How to Use a $50 Hotel Credit on the Chase Sapphire Preferred

Its no secret that we think Chase Sapphire Priority Card is an excellent travel credit card for only a $95 annual fee and lots of benefits.

One of these benefits is an annual $50 Ultimate Rewards hotel statement credit for bookings booked through Chase Travel.

While $50 may not seem like much in the grand scheme of things, this credit certainly shouldn’t be overlooked, as maximizing this benefit alone covers more than half of the card’s annual fee. And you can take advantage of this benefit with just a quick one-night stay.

With this benefit, it’s not a $50 statement credit for any hotel you book and pay with your card. You must make a specific reservation through Chase Ultimate Rewards Gate. Under the terms of the privilege:

Hotel Credit $50 Annual Final Bonus: A statement credit will automatically be applied to your account when your card is used to purchase hotel accommodation made through the Ultimate Rewards program, with maximum accrual annually is 50 dollars. Annual means the year starting from your account opening date to the first statement date following your account anniversary and subsequent 12 monthly billing cycles each year. Annually, the first $50 on an Ultimate Rewards hotel purchase will not earn bonus points. Statement credit(s) will be deposited into your account within two days of your purchase being deposited into your account and will appear on your monthly credit card billing statement. you within 1-2 billing cycles.

Be warned that when you Book your hotel room through the Ultimate Rewards portal, you probably won’t earn any hotel points or elite night credits, nor enjoy any of the elite perks that you may enjoy by booking directly with the hotel. You can always call a participating property after booking to add your loyalty program number (or try to add it at check-in), but note that you shouldn’t expect to earn points nor expect any elite privileges to be honored.

That said, there’s still value to be found when booking through the Ultimate Rewards portal, as you can use it to book small hotels or independent hotels that don’t have a loyalty program.

How to Use a $50 Hotel Credit on the Chase Sapphire Preferred

It’s relatively easy to book a hotel room through Ultimate Rewards to unlock a $50 statement credit.

First, log in to the Ultimate Rewards portal. If you have more than one Chase card, make sure your Sapphire Preferred is selected in the upper left corner. You will then want to select “Travel” on the left menu to launch the portal.

You can search for any hotel based on city or airport code.

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After looking through the options, I found a hotel around $240 a night. Next, I choose my room and hit pay. In the payment options, be sure to select “Save my points for later” and pay with Sapphire Preferred instead of redeeming your Ultimate Rewards points to book this vacation.

It was as easy as that — then I had a confirmed booking and the pending charge was immediately posted to my statement.

How long does it take for my Chase Sapphire Preferred hotel credit to be deposited into my account?

Now the conundrum: How long does it take for the $50 statement credit to be deposited into your account? Although the hotel fee was listed on September 27, I didn’t receive the $50 statement credit until two days after my stay ended — on October 5.

TPG’s chief content officer, Nick Ewen, had a similar experience with a last-minute one-night stay in Tampa, Florida. The purchase of $135.07 through Chase Travel was posted on November 5. The $50 credit arrived in his account on November 9 — the day after he paid.

However, under the terms of the benefit, you will see a $50 credit within 1-2 billing cycles. Therefore, if you book your room weeks (or months) in advance, you will receive a statement credit prior to your stay.

This benefit is similar to an annual hotel credit of $100 per calendar year on Citi Premier® Card (a competitive card also comes with an annual fee of $95). However, hotel credit is much harder to useas you have to spend at least $500 (for a hotel stay, excluding taxes and fees) and book through the Citi ThankYou portal to apply.

Meanwhile, the $50 hotel credit on the Chase Sapphire Preferred has virtually no restrictions—except for the fact that you need to reserve on the Ultimate Rewards portal.

Chase continues to perform Favorite Sapphire A valuable and reliable option for cardholders. This $50 annual hotel statement credit alone ensures that I will keep this card for the foreseeable future. While the amount isn’t huge, the $50 discount can still be substantial, especially when the card’s annual fee is only $95 per year. once you consider all other benefits of the cardit’s hard not to justify adding the Sapphire Preferred to your wallet.

Official app link: Chasing my favorite Sapphire with 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first three months of account opening.

Additional reporting by Emily Thompson and Ryan Wilcox.