I opened the Sapphire Preferred to use the rewards to stay for free at Universal in a deluxe resort a few years ago. I have kept this card as our travel card because it has great travel benefits. It is primary rental car insurance and has no foreign transaction fees. The rewards can as be transferred to many airline miles programs. I transferred some of my points to SW to get a plane ticket when I was short of RR points.
4 Likes
Love my SW card, haven’t paid for a flight in years.
2 Likes
It does look like a good initial value if you can get the bonus points. Plus they can be transferred to jet blue which is a plus for me. Not sure if I’d like it in the long term as its only 1% on most purchases for me, but I think I might give it a try.
Considering opening this card. Can you still use at the Universal hotels?
It’s a VISA card from Chase Bank, so I don’t see why you couldn’t. Am I missing something?
I’m new to this, and am unfamiliar with what can and can’t be redeemed. Currently just have the Disney Chase card - looking to branch out. I had read that the Chase Ultimate Rewards points are no longer redeemable at Disney hotels - wasn’t sure how it worked at universal / differences with the Sapphire card. Trying to figure it all out 
No worries! I didn’t even realize you were talking about redeeming points. I thought you were asking if you could just use the card at a Universal hotel. 
1 Like
I booked the Universal hotel through the ultimate rewards travel site and used my ultimate rewards I received as the sign on bonus to book it. This was for a trip in January 2019. Not sure if the universal hotels are still an option for hotels through the ultimate rewards travel site but I believe so.
I don’t use this card as my primary credit card (Disney Visa) but do use it when traveling out of the country and for rental cars. It is worth the annual fee for those purposes for me since my Disney does not give any rental car insurance and charges for foreign transaction fees. My husband frequently buys items from Canada and the sapphire card is great for that for my family.
2 Likes
Just did a quick search through the card app and looks like the swan reserve and universal hotels are on there- no Disney ones
1 Like
Universal hotels are available for Chase points if not sold out for your time frame. I’m using them for my RPR stay next month.
1 Like
What has everyone’s experience been with using the Chase UR travel portal lately? I soured on them after a bad experience trying to alter flights to Florida last year but I see some people use them for hotels. Can you rely on them to make a change or cancel easily if needed?
I’ve never booked flights through Chase portal but I’ve booked hotels. I’ve canceled hotels without issue a couple times. One time I had to call Chase travel to do so but it was easy enough. Just pay attention to the hotel cancelation deadline.
1 Like
I’ve canceled hotels and it works fine. Like @jchalcedony said, if it can’t be completed online, you can call Chase. Just make sure you look at the cancelation policy before booking. I’ve called them and changed days and it worked too.
1 Like
Just popping back here to say that the capital one venture card will reimburse you up to $100 for tsa precheck/global entry fees. I discovered that and put it to the test. Got my precheck Monday, was credited $85 fee today.
2 Likes
We just got a new card to churn! Another Citi Premier. Apparently It has been long enough that I could get another one. It does have a $95 annual fee, but as long as I do $4000 in three months I will have 600.
2 Likes
Finally signed up for the Jetblue Plus card: 65k signup bonus plus free checked bags, exact signup bonus varies. I’d hesitated bc of Jetblue’s poor flight reliability record lately, but I think that’s an aberration which will get better given their focus on premium leisure travel. They have good service between the northeast and Orlando, not sure of other regions/cities. Strong inflight offering with best domestic coach seat width/pitch, and free wifi which comes in handy with stacking G+ for Disney. Points are valued at about 1.25 cents each so $800 worth of travel is more than worth the ding on the credit report and hassle.
Also worth noting is Jetblue points are one of the few ways I know to get extra Amtrak points. They transfer at only a 1:2 ratio, but if you need to top off your Amtrak points to meet a redemption level that’s handy.
Edit: 2 Jetblue points = 1 Amtrak point.
2 Likes
For those with chase sapphire preferred cards- are flights you book through travel refundable, and how do I go about cancelling for a refund?
Note: will book on points, not cash!
1 Like
They’re refundable according to the rules of the airline. I got my points for one trip refunded last year when Delta allowed cancellations due to covid; I had cancelled flights on BritishAir a couple of years ago, and it only allowed credit for that airline group. Unfortunately, the time expired before I could use it.
I already have precheck, but my daughter doesn’t. Can I get her fee credited if I pay for it with the Venture card?
