Chase Ultimate Rewards

Dear Annabelle,

We received and have been working on the minimum spend on the Sapphire Preferred.

How to Use the Points

There are some good ideas here about how to use the Chase Ultimate Rewards:
"These points transfer to United, Korean, Singapore Airlines, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Southwest. United gets you Star Alliance availability to Europe and Asia and no fuel surcharges. British Airways gets you cheap short-distance non-stop awards as 4500 points each way for coach tickets on American, US Airways, and Alaska. You get access to Skyteam award space through Korean Air which has some very favorable awards — like some of the cheapest awards to Hawaii and 80,000 mile business class roundtrips to Europe (plus fuel surcharges). You also get the ability to redeem for international first class through Korean and not just business class, something Delta doesn’t allow."

I wonder how British Airways works for the flights we would be interested in. I think they might have fuel surcharges though?!? Things to look into!

This post also summarizes ways to use the rewards.  And this one specifically how to "maximize each transfer partner".

Transferring Points 

It looks like you can transfer Ultimate Rewards to your spouse/partner!  This is great news since we always find it challenging that you can't really combine frequent flyer program miles (or at least you couldn't with Aeroplan).  We had some challenging times trying to buy award seats with two different accounts and not being able to all get seats on the plane (then having to pay change fees, etc.).   This way you could keep them in the Ultimate Rewards and then put them into the flyer program that made sense at the time of booking.

On a related note, it looks like AMEX Membership rewards can also transfer to a spouse or an additional card holder.

Getting Cards - New Rules

This post details how new rules are reducing the prospects for credit card churners.  Specifically,

"Many churners are reporting being denied by Chase with the reason being they have opened 5 or more credit card accounts over the past two years. ...

• The 5 cards across all banks rule generally applies to authorized user accounts as well.
• This only applies to Chase branded cards such as the Freedom, Sapphire Preferred and Ink cards.
• Cobranded cards appear not to be effected as there are many data points showing approvals."

Also discussed in more detail here.

Importance of being a "good customer"

This blog's opinion is: "I absolutely believe it is imperative to use your Chase cards. I generally put small recurring charges on all of my cards and occasionally use them in non-bonused categories. Be a good customer to Chase and ultimately they will make it worth your while." Seems like a worthwhile thing to remember once you are done your minimum spend.

Whether to Keep the Chase Sapphire Preferred After First Year

There appears to be a lively blogosphere discussion over this question.  View from the Wing says generally good to keep for the transfer partners (you need CSP or the Business Ink Card to transfer points) and for the spending bonuses of 2X on dining and travel.   Also a discussion regarding car rental coverage that I don't really have my head around at the moment.  Travel is Free indicates that they don't think it is a card worth keeping.  Travel Codex acting as a devil's advocate is saying get the card but don't use it as your primary spending card; they do point out that you need this card to transfer points if you don't have a business card.  Doctor of Credit argues that it is a good card and that you will want to cancel it after two years max so you can apply and get a new one with a new bonus.  That said, this is possibly changed by the fact that you may not be approved for the CSP unless you have less than 5 new cards in the past two years.  Kind of shakes up the space!

Hugs,
Jen