Update 7/10/24: Back again until 7/31
Update 5/2/24: Available again. Hat tip to reader K.M.
Update 11/1/23: Deal is back through 11/30/2023. It’s a bit more interesting now that PYB only offers a max of 1.25%.
Update 10/15/22: Deal is back and valid through 12/31/22.
Update 5/3/22: Deal is back through May 31, 2022. They increased the Freedom tier from 5% bonus to 10% bonus (updated below).
Update 11/1/21: Deal is back and valid 11/01/2021 – 11/30/2021
The Offer
Direct Link to offer (shows in the Ultimate Rewards login)
- Chase released today a new redemption option of Ultimate Rewards points to get Apple merchandise through the Chase portal with bonus value of up to 50% more on the points.
The bonus is broken down as follows:
- Sapphire Reserve: 50% bonus
- Sapphire Preferred: 25% bonus
- INK Preferred/Plus: 25% bonus
- Freedom cards and the no-fee Sapphire card: 10% bonus (20% on Airpods)
- Ink Cash/Unlimited: 10% bonus (20% on Airpods)
Instead of each point being worth 1 cent, it can now worth up to 1.5 cents. For example, if you buy a $600 Apple Watch through the Ultimate Rewards portal, it would typically cost 60,000 Ultimate Rewards points, but it’ll now cost just 40,000 points for Sapphire Reserve cardholders.
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Our Verdict
For most people, using the Pay Yourself Back feature will make more sense to get the same 1.5%/1.25% value assuming you have enough dining/Airbnb spend to use up your points on. But overall it’s still nice to have an additional option and could be useful for someone with an Apple purchase to make. It also could be a little bonus for Freedom cardholders to bump up their earnings by 10%.
