Sapphire Reserve Members - Points are worth 50% more when redeeming for Apple (33% discount)
Sapphire Preferred Members - Points are worth 25% more when redeeming for Apple (20% discount)
Freedom card Members - Points are worth 5% more when redeeming for Apple
June 1 - June 30th
ALL Apple Products
Optional split tender
These responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser.
Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser.
It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
Opinions expressed here are the author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airline or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.
This is not a good value for points. I was able to transfer my reserve points to Hyatt for a vacation this summer, and get almost 4.7 cents per point of value.
You guys mentioning Hyatt, is that a credit card? or does Chase give you better points when you stay at Hyatt?
If you transfer your points to Hyatt's loyalty program, you can often get very outsized value when redeeming for hotel stays. The 4.7 cents/point that was just mentioned is at the extreme end (though I have also had a couple of Hyatt redemptions in that range), but getting 2 cents/point of value is very much possible.
This is not a good value for points. I was able to transfer my reserve points to Hyatt for a vacation this summer, and get almost 4.7 cents per point of value.
That's an amazing point value!
Generally with hotel and airline points, it's very difficult to find the value deals (3-5pts/cent). It's take quite a bit of research (specific to each company), specific travel dates and a bit of luck.
I have had 100k point bonuses for the top tier cards (about $500 or more yearly fees) United , Amex, chase and citi, Marriot. It's a really pain to be able to really find that high (4-5pt/cent) value and understand their point programs.
Thus I highly regard my Chase Reserve points bc it's easy to use and get 33% off with the pay your self back offer.
I'll throw out an example
Apple GC at giant eagle (regional grocery PA/OH mostly)
They have fuelperks+ which is 6% back as fuel (simplified if you want a book go visit the website and do math)
They had triple fuelperks so thats 18% back as gas + used amex blue preferred for 6% cash back at grocery store..
other options use rotating category CC with grocery for 5% back
alternatively buy a Giant eagle gift card at their gas station if you have rotating gas category ie discover or freedom
you CAN purchase other GC with a giant eagle giftcard.
So I scored 24% back on lowes using their "happy" giftcards which were triple fuelperks.
Previously they have also offered 10$ off per 100$ on apple GC + fuelperks which works out to
90$ for 100$ GC and you earn 6% cashback(or 5% with other CC) and 6% as gas
so that would be around $79.2 for a 100 GC
Kroger 4x fuel rewards would be another but I'll let someone else explain that as they arent local to me.
Protip: if the Happy card you bought was one of the "run as credit" ones and NOT the "online redemption required" ones, you can go to Lowes and buy any GC you want with it.
I used to play the fuel rewards game here in CT with Stop & Shop - probably saved over $1000 in gas one summer alone. the trick was to buy Visa GC when they had a multiplier like 5 or 6, then liquidate the GC via Bluebird (no longer available). Sure you ate like $5 per card (buy the $500 cards) but also got back CC multiples (mine was 5x) plus the gas savings. It was a hell of a racket. Then they kneecapped it the program, cutting the potential reward by ~ half. Also, the stations it works at - S&S brand and Shell, tend to be more $$ anyway (especially Shell), and certainly more $$ than BJ's gas (right now about $0.20/gallon more actually). Now it's not worth the hassle.
Generally with hotel and airline points, it's very difficult to find the value deals (3-5pts/cent). It's take quite a bit of research (specific to each company), specific travel dates and a bit of luck.
I have had 100k point bonuses for the top tier cards (about $500 or more yearly fees) United , Amex, chase and citi, Marriot. It's a really pain to be able to really find that high (4-5pt/cent) value and understand their point programs.
Thus I highly regard my Chase Reserve points bc it's easy to use and get 33% off with the pay your self back offer.
