The number one way I stretch our travel budget is by leveraging the points and miles I earn through credit cards.
Right now one of my favorite cards – Chase Sapphire Preferred – is offering a 60,000-point bonus!
Those points are worth a minimum of $750 toward travel booked in Chase’s portal or transfer them to hotel and airline partners for even more value.
Read on to learn all about the card or click here to go straight to the offer details (thanks for using my links and supporting my small business!)
How Does Free Travel With Points Work?
Credit card companies are eager for your business so they offer “sign-up bonuses” to encourage customers to open a new card.
These sign-up bonuses are an easy way to earn free travel with points by using the card for everyday spending and paying it off.
I’ve earned over $50,000 in free flights, hotels, and more from my points and miles hobby, so we aren’t talking chump change here!
I also don’t carry a balance from month to month (the credit card companies hate me).
The current Chase Sapphire Preferred Visa bonus is worth up to $750 in free travel after you spend $4,000 on the card in the first three months from account opening.
You’ll have to pay the $95 annual fee, but you’ll get a $50 Annual Hotel Credit that helps offset that cost.
The rate at which you earn points is fantastic with Chase Sapphire Preferred, which is why I keep it in my wallet from year to year.
You’ll earn:
- 5X points on travel purchased through Chase
- 3X points on dining at restaurants worldwide
- 2X points on all other travel
- 1X point per dollar spent on all other purchases
You’ll also get primary rental car insurance (rare for cards with around a $100 annual fee), trip cancellation/interruption insurance, lost luggage insurance, and more.
I’ll show you how this process works in this post, but I have to mention that I don’t suggest using credit cards to earn points and miles unless you have a solid history of using credit responsibly.
If it would be hard for you to control your spending with credit cards and you would be prone to carrying a balance on these cards, then this isn’t the right pursuit for you.
How Do I Earn These Points?
Here’s how to earn the 60k point sign-up bonus with the Chase Sapphire Preferred card.
First, you won’t be approved for this (or any) Chase card if you have opened more than four new credit cards in the past twenty-four months.
This is called Chase’s “5/24 rule” and you can read about it here.
Also, you won’t be approved for the bonus if you currently hold a Sapphire card or have received a signup bonus for one in the previous 48 months.
However, you can still earn the bonus if you are an authorized user on someone else’s card.
You can expect to receive your card in the mail within a week. You will be charged the $95 annual fee during the first month’s statement.
In order to receive your bonus, you must meet a minimum spending requirement of $4,000 in the first three months of having the card.
I can easily do this by using the card for these purchases:
- Groceries
- Utilities
- Insurance
- Gas
- Any travel expenses for an upcoming trip
After you’ve met the $4k requirement, your sign-up bonus points will be deposited into your Chase Ultimate Rewards account soon thereafter.
How To Redeem Your Points
The easiest way (though not the most lucrative way) to redeem your points is for cashback in the form of a statement credit.
After meeting the minimum spend you’ll have 64,000 points which you can redeem for $640 in statement credit.
This essentially “erases” $640 from your balance.
You can also have the money deposited into your checking account if you’ve already paid off your balance!
You could use your statement credit on discounted Disney World theme park tickets from Undercover Tourist.
Or you can take advantage of a 25% bonus when you book through the Chase Ultimate Rewards travel portal and get $1000 worth of free travel.
Unfortunately, Disney World resorts are very difficult to find in the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal.
But you can book lots of off-property resorts and condos as well as your flights to/from Disney World.
For example, here is a flight I booked in the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal for a trip to Disney World.
I redeemed 23,824 points for two tickets in Delta Comfort Plus (premium economy).
I love the flexibility of using my points for any airline – even ultra-low-cost carriers can be booked in the Chase Travel Portal.
It would be very easy to buy flights and hotels for your family vacation entirely with the points you earn from this card bonus.
A third option for redeeming your points is to transfer them to a travel partner.
This is where you can get crazy value from your bonus points!
You can transfer the points 1:1 to many airlines and three hotel partners (Marriott, Hyatt, and IHG).
If you want to fly to Orlando on Southwest, transferring your points into your Rapid Rewards account is a great way to stretch your points.
Stays at Hyatt properties start at only 5,000 points per night so I often transfer to Hyatt to stretch my points as well.
I hope this post answered your questions about using the Chase Sapphire Preferred Visa sign-up bonus for your Disney World vacation.
Any questions? Leave a comment below!
Check out these related posts:
Walt Disney World Swan Hotel Review & How To Stay For Free
How I Regularly Fly To Disney World For Almost Free
TeeGirl72
Sunday 5th of June 2022
I am looking at more ways to travel to Orlando (up to 3 or 4 times a year) with my family of 6. I obviously missed this option but I’d like more options and ways for flight because that is the only thing holding us back from more visits. Feel free to email me your response.
Amber
Wednesday 30th of June 2021
I have been considering getting a travel credit card for some time now. I currently have the Chase Disney CC and I'm finding that its really difficult to rack up the points. I have used my card consistently for EVERYTHING minus utilities since around 2019 (which is probably on average about $3000+ per month) and have only managed to accrue around $1000+ in Disney rewards which completely baffles me. I for sure thought I would have accrued MUCH more by now. (yes I pay it off every month, if not a couple of times/month with each paycheck)
I have looked into the Chase Southwest CC but this Sapphire Rewards really sounds fantastic and the fact that I could really use it for so much is very appealing to me.
What would you say is the best reason to go with Sapphire Rewards over the Chase Southwest card? (if its possible please just directly email me your response)