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Holders of Chase Freedom credit cards can earn 10% cash back on up to $2500 in combined hotel and car rental purchases made through the Chase Ultimate Rewards online shopping portal this month. That’s a fantastic rate of return.
Disclosure: I do not have a referral link for the Chase Freedom Card. The information related to the Chase Freedom credit card has been collected by me and has not been reviewed or provided by the issuer of this card.
While you need to make the purchase in July, travel can be for any time. I like this for hotel purchases. I do not like it for car rentals. That’s because you should use a card like Chase Sapphire Preferred for renting cars because it provides you with primary collision. If you scrape up the rental car, your own insurance company probably doesn’t even need to know.
What’s more you should have a Chase Sapphire Preferred Card anyway. Not only does it earn 50,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening (that’s $625 in travel when you redeem through Chase Ultimate Rewards®) but you can earn another 5,000 bonus points when you add your first authorized user to the account and make a purchase in the same 3 months from account opening.
The card earns 2X points on travel and dining at restaurants & 1 point per dollar spent on all other purchases worldwide.
And you can transfer points from a Chase Freedom or Freedom Unlimited to Sapphire Preferred which makes those points, instead of being worth 1 cent apiece, worth 1.25 cents each for travel redeemed directly or better yet transferrable 1:1 into several different points currencies.
Points transfer to United, Hyatt, Southwest, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, Singapore Airlines, Korean Air, Air France KLM, Marriott Rewards, IHG Rewards Club, and Ritz-Carlton. Probably the best all-around credit card, and with a great signup bonus.
If you spend $2500 under this offer on travel, you’re earning 25,000 points. If you have a Sapphire Preferred card that’s transferable to 25,000 miles with United, Korean, Singapore, Korean Air, or one of their other partners. That’s a fantastic offer.
Hotel stays booked through the Ultimate Rewards portal may not earn hotel elite stay credit, but in my experience both Hyatt and Marriott will still honor elite benefits for the stays.
Terms and conditions:
During the promotional period of July 1 to July 31, 2016, earn an extra 9% cash back on up to $2,500 in combined hotel and car rental purchases made through Chase Ultimate Rewards® using your Chase Freedom card. The bonus cash back earned is in addition to the 1% cash back you earn on all purchases for a total of 10% cash back, which means you can earn up to $250 total cash back ($25 cash back plus your $225 bonus cash back). Bonus cash back will post to your account within a week of the transaction posting, and will appear on your monthly credit card billing statement and be available for use within 1-2 billing cycles. To qualify for this promotional offer, account must be open and not in default at the time of fulfillment. This promotional offer is non-transferable. For more information about your rewards program, see your Rewards Program Agreement.
Really need to warn people that while initially this looks like a good deal, you really need to look at the costs you are incurring for your travel purchases thru the portal. Have seen this type of special benefits from others card issuers and have always been able to purchase the identical hotel, car, etc. for much less that 10% less that Chase pricing,
Before jumping on this deal, see what you can purchase for directly with the travel provider or thru other websites. And, don’t forget Sapphire Preferred pays double for travel all year long so really only an 8% savings at best and in most, if not all cases a little searching will save you much more than the 9% bonus
Careful- check prices. If the Chase platform is as bad as the Citi Thank You booking platform you will be paying more than a 10% premium vs the Expedia group monopoly.
check your math here. I think the point calculation is off. spend $2500 and earn 25000 points doesn’t seem quite right.
Just wondering if the hotel stays have to be charged to the freedom card by July 31st in order to get the 10 percent. In other words to the hotel bookings have to be prepaid, noncancellable stays?
Same question. If the travel needs to be spent in the month of July, that is a very small window to spend $2500. So if I want to book a hotel for this upcoming Xmas holiday, unless I prepay, is it correct that I would not be eligible for the bonus points?
Confused as to what’s going on. The terms state “cash back”, not 25,000 pts/miles. So how do figure that $2500 spend would produce 25K miles?
FYI to all readers: I mis-understood this post, originally. I thought it was 10% on all travel, including airfare. After more googling and calling Chase Freedom directly, I discovered the 10%-back only applies to hotels and cards.
Therefore it’s not worth too much to real bargain hunters… you can get quality rooms for lower price if you use Hotwire.