[Expired] How I’d Use the Chase Sapphire Preferred’s 100K Bonus To Offset Safari Costs

If booking a safari is on your bucket list, you’re likely looking for ways to bring costs down, as the combined price of flights, lodging, and park fees can add up to an expensive vacation.

Fortunately, this is where credit card points can come in handy. Namely, the Chase Sapphire Preferred^® Card and its new and improved welcome offer.

While the offer alone ultimately won’t cover the full cost of the trip, it can make a meaningful dent in the overall cost.

Chase Sapphire Preferred’s 100K-Point Welcome Offer

The Chase Sapphire Preferred card recently brought back its highest-ever public welcome offer — but it’s set to end on Thursday, July 30, at 3 p.m. Eastern:

• Earn 75,000 bonus points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.

Previously, the Chase Sapphire Preferred card’s welcome offer was just 75,000 points — meaning you could earn 33.3% more points by applying for this 100,000-point welcome offer.

Booking Flights to Africa With Chase Points

Flights to Africa from the U.S. are usually quite long, often require at least 1 stop (depending on where you’re flying to and from), and can be pretty expensive.

That said, using your points to offset the cost of the flight can be a good idea. For instance, you can transfer your Ultimate Rewards points to the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club program and book a 1-way ticket from New York City (JFK) to Nairobi (NBO), Kenya, for as low as 24,000 points and $240 in taxes and fees.

If you’re traveling solo, you need just 48,000 points to book your round-trip flight, leaving you 52,000 points left over for your accommodations. Or, if you’re traveling with someone, the 100,000 points you earn from the Chase Sapphire Preferred card’s welcome offer can cover 2 round-trip tickets.

It’s not uncommon for round-trip flights to Africa to cost $1,500 or more, so using your points this way can provide significant savings.

If you want more flexibility, you could book directly through the Chase Travel portal. Though what you gain in flexibility, you might lose in redemption value. That said, the Chase Sapphire Preferred card offers Points Boost, which can provide up to 50% more value than the standard redemption on top-booked hotels and flights with certain airlines, making your points worth up to 1.5 cents each.

In that case, 100,000 points could provide up to $1,500 in value toward flights eligible for Points Boost. This can be a good option, but from a value perspective, you’d almost always come out ahead when using Chase’s transfer partners.

Booking a Safari Hotel With Chase Points

When it comes to booking the hotel for your safari trip, how far your Chase Sapphire Preferred card’s offer goes depends on how luxurious an experience you’re after.

For instance, one of the most popular safari hotels bookable with points, the JW Marriott Masai Mara Lodge, starts at 220,000 points per night. Since Ultimate Rewards points transfer to Marriott at a 1:1 rate, you’d still be far off from the points needed for a single night. Even with a semiregular 50% transfer bonus from Chase to Marriott, you’d come up short.

Luckily, that isn’t the only place you can book with points. Another Marriott hotel, the Leopard Sands, Kruger Park, can be booked for as little as 96,000 to 100,000 Marriott points per night.

Other top hotels include Asilia Africa properties and Mr and Mrs Smith properties — both bookable through the World of Hyatt program, another Chase transfer partner.

As with flight bookings, you could use your points through the Chase Travel portal. The good news here? Whereas safari hotel bookings through top hotel programs tend to be higher-end, booking through Chase Travel lets you pick from a large variety of eligible hotels with ranging cash rates. Plus, any properties on Chase Travel that are eligible for Points Boost can give you up to a 50% boost.

How To Stretch Your Points Even Further

Ultimately, the welcome offer from the Chase Sapphire Preferred card will cover only a portion of your trip, but it can still be a useful tool in your overall strategy.

If you want to cover more of your trip with points, you might consider adding multiple new cards to your wallet. For instance, if you’re traveling with a partner for this safari trip, you could both open the Chase Sapphire Preferred card and earn 200,000 points after meeting both minimum spending requirements. You could also open other cards that earn flexible rewards with large welcome offers.

Final Thoughts

If you want to book a safari and use points to get there, the welcome offer on the Chase Sapphire Preferred card is a great start.

This card will help kick-start your point balance, giving you a meaningful leg up toward covering flights, hotels, or both. Now is a great time to add the card to your wallet, thanks to its increased welcome offer of 100,000 points that will go away on Thursday, July 30, at 3 p.m. Eastern.