Many of us fear a recession and many industries have been disrupted, but we still have to earn money, pay bills, and put food on the table, so our daily tasks have remained relatively the same. You can take advantage of that.
If you want to plan for an inexpensive vacation, using travel credit cards is one of the best ways to minimize your travel expenses. You can pay for your everyday purchases, such as bills and groceries, with a credit card and earn valuable rewards along the way. It’s easy to do, and certain card issuers are even offering COVID-19 perks on specific cards right now.
With these perks, you can earn bonus rewards points that wouldn’t normally be available. In particular, you can earn bonus points on grocery purchases when using many Chase and American Express credit cards. Cards such as the Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant American Express Card and The World of Hyatt Credit Card don’t typically offer any extra points for spending done at U.S. supermarkets, but this feature is now available for a limited time.
Two other rewards cards included in this limited-time bonus offer are the Chase Sapphire Reserve and the Chase Sapphire Preferred. These credit cards are generally thought of as two of the best travel credit cards available because of their reward rates, generous sign-up offers, and access to amazing travel deals.
When you earn Ultimate Rewards points with either of these cards, you can then redeem them toward travel in the Chase travel portal. Travel redemptions can include flights, hotel stays, rental cars, and more. So you can earn bonus points on all the groceries you’re amassing right now and then redeem those points toward travel later on.
Ultimate Rewards points can generally be redeemed at a 1:1 ratio (one point equals 1 cent) for cash back and gift cards, but when you redeem them for travel with the Chase Sapphire cards, they’re worth more. Points are worth 50% more in travel with the Sapphire Reserve and 25% more in travel with the Sapphire Preferred.
That means 50,000 points earned with the Sapphire Reserve would be worth $750 toward travel. For the Sapphire Preferred, 60,000 points would be worth $750 toward travel. And you can also transfer your points to more than a dozen Chase transfer partners in the airline and hotel industries. This gives you plenty of flexibility when searching for great award travel opportunities with brands like Emirates, JetBlue, United, World of Hyatt, and Marriott Bonvoy.