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DVC Purchase-Chase Sapphire Ultimate Rewards

brianfox

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AMEX Everyday Preferred ($95 per year) is great for groceries:
4.5 points per dollar up to $6000 spent per year (27,000 points max per year on groceries)
3 points on gas (no limit)
1.5 points on EVERYTHING ELSE.

I know it's not Chase points, but Chase and AMEX have some overlapping airlines, and using partner airlines there's not a whole lot you cannot do.
There is one catch with the Everyday Preferred. To get these points, you need to make at least 30 purchases per month. Size of purchase doesn't matter. Could be 30 purchases for a pack of gum each.
If you don't make the 30 purchases in a month, then you get:
3 points on groceries
2 points on gas
1 point on everything else.
So the 30 purchases gets you 50% bonus points.

We use the "holy trinity" of credit cards for everything:
Chase Freedom (only for category purchases)
Sapphire Reserve - all travel purchases and all restaurant purchases
AMEX Everyday Preferred - Groceries, gasoline, and everything else.

Certainly is an old thread, but an interesting one.
 

djohn06

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A woman after my own heart. I have a spreadsheet of our different credit cards and how each benefits us and which stores to use them.

Rick struggles with the fuel points at 4X on gift cards at King Soopers because he likes getting $35 off on gas. If you spend $250 on gift cards during 4X deals, you get $1.00 off up to 35 gallons.

What gift cards to buy? Our Chase Sapphire Reserve only gets 1X at the grocery store, but it gets 3X at restaurants. So I see no reason to buy restaurant gift cards at Kings. He says $35 off of gas is better than 3%, and you do still get 1% for the purchase at Kings.

So we used to buy Disney gift cards to get the fuel points, but I have the 3% off on maintenance fees with the Chase Sapphire Reserve. I don't know if Disney AP's get 3X, but I know food at Disney does.

What I need is a credit card that gets 3% on grocery store purchases, but of course now King Soopers may stop taking Visa.

Amex Blue Preferred gets 6 percent back at grocery stores.

With 4x points at Kroger's along with my gas savings, I save up to $50 every $250 spent.
 

brianfox

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Amex Blue Preferred gets 6 percent back at grocery stores.

With 4x points at Kroger's along with my gas savings, I save up to $50 every $250 spent.

While 6% on groceries sounds great, Amex Blue Preferred is a cashback card, so you aren't rewarded in AMEX points. AMEX points don't have a fixed value, and can be worth $0.05 or more when traveling.
Using Blue Preferred, you will get 6% back in cash, or $600
Using Everyday Preferred, you will get 45,000 points, worth around $450 if you took cash (not as good a deal as Blue). But using them to exchange for airline points could make those 45K points worth as much as $3000.
Again, depends on how you use them. I personally get at least $0.02 in value by transferring them to airlines. That makes the 45K points worth $900.

I know lots of people prefer cash back cards - and cash it great - but Chase and AMEX have really flexible points programs that are more lucrative when using points for travel.
 

Sandy VDH

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I agree some people perceive cash back cards as easier, (as CASH is king), but with a 50% bonus on booking travel in the portal and the option to convert UR to hotel or airlines programs, as needed, the Chase Sapphire Reserve Card is FAR MORE FLEXIBLE. I do way better than Cash Back in terms of value I obtain.

Even if you have a single MF that must be paid, and that MF is coded properly as TRAVEL, then this card is worth it. Wyndham, HGVC and HICV are all coded correctly. I have one small independent is NOT coded correctly and I need to speak to them about it. If it is coded $300 of the MF will automatically be credited to your account, so now the annual fee is only $150. I just booked 2 flights that would have cost me $790 in Cash, but I used the portal and only paid with a cash back value of $526.67, that save me $263.22 for those 2 tickets, well over the $150 NET annual fee. So just paying for 1 MF and using points for air on a ticket or 2, will make this card pay for itself.

I am not sitting on 1.4M points (that will go a long way @rickandcindy23 ), but I have been has high as 750K, and routinely run an average balance of about 400K. I use it frequently, especially around TS MF payment time.
 

djohn06

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Quarterhouse New Orleans
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While 6% on groceries sounds great, Amex Blue Preferred is a cashback card, so you aren't rewarded in AMEX points. AMEX points don't have a fixed value, and can be worth $0.05 or more when traveling.
Using Blue Preferred, you will get 6% back in cash, or $600
Using Everyday Preferred, you will get 45,000 points, worth around $450 if you took cash (not as good a deal as Blue). But using them to exchange for airline points could make those 45K points worth as much as $3000.
Again, depends on how you use them. I personally get at least $0.02 in value by transferring them to airlines. That makes the 45K points worth $900.

I know lots of people prefer cash back cards - and cash it great - but Chase and AMEX have really flexible points programs that are more lucrative when using points for travel.

