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Currently, Barclay is offering 60k bonus points after a single purchase on two of their Barclay Aviator branded cards: Aviator Red and Aviator Business. Incredible offers, and I personally have both of these cards. You also get 10% back with the Aviator Red, so if you were to sign up for both cards, you actually can redeem 130k points because 10k will be refunded after you use your first 100k. Anyways…many of you may sign up because of the quick bonus, although it may not be as quick as you thought.
The bonus on both cards is advertised as being given after a single purchase; however, you also need to pay your annual fee. The annual fee is billed at the end of your first billing cycle, meaning even if you’ve made your required purchase, you points won’t credit until you’ve paid your bill, and then the cycle that shows your bill paid has closed. This translates to you not getting your points until the end of your second billing cycle. Probably longer than you’d hoped when signing up.
Get them a full month faster
One way to expedite getting your points is to pay your annual fee prior to receiving your first statement. When you do this, and make a purchase in your first month, you’ll receive your bonus points when your first cycle ends, which should be a full 30 days sooner than you’d otherwise receive them. This could be very important if you were planning on utilizing the bonus miles on a specific trip only to find out you won’t get them for another 30 days because the annual fee isn’t paid.
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.
Welcome Offer
60k Points after $4k spend in 3 months
80k offer in branch currently – I think this should be online soon
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
Super solid welcome offer.
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.
- 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 Ultimate Rewards – Chase Travel Portal
- $50 Annual Credit on hotel stays purchased via Ultimate Rewards/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
There is currently an 80k offer after $4k spend in 3 months available in branch, and up to 90k after $6k spend in 6 months. I suspect some version of this will be online soon if you don’t want the hassle of going into a branch.
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 60k is a very, very good offer. 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.