[Expired] How I Used the 100K Chase Sapphire Preferred Bonus for a Summer Europe Trip

For many (myself included), summer means it’s time to take a trip. This year, Greece is at the top of my list.

However, millions of Americans have the same thought process as me, resulting in high prices for flights and accommodations. However, I have a plan to beat this — and it’s entirely thanks to the elevated welcome bonus offer for the Chase Sapphire Preferred^® Card.

Let’s run through how I’m going to pay for almost an entire trip to Europe with the 100,000 bonus points earned from a single credit card welcome bonus offer.

Chase Sapphire Preferred Card’s 100K Welcome Offer

The Chase Sapphire Preferred card is an amazing travel credit card with a manageable $95 annual fee. It checks all the right boxes: a valuable rewards program, high earning potential, travel protections and primary rental car insurance, practical everyday credits, and no foreign transaction fees.

It’s rare to see such a high welcome offer on this card — it typically sits at 60,000 Ultimate Rewards points. But, for a limited time, successful applicants can earn a massive 100,000 Ultimate Rewards points after spending $5,000 within the first 3 months of account opening.

Based on our valuation of Chase Ultimate Rewards points at 2 cents apiece, the 100,000-point welcome offer translates to a value of $2,000.

Why We Love Chase Ultimate Rewards Points

Ultimate Rewards points are some of the most powerful points you can earn, given its lengthy roster of airline and hotel transfer partners. Generally, these kinds of points are known as transferable points, because you’re not limited to a single airline, hotel chain, car rental agency, etc.

You can decide where your points will give you the most value and transfer them accordingly. Remember, too, that many programs offer transfer bonuses, allowing you to stretch your points even further! Chase’s airline and hotel partners include the following:

You can transfer Ultimate Rewards points to each of these partners at a 1:1 ratio, meaning your 100,000 Ultimate Rewards points can become 100,000 Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points or 100,000 World of Hyatt points, for example.

There are many ways to redeem Chase Ultimate Rewards points for maximum value, but here’s how I plan to use this elevated welcome bonus offer to book a 4-night trip to Greece — and even have a few thousand points left over.

Using 100K Chase Points To Book a Europe Trip

As soon as I learned that the Chase Sapphire Preferred card had a limited-time welcome bonus offer, I jumped at the chance. Fortunately, it had been well over 48 months since I’d last applied for any Chase Sapphire card, making me eligible to earn the 100,000-point welcome offer again.

I recently moved, so I put some of my moving expenses on my new Chase Sapphire Preferred card to quickly meet the minimum spending threshold required to earn the 100,000 points. It can take 1 to 2 billing cycles for the points to be deposited into your Ultimate Rewards account, but I received mine in the first billing cycle, opening up my travel opportunities.

I had 100,000 Ultimate Rewards to spend, and it was time to go to work.

Flights to Greece With Ultimate Rewards Points

I’ve used a number of Chase’s airline partners in the past, including The British Airways Club, United MileagePlus, and Virgin Atlantic Flying Club. However, I knew which partner I had to check first — Air France-KLM Flying Blue.

The program offers Promo Rewards each month, providing a discount on award flights on specific routes. For April, economy flights in economy class between New York (JFK) and Europe are discounted by 25%.

Air France-KLM Flying Blue employs a dynamic pricing model, which means award rates for flights fluctuate based on a number of factors. This makes finding business class awards difficult because rates on many dates are astronomical. However, I’ve noticed much more reasonable pricing in economy on a consistent basis.

I have a fairly flexible schedule this summer, but I knew I wanted to take this trip in June, so I performed a flexible-date search on Air France’s website (achieved by leaving the departure and return date field blank and continuing with your search) and noticed a couple dates with promo fares available.

However, as I mentioned, I’m flexible this summer, so I was happy to follow the availability, so to speak.