Very interesting on Everyday preferred. I have to admit, the 30 charges a month scares me. That's a ton of transactions. I'm already maxed out for the rebate on my Blue Cash back card on the year for both my wife and I due to Disney dues, Disney cruises and APs.

Can you have Blue Cash back and Eveyday Preferred?

Explain how 45k points = 3k? What airlines are you transferring to? Where I live I'm really limited to flying delta and perhaps Southwest if I travel 40 mins longer.

I'm already transferring tons of points to Ultimate rewards with my 5x categories. Do you feel like Everyday Preferred is better than Ultimate rewards?

Thanks again for the insight.
 

brianfox

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A great source of info can be found on lots of rewards sites. My favorite is The Points Guy.

You can have Blue Cash back and Everyday Preferred, but if 30 transactions per month is daunting, don't know why you'd want to have both.

AMEX rewards is not the same as Chase rewards. They each have their own airline partners. Some partners overlap (like British Airways).
The value of the points is based on how you use them, and for my family, our main route has been LAX-LIH or LAX-HNL.
For that particular route, the best way to use points is to fly AA. But if you booked it directly on AA you would be spending 45K miles for the round trip.
The better way to do it is to transfer the points to British Airways, then book AA on the BA site as a partner airline. Because BA points are distance based, you get the exact same AA seats for 25K round trip. I don't know of a better point method than this for LAX-Hawaii. The transfer is simply not intuitive: Transfer to British Airways to book an American Airlines flight to Hawaii... That's what you learn on the travel blog sites.
Since we fly in summer, when cash tickets would cost about $800 RT, we get about $1400 value for 45K points. That's about $.032 per point.
WHEN you travel affects the point value - if we traveled in the off season, the RT tickets would only be about $400, putting our point value at around $0.016. Not very good.

How do you get $3K? In all honesty, those are needles in a haystack, and mainly for people who want to do once in a lifetime trips and can travel on no notice. For instance, there may be a very expensive first class sleeper cabin to Tokyo for a relatively low number of points. There is a recent example of this here - Delta One sleeper suite to Tokyo. For the LGA-HND route it's 120K points for a $7500 RT ticket. That's about 6.2 cents per mile, or about $2800 for 45K points. Of course, most people are never going to spend $7500 for a plane ticket, but some may save points for such a once in a lifetime trip.

Are AMEX points better than UR? All depends on how fast you can accumulate them and how you plan to redeem them.
You mentioned you fly Delta a lot and sometimes Southwest. Delta has a good number of partners, and it is sometimes better to book Delta through those partners than directly.
Personally, I prefer the Chase points because AMEX hits you with a transfer fee. However, AMEX sometimes has transfer bonuses where you get 50% more points for the transfer.

One thing I definitely recommend - before transferring UR to an airline to book a ticket, go to the UR website and see how much it would cost to book the same flight through the Ultimate Rewards site. If you have the Chase Sapphire Reserve, you can book at a rate of 1.5 cents per UR point. If your flight is on sale, it may take fewer points to book it through UR site than transferring points to the airline. For my LAX-MCO route, booking on the UR site is often better than transferring points to the same airline.
 

AnnaS

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You are all good with the various cards and maximizing your rewards :)

I keep it simple. We have two Chase Disney Visa cards - the free/original one and then we went for the $49 fee to get the 2% back on gas, food, restaurants and Disney related charges. I like to apply the rewards to my MFs.

I think if we traveled more.......I might have to consider other cards. Don't like having many or opening and closing them.

Costco employees had to convince me that I spend enough to upgrade my card so I can get some $ back. I did it once before and it was not worth it. Let's see what happens this year. :rolleyes:
 

Eli Mairs

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Perhaps you credit card experts can recommend the better option:
We are treating our family to a Disney cruise later this year. The outstanding balance, when converted to Canadian dollars, depending on the exchange rate at the time, will be approximately $28,000.
I have an SPG Amex card, which will become a Marriott Bonvoy card next month. It gives 2 Bonvoy points/dollar.
I also have a Visa card with no foreign exchange fees, which I mainly use for foreign transactions.
If I use the Amex card, it will cost an extra 2.5% in foreign transaction fees, or $700., but I will get 57,400 Rewards points.
If I use the Visa card, I will save $700, and receive 700 points, which are of little value to me.
I’m having difficulty deciding. Perhaps there is little difference in value between the two options?
 

