I found out today that my mom has had the Chase Sapphire card since 7/09. Her old card was automatically switched to the Sapphire and she received no bonus with the Sapphire card. Can she get the 50,000 bonus for opening a Sapphire Preferred card?

I was told by a Chase rep you only can have one Chase Sapphire card(whether its preferred or not)

Which is fine, but has nothing to do with the bonus.

Generally if you upgrade a card instead of applying for a new one, you won't get the bonus points. What you can try doing is applying for the preferred, and if/when they reject you, calling the reconsideration line and asking if you can cancel the old card and get the new card plus bonus. No guarantees, but it might work.

Right, which is what I was planning to do, but I've read numerous reports that you can only get a Sapphire bonus once either regular or preferred, or something along the lines of the 50,000 UR points for the Sapphire Preferred are for first time Sapphire cardholder's only. Obviously I don't feel my mother should be excluded as she hasn't received any bonus whatsoever. I didn't even know she had this card and was going to trade points for cash! :eek:

I just don't want her to apply, be approved and then not get the bonus because she won't be willing to argue for it like I am. I can't find the above wording anywhere in the T&C, but I might not be looking in the right place. Thanks in advance.

I applied for the 50K, $3K spend, Sapphire Preferred card and was wondering if I can satisfy the minimum spend through a mixture of general purchasing, planned travel and refundable fares? The latter being refunded after the points post and transferred/used.

You can satisfy the $3k by spending it on whatever you want, although you'll get more points on restaurant and travel purchases, as well as purchases made through the Ultimate Rewards mall. I just got 500 points for spending $50 at drugstore.com, so that was nice.

As for the refundable fare, the points can take "up to 45 days" to post, so if you buy a refundable ticket, make sure it's for a flight maybe 60 days in advance or more. I've often wondered if you can keep your points for purchases you've returned, so I'm not totally sure how that works. I'd definitely read the fine print on that.

You will not get to keep the points if you return something...they are subtracted from your account. So I would be careful with a refundable airfare... it can help you reach the "bonus" but once you get your money back on the card when you cancel they will take out the 2 pts per $ they gave you for the purchase....

Good to know!

Thanks for the info. I was mainly interested in the bonus. While the card is really nice compared to the UA Explorer I got 7 months ago, I just cant spend $3k in 3 months (although a new laptop and DSLR sounds nice right now). So if I get this right:

That too is my understanding of the rules

Your mom will get the bonus precisely because she hasn't gotten any before.

Chase in general is rather fair in this type of situation. They sometimes even give the differential between the old bonus and the new bonus if you are a targeted customer but you have had bonus before (happened on the airline affinity cards).

The returned merchandises or canceled flights would result a credit that offset your current charges, regular points and bonus alike.

I have a canceled hotel booking on Expedia this billing cycle. The booking was made 2 months ago. The credit from Expedia basically offset ALL the current charges on this cycle with $1 net positive balance. The outcome? I got 1 points on this statement - Also because the Expedia is travel related, and the current statement charges are dining related - the bonus from Expedia taken away also offset any bonus earned from dining on the current charges.

So if you do this regularly you may essentially double your point earning on general spending.

Assuming you charge, say $3K on non-bonus general spending and $1K on 2x categories per month. Then what you need to do is book hotels (no matter through hotel sites or 3rd party sites) up to $3K every month, and cancel hotel bookings later on.

Of course if you practice this on the regular basis, you account will be shut down. But once a while to get some extra points it shall be fine :D

So you are prepaying for the rooms and letting Expedia hold you money for two months and then canceling for the refund? Sounds like too much work and I don't think I want to loan Expedia my money for two months:confused: