One of the better Chase Sapphire Reserve benefits is that you get $300 in credit towards travel purchases, we’ve talked about how this benefit works before here. As Freequent Flyer Book likes to point out, travel credits aren’t as good as cash. Reader JT wanted to know their best option for turning this benefit into cash and I thought that would make an interesting post so here we are.
In this post, we’re going to assume you have no purchases that would normally code as travel (and Chase’s definition is quite generous). So instead, what you’ll want to do is purchase a gift card for something that will code as travel and then resell that gift card. I’m not going to account for your time in doing this or any other risk factors (e.g rates dropping), but that is something you should account for.
Contents
Your Options
Below are a list of your options, along with their highest resale rates according to GiftCardWiki (no link result if GCW doesn’t display it but still sellable), please double check these rates and also look at the merchants that are paying the top rate (and the next few rates) as rates can drop. I’ll also bold entries when we have confirmation from people that these purchases triggered the credit. If they don’t trigger the credit, I’ll use strikeout instead.
Airlines
N/A airlines:
- Aer Lingus
- Aeroflot
- AirAsia
- Air Berlin
- Air Canada
- Air China
- Air France
- Air New Zealand
- Alaska
- Alitalia
- Asiana
- Alaska
- ANA
- Atlantic Southeast Airlines
- Austrian Airlines Group
- Avianca
- British Airways
- Cathay Pacific
- Cebu Pacific
- China
- China Eastern
- China Southern
- easyJet
- ExpressJet Airlines
- Etihad
- Japan Group
- Jet Airways
- ExpressJet Airlines
- JetStar
- Garuda
- Gol Linhas Aereas
- Hainan
- Kingfisher Airlines
- Korean Air
- LAN Airlines
- Lion Air
- Lufthansa
- Norwegian
- Malaysia Airlines
- Mesa Airlines
- Pinnacle Airlines
- Qantas
- Qatar
- Ryanair
- Saudi Arabian
- SAS
- Shenzhen Airlines
- Singapore Airlines
- SkyWest Airlines
- Swiss
- Spirit
- TAM Linhas Aereas
- Thai Airways International
- Thomson Airways
- Turkish Airways
- Vietnam Airlines
- Virgin Blue Airlines
- Vueling Airlines
- WestJet
Hotels
N/A:
- AccorHotels
- Aman Resorts
- AmericInn
- Ascott Limited
- Banyan Tree
- Boscolo Hotels
- Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group
- Drury Hotels
- Dusit Thani Group
- FIH Regent Group
- Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts
- Hilton
- Home Inns
- Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels
- InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG)
- InTown Suites
- Jin Jiang International
- Kempinski
- La Quinta Inns & Suites
- Loews Hotels
- Lotte Hotels & Resorts
- Jumeirah
- Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group
- Millennium Hotels
- Minor Hotels
- The Oberoi Group
- Okura Nikko Hotel Management
- Omni Hotels & Resorts
- Premier Inn
- Rosewood Hotel Group
- Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts
- Shilo Inns
- Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide
- Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces
- Vantage Hospitality
- Wyndham Worldwide
- Whitbread plc
Car Rentals
- Avis: 60% (SaveYa)
- Budget: 56% (ABC)
- Hertz: 70.5% (ABC)
N/A:
- Dollar
- E-Z
- Fox
- Payless
- Thrifty
Cruiseliners
- Carnival: 80% (ABC)
N/A:
- P&O
- Royal Carribean
MileagePlus X
This doesn’t code as travel on the Visa payment network, so purchases through here won’t work.
Our Verdict
I would think that most people will have some charges that code as a travel purchase (especially when it includes things like tolls and parking) if you don’t have any then at minimum you should be able to get 80% of value back or $240 in cash. Also remember this benefit is per calendar year, so you should be able to easily get this credit twice and only pay one annual fee (once now and then again in January 2017 onwards).
There are of course other things that would trigger this credit that could be refunded, but I’d do that at your own peril. If I missed anything, please let me know in the comments.
