On the heels of a major (and mostly positive – with one big catch) update that added tons of new benefits without raising its $95 annual fee, Chase is giving travelers 100,000 reasons to pick up the *chase sapphire preferred*.
The bank just rolled out another massive welcome bonus: Earn 100,000 bonus points after $5,000 in purchases in your first three months from account opening. This is a record-tying bonus and an absolutely incredible sum of points for a card with just a $95 annual fee.
If we sound excited shocked, it's because we are. This is the second time we've seen a 100,000-point bonus on one of our favorite travel cards in the last year and change – and honestly, we were sure we'd never see it again. Combined with all the new benefits like a $100 hotel credit and $120 to cover Global Entry or TSA PreCheck, we consider this the best card travel card offer … ever.
It's unclear how long this bonus will be available – don't wait around!
Learn more about the *csp*.
Considering you can easily redeem Chase Ultimate Rewards through Chase Travel℠ at a rate of 1 cent per point (or more with Chase's new “Points Boost” redemptions), this bonus is worth a bare minimum of $1,000 towards travel! But you can squeeze far, far more value out of those points by sending them to Chase's excellent airline and hotel transfer partners.
Beyond that big bonus, the Sapphire Preferred is a keeper for travelers new and old thanks to solid spending categories to earn more points on dining and travel – plus, new additions for gas stations and vacation rentals and some of the best built-in travel insurance you'll find on any travel card. There's even an annual $100 hotel credit when you book through Chase Travel℠, making it laughably easy offset the card's modest $95 annual fee.
Just keep in mind: Credit cards are serious business. Adding a new card to your wallet just for the big bonus isn't worth it if you can't afford to pay off every dime in spending it takes to earn those points.
Whether you're eligible to earn this bonus is another question. Chase recently reworked its eligibility requirements, allowing travelers to hold (and earn a bonus on) both the Preferred and the top-tier *chase sapphire reserve* … but prior or current Sapphire Preferred may not be able to earn the bonus again. Still, it's worth giving it a shot: Chase's new pop-up system will let you know either way before you actually proceed with your application.
Bottom line, this is a massive opportunity. Keep reading for everything you'll want to know.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card Benefits Overview
- Welcome Offer Bonus: bonus_miles_full
- Earn 5x total points on travel purchased through the Chase Travel℠ portal, excluding hotel purchases that qualify for the $50 Anniversary Hotel Credit.
- New! Earn 3x points on gas and EV charging
- Earn 3x points on dining (including eligible delivery services), online grocery purchases (excluding Target, Walmart, and wholesale clubs), and select streaming services
- New! Earn 3x points on vacation homes at top brands, including Airbnb, Vrbo, and more
- Earn 2x points on travel purchases
- Earn 1x points on all other purchases
- Updated! Earn up to $100 Chase Travel℠ Hotel Credit every account anniversary year (doubled from $50)
- New! Complimentary Apple TV subscription for one year when activated by December 31, 2026 (terms apply).
- New! Get up to a $120 Global Entry, TSA PreCheck®, or NEXUS credit every four years
- Ending soon! 10% Annual Points Bonus: Receive a 10% points bonus on your total spending during the account anniversary year – 1 point for every $10 spent.
- The 10% Anniversary bonus is being discontinued, effective immediately for cardmembers who apply on or after June 15, 2026. For cardmembers who applied prior to June 15, 2026, eligible purchases made through October 1, 2026, will continue to earn the 10% bonus, which will be awarded by January 31, 2027.
- Updated! Travel Protections: Trip Cancelation & Interruption Coverage, Baggage Delay and Lost Luggage Coverage, Primary Rental Car Insurance – now, including Emergency Evacuation and Transportation Coverage
- Foreign Transaction Fees: None
- Annual Fee: $95
Read our full review of the Chase Sapphire Preferred!
Learn more about the *csp*.
Just How Good is This Bonus?
Unbelievably good. At the risk of sounding dramatic, this is a “can't miss” and “best of all time” credit card bonus. If you're eligible, this big bonus is one you should take advantage of while you can.
In normal times, you'll get just a 60,000-point bonus on the Preferred Card. Chase has upped the ante a few times over the years with bonuses of 75,000 or 80,000 points.
