Chase Doubles Earning for Travel and Dining on Sapphire Preferred Card

July 25, 2011

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2 min read

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I've been a big fan of the Chase Sapphire Preferred card (review) since they upped the sign-up bonus to 50,000 in May. This is an all-round powerful card with a waived annual fee, 7% bonus on all points accrued (so the sign-up is actually 53,500 points) and the points can be transferred instantly at a 1:1 ratio to Continental, British Airways, Hyatt, Marriott, Priority Club and Amtrak - plus the card has no foreign transaction fees, which will save you about 3% on all of your foreign spend.

Chase now announced that they are doubling the points earned on dining and travel (flights, hotel, car, timeshare, etc) to 2 per every dollar spent. This is a significant increase in the power of this card, because most of us travel and eat!

As for the sign-up bonus, many of you have asked whether I think it will go up from 50k or down. In my honest opinion (I have no insider knowledge), I would put money on the sign-up offer going down before it goes up. Remember, Amex ran the Platinum card at a 50k bonus and then randomly one day dropped it to 25k (though realistically many people are still getting 100,000 points).

While there are some attractive Chase offers out there right now (60-80k Priority Club, 2 Free Night Hyatt), I think the Sapphire Preferred is the best card and overall sign-up bonus.

Hat tip Frugal Travel Guy!