# Chase Sapphire Credit Card - New AGR Opportunity



## frugalist (Jun 20, 2010)

I was just approved for the Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card. I haven't seen it mentioned in the AU forum so I thought I would start a thread here.

This looks to be a very sweet deal for AGR members. It's a rewards card that offers a 25,000 point signon bonus after a $3000 spend in the first 3 months. It offers a 7% points dividend every year on all points earned. And the $85 annual fee is waived for the first year.

What makes this appealing to AGR members is that rewards points can be transferred for free on a 1:1 basis to a few travel partners. I sent an email to Chase asking them who those travel partners are. Here is the list they came back with:

- Amtrak

- British Airways

- Continental

- Marriott

- Priority Club

Points may be transferred in 1,000 point increments. So, after fulfilling the spending requirement, we'll have at least 28,000 points we can transfer to AGR. Or just leave in the Sapphire Preferred account to use on one of the other partners. Redemption opportunities appear to be quite flexible. I'm looking forward to using this card for a while to see how it actually performs out in the field.

Here's the link for the offer: http://getchasesapphire.com/preferred/25/?...C=Z25KA46530241


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## yarrow (Jun 20, 2010)

thanks, i think i will look in to it as we have some college tuition to pay which i was going to put on the agr card and then pay off the card to avoid interest but if i were approved for this card i could do the same thing and get the bonus.


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## Bob Dylan (Jun 20, 2010)

Excellent info, CHASE has always been very,very good to me as the old SNL live used to say! If you qualify this is a good deal, if not the AGR MC from them is also a good deal (no annual fee!), never had a bit of trouble with them as so many others have had with other banks and cards! (I personally dont need this since I'm retired and dont travel on business or overseas anymore, only on Amtrak but it could be handy for travel to Canda for VIA and other International destinations for sure, I'm thinking jis might want to check this out since he travels overseas alot!)


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## RRrich (Jun 20, 2010)

The bonus is very nice but have you checked out the Starwood Amex? I think the annual fee (waived first year) is $45/pa.


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## frugalist (Jun 20, 2010)

RRrich said:


> The bonus is very nice but have you checked out the Starwood Amex? I think the annual fee (waived first year) is $45/pa.


I've looked into it, but I've always found better deals available at the time I was applying for a new card. My personal strategy is to limit credit card applications to one every three months. Haven't had a problem getting accepted yet. Plus we're developing quite a relationship with Chase. Maybe for the next round of applications. 

In any case, it seems like, as the economy slowly improves, the credit card offers are getting better. Look how some people are getting offers for 36,000 bonus points for the AGR World MC. We just got a lousy 6,000 when we got ours.  Maybe SPG will be offering an even sweeter deal the next time I'm ready to apply for a new card.


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## domefoamer (Jun 22, 2010)

I'm very intrigued by this Chase/MC deal. I'm trying to convince my spousal unit that the enrollment bonus of 25k AGR points are too good to pass up. Can anybody estimate the cash value of 25,000 points, whether spent on Amtrak fares, air tickets, or something else? Considering that I might first use my points on a WAS-Montreal trip (one zone, 3,000 points) that I would otherwise pay $75 for, I'd compute that 1,000 points = $25, so 25,000 points=$750. Correct?


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## frugalist (Jun 22, 2010)

domefoamer said:


> I'm very intrigued by this Chase/MC deal. I'm trying to convince my spousal unit that the enrollment bonus of 25k AGR points are too good to pass up. Can anybody estimate the cash value of 25,000 points, whether spent on Amtrak fares, air tickets, or something else? Considering that I might first use my points on a WAS-Montreal trip (one zone, 3,000 points) that I would otherwise pay $75 for, I'd compute that 1,000 points = $25, so 25,000 points=$750. Correct?


Close. Right concept, but you get points off for your math. 

I agree when you to say the value of the points depends on the cost of the trip if you had to pay American Dollars for it. So, in your example, $75 divided by 3000 points = 2.5 cents per point. And you still have at least 25,000 of your 28,000 points left for other trips (don't forget the points you earn for your required $3000 spend on the card). Suppose you want to take the spousal unit on a nice trip to West Palm for a little winter getaway. A nice 1-zone bedroom award would ding you for 20,000 points or cost about $1000. For this example your points are worth 5 cents each. So, it depends on the trip. I've read posts here of people getting at least 10 cents per point value.

Caution: not everyone would value AGR points this way. There's at least one guy on FlyerTalk who would value them at what it would cost you to buy the points from AGR (2.75 cents per point not considering the current 30% bonus promotion) unless you've already maxed out your annual point-buying allowance and can't buy any more right now.

