears that this deal is now dead. As of yesterday, people asking for the 100k deal to be matched were being turned down. The 50k point offer, however, is a very good deal, available to everyone and still alive.

Chase is now offering 50,000 bonus points after spending $3,000 within the first 3 months of getting your Chase Sapphire Preferred card. That’s double the number of points it was previously offering, enough for 2 airline tickets or a statement credit of $500.

Redeeming Your Chase Sapphire Points
With Chase Sapphire points, you have a number of redemption options. You can convert your Chase Sapphire points into BA miles, Continental miles or Hyatt miles at a 1:1 ratio at any time you want. Point transfers are also possible to Amtrak, Priority Club and Marriott at lower conversion ratios.

If you convert your 50,000 points to one of these programs, what does that get you?

• With 50,000 BA miles, for instance, you can get 2 tickets within the continental United States and Canada on American Airlines.
• 50,000 Continental miles are also enough for 2 tickets on Air Canada, Continental, United or US Airways.
• 50,000 Hyatt Gold Passport points, on the other hand, can be redeemed for between 2-10 free hotel nights with no blackout dates, depending on hotel category and room type.

Alternatively, if you use Chase’s online travel portal, you can redeem your 50,000 points towards $625 worth of airfare or hotel accommodations.

For those who aren’t into travel or prefer cold hard cash, you can also redeem the 50,000 points for a $500 gift card or a $500 statement credit.

The annual fee of $95 is waived for the first year. You can also downgrade to the standard version of the card after a year, which does not carry an annual fee.

The Chase Sapphire Preferred card also earns double the number of points per dollar spent on travel (including air, hotel, car rental, trains, travel agencies, taxis, etc.) and on dining purchases (from fast food and coffee shops to fine dining).

In addition, there are no foreign exchange fees when you use the card overseas and you’ll earn a 7% annual points dividend on any points you earned during the year, so you actually earn 1.07 points per dollar spent on regular purchases and 2.14 per dollar spent on travel and dining, making it a particularly excellent choice for the international traveler.

Update 4/3/12: The 50,000 point offer has expired and has been replaced by an intro offer for 40,000 points, making this deal slightly less lucrative. 40,000 points is still enough to redeem towards a $400 statement credit or $500 in travel when redeemed through Chase’s Ultimate Rewards portal.

Chase Sapphire Preferred Application Link

The first credit card to ever feature a 100,000 mile signup bonus has just brought it back. For a limited time, through May 6, 2011, the British Airways Visa Signature card is offering up to 100,000 bonus BA miles, enough for 2 transatlantic roundtrip reward flights. You’ll receive 50,000 bonus BA miles after your first purchase, plus an additional 50,000 bonus BA miles after you spend $2,500 within the first 3 months of opening your account.

BA miles can also be spent on partner airlines including AA, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, JAL, LAN, Hungarian Airlines, Mexicana, Qantas, Royal Jordanian Airlines and S7. The card does carry a $95 annual fee.

Standard features of the card include:

• No foreign currency transaction fees
• Earn 2.5 BA miles for every $1 spent on British Airways purchases
• Earn 1.25 BA miles for every $1 spent on all other purchases
• Earn a Travel Together Ticket (free companion award) after you’ve spent $30,000 in a year on the card

Edit May 6, 2011: This offer has now expired.

Edit May 16, 2011:While the offer for 100,000 BA miles has expired, you can read this post describing how you can get 50,000 BA miles with the Chase Sapphire Preferred card, with no annual fee for the first year.

The Priority Club Select Visa card now offers 60,000 bonus points after your first purchase with the card. That’s enough points for up to 4 free hotel nights, or even more if you redeem your points on PointBreaks participating properties.
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