The End of the Chase Sapphire Portal Bonus

Story of the week: no more Chase portal bonus

Buried in the Sapphire Reserve news last week was another big change that I totally missed: Chase is killing its reliable portal bonus. No longer will you be able to hop on the portal, book the travel that your heart and budget desires and get 1.25¢ per point with the Preferred or 1.5¢ with the Reserve. Rather, according to One Mile at a Time, you might get 1.25¢ to 1.75¢ (Preferred) or 2¢ (Reserve) per point, but only on select bookings, with a system Chase is calling “Points Boost.”

But because those deals will vary, it’s likely not going to offer true value. Currently, if the best cash deal on a hotel was $500, you can book it for about 35k points with a Sapphire reserve. But now, if the 2¢ bonus only applies to a $1,000 property, both the $500 hotel and the $1,000 hotel would cost 50k points. You’re paying more points for a fancier booking you might not even want. That’s not necessarily more value—but it is more cost.

More importantly, it’s more work. There’s definitely upside here; you can get more value with the right deal. But now you have to search, hunt, and compare to figure out if the deal is even worth it. It’s just not sloth-friendly.

We’ll have to see how this plays out in practice, but one thing is for sure—the simple days of easy, lazy value are going away for Chase customers. The good news? There’s lots of time to redeem Chase points the old way—existing customers can use their current stash for either fixed or “Points Boost” bookings (you’ll automatically get the best deal) until October 2027.

Oh, and if you liked that easy value? Bilt still delivers ❤️

Sign-up bonus of the week 🎯

The Amex Gold card has become much higher-maintenance since its summer 2024 update, with a higher fee and many more credits to keep track of. But it’s a potential powerhouse, with enough credits to fully recoup the annual fee, and incredible 4x earnings on restaurants and US supermarkets. For the right person, it can be a wallet essential and, thanks to Amex’s bonus rules, it often makes sense to pick it up on the way to getting a Platinum card, if you’re chasing those premium features.

Although the public offer is still a measly 60k points, referral offers are great right now—I can refer friends at 90k points, while I’ve seen some cardholders can get their friends 100k through a referral. It’s not quite the best deal we’ve ever seen (that honor goes to 90k + $200), but it’s still strong. So if you’re a foodie looking for a powerhouse earner, now might be a good time to hit up your friends for a referral link.

Just beware that Amex is updating the Platinum card, and with that might come a different value proposition and a massive bonus offer. So if you think you might want to go ultra-premium soon, you might want to wait and see what the Platinum release looks like.

50k points on the Mesa Homeowner’s Card

5 free nights with the IHG Premier

175k points on the Hilton Aspire

80-100k miles on Delta cards

Up to 175k points on the Amex Platinum

100k miles with the AA Executive

$200 gift card on the Amazon Prime Visa

Quick Points of the Week ⚡

Major news 🚨

Amex trying to steal Chase’s thunder. Amex followed up Chase’s Sapphire Reserve announcement with news that it will be doing a major overhaul of its Platinum Card; also, an ultra-premium Delta card may be on the way.

New products 🆕

JetBlue’s premium card is out. FrequentMiler is not impressed. Neither am I. A review is not on the top of my to-do list.

More value 📈

Mesa is getting better. We already kinda liked the Mesa card for its points on mortgage payments. Now those points are getting better with the addition of Air Canada and SAS as transfer partners.

Devaluations 📉

No more upgrade award chart on AA. Sweet spots on upgrade requests are disappearing, in favor of instant upgrades at poor redemption values, per TPG.

Extra points 🌟

Earn with Marriott and Uber. Ok I just said link your Uber account to Delta. Maybe Marriott heard me, because they’re offering 1,500 Bonvoy points if you link your Uber account to Marriott for the first time. You can also get 1,000 points once you complete an Uber X Reserve ride—whether you’ve previously linked or not.

Enjoy the weekend! 🦥

Book that lazy Chase redemption while you still can…