Once your spousal unit sees the beauty of this signon bonus, maybe s/he will want to apply for her/his own card and get a second bonus. We're hoping this promotion will still be on after we finish our spending requirement on my card, so my spousal unit can apply for her own.


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## Ispolkom (Jun 22, 2010)

I'm agnostic about point values. I won't generally use AGR points if the return isn't at least 3 cents per point: I'll buy the ticket with cash instead. On the other hand, I can't really value trips like DEN-SAC-PDX-MSP or ABQ-LAX-PDX-MOT or MOT-CHI-WAS-SDL as being worth 10-11 cents per point because I wouldn't have paid that much.

But even if you value AGR points at 3 cents per point, the Chase Sapphire card seems a great opportunity if your credit can take it. I'm just sorry that I got it when the promo was 15,000 points.


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## MJL (Jun 22, 2010)

I've been holding out on the AGR World Card, and it has paid off :lol: I don't know if it is the economy, or my increased point status, but now that I'm up to 10K AGR points I got an offer of 18,000 with the AGR WorldCard. So, I finally applied. Took a screen shot in case I need to "prove" what my point bonus should be in the future.

I've also got 18K Starwoods AmEx points and 27K points Continental points that I am debatiing transferring to AGR. I'm trying to decide when to make my round trip 2 zone award LOL so am slowily working my way to the 60K mark.


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## MJL (Jun 22, 2010)

That's helpful that you can transfer the Sapphire points in chunks of 1,000. With the Continental card it's in chunks of 5,000, I believe


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## frugalist (Jun 22, 2010)

Ispolkom said:


> But even if you value AGR points at 3 cents per point, the Chase Sapphire card seems a great opportunity if your credit can take it. I'm just sorry that I got it when the promo was 15,000 points.


Is your Sapphire card a Visa or MasterCard? The promotional ads and banners don't show either logo on the card. Nor does the commercial I just saw watching the World Cup. Still waiting for mine to come in the mail.


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## frugalist (Jun 22, 2010)

MJL said:


> I've been holding out on the AGR World Card, and it has paid off :lol: I don't know if it is the economy, or my increased point status, but now that I'm up to 10K AGR points I got an offer of 18,000 with the AGR WorldCard. So, I finally applied. Took a screen shot in case I need to "prove" what my point bonus should be in the future.
> I've also got 18K Starwoods AmEx points and 27K points Continental points that I am debatiing transferring to AGR. I'm trying to decide when to make my round trip 2 zone award LOL so am slowily working my way to the 60K mark.


Since you received a targeted offer for the 18K bonus, you should have no problem receiving those points.

On the other hand, if someone were to just click on a link on an internet forum leading to an application for the AGR MasterCard offering, say, a 16K bonus, that person would not get the 16K points since he was not the target of that specific offer. Instead, he would only get the standard 6K bonus points. Trust me, I know!  It wouldn't matter if that person had screen shots of the application page. It wouldn't even matter if he had copies of secure email communications with Chase's credit card customer service assuring him he qualified for the 16K bonus points. And it wouldn't matter if his first credit card statement showed Chase transferring their 1/2 of the 16K points to his AGR account. And he'd be wasting his time if he packaged that all up in an envelope and sent it all via snail mail to AGR pleading his case for the 16K bonus points. He would still only get the standard 6K. But he would soon get over it as other, more lucrative, offers came his way.


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## yarrow (Jun 28, 2010)

got my sapphire card in the mail today but the list in the brochure that came with it gave the point transfer partners listed in an above post except for amtrak. called a couple times and both reps told me you could not transfer points into an agr account. i suppose you could transfer to continental, which is a sapphire point transfer partner, and then to agr but with the continental/united merger and possible loss of the program it could be risky as it would take us 3 months to put the 3k dollars on the card to get the bonus.


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## RRrich (Jun 28, 2010)

I just went to my Chase Accts page - still shows Amtrak as a Sapphire partner, but you can only transfer in Thousands and I only have about 830 points. Using my card is difficult as the card lost a meeting with a pair of scissors, but I'll get it done one way or another.


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## Ispolkom (Jun 28, 2010)

Note that there are two Chase Sapphire cards. The "Chase Sapphire" has no annual fee, but also, I think has fewer point exchange options. The "Chase Sapphire Preferred" has a $85 annual fee (waived for the first year), and greater point exchange options. I think that it was the Preferred card that allows transfers directly to Amtrak.

Personally, I wouldn't be too worried about marooned points. United and Continental have just announced their merger. It hasn't been approved by the feds (and I'd imagine that the Obama administration is far more concerned about antitrust issues than the previous one was), and it will take a year or two to combine the two Frequent-Flyer programs, if the Delta-Northwest merger is any indication.

But that's easy for me to say, since I just transferred all but a couple thousand Continental miles to AGR this morning.


