rewrite this title Why April is the Best Time to Get the Chase Sapphire Preferred – NerdWallet

For a limited time, the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is offering one of its biggest-ever welcome bonuses. If you’ve been thinking about applying, April is a good time because the money you spend booking summer travel can get you closer to a sign-up bonus — and bonus points. And now with this new sign-up bonus, April 2025 may be the prime time to apply.

Here’s the new welcome offer, which starts April 3: Earn 100,000 bonus points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. That’s nearly double the typical bonus — and those points are worth $1,250 toward travel when redeemed through Chase Travel. If you take advantage of Chase’s best transfer partners, those points could be worth even more at certain hotels and airlines.

1. The 100,000-point bonus is a rare, massive offer

The usual Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card welcome bonus is 60,000 points. A 100,000-point offer is the most valuable we’ve seen, and it hasn’t been offered since 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Here are some examples of what 100,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards® points can get you:

2. You can meet the minimum spend — and earn bonus points — when booking summer travel

The minimum spend requirement is higher than what you’ll see on many other sign-up bonuses, but April is also a good month to start planning and paying for summer travel. If that includes airfare, hotel rooms or rental cars, you’ll not only be getting closer to meeting the minimum spend, but you could also earn bonus points on those purchases, too. When you pay with this card, you’ll earn five points per $1 spent on all travel purchased through Chase, and two points per $1 spent on travel not purchased through Chase.

Americans who plan on taking a vacation that requires a flight or hotel stay this summer said they’d spend $3,861, on average, for these expenses, according to NerdWallet’s 2025 summer travel survey. Assuming they purchased through Chase Travel, that’d be another 19,000 in Chase Ultimate Rewards® points earned on those expenses alone.

Note that you must book through Chase to get the five points, so you’ll only get a measly two points if you book travel elsewhere, such as through your own travel agent or directly with the airline or hotel. But Chase’s travel portal makes it easy to compare prices across a huge swath of properties and flight routes. It also has a broad range of booking options, including boutique hotels that you won’t necessarily find through major hotel loyalty programs.

3. You can use your points to cover winter holiday travel

It can take about six to eight weeks for bonus points from Chase’s welcome offer to post to your account. That means you could use them for booking winter travel.

Suppose you get the card in April and hit the spending requirement in July. You’ll likely have your points by September. And September is an ideal time to plan and book travel for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

By that point, you’ll likely have earned more than just the 100,000 points from the welcome offer. If you’ve been using the card to make purchases, especially in bonus categories — such as travel, dining and online grocery purchases — you might have many more points to fund your holiday travel.

April is the time to apply

With this limited-time welcome offer, applying for the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card in April is a smart move for travelers looking to earn a huge windfall of Chase Ultimate Rewards® points, which is one of the most valuable credit card currencies out there. This offer won’t last forever, and there’s no telling when (or if) we’ll see it again, so now’s a good time to lock it in.