For years, my father has been listening to me tell stories about how Sharon and I go on amazing trips with the help of points we get through credit cards. He was a bit skeptical at first, but once he was able to book a trip to Southeast Asia using his AMEX Membership Rewards, he was hooked.
This also meant I had to reign him in a bit when he got too excited and started signing up for every offer out there. I never imagined that I’d have to explain to my dad why he shouldn’t have signed up for the Home Depot card for the $50 discount.
He enjoyed his retirement and let me share some stories about his travels:
- How I found the best award flight for him and his wife to get to Bali and Thailand
- I booked him on the EVA Air Hello Kitty plane without telling him
- His visit to Mt. Bromo in Java
He also went on a trip to Southeast Asia, which is one of the reasons we went on a trip to Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.
Unfortunately, things don’t always go as planned, and my dad now has ongoing health issues that will prevent him from traveling.
When these problems first arose, I was talking with his wife, and she mentioned they had a good amount of Ultimate Rewards from the Sapphire Reserve card and read about the Chase “Pay Yourself Back” feature. She wondered if I thought it would be a good way to use their points.
I immediately said yes (and then wondered why I didn’t mention it to them). While this happened a while ago, the Sapphire Reserve still offers these categories for the Pay Yourself Back program:
- Gas Stations – 25% bonus
- Grocery Stores – 25% bonus
- Select Charities – 50% bonus
- Annual Fee – 25% bonus
If the situation were the same, I’d still have her cash out the points for gas stations and grocery stores at a 25% bonus. Chase also allows Sapphire Reserve and Preferred cardholders to cash out points for statement credits at 1 cent per point. If they were not able to use points for travel, this would be a decent option.
However, they could also use the points to book travel for someone else (us), and I wouldn’t be upset about redeeming Chase Ultimate Rewards for a Hyatt stay where we could get over 2 cents value per point.
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