This Might Be the Best Welcome Bonus I’ve Seen

Huge news from Chase: the welcome offer on the Sapphire Reserve is now a stunning 150,000 Ultimate Rewards points after spending $6,000 in the first three months. I’m excited, and I don’t even like the card. 

I have no interest in the Sapphire Reserve long-term. It earns points at a solid but unspectacular rate, and those points are underwhelming for value travel. There’s a $795 annual fee, and although it offers “$3,000 in annual value,” only the $300 travel credit would truly be useful to me—the rest of the benefits are mostly for luxuries I don’t typically spend money on or services I don’t really want to switch to. The card just doesn't make sense for my income and spending levels (the economics of the card are better if you spend $75,000 on it each year, which… lol). 

But for one year, I would pretty happily trade $795 for:

• 150,000 Ultimate Rewards points

• $300 toward any travel purchases

• Two $150 StubHub credits

• A $250 credit towards certain Chase Travel hotel bookings 

• Two $150 dining credits usable at certain fancy and expensive restaurants

Those 150k points are redeemable for statement credits at 1¢ each, meaning you could get a statement credit for the value of the annual fee and still have over 70k points ($700) left over. But you can probably get more value from Chase’s transfer partnerships. In fact, this is the very rare bonus where it is fairly realistic to get two business-class tickets from the bonus alone. Even with a recent devaluation, Chase transfer partner Air Canada offers business-class awards from the US to Europe starting at 75,000 points, and availability is decent. This is the first bonus I’ve seen—ever—that would allow me and my wife to fly together in business class from where we actually live without booking gymnastics. That’s pretty exciting. 

And after that first year? You can potentially downgrade, even to a no-fee card. 

Lazy take 🦥

This is one of the best welcome bonuses we’ve ever seen—especially if you want an easy entry point into premium travel without complex award hunting or big spending.

Just beware the lifestyle creep.

Interested in applying? Consider using our referral link. Same bonus for you, some extra points for the sloth. (Or find a friend’s referral link to shoot them some points.)

This week on the blog 📝

I discussed Bilt’s May Rent Day. If you missed it, I don’t think you missed much with this month's Avios transfer bonus, but mark your calendar for double points on June 1st! 

Quick Points of the Week ⚡

Major News 🚨

Amex Gold (lightly) refreshed. No major changes, but some solid improvements: Hertz elite status, 5x on prepaid hotels booked via Amex, and the ability to use the $10 monthly dining credit at Buffalo Wild Wings. Plus limited-time opportunities like free Uber One for a year. (TPG) That Uber One membership could be useful because…

Uber launches Expedia partnership. You can now book hotels via Uber—and potentially earn 10% back in Uber credit with an Uber One membership. 👀 (Travel Weekly)

Spirit folds. The ultra-low-cost carrier began winding down operations yesterday after years of losing money. (Spirit) If you’re affected by the shutdown, The Points Guy has excellent coverage of things like refunds and consumer protections, credit card disputes, and the other airlines stepping in to assist.

More value 📈

Wells Fargo adds Cathay Pacific as a transfer partner. These miles aren’t especially easy to use, but they can unlock some solid business-class value—I got a handful of Thrifty Traveler alerts for business class flights for about 60-90k miles each way over the past year. (Frequent Miler)

Redeem JetBlue flights on China Airlines. At least one option is already live—one-ways from JFK to Taipei starting at 39k points and $6. As the partnership evolves, this might be a decent option for Asia flights, especially for 1:1 JetBlue partners Chase and Citi. (Award Wallet)

New products 🆕

Royal Caribbean has new credit cards. 🛳️ The products might be interesting to frequent cruisers, but I don’t see much obvious value for general travel. (OMAAT) 

Devaluations 📉

Avianca devalues LifeMiles again. The South American carrier used to have some great deals, at least if you were willing to wade through their complicated redemption process. But the return on that aggravation just keeps going down. (Thrifty Traveler)

T-Mobile ends United, American free Wi-Fi partnerships.  If you’ve been banking on free in-flight Wi-Fi thanks to your T-Mobile plan, you might need a plan B. I found this one out the hard way after I didn’t see the T-Mobile option on my United flight this week—only to have it available on my return flight. 🤷‍♂️ (Upgraded Points)

Keep an Eye On 👀

American Airlines requires portable chargers to stay in sight. Southwest already has similar restrictions. More could be coming. (View From the Wing)

Sign up bonus of the week 🎯

Links marked with an * are affiliate or referral links, meaning we may earn if you apply via our link. 

