Until May 31, 2023, Chase is giving Sapphire Reserve cardholders a 50% bonus when redeeming points for Apple products through the Ultimate Rewards Store.
You’ll usually get 1 cent per point value when redeeming Ultimate Rewards for Apple products so this is a significant bonus offer. But should you use it?
I’ve been looking at getting a Series 8 Apple Watch so I’m tempted by this offer. The watch has a retail price of $429, which would usually require 42,900 Ultimate Rewards. With the 50% bonus, I’d only have to use 28,600 points.
Getting 1.5 cents per Ultimate Rewards point isn’t a bad value. Many people cashed out Ultimate Rewards for the same price using the Pay Yourself Back tool. However, most of those redemptions are capped at a 25% bonus.
Could I get more than 1.5 cents per point value using points for travel?
If I booked travel through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal, I’d get the same 1.5 CPP value. The only chance to get additional value would be to transfer points to one of Chase’s partners.
I paid 33,000 World of Hyatt points per night for our Club Room at the Grand Hyatt Kauai, which would have cost $1,300. That stay ended up getting a 4 CPP value. However, that’s definitely the outlier.
Final Thoughts
I’m done trying to rationalize it. I want an Apple Watch but I’ve been balking because of the price. We just earned 115,000 Ultimate Rewards for getting an Ink Cash card so I can burn 30K points on a new watch.
My only gripe is that the taxes weren’t added until I went to complete the purchase, so my $429 watch actually cost me $456. I’m not mad about paying sales tax but it should have been added before the final sale confirmation page.
I usually recommend against using travel rewards points for merchandise because it’s a horrible value. However, Chase is offering Sapphire Reserve cardholders a 50% bonus on Apple products (at the list price) and that’s too good of an offer for me to pass up.
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