Get a Free Flight to Europe With This Card's Limited-Time Sign-Up Bonus

One of the most exciting reasons to use travel rewards credit cards is to get free travel. Whether it's free upgrades to business class, free hotels, or heavily discounted plane tickets, the best travel credit cards give you powerful new ways to enjoy premium travel experiences.

Two of the best travel credit cards, the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and the high-end Chase Sapphire Reserve®, are now offering a special limited-time only welcome offer: 75,000 bonus points with Chase Ultimate Rewards. That's 25% more points than the usual welcome offer of 60,000 points.

Let's look at why this credit card offer is such an attractive deal, and how you could use these rewards points to book a (nearly) free flight to Europe.

How to get extra value from 75,000 bonus points from Chase

Many of the best credit cards have welcome offers like this, where if you spend a minimum amount within the first few months, the card will give you extra reward points. Some cards give you cash back -- such as 20,000 points, equal to $200 of cash back.

But here's why 75,000 bonus points from Chase is an even better deal: When you use these points to book travel (airfares, hotels, etc.) through the Chase Travel portal, your points are worth even more. Here's how much extra value you get with each card:

• Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card: Your points are worth 25% more when used to book travel -- so 75,000 bonus points would be worth 93,750 points, or $937.50 worth of travel.
• Chase Sapphire Reserve®: This card has a higher annual fee ($550) but also has extra rewards value. With this card, your Chase Ultimate Rewards points are worth 50% more -- so 75,000 bonus points would buy you $1,125 of travel.

Doesn't it sound great to get up to $1,125 of free travel, just by using a credit card? See how to make this travel dream a reality.

How to earn the welcome bonus for Chase Sapphire credit cards

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and the Chase Sapphire Reserve® have different annual fees and benefits, but both have the same requirements to earn the limited-time 75,000 bonus points. You need to spend $4,000 within the first 3 months of opening your new credit card account.

That averages out to $1,333.33 per month. Does this sound like a tall order? Don't worry -- you don't have to spend "extra" money or "new" money to get the bonus points. It's easy to earn that welcome bonus if you shift some of your monthly bills and everyday spending to your new Chase credit card.

Here are a few examples of how you could quickly achieve that minimum $1,333.33 of spending per month:

If you spend $1,550 per month on your newly opened Chase card, you will quickly meet that $4,000 minimum requirement. Congrats! You'll get 75,000 bonus points! Now let's see how much travel those points will buy.

What you can buy with your Chase Sapphire bonus points

Both of these Chase Sapphire cards have the same amount of bonus points as part of the welcome offer. (And you can't get welcome offers for both cards at once; you have to choose one card.) But because of their different points-multipliers, the exact amount of travel you can buy will be different for each card.

Let's look at how to buy a free flight to Europe with each card (based on actual round-trip flight found on the Chase Travel portal as of May 8, 2024).

Chase Sapphire Reserve® ($1,125 of travel)

Your points go further with Chase Sapphire Reserve® -- every 100 points are worth $1.50 of travel. So your 75,000 bonus points will buy you $1,125 of airfare. Here are a few round-trip flights you can take in mid-June 2024 for that amount (or less):

• New York (JFK) to Madrid: $959 on American Airlines
• Chicago to Paris: $1,005 on Iceland Air
• Denver to London: $1,104 on JetBlue Airways

Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card ($937.50 of travel)

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card doesn't give you quite as much value for your points -- only $1.25 per 100 points. So your 75,000 bonus points will only buy you $937.50 of airfare. You might want to try to go to Europe at a less popular time.

We found these affordable round-trip flights departing in mid-October 2024 (after peak tourist season):

• Dallas/Fort Worth to Lisbon: $685 on United Airlines
• Minneapolis-St. Paul to Dublin: $781 on American Airlines
• Atlanta to Berlin: $572 on SAS Scandinavian Airlines

Airline fare restrictions apply. You might have to pay extra for a checked bag or accept an adventurous itinerary (like an overnight stopover in Copenhagen for that Atlanta to Berlin trip). And when you buy flights with points (or frequent flyer miles), some taxes and fees must be paid with cash. But these prices are a good ballpark estimate of how far you can fly with 75,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points.

Bottom line

Cheap air travel really is possible with reward credit cards! Just by changing the way you pay for a few everyday purchases and monthly budget items, you can get a (nearly) free flight to Europe. If you've been curious about getting a Chase Sapphire credit card, this limited time 75,000 bonus points welcome offer could be the sign you were waiting for.