For info, I just picked some Hyatt hotels for a trip to Orlando that we've been thinking about for March of 2022, and in comparing my top 2 hotel picks, I was able to get 2.7 and 3.54 cents/pt. I then looked at a hypothetical trip tp Sandestin for the same dates and got 2.36 cents/pt. In cases where I have been able to get higher valuations in the past (e.g. a trip to Hawaii in 2019), I think part of the reason I was able to get those higher valuations (closer to 4 cent) may have been in part due to a bias to select hotels with higher cash costs regardless of whether that hotel was actually better than a similar class hotel with a lower cash price.
Terrible advice. Has ZERO appeal to general consumers. Sept event is the REAL DEAL and you know it!
Are you sure you know what you are taking about? Most rumor sites are suggesting an M1x 14/16 MBP and new Mac mini, in additional to the usual software updates from WWDC. This event has real impact for many consumers...
Are you sure you know what you are taking about? Most rumor sites are suggesting an M1x 14/16 MBP and new Mac mini, in additional to the usual software updates from WWDC. This event has real impact for many consumers...
Again it just a rumor with no consistency of confirmed sources
Protip: if the Happy card you bought was one of the "run as credit" ones and NOT the "online redemption required" ones, you can go to Lowes and buy any GC you want with it.
Can you use any (plastic) Happy card at Lowe's? I've used the Happy Holidays redeemed from the Discover Points, but they had Lowe's logo on it. Does it work for any plastic happy card without the Lowe's Logo?
Quote
from Dr. J
:
I used to play the fuel rewards game here in CT with Stop & Shop - probably saved over $1000 in gas one summer alone. the trick was to buy Visa GC when they had a multiplier like 5 or 6, then liquidate the GC via Bluebird (no longer available). Sure you ate like $5 per card (buy the $500 cards) but also got back CC multiples (mine was 5x) plus the gas savings. It was a hell of a racket. Then they kneecapped it the program, cutting the potential reward by ~ half. Also, the stations it works at - S&S brand and Shell, tend to be more $$ anyway (especially Shell), and certainly more $$ than BJ's gas (right now about $0.20/gallon more actually). Now it's not worth the hassle.
I still play the fuel rewards game, the problem is that they limit the promo as 1 per promotional period nowadays and for some reason it doesn't work for me automatically sometimes
There was 3x on mastercard till yesterday and 3x on Visa from today
----
this is a bad promotion, don't do it, I don't know how it gain so much thumbs up. You should always transfer to partners not redeem. Same applies for Amex Membership Rewards.
Can you use any (plastic) Happy card at Lowe's? I've used the Happy Holidays redeemed from the Discover Points, but they had Lowe's logo on it. Does it work for any plastic happy card without the Lowe's Logo?
I still play the fuel rewards game, the problem is that they limit the promo as 1 per promotional period nowadays and for some reason it doesn't work for me automatically sometimes
There was 3x on mastercard till yesterday and 3x on Visa from today
----
this is a bad promotion, don't do it, I don't know how it gain so much thumbs up. You should always transfer to partners not redeem. Same applies for Amex Membership Rewards.
No, Happy cards can only be used at the retailers on the front of the card. All these "run as credit" cards are, are prepaid CC's that are limited in the merchant system to specific merchants (literally specific store locations). From Lowe's perspective, when they run the card, it runs as credit, so you can buy anything with it, then the credit system decides if the charge is allowed or not (e.g. is the Lowe's you are buying from in the list of permitted merchants?).
The "online redemption" Happy cards are basically just prepaid gift cards you then redeem for actual store gift cards. Since this would ultimately be a Lowe's GC (if you elected to redeem it that way), it would have all the same restrictions (like not being able to buy 3rd party GC's with it).
This doesn't surprise me, with travel picking back up, the last thing Chase wants is efficient travel related use of way more points than normal that has been accumulated over the last year and a half.
62 Comments
Your comment cannot be blank.
Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.
That's an amazing point value!
Generally with hotel and airline points, it's very difficult to find the value deals (3-5pts/cent). It's take quite a bit of research (specific to each company), specific travel dates and a bit of luck.
