Winning the Travel Game: Chase Credit Card Points Strategy
New to the Travel Points game, we started our credit card journey with Capital One Venture X, then Amex Gold, and Amex Platinum. After a year with these three cards, I wanted to advance my game and began exploring the Chase Credit card setups. Since I was currently under the 5/24 rule (opening five personal credit cards in the last 24 months), I aimed to maximize the number of travel points I could get with our regular spend.
I discovered that Chase has some of the best travel partners for hotel redemption, such as Hyatt, and has excellent domestic air travel partners in Southwest Airlines and United Airlines. Also, if I book in the Chase Travel portal, my points are multiplied by 25%. So, 100K points would be worth 125K points when booking your travel adventures (air/hotel/car rental) in the Chase portal.
My Chase Credit Card Strategy
Here’s my Chase credit card strategy this past year that netted us over 700K points in less than one year. My strategy was to earn sign-up bonuses by opening one Chase Credit card every three months, paying all our bills with one credit card to meet the minimum required spend to receive the sign-up bonus. Once I met the spend requirements, I put that card away and moved on to the next credit card.
June 2023: Chase Sapphire Preferred
I opened my first Chase travel credit card, the Chase Sapphire Preferred, which has a $95 annual fee. After $4K of spend in three months, I received a 60K sign-up bonus. You need this credit card to transfer points to travel partners like Hyatt, Air France, or United Airlines, among others. The earning power of this card is 3x points on dining purchases, select streaming, online grocery, and 1x on everything else.
September 2023: Chase Ink Business Unlimited
Next, I opened the Chase Ink Business Unlimited card. The sign-up bonus at the time was spend $6K in three months and get 75K points, then another offer elevated it to 90K points. Since I was in the middle of earning my sign-up bonus, I called customer care, and they matched the current 90K offer! After the sign-up bonus, this card offers a straightforward 1.5% cashback on every purchase, making it easy to accumulate rewards quickly. It is a great catch-all card in the Chase credit card setup.
December 2023: Chase Ink Business Cash
In December, I opened the Chase Ink Business Cash card. The sign-up bonus was still 90K points after spending $6K in three months. With this card, you earn 5% cashback on select business purchases like streaming, internet services, and cell phone bills, 2% cashback at gas stations and restaurants, and 1% cashback on all other purchases. There’s no limit to how much you can earn.
March 2024: Chase Ink Business Preferred
In March 2024, I opened the Chase Ink Business Preferred card. The sign-up bonus was 100K points after spending $8K in three months. You earn 3x points on the first $150,000 spent in combined purchases each account anniversary year on travel, shipping, internet, cable, and phone services, as well as advertising purchases made with social media sites and search engines. Earn 1 point per dollar on all other purchases.
March 2024: Referrals and More Sign-Ups
I also referred my Player 2 (my wife) to her first personal Chase Sapphire Preferred card in March. With significant expenses like IRS and property tax, we met the $4K spend requirement and received another 60K sign-up bonus plus a 10K referral bonus for me.
We also opened a Marriott Bonvoy Boundless credit card through Chase, which offered five free night certificates up to 50K points each. Planning a road trip to California, this was perfect for five free nights in LA. I referred my friend Matt and received another 40K referral bonus, adding another free night to our tally.
Using the Cards Going Forward
Now that we’ve earned all those sign-up bonuses, here’s how we use these cards going forward:
- Chase Sapphire Preferred: For dining out (if the restaurant doesn’t take AMEX) and travel expenses like Lyft and metro.
- Chase Ink Business Unlimited: Our catch-all card for at least 1.5% back on $1 of spend. Ideal for bills not earning more than 3x.
- Chase Ink Business Cash: For internet, cell phone, and streaming services because it earns 5x.
- Chase Ink Business Preferred: For all travel card purchases like extra hotel costs not covered with points. Also used for metro, Lyft, and parking.
- Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant: This will sit in the drawer until we need to go to a Marriott.
Future Plans
Since my Player 2 has a Sapphire Preferred, I plan to product change my Chase Sapphire Preferred after the one year is complete to the Chase Freedom Flex card for the 5% back on rotating categories. Next year’s strategy will be opening up my Player 2’s Chase Ink Business Credit cards, all three of them.
Eugene’s Referral Links
