The Chase Sapphire Card is the latest “revamped” rewards card line up from Chase. From what I can see in the reward program, I think Chase has a winner here. Check out this long review below.

How to Earn Points – The Chase Sapphire(SM) Card allows you to earn one point for every dollar that you spend on the card. Reward points do not expire and you can earn unlimited points. As a sign up bonus, you will get 10,000 bonus points. The Ultimate Rewards program also allows you to book travel tickets through their online travel system and if you choose to use that, you will earn 2 points for every dollar that you spend on the card. They also have a shopping portal where they have many online merchant partners. Using your card and shopping through their portal could earn up to 10 points for every dollar that you spend.

Rewards – The reward program for the Chase Sapphire(SM) Card is the Ultimate Rewards. It is a rewards program that offers travel rewards, merchandise, gift cards and other rewards. We’ll now go through the rewards.

Travel Rewards – There are a few ways to redeem travel rewards for the Chase Sapphire(SM) program. You can use their online travel site and book your flights, hotel stays, car rentals, cruises etc (just like you would with Expedia.com or Travelocity.com). Their travel site should be the same as these online sites with access to most flights and hotels. If you do it this way, you can get earn 2 points for every dollar you spend. By doing it this way, you could also either pay by points or pay by points and cash (from your credit card off course). 100 points is worth $1 (which is pretty standard).

You could also book your travel with other online sites or even off line travel agents. After you have done the bookings, you will just have to inform Chase and you will get a statement credit.

You can also transfer points into miles or frequent guest points with their partners. Below is a screen shot of their partners.

Gift Cards – The Ultimate Rewards also allows you to exchange points for gift cards as well. Below is a screen shot of their merchant partners.

Online Merchant Partners – The Ultimate Rewards Program for the Sapphire Card allows you to earn extra points (up to 10 points) for every dollar that you spend with their online merchant partners. Below is a screen shot of their partners. I got this from my Freedom Card which gives you rebate (or discount) rather points. But the partners are the same.

Merchandise and other stuff – The Ultimate Rewards program also has tons of merchandise and you can also donate your points to charities. But there are just too many rewards to list them all here.

Fees – The Chase Sapphire Card has no annual fee.

Verdict – I am actually quite impressed with this card. Two years ago, I got the Chase Flexible Rewards Card and the rewards weren’t that great to start with. But they have steadily improved. Recently, Chase changed my card to the Chase Freedom(SM) Card and the rewards are almost the same as the Chase Sapphire(SM) Card (which is why I am able to give you screenshots). There are a few things I like about this card. Firstly, as far as travel goes, there are a variety of ways to redeem points for travel. You can book through their site and earn double points (just like Amex charge cards – but without the annual fee). You can also book your travel with any travel agent (online or offline) like the Discover Miles and Escape Card. So this card is pretty flexible in the way it allows you to redeem points for travel. You could also transfer points to frequent miles and guest programs, but to be honest, their list of partners is not a lot. A card like the Starwood Preferred Guest or the Amex Gold Card would be better if this is how you would like to redeem points.

Their other rewards like gift cards and shopping partners is pretty comprehensive as well. I would recommend the Chase Sapphire(SM) Card to folks to want to use their cards for travel and also other rewards but are not hardcore frequent fliers. It has great flexibility in the way you can redeem points for travel. On top of that, there is no annual fee, you can earn unlimited points which do not expire.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 13th, 2009 at 14:08 and is filed under Credit Card Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.