But Chase has gone up to this 100,000-point benchmark just twice, last spring and then again way back in 2021. And that was a different time: Banks like Chase were desperate to bring in new cardholders who were still tuned out of travel due to the pandemic. A record-setting bonus of 100,000 points was an easy way to pile people in.
Not into travel? Well, that's a shame … but this offer is still worth your attention. Since Chase Ultimate Rewards are worth 1 cent each when redeemed for a statement credit or transferred to a bank account, this bonus is worth $1,000 in cold hard cash. You'll be hard-pressed to find a better cashback bonus than that!
While the card's $5,000 spending requirement in three months is no small sum, there are some creative ways to hit that amount without spending irresponsibly. Consider using it to pay your taxes, pre-pay insurance and utilities, or even add an authorized user to double your purchasing power.
What Can You Do With 100K Points?
The beauty of Chase points is just how valuable – and flexible – they are. So, what can 100,000 points get you? In two words: A lot.
Those points are worth a minimum of $1,250 toward flights, hotels, and other travel expenses booked through Chase Travel. But you can easily do even better by leveraging Chase's transfer partners and sending those points to airlines like Air Canada Aeroplan, Air France/KLM Flying Blue, British Airways Avios, or even a top-notch hotel partner like Hyatt instead – though unfortunately, new applicants' points won't go as far with Hyatt anymore.
Here's a quick list of some of our favorite ways to use this bonus.
This list is just the start! Read our full guide on the best ways to redeem a big Chase bonus!
Take a Flight Deal & Make it Free
One of our favorite ways to use any frequent flyer points is booking the cheap domestic or international flight deals you find via Google Flights or with a Thrifty Traveler Premium subscription. And the absolute best way to book them is with Chase Ultimate Rewards points.
That’s because with the Sapphire Preferred Card every point is worth 1.25 cents toward travel when you use them in the Chase Travel Portal. That's why we say the 100,000-point bonus is worth at least $1,250 toward flights, hotels, or other travel.
As an example, here’s a recent deal we sent to our Thrifty Traveler Premium subscribers for flights to beautiful Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada. You could fly to Calgary (YYC), just an hour away, for under $200 roundtrip this coming spring and summer – peak travel season!
Booking this flight with bonus points from your Chase Sapphire Preferred? It would cost you less than 20,000 points.
Better yet, you can book select premium cabin flights for even more value thanks to Chase Points Boost redemptions, which give you 1.75 cents apiece toward eligible flights. That means a $2,000 business class fare would set you back just 114,000 points and change!
Booking flights directly through the Chase travel portal is one of the easiest ways to redeem points for travel, period. You'll even earn miles when you take your free flight! Best of all, you can book flights on almost any airline using this method.
Read more: How to Book Flights Through the Chase Travel Portal
5 Roundtrip Tickets to Hawaii
It's tough to top a trip to Canada in the summer … but the Hawaiian Islands are up to the task. You can book five round-trip tickets to Honolulu (HNL) with a big Chase bonus like this. So much for Hawaii being an expensive place to get to, right?
This is where turning to Chase transfer partners really shines, as you have several options to book round-trip flights to the Hawaiian islands for about 30,000 points each – or much less.
If you time it right, you can get to Hawaii for under 20,000 Southwest Rapid Rewards points, as with this round-trip flight from Los Angeles (LAX) to Honolulu (HNL). And because Chase points transfer to Southwest on a 1:1 basis, 19,000 Chase points is all you need.
Even though Southwest recently moved to dynamic award pricing, converting your Ultimate Rewards into Rapid Rewards can still make sense … and this is a prime example. Rather than paying $334 apiece, you could turn to the Chase Travel portal and book for 27,000 Chase points per ticket.
But by taking an extra step and first moving your points to Southwest, you can save nearly 8,000 points per ticket and get 1.7 cents per point in value – far better than what the portal offers.
Read more on our favorite ways to get to Hawaii using points!
A Roundtrip for 3 to Europe – Or 2 in Business Class (Maybe?)
This 100,000-point bonus can be enough to get three people to Europe and back … or fly solo in style.
