Is the 100,000-point bonus on the Sapphire Preferred one of the best-ever card offers? – The Points Guy

As you might have seen, the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (see rates and fees) recently launched an offer that the points and miles world is going a bit bananas over (including here in the halls of TPG).

But just in case you’ve been busy and missed it, new applicants for the Sapphire Preferred can currently earn 100,000 bonus points after spending $5,000 on purchases in the first three months from account opening. This is a very rare offer and a really impressive 40,000 points higher than the regular offer. To put some numbers to it, TPG values those points at over $2,000 based on our April 2025 valuations.

Offer alert: Add 100K Ultimate Rewards Points to your balance with this limited-time offer on the Chase Sapphire Preferred.

But cutting through the hype, just how good is this 100,000-point offer — and is it a contender for one of the best deals we’ve ever seen?

For example, does this offer rank up there with the likes of past huge launch offers for premium cards? What about those long-gone yet still-remembered deals like the US Airways Grand Slam (RIP)?

Let’s roll the tape.

100,000-point card offers are common … except when they aren’t

If you’ve watched the rewards credit card space over the years, you’ve probably noticed the trend of welcome offers getting bigger and bigger. For example, 10 to 15 years ago, it was common for a large welcome bonus to max out in the neighborhood of 25,000-50,000 points.

In our memories, the first really big six-figure card offer came from Capital One in March 2011 as part of a “Match Your Miles” promotion (no longer available). The base offer was just 10,000 points (Capital One would later shift to miles as its currency), but you could earn up to 100,000 additional bonus points if you had an existing balance of rewards in another account, which was likely far less common back then.

That very next month, Chase would launch a 100,000-mile bonus (no longer available) on the British Airways Visa Signature® Card, a program that has also since moved to a new currency — Avios. But these were anomalies in a sea of smaller offers.

And, as TPG readers know, not all points and miles are created equally. It’s common to see cobranded cards from programs like Hilton Honors and IHG One Rewards pass the six-figure mark. But those currencies are worth significantly less on a per-point basis.

On the other hand, Chase points rank among the most valuable rewards out there based on our data and personal experience. We regularly get at least 2 cents in value per point when maximizing with partners such as World of Hyatt, Air Canada Aeroplan and Air France-KLM Flying Blue.

But it’s not just the number of points. After all, we’ve seen a number of welcome bonuses in the 100,000-plus range in the last few years, but they often have hefty spending requirements to get the full bonus. Or, the card may have a high annual fee of hundreds of dollars that could discourage a more casual traveler.

That’s what makes this new Sapphire Preferred offer so rare.

After all, you can earn 100,000 Chase points with one welcome bonus on a personal credit card with just a $95 annual fee by spending $5,000 in three months. That works out to $1,666.67 in spending per month.

That’s not exactly easy, but data from the most recent Consumer Expenditure Survey shows that the average American household spent $77,280 in 2023. Even if you remove housing expenditures from the calculation (though there are ways to pay rent with a credit card), that’s still more than $4,300 a month, much of which can likely go on a card these days.

And then there’s the important reality that we have only seen the bonus for the Sapphire Preferred go this high once ever before — in the summer of 2021. Even then, it only lasted a few months before going back into the “Chase vault.” This is an extraordinarily rare offer that simply doesn’t come around very often.

The Sapphire Preferred’s flashier and pricier sister, the Chase Sapphire Reserve®, had a 100,000-point bonus when it launched in 2016, and that lasted through March 2017. But again, that was more than eight years ago, and that card at the time had a $450 annual fee (it’s now $550), so it’s not exactly apples to apples against a $95-per-year card.

The TL;DR is this:

• The Sapphire Preferred has been on the market — and one of our most recommended travel rewards cards — for more than 15 years.
• This is only the second time the bonus has hit 100,000 points in those 15 years.
• The last time was nearly four years ago — as the world was coming out of the depths of the pandemic.

So, it’s not the kind of bonus you see all the time. Simply put, it remains very rare for bonuses on cards that earn transferable points to go this high — especially on lower-annual-fee cards like this.

Related: Can you pay rent with a credit card? Everything you need to know

The beauty of the card (and the 100,000-point bonus) is its simplicity

The last couple of years have seen complexity creep into the world of travel rewards cards and loyalty programs.

Want to make the most of that annual fee? Be prepared to maximize monthly statement credits. Need to figure out how many miles you’ll earn on that partner-operated flight? Call your friend who is a spreadsheet pro with a Ph.D. in mathematics.

Thankfully, the Sapphire Preferred’s bonus and overall value proposition are simple and super rewarding. Apply (and get approved) for the card. Spend at least $5,000 in three months (remember that the annual fee doesn’t count toward that total). Earn 100,000 bonus points.

The only ongoing perk you really need to track on the card is a $50 annual statement credit for hotel purchases made through Chase Travel℠. But other than that, you simply use the card and earn points (plus enjoy some of the best travel protections out there).

This bonus can get you over $2,000 in value

You may see this 100,000-point bonus assigned different cash value equivalents, and that’s for good reason.

There are different ways to use Chase Ultimate Rewards points. If you use them to book things like flights, hotels or car rentals via the Chase Travel portal, you get a fixed value of 1.25 cents per point. That means your 100,000-point bonus would be worth $1,250.

However, think of that as the starting point for your rewards — there’s potential for more. Much, much more. And it all comes down to the slate of Chase Ultimate Rewards transfer partners.

You can convert your Chase points to 11 airline currencies and three hotel currencies at a 1:1 ratio (unless you are able to time things right with a transfer bonus). And if you use the right partner for the right redemption — think long-haul business-class flights or award nights at luxury resorts — you have the chance to get significantly more value from each point.

Here are a few real-world examples of how you can stretch the value of these rewards.

These aren’t made-up or cherry-picked theoretical examples. Instead, every one of these awards was actually booked by a TPG staffer using an Ultimate Rewards transfer partner in the last 12 months.

Again, we’re talking about the potential for thousands of dollars in travel value from one card bonus with a realistic spending requirement and just a $95 annual fee — that’s an exceptional deal.

Read more: 10 best ways to use 100K Chase Ultimate Rewards points

So, is the 100,000-point Sapphire Preferred offer one of the best deals ever?

In short … yes. It really is.

We remember the absolute frenzy when the 100,000-point welcome bonus was ending on the Sapphire Preferred in the summer of 2021. Those who got busy and accidentally missed it then were very disappointed and hoped it would return soon. Well, it took about 3 1/2 years, but the wait is over.

No one has a Sapphire-colored crystal ball to know what Chase will do next, but we do know that this is being marketed as a limited-time offer. In other words, there’s no way to know how long it will be around — but it will undoubtedly rank among the best offers we have seen in the almost 15 years since The Points Guy launched.

So, if you’re eligible to earn the 100,000 bonus points and are ready to add to your points piggy bank, this is the moment you’ve been waiting for.

Apply now: Chase Sapphire Preferred Card with a 100,000-point bonus