Dean

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Perhaps you credit card experts can recommend the better option:
We are treating our family to a Disney cruise later this year. The outstanding balance, when converted to Canadian dollars, depending on the exchange rate at the time, will be approximately $28,000.
I have an SPG Amex card, which will become a Marriott Bonvoy card next month. It gives 2 Bonvoy points/dollar.
I also have a Visa card with no foreign exchange fees, which I mainly use for foreign transactions.
If I use the Amex card, it will cost an extra 2.5% in foreign transaction fees, or $700., but I will get 57,400 Rewards points.
If I use the Visa card, I will save $700, and receive 700 points, which are of little value to me.
I’m having difficulty deciding. Perhaps there is little difference in value between the two options?
Hopefully those versed in Canadian CC options will chime in but I will say that 57K Marriott rewards points are NOT worth $700. The points guy values them currently at 0.9¢ per point and it seems many feel they will be valued even less coming up. Too bad the Chase Disney card isn't applicable (from what it appears on quick look) as it would give you a $250 signing credit and around $570 rewards but it does appear it would come with a 3% transaction fee (ouch). The last listing I saw a few months ago suggested the Scotia Bank Passport card and Home Trust Visa might be about it for no exchange fees but the Rogers Platinum MC would essentially give you free international transactions with it's rebate system. Of your current choices you're better off with no benefit on the points and no transaction fee as I read it.
 

mdurette

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I'm not sure on Canadian options either - but neither one that you posed seems all that great. Would you be willing to look into getting a new card? If so, and you were in the US I would suggest the Chase Sapphire Reserve. You would get 3 points for the money you need to spend and 50,000 sign up bonus. That would give you 134,000 ultimate rewards points would would equate to $1,340 in cash or $2010 in travel.

Now, it does come with a $450 annual fee - but $300 of that would be credited back with the cruise payment. I do know in the US - there is no annual fee. (EDIT - correction exchange fee)

And...may I add.....can I be part of your extended family?
 
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frank808

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I'm not sure on Canadian options either - but neither one that you posed seems all that great. Would you be willing to look into getting a new card? If so, and you were in the US I would suggest the Chase Sapphire Reserve. You would get 3 points for the money you need to spend and 50,000 sign up bonus. That would give you 134,000 ultimate rewards points would would equate to $1,340 in cash or $2010 in travel.

Now, it does come with a $450 annual fee - but $300 of that would be credited back with the cruise payment. I do know in the US - there is no annual fee.

And...may I add.....can I be part of your extended family?

What do you mean there is no annual fee in the US? CSR charges $450 a year annual fee as you mentioned.

Sent from my SM-T217S using Tapatalk
 

Dean

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What do you mean there is no annual fee in the US? CSR charges $450 a year annual fee as you mentioned.

Sent from my SM-T217S using Tapatalk
I think they meant no exchange fee. My understanding was Chase pulled out of Canada or at least was planning to and not accepting new applications. It would be a great choice if available and similar terms.
 

mdurette

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I think they meant no exchange fee. My understanding was Chase pulled out of Canada or at least was planning to and not accepting new applications. It would be a great choice if available and similar terms.

Correct, I meant foreign exchange fee.
 

Eli Mairs

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You are correct. Chase pulled out of Canada last year, and I lost my Marriott Chase card. Canadians don’t have many credit card options.
 

rickandcindy23

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So Priority Pass Select membership is no longer being accepted by Timberline Steakhouse at the Denver airport. There were reasons given for it, but I think Priority Pass was tired of paying for everyone's dinner.

I am sad about it, but it was good while it lasted.

And at SJC, it was getting ridiculous to wait so long to get into the lounge. So we kind of gave up on trying.
 

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So Priority Pass Select membership is no longer being accepted by Timberline Steakhouse at the Denver airport. There were reasons given for it, but I think Priority Pass was tired of paying for everyone's dinner.

I am sad about it, but it was good while it lasted.

And at SJC, it was getting ridiculous to wait so long to get into the lounge. So we kind of gave up on trying.

Thanks for the heads up. I have been scheduling through DEN instead of HOU just because of the PP food there. Wish they would have just put a limit on it instead on cancelling the whole thing.
 

rickandcindy23

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Thanks for the heads up. I have been scheduling through DEN instead of HOU just because of the PP food there. Wish they would have just put a limit on it instead on cancelling the whole thing.
Yes, The Points Guy posted a few weeks ago. My daughter-in-law saw it first. So disappointing for us. Loved that food before a long flight. We will probably still stop in there, but the time it takes, we would just as soon bring lunch with us.
 

frank808

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From Hawaii we can go through Den or IAH. I have gone through IAH mostly because in the winter, there are more delays and cancellations at DEN flying to east coast.

At IAH we stop by Landrys Seafood with
PP which I find to be pretty good.

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Dean

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So Priority Pass Select membership is no longer being accepted by Timberline Steakhouse at the Denver airport. There were reasons given for it, but I think Priority Pass was tired of paying for everyone's dinner.

I am sad about it, but it was good while it lasted.

And at SJC, it was getting ridiculous to wait so long to get into the lounge. So we kind of gave up on trying.
The perk still exists at Miami for Corona Beach house and Margaritaville. The AMEX Bonvoy removed all such options IIRC. It's likely the agreement with the restaurant was up and/or fell through rather than simply a decision to not pay for meals.
 
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