The trick is turning to Iberia, a Spanish airline and yet another Chase transfer partner. Using Iberia, you can fly from Boston (BOS), New York City (JFK), Newark (EWR), Washington, D.C.-Dulles (IAD), or Chicago-O'Hare to Madrid (Madrid) for as low as 32,000 miles roundtrip. Since Chase points typically transfer to Iberia on a 1:1 basis, you'd have enough to cover three roundtrip flights to Europe after completing the $5,000 spending requirement.
Or you could splurge for this:
That's right: 100,000 Chase points is more than enough for two one-way flights (or one roundtrip) to Europe in Iberia business class. It costs just 40,500 miles each way – or 81,000 miles roundtrip! That's a fraction of what most other airlines charge to fly business class to Europe.
But if you time it right, you might be able to multiply your points by taking advantage of a transfer bonus. Chase regularly offers a big bonus on transfers to Iberia – as well as British Airways and Aer Lingus. By taking advantage of a 30% transfer bonus, your 105,000 Chase points would be enough for two roundtrip flights to Europe … in business class!
Considering these business class flights typically cost $4,000 or more when paying cash, it's a phenomenal way to use those Chase points. And with a Thrifty Traveler Premium alert like this one, it's fairly easy to book as long as you have the points.
Read our step-by-step guide on how to book Iberia business class!
Score a Business Class Suite to Tokyo
This isn't just business class. It's ANA's The Room business class. And you can book your trip to Japan flying this with Chase points.
All Nippon Airways (ANA) might not be a Chase transfer partner, but Virgin Atlantic is … and even after a recent devaluation, this is still one of the cheapest ways to fly in style. You can fly from the western U.S. to Tokyo and back for just 105,000 Virgin Atlantic points or 120,000 points from Chicago-O’Hare (ORD) or East Coast cities. One-ways are half the price.
If you time it right with one of the frequent transfer bonuses from Chase to Virgin, like the massive 40% bonus offered a few months back, you'll have more than enough points for a roundtrip to Tokyo in business class … no matter where you're starting from.
Just be warned: Finding the award availability to actually book these seats with points can be tough.
Are You Eligible for the Chase Sapphire Preferred?
Before applying for the Sapphire Preferred, you should consider a few things to give yourself the best chance of being approved.
You’ll Need Good-to-Excellent Credit
The first thing you’ll need to consider before applying for the Chase Sapphire Preferred is your credit score.
Chase indicates that you must fall into the “Good” to “Excellent” credit buckets to be approved. As you can see, that means you’d probably need at least a 680 credit score to get approved.
But this isn't a hard-and-fast rule. There are certainly exceptions – especially if you have a history with Chase. But your best bet for getting approved is having what the bank deems “good” to “excellent” credit. If your credit score is below 680, your odds of getting approved aren't great.
Read more: What Credit Score Do You Need for the Chase Sapphire Preferred?
The Chase 5/24 Rule
The next thing you’ll need to be aware of is something called the Chase 5/24 Rule. And it can be a killer.
The Chase 5/24 rule is a restriction rolled out years ago in order to limit card applicants from opening credit cards for the sole purpose of earning the bonus rewards.
Here’s what it boils down to:
- If you have opened five or more credit cards in the past 24 months from any bank (not just Chase), you will not be approved for Chase credit cards, regardless of your credit score or history with Chase Bank.
- The rule does not count credit inquiries, but rather card products you have applied for and been approved for. That also means mortgages and other lines of credit don’t count.
The rule is not officially published through any of Chase’s platforms. Case in point: If you ask about it in a Chase branch or on the phone with a Chase customer service representative, employees have likely not heard of it.
There have been some signs lately that Chase is relaxing this rule, but it's still hit or miss. Still, your best chance at getting the Sapphire Preferred Card is by being under that all-important 5/24 count.
Bottom Line
Chase is back with one of the best, limited-time bonus offers we've ever seen on the popular *chase sapphire preferred* … and it might just be the best
With this offer, you can earn 100,000 points after spending $5,000 on purchases in the first three months. Those points are worth a minimum of $1,000 when redeemed through Chase Travel … but you can do far better with some of the examples we outlined above.
Learn more about the *chase sapphire preferred*