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## C&O RR (Jun 29, 2010)

Chase also offers

Chase Sapphire - 10,000 points after first purchase with no annual fee

Chase Sapphire Preferred - with the offer listed in the post above and also if you can only spend $1,000 over the next three months you have

Chase Sapphire Preferred - 15,000 after spending $1,000 in the first three months, same 7% div, annual fee of $85 with first year waived

The link for these other options is http://www.chasesapphire.com/



frugalist said:


> I was just approved for the Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card. I haven't seen it mentioned in the AU forum so I thought I would start a thread here.
> 
> This looks to be a very sweet deal for AGR members. It's a rewards card that offers a 25,000 point signon bonus after a $3000 spend in the first 3 months. It offers a 7% points dividend every year on all points earned. And the $85 annual fee is waived for the first year.
> 
> ...


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## PRR 60 (Jun 29, 2010)

Unless I'm missing something, only the Sapphire Preferred card offers outbound transfer of Chase points to other programs like AGR. The standard Sapphire card does not offer that option. With the standard card, you can use the Chase points to buy travel from Chase, but you cannot convert the points to Amtrak or any other program.

Chase Sapphire Card comparison chart


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## frugalist (Jun 30, 2010)

yarrow said:


> got my sapphire card in the mail today but the list in the brochure that came with it gave the point transfer partners listed in an above post except for amtrak. called a couple times and both reps told me you could not transfer points into an agr account. i suppose you could transfer to continental, which is a sapphire point transfer partner, and then to agr but with the continental/united merger and possible loss of the program it could be risky as it would take us 3 months to put the 3k dollars on the card to get the bonus.


My new Sapphire Preferred card was waiting in the mail when I got home from vacation yesterday. Looks like I got the same brochure you did because it doesn't include Amtrak as a transfer partner. But, I think its omission from the brochure is an error. I did a little digging around and it sure looks like you can transfer Sapphire points directly into your AGR account in 1,000 point multiples. I verified this by logging into my Chase account at cards.chase.com > clicking on the link to Ultimate Rewards just under the account info for my Sapphire card > clicking on Transfer Points. The Transfer Points page shows the five transfer partners I listed above. If you click on Amtrak, you will be taken to a form you fill out to transfer the points you want to move to AGR. Looks very painless. Certainly beats calling Continental OnePass during their limited hours and then waiting on hold before speaking to a CS rep. I'm looking forward to accumulating my first 1,000 points so I can try out the process.


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## frugalist (Jul 1, 2010)

Going through the new account material I received with my card, I just discovered this tidbit in the teeny-tiny print on the last page of the Welcome brochure:

As with your AGR account, you can purchase Ultimate Rewards points. Whereas AGR limits you to 10,000 points per year at a cost of $27.50 per 1,000 (disregarding any promotional bonus), with Sapphire Preferred you can buy as many as 5,000 Ultimate Rewards points *per month* at a cost of $25.00 per 1,000. So, if you've maxed out you point-buying directly in your AGR account, you can buy Ultimate Rewards points, then transfer them to AGR.

Just thought I'd point that out since I know many members here like to buy points.


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## RRrich (Jul 1, 2010)

I transferred 1000 Ultimate Rewards points to AGR - it was like INSTANT, I could hardly believe it!


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## frugalist (Jul 1, 2010)

RRrich said:


> I transferred 1000 Ultimate Rewards points to AGR - it was like INSTANT, I could hardly believe it!


Thanks for the trip report.

Nice to know the transfer is that fast. I know the fine print says it could take 6-8 weeks, but I was wondering how long it really takes.


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## frugalist (Aug 2, 2010)

Now that I've had the Sapphire Preferred Visa for a month I've come to like this card very much.

I've done some shopping through the Ultimate Rewards shopping portal. UR has sent me emails within 1-2 weeks of my purchases informing me that I have earned the bonus points expected for those purchases. Not only is the email a very nice touch that I haven't seen in any other program, but the quick awarding of the bonus points is much faster than I've experienced in the Amtrak shopping portal. The points aren't actually posted to your account until the end of your billing period, but it's nice to know they're coming. The UR Mall has more merchants than any other program's mall that I've seen. And some of the bonus points multipliers are very generous.

It's been mentioned in earlier posts that UR points can be transferred to AGR and also to Continental's OnePass program in 1000 point increments. Both on a 1:1 basis. Here's a great way to use this feature. If you have some orphaned miles in your Continental OnePass account that you don't plan on using (between 1000 and 4999 miles) you can transfer enough UR points to your OnePass account to bring you over 5000 miles, then transfer those miles to your AGR account. This is a great way to minimize wasted miles in your OnePass account.


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