I’ve just received word that the Chase Ink Bold 50,000 point sign-up bonus offer will be pulled on Monday, November 28. Now, I don’t actually know if the sign-up bonus is being increased or decreased, though based on the wording of the email it sounds like the latter. I’ll certainly post an update if I hear more, as I’ve asked for clarification (though I’m not sure they’ll tell me).

The current deal offers 50,000 Ultimate Rewards points after spending $5,000 on the card within three months.

I’ve written about the Chase Ink Bold card in the past, which is a great card on many levels. For one, it’s great for high spenders since it offers threshold bonuses whereby you earn a total of 147,500 Ultimate Rewards points for $100,000 worth of spend. That’s really good, especially if most of your spend isn’t in “bonus” categories offered by other cards.

Furthermore the points can be transferred to British Airways, Continental, Hyatt, Marriott, etc. Basically they offer a ton of flexibility to transfer to some amazing programs.

I have both the Chase Sapphire Preferred card and Chase Ink Bold card, but if I had neither card and were about to do a credit card “churn,” those would be my two choices, partly because these cards are keepers (the Chase Sapphire Preferred card for everyone, and the Chase Ink Bold card for those that spend a lot on their cards). Furthermore while Chase will typically only approve one personal application at a time, the Chase Ink Bold card is a business card, so you can get approved for both cards simultaneously.

They each offer a 50,000 point sign-up bonus with no annual fees, and accrue what I consider to be the most valuable points currency, Ultimate Rewards points.

Signing up for these two credit cards alone will get you a business class ticket to Europe on Virgin Atlantic, Lufthansa, Austrian, Swiss, etc., with a stopover (and without any pesky fuel surcharges). While I realize most of you are savvy when it comes to this stuff, I love the reactions I get when I tell “normal” people how easily they can get a free business class ticket to Europe in summer for literally $100 in taxes.

So this is just a warning since I realize it’s a long weekend for most of you, but if you’ve been waiting to apply for the Chase Ink Bold card, I’d get an application in by the end of the week. As I said I’ll be posting an update if they give me one I can share, though based on the original wording of the email I do suspect the bonus is going down.

You can read more about the Chase Sapphire Preferred card here, and you can apply for the Chase Sapphire Preferred card here.

You can read more about the Chase Ink Bold card here, and you can apply for the Chase Ink Bold card here.

Full disclosure: I receive a referral bonus for anyone that signs up through the above link. As always I will only provide a referral link if it offers the best available sign-up bonus.

Posted on November 22nd, 2011 by lucky
Filed under: Credit Cards, Great Deals | 15 Comments »

  1. November 22nd, 2011 at 6:45 pm

    bmvaughn said,

    “Signing up for these two credit cards alone will get you a business class ticket to Europe on Virgin Atlantic, Lufthansa, Austrian, Swiss, etc., with a stopover (and without any pesky fuel surcharges).”

    Uhhh yeah, after spending $8k in 3 months. Minor detail.

  2. November 22nd, 2011 at 6:46 pm

    Murphy said,

    You may want to clarify that both cards do have $95 annual fees that are waived the first year.

    Along the same lines, does Chase still offer some sort of refund on annual fees for 1K’s on the MP cards? If so, any chance of success at asking nicely if they would apply it to the Sapphire Preferred instead? :P

  3. November 22nd, 2011 at 7:18 pm

    Steven S said,

    Pretty sure the Chase Ink 50,000 mile offer I got was effective after the first spend on the card – no spend requirement. We’ll see if it posts. If not, using it for my business would make it easy but it’s possible there were different offers.

  4. November 22nd, 2011 at 8:01 pm

    David said,

    I am new to sapphire and have 100k of ultimate reward. How do i get business class ticket to europe?

  5. November 22nd, 2011 at 9:17 pm

    Murphy said,

    @ David

    Best way is to transfer the points to Continental and book the business class award right on their website.

  6. November 22nd, 2011 at 9:32 pm

    JA said,

    I was lucky enough (no pun intended) to be targeted for an Ink Bold offer of 50,000 after first spend. I dont think the card is very useful at all and only use it at Sams where they only accept MasterCard. How are you going to generate high spending if you exclude travel and dining? Those usually make up the largest share of ones spend. Given that the SP gives 2X points for those charges and Ink Bold does not, I cannot see much value in the card.

  7. November 23rd, 2011 at 12:37 am

    Chris said,

    Hmm, there is no mention of the points exchange on the website for the card:

    http://www.chasesapphire.com/ultimate-rewards/

    Is it being discontinued? The only use I would have for the reward points is conversion to United.

    Chris

  8. November 23rd, 2011 at 2:42 am

    Roland said,

    You would consider Chase UR points to be worth more than SPG?

  9. November 23rd, 2011 at 6:59 am

    lucky said,

    @ bmvaughn — Which really isn’t that hard to do with a bit of creativity (ie liquidating gift cards).

    @ Murphy — Hah, unfortunately I doubt they’d apply that towards the Chase Sapphire Preferred.

    @ David — If you transfer to Continental you can fly business class for 100,000 miles roundtrip.

    @ JA — I think it’s useful for people that put a lot of spend on their card through work, like manufacturing, shipping, etc. Many of these categories don’t earn bonus points with other cards. Other than that I agree it’s not necessarily a keeper, though the sign-up bonus is great.

    @ Chris — It’s just not explicitly written, but it accrues Ultimate Rewards points and those can be converted to miles/points in other programs.

    @ Roland — I would for the ability to transfer instantly. United miles are the most valuable currency out there, and this is the best way to transfer points to them with added flexibility.

  10. November 23rd, 2011 at 10:46 am

    Goosh said,

    I actually just got this card yesterday and spent about $600. Then on monday I’m planning on buying some serious stuff from Apple that should put me over the $5000 spend plus get me a huge bonus for going through the UR portal. An easy 95,000 points in less than a week if you include the 5000 spend, 40,000 bonus from Apple and 50,000 bonus for meeting the spend.

  11. November 23rd, 2011 at 10:49 am

    Goosh said,

    BTW, I did use your link. Thank you for everything you do. Your trip reports are the best.

  12. November 23rd, 2011 at 3:46 pm

    LIH Prem said,

    Hi Ben,

    Thank you for the disclosure at the end of your article.

    I wish all of our bloggers would do the same in each article in which they include referral links.

    Have a great holiday and keep posting!

    -David

  13. November 23rd, 2011 at 4:15 pm

    lucky said,

    @ Goosh — VERY nice! I’ll be spending quite a bit at Best Buy on Friday through the mall. And thanks for using my link, I appreciate it.

    @ LIH Prem — Thanks, I think it’s the only right thing to do. Happy Thanksgiving!

  14. November 23rd, 2011 at 8:42 pm

    Benny said,

    Just called the reconsideration line today after hearing about this. Thanks for the heads up!

  15. November 28th, 2011 at 11:58 pm

    Chase Ink Bold Business Card Benefits (updated w/50,000 Ultimate Rewards points sign-up bonus) - One Mile at a Time said,

    [...] week I posted that the sign-up bonus/registration link was being pulled on Monday, and it was indeed. But [...]

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