Chase launched the best-ever points offer on one of my absolute favorite credit cards, the IHG Premier: 185,000 points, with 150k after spending $3,000 in the first three months, and another 35k after spending a total of $6,000 in the first six months. The card typically offers one or two elevated offers per year, with a record bonus of 175k points last year.

As luck would have it, I used last week’s newsletter to talk about how my IHG card was “gathering dust” and I wouldn’t use it even when Chase was offering me extra points to do so. And it’s true, this isn’t a great card to use. But it’s a card I love to have. 

The free night each year on renewal is enough for me to justify the modest $99 annual fee. Then, when I need it, the card is there with great earning rates on paid IHG stays and Platinum perks like early check-in, late check-out, welcome amenities, and room upgrades. The IHG points also go further with a fourth night free on award stays. The card also offers $25 in United TravelBank cash every six months, plus a Global Entry/TSA PreCheck credit. I think it’s one of the best keeper cards out there, even if it sits in a sock drawer most of the time.

The no-fee IHG Traveler with its more modest IHG Silver status perks is currently offering up to 125,000 points, a new high for that card as well. 

Now, IHG points aren’t very valuable. I value them at about 0.5¢ each, personally. In the US, I usually see prices in the 30-60k per night range, even at modest properties like the Holiday Inn Express. But we have found the occasional deal, and found better luck abroad, where in some places rooms go for closer to 10-20k points per night (we stayed at a nice Holiday Inn in Frankfurt for 12k points just over a year ago). 

I think the IHG Premier is one of the greatest keeper cards out there, and with a best-ever bonus, it’s an ideal time to apply. 🔥🔥🔥 Its no-fee cousin, the Traveler, is a solid no-fee alternative with some modest IHG perks and a welcome bonus that you could turn into several free nights. 🔥

Other great sign-up bonuses this week

50,000 points+ $300 Bilt Cash + Bilt Gold status on the Bilt Palladium (our take: 🔥🔥🔥🔥)

100k points + 25k companion discount on the Atmos Summit (our take: 🔥🔥🔥🔥)

200k points on the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant (our take: 🔥🔥) Ends 5/13

80k points on the Atmos Ascent (our take: 🔥)

80k miles on the AA Platinum Select (our take: 🔥)

70k points on the JetBlue Plus (our take: 🔥)

70-100k miles on United Credit Cards (our take: 🔥)

Up to 100/175k on the Amex Gold/Platinum (our take)

75k points on the Chase Sapphire Preferred* (our take)

How we rate bonus offers. 

Lazy Pick ✅ (Affiliate)

Find award flights the easy way with Roame. Roame allows you to conduct broad searches—months at a time, to an entire continent—to find an award that works for you. You can filter to limit results to the points you actually have, and to avoid annoyances like high fees or multiple layovers. Although I usually stick to the easy programs like Atmos Rewards, I used Roame last month to book a family trip, flying to Portugal with Virgin points and flying back with Air Canada points, without having to scour a bunch of different individual airline sites to find availability. LazyPoints readers can save 25% on their first payment with our affiliate link or code LAZYPOINTS25. Read our full review here. 

Enjoy the weekend! 🦥

Let’s hope it keeps raining bonus offers. ☔

Sometimes we include referral or affiliate links (we’ll mark them clearly). If you use them, we may earn a commission—never at extra cost to you. We do our best to share great offers, but always double-check for the best deal available. Thanks for supporting LazyPoints 🦥