I have had 100k point bonuses for the top tier cards (about $500 or more yearly fees) United , Amex, chase and citi, Marriot. It's a really pain to be able to really find that high (4-5pt/cent) value and understand their point programs.
Thus I highly regard my Chase Reserve points bc it's easy to use and get 33% off with the pay your self back offer.
Apple GC at giant eagle (regional grocery PA/OH mostly)
They have fuelperks+ which is 6% back as fuel (simplified if you want a book go visit the website and do math)
They had triple fuelperks so thats 18% back as gas + used amex blue preferred for 6% cash back at grocery store..
other options use rotating category CC with grocery for 5% back
alternatively buy a Giant eagle gift card at their gas station if you have rotating gas category ie discover or freedom
you CAN purchase other GC with a giant eagle giftcard.
So I scored 24% back on lowes using their "happy" giftcards which were triple fuelperks.
Previously they have also offered 10$ off per 100$ on apple GC + fuelperks which works out to
90$ for 100$ GC and you earn 6% cashback(or 5% with other CC) and 6% as gas
so that would be around $79.2 for a 100 GC
Kroger 4x fuel rewards would be another but I'll let someone else explain that as they arent local to me.
I used to play the fuel rewards game here in CT with Stop & Shop - probably saved over $1000 in gas one summer alone. the trick was to buy Visa GC when they had a multiplier like 5 or 6, then liquidate the GC via Bluebird (no longer available). Sure you ate like $5 per card (buy the $500 cards) but also got back CC multiples (mine was 5x) plus the gas savings. It was a hell of a racket. Then they kneecapped it the program, cutting the potential reward by ~ half. Also, the stations it works at - S&S brand and Shell, tend to be more $$ anyway (especially Shell), and certainly more $$ than BJ's gas (right now about $0.20/gallon more actually). Now it's not worth the hassle.
Generally with hotel and airline points, it's very difficult to find the value deals (3-5pts/cent). It's take quite a bit of research (specific to each company), specific travel dates and a bit of luck.
I have had 100k point bonuses for the top tier cards (about $500 or more yearly fees) United , Amex, chase and citi, Marriot. It's a really pain to be able to really find that high (4-5pt/cent) value and understand their point programs.
Thus I highly regard my Chase Reserve points bc it's easy to use and get 33% off with the pay your self back offer.
It's better to buy apple gift cards from a supermarket, and pay yourself back at the same rate.
Best to buy MasterCard gift cards at super market then use those gift cards to buy Apple gift cards. Get points for both.
Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.
Are you sure you know what you are taking about? Most rumor sites are suggesting an M1x 14/16 MBP and new Mac mini, in additional to the usual software updates from WWDC. This event has real impact for many consumers...
Again it just a rumor with no consistency of confirmed sources
There was 3x on mastercard till yesterday and 3x on Visa from today
----
this is a bad promotion, don't do it, I don't know how it gain so much thumbs up. You should always transfer to partners not redeem. Same applies for Amex Membership Rewards.
I still play the fuel rewards game, the problem is that they limit the promo as 1 per promotional period nowadays and for some reason it doesn't work for me automatically sometimes
There was 3x on mastercard till yesterday and 3x on Visa from today
----
this is a bad promotion, don't do it, I don't know how it gain so much thumbs up. You should always transfer to partners not redeem. Same applies for Amex Membership Rewards.
No, Happy cards can only be used at the retailers on the front of the card. All these "run as credit" cards are, are prepaid CC's that are limited in the merchant system to specific merchants (literally specific store locations). From Lowe's perspective, when they run the card, it runs as credit, so you can buy anything with it, then the credit system decides if the charge is allowed or not (e.g. is the Lowe's you are buying from in the list of permitted merchants?).
The "online redemption" Happy cards are basically just prepaid gift cards you then redeem for actual store gift cards. Since this would ultimately be a Lowe's GC (if you elected to redeem it that way), it would have all the same restrictions (like not being able to buy 3rd party GC's with it).
Freedom cards cannot transfer to affiliate programs at all.
Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.