I selected my outbound and return flights, both of which were priced at 18,750 miles (25% off the more typical 25,000-mile rate), to verify the availability was indeed there. As soon as I did that, I transferred 37,000 points from my Ultimate Rewards account (you have to transfer points in increments of 1,000, but I already had about 600 points in my Flying Blue account from previous transfers and redemptions).

The points showed up in my Flying Blue account after I logged out and logged back in, and I proceeded to book the ticket!

I had to pay about $300 in taxes and fees, a sad reality with many award tickets to Europe. I put that expense on my Chase Sapphire Preferred card to earn 2x points on travel, so I could access its robust suite of travel protections and insurance should anything go wrong with my travel.

At this juncture, I’d used a total of 37,000 points from my welcome bonus offer, leaving me with 63,000 points to find lodging for 4 nights.

Hotel in Greece With Ultimate Rewards Points

We talk a lot about the World of Hyatt program here at Upgraded Points, and for good reason. It’s the only major hotel loyalty program still employing an award chart.

World of Hyatt does use off-peak, standard, and peak pricing, but redemptions still fall into a cost band depending on the hotel’s category. The lower the category, the lower the redemption cost. Compare this to its peers like Marriott Bonvoy or IHG One Rewards, where award nights theoretically have no maximum price in points.

Chase Ultimate Rewards allows transfers to IHG One Rewards, Marriott Bonvoy, and World of Hyatt, but I’ve only transferred my points to World of Hyatt because of the high award costs of hotels in the other 2 programs mentioned here.

All that being said, I quickly went to Hyatt’s website to start sifting through my options. Initially, I thought I wanted to go to one of the many stunning Greek Isles, but I quickly realized it would be out of my budget for this trip.

I settled on Athens instead, a city that I’ve briefly visited once before and that I’ve been eager to return to. Luckily, I’ve seen the tourist sites like the Acropolis, the Parthenon, and the Panathenaic Stadium before, so this trip can be reserved for exploring the city as the locals do, at a slower pace.

Plus, I’ve been very eager to visit the so-called Athenian Riviera, a coastal area south of the center of Athens that’s quickly gaining fame for its beautiful beaches, buzzy cafes and clubs, laidback lifestyle, incredible shopping, delectable food, and more. Even better, the Athenian Riviera is easily accessible from Athens by taxi or even bus or the city’s metro system, making it ideal for a day trip (no ferry required!) and meaning I could book just 1 hotel in the city for the duration of my time in Greece.

I looked into Hyatt’s options, and learned, much to my surprise, that the relatively new Grand Hyatt Athens is a Category 3 World of Hyatt property, meaning award nights cost 9,000 points per night off-peak, 12,000 points during standard availability, and 15,000 points per night during peak availability.

I used Hyatt’s award calendar search function to get an idea of what availability looked like. I could only find peak-night availability on the nights I needed to book, but given its low category rating, I could book 4 nights for just 60,000 World of Hyatt points, which I’d accumulate simply by transferring 60,000 points from my Chase Ultimate Rewards account.

I confirmed the availability I wanted was indeed there and then transferred the points. I logged back in to my World of Hyatt account, performed my search again, and booked 4 nights for a total of 60,000 points.

And just like that, I had booked round-trip flights to Greece and a 4-night hotel stay at a luxury hotel in Athens for a total of 97,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points, leaving me with a balance of 3,000 points.

Final Thoughts

Earning the 100,000-point welcome bonus offer from the Chase Sapphire Preferred card has proven to be very rewarding.

I fulfilled the minimum spend requirement with spending I had to do anyway, and I was able to book a 4-night trip to Greece — during the peak summer travel period, no less — for about 97,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points and about $300 in taxes and fees.

If you’re on the fence about whether to apply for the card or not, use this example to help inform your decision. If you’d like to go on an incredible trip this summer (or later in the year), it’s entirely possible to book the major parts of your trip with only the points you’d earn from the card’s limited-time welcome bonus offer.