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FoundersCard adds AA Platinum Challenge as benefit. Fee Free.

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3 months of status, plus a fee free challenge

If you’re unfamiliar with FoundersCard it’s a membership program whereby members get access to a bevy of benefits. Among them…Caesars Diamond status, 10% off British Airways Roundtrips, Cathay Pacific Silver Status, 3 months of JetSmarter, the list goes on and on. I inquired last year about joining. The biggest reason I was interested, at the time,  was using Caesars Diamond status stay 4 nights at the Atlantis in the Bahamas and pay only the resort fee. You can read Out and Out’s review of that perk here. Ultimately I’ve held off, and have debated the decision ever since. Typically FoundersCard charges $495 + $95 initiation fee. You can often score much better deals than this: I’ve been offered 2 years with a waived initiation and a pro-rated $295 a year if I’d pay for 2 years in advance. A very solid deal IMO. What perked my interest again was a recent email I received introducing another benefit: AA Platinum Challenge.

Typically AA Platinum Challenges cost $200 + $300 if you want the status during the challenge. FoundersCard is offering it fee free.

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Enroll by March 2nd and get 3 months of free Platinum Status with the opportunity to extend.

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If you want to extend. You’ll need to earn 12,500 EQM and $2k EQD.

  • Eligible Airlines
    • AA
    • British Airlines
    • Finn Air
    • Iberia
    • Japan Airlines

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Full Terms and Conditions.

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This increases the appeal of FoundersCard significantly. I’ll have to make a decision soon 🙂

Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.

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Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card


4.8
4.8/5
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is a great starter card that earns Premium Ultimate Rewards that can be transferred into over a dozen partners many of which are US based including Hyatt, Southwest, United, IHG, and Marriott.

Welcome Offer

60k Points after $4k spend in 3 months

Annual Fee

$95

Points Earned

Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards

  • 3x on dining
    •  including eligible delivery services for takeout
  • 3x on select streaming services
  • 3x on online grocery purchases
    • (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
  • 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel Portal
  • 2x on all other travel
  • $50 Annual Credit on hotel stays purchased via Chase Travel
    • The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
  • 10% Anniversary Bonus
    • Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
  • Chase Sapphire Preferred® continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel Portal and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including primary rental car insurance, purchase protections, etc.
  • Points are transferrable to 13 Ultimate Rewards partners
  • Redeem in the Chase Travel center for 1.25 cents per point
  • No foreign transaction fees
  • Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
    • Primary rental car coverage is my favorite

We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.

Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.

Main Cast: 

Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.

Supporting Cast:

Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on. 

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.

If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex℠and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners

Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.

The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.

3 Comments

  • Jeff January 26, 2018

    So the Plat Status only starts March 14th? not right away if I were to do this direct though AA?
    That part seams a bit confusing.

    • Miles January 26, 2018

      Jeff – that’s what I understand from it as well. It counts on travel during the March 14th to June 12th time period

  • Alex H January 26, 2018

    I did this 2 years ago and it was great to have status even during the trial period. AA charges about $500 I think if you want status while doing the trial. I wish it wasn’t every 5 years this offer. I have a ton of trips coming up and my status expires next week. I still use Founderscard BA discounts, they can sometimes be better than AARP’s.

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