Better Together: How to combine Chase Freedom Flex℠ and Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card for maximum travel rewards

If credit cards were food, the Chase Freedom Flex℠ and Chase Sapphire Preferred^® Card cards would definitely be peanut butter and jelly, respectively.

That’s because both cards start out perfectly solid on their own. Even if you never knew how to combine their powers, you’d be very happy using both on a daily basis. But once you discover how to make a PB & J sandwich, there’s no going back. You’ve discovered a treat that’s sweet, protein-rich and gives you an excellent excuse to eat Wonder Bread. 

It’s the same thing with the Sapphire and the Freedom Flex–combine them, and you’re in for a tasty treat that you wish you’d discovered sooner.

But what exactly is the “PB & J” of Chase rewards? Well, get your favorite white bread ready and let’s find out.

First, a little explanation of benefits…

Before I share the “recipe” to Chase’s PB & J, here’s a quick overview of both cards to provide some context.

Chase Freedom Flex – 5X rotating rewards

Here are the key highlights of Chase’s peanut butter, the Freedom Flex card. 

• 5% cash back on activated bonus category purchases each quarter (up to $1,500 in purchases, then 1%), with the categories for Q2 2024 including Amazon.com, hotels and restaurants. 
• 0% intro balance transfer APR for 15 months (intro balance transfer fee: $5 or 3% of the amount of each transfer, whichever is greater in the first 60 days) on both purchases and balance transfers. 
• $200 cash bonus after spending $500 on purchases within your first three months. 
• $0 annual fee

For more detail, check out our full review of the Chase Freedom Flex.

Chase Sapphire Preferred – a grab bag of travel perks 

In a similar vein, here’s a quick breakdown of Chase’s homemade grape jam, the ever-popular Sapphire Preferred card: 

• 2x points on travel purchases, plus 3x points on dining, 3x points on select streaming services and online grocery purchases (excluding Walmart, Target and wholesale clubs), 5x points on travel purchased through Chase Travel℠ and 1x points on other purchases. 
• 25% travel redemption bonus when you redeem your Chase Ultimate Rewards points through Chase Travel (e.g. redeem 10,000 points, get $125 in value). 
• 60,000-point welcome bonus after spending $4,000 within three months. 
• $50 annual statement credit good towards a hotel booked through Chase Travel. 
• $95 annual fee

To learn more, check out our full review of the Chase Sapphire Preferred. 

Circling back to our “recipe,” notice how Chase is quick to point out that your 60,000-point welcome bonus is worth $750 in travel redemption–all thanks to that handy 25% redemption bonus. And if you think about it, that means the points you earn with the card are worth 1.25X towards travel, too. 

So in reality, as long as you’re redeeming points through Chase Travel, your rewards chart really looks like this: 

• 5X > 6.25X on travel booked through Chase Travel
• 3X > 3.75X on dining/online groceries/streaming
• 2X > 2.5X on general travel
• 1X > 1.25X on everything else

Those are some mighty impressive earnings rates, lending even more value to the CSP as a travel companion. 

But here’s the crazy thing: that 25% bonus multiplier applies to every Chase Ultimate Rewards point you earn, regardless of which card you earn it with. 

Here’s how it all works. 

Here’s how your Chase Sapphire Preferred account lets you earn 6.25X with your Freedom Flex card

In our Chase Ultimate Rewards guide we outline all of the dozen-ish ways you can redeem your hard-earned Chase points. From trips to back massages to cash back, there’s hardly a bad option. 

But perhaps the most underrated option is the Combine points feature. 

Combine points allows you to move Chase Ultimate Rewards points from one Chase card to another–meaning you can earn points with one card–and spend them with another. Another that has, say a 25% points multiplier on points redeemed for travel…

As you can see, the option only applies to Chase rewards cards that generate Chase Ultimate Rewards points. So the Prime Visa and the IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card cards, for example, won’t appear here–but your Freedom and Sapphire cards will. 

Unlike a bank transfer, combining Chase Ultimate Rewards points is free and instantaneous. Plus, you can always move the points back if you wish (although I’ve never found a reason to move points from a Sapphire card back to a Freedom card).

Then, as soon as you’ve combined all of your Chase Ultimate Rewards points into your Sapphire account, you can go spend them at Chase Travel where you’ll get an extra 25% in value: 

This trick also works with the Chase Sapphire Reserve card where you’ll get 50% extra value (provided you’re cool with the card’s $550 annual fee). 

Now, while I heartily recommend this trick to most travelers I meet–especially if they already have both cards–you should know that it still comes with three big caveats. 

PB & Js aren’t perfect, and neither is this trick

Though delicious, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches aren’t perfect. They’re high in fat, sugar and carbohydrates, and unlike the Chase Sapphire Preferred card, they don’t travel especially well. 

In a similar vein, here are the caveats to the “PB & J of Chase cards”: 

• The Chase Sapphire Preferred card charges a $95 annual fee and requires a 670+ FICO score to apply. 
• With the Chase Freedom Flex, you can only earn 5% cash back on activated bonus category purchases each quarter (up to $1,500 in purchases, then 1%) (generating 7,500 Chase Ultimate Rewards points worth $93.75). 
• Hotel rooms booked using points typically don’t generate any additional rewards or allow you to utilize your status benefits. 

But if you’re OK with these caveats, I hope you enjoy this simple recipe for tastier travel rewards. 
And for more tips to help you get off the ground–quite literally–check out our Beginner’s guide to travel rewards.

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