Finding JOY through Travel

Not a paid advertisement but should be so @Chase DM me if interested in making a deal. 😉  The Chase Sapphire Reserve card was a game changer for us on our recent vacation to Italy and Greece.  It enabled us to get 5 nights of hotels and add on a 7-day cruise on Virgin Cruises for essentially free using credit card points.  Now, if you don’t have the ability to pay off your credit card in full each month, I would NOT recommend applying for this or any other credit card.  Any potential benefits would be more than offset by high interest charges and added debt on any balances not paid in full.

So, how did we get here.  First of all, I’ve had a Chase Freedom business card for several years which had several thousand points that I had never done anything with.  I could have redeemed the points for cash back but with the Chase Sapphire Reserve card I was now able to transfer all of those points I had accumulated over to this card and use them for travel.  When you first receive the Chase Sapphire Reserve card, if you make at least $4,000 of purchases in the first 3 months, you get a bonus of 60,000 points.  In Italy, we stayed at a Hyatt hotel in the center of Milan for 15,000 points per night so 60,000 points took care of 4 nights of hotel stays.  We hadn’t originally planned to visit Greece on this trip but Virgin Cruises came out with an offer that for 80,000 points you could sail on any of their Greece cruises in June and July.  Chase had a 30% bonus at the same time to transfer points to Virgin which meant we only needed to transfer 67,000 points to Virgin to pay for a 7-day cruise.  Hello Greece!

Now, the annual fee for the Chase Sapphire Reserve card is not cheap at $550 but it’s worth considering all of the benefits.  On the points side, after you collect the 60,000 points if you use the card for dining out you get 3x points for each dollar spent.  If you book your flights through Chase Ultimate Rewards you earn 5x points and on hotels and car rentals it’s 10x points.  All other travel related expenses earn 3x points.  Lyft rides using the card also earn 10x points for each dollar spent.

There are some other great benefits by booking your travel with the card.  In addition to no foreign transaction fees, there is trip cancellation/interruption insurance, primary coverage on rental car theft and collision damage, a lost luggage reimbursement, trip delay reimbursement, and even coverage if you ever require an emergency evacuation.

When you first join and on subsequent anniversary years, you get a $300 travel credit.

You also get a membership to the Priority Pass which allows you and a guest access to many of the lounges found in airports around the world.  If you’re not familiar with the lounges, they give you access to free food and drinks as well as a comfortable spot to rest while waiting for a flight.  Some airports even have restaurants that accept the card where you can spend up to $28 for you and another $28 for a guest on food and drink.

A $100 credit is also available to sign up for global entry if you use the card.  For $100, that takes care of 5 years of eligibility and means expedited lines and no longer having to remove your shoes and belt to go through security.

There are also benefits available with DashPass and Instacart+ that we have yet to take advantage of.

Without this card, we most likely would have been staying in a hotel way outside of the city center of Milan instead of being just a couple of blocks away from the central train station and we would have never even considered adding on a 7-day cruise at the last minute.

If you think this card makes sense for you, I’d appreciate it if you would use my referral code (https://www.referyourchasecard.com/19j/K5OZHGS1DD).

Please reach out to me if you have any questions.  Happy Travels!