When I planned a vacation in 2024, I realized this was the best time to apply for a credit card. What I am about to tell you is my story, and is by no means advice, as this kind of thinking is what quickly causes credit card debt.

The Sapphire Preferred has a wonderful sign up bonus, roughly $600 worth of points for spending around $4000 in 3 months. Every now and then, they boost this to somewhere between $750-1000 worth of points. I figured it was the right time to apply for a credit card. My last application was in 2023 and I was earning enough discretionary income to justify a nice vacation, so why not count the vacation towards the sign up bonus? I applied for the credit card and used it well.

The key thinking here is putting natural spend on the credit card, something you were going to be purchasing anyway. If you naturally spend $4000 over 3 months anyway, then it’s a no-brainer to look into getting more credit cards. It makes me cringe when I learn about people spending wildly and outside their budget just to satisfy a sign up bonus quota. You don’t earn anything when you spend more money. Period.

I kept this credit card for a while, expecting to go on a few more vacations, or at least extract some value out of this card, which allows you to transfer points to their travel partners. The ones I would benefit from transferring to are United Airlines and Hyatt. It has decent cash-back rewards, nothing I would brag about. I was for the most part earning more with my other credit cards, save one category. So I had no problem keeping it around for the year.

2025 came around and I started getting serious about applying for universities in Berlin. By the time the $95 Sapphire Preferred annual fee payment date rolled around I was already in a university, looking for apartments and flights. I had no problem justifying the $95 for travel protection and no foreign transaction fees. I actually already had 2 other cards with no foreign transaction fees as well, but none had as comprehensive of a travel protection program as the Sapphire Preferred.

This year, I am quite settled in Berlin, I have a bank account and work at a startup. I use my credit cards less often now, as this city can be cash-heavy, and I earn in Euros, not USD. There is no problem keeping them, especially the ones with no annual fee. I now have 2 credit cards in the “sock drawer” (I leave these out of my wallet and prefer the cards without foreign transaction fees, and they have no annual fee.) So the only issue in my wallet is the less used credit card with a $95 annual fee.

As a relevant digression, I have been subscribed to F1TV to watch Formula 1 for about a year, and was forced to switch to Apple TV by some partnership. I didn’t mind, it was $1 more for Apple TV than what I was paying for F1TV. Also the Apple TV connected account on the F1TV app came with an upgraded experience compared to what I used to be paying for, so pretty neat. I still use Apple TV and mostly watch Formula 1. Because of this, I am willing to spend $12.99 / month on Apple TV, or close to $160 rounded up. Note: An annual Apple TV subscription is $99, which I would not have committed to. If I had intended on purchasing the yearly subscription, I would consider this still in my favor.

The date to cancel my card or downgrade was coming close, and I was trying to see if the card would any longer serve me purpose and value more than the $95. I was not using the DoorDash credits or the DashPass, I was not going to use the $50 Hotel credit, but I was going to utilize the transfer partner system to book flights on points. There is no reason to pay for a luxury credit purely for ownership. I weighed my options and decided that I was going to transfer my points preemptively to United Airlines, and cancel the card. Then the rumor came out.

I read it first on Reddit. The Sapphire Preferred was getting an upgrade. I was expecting something small, something that corporate banks would brag about without being of any actual value. Something like a new cash back category “Now offering 2x points on Pokémon Cards”. I am always interested in changing cash back rewards, but this upgrade was geared towards the bonuses. The rumor stated that the Sapphire Preferred owners were going to be receiving TSA PreCheck credit, $100 of Travel Portal credit, and to my surprise, 1 year of Apple TV. Additionally, a new reward category of 3x points on Gas Stations. This seemed too good to be true, as the trend in major banks is to reduce the rewards and bonuses on credit cards, not amplify them.

But I was hopeful, I was willing to take the risk. So I waited past my renewal date. I could afford it, and worst case scenario I get more time to transfer my points, or a longer duration of travel protection. This was my gamble, and in my situation, not even that risky. With some crazy luck, the risk paid off. The rumors were absolutely true, and I was shocked. I wouldn’t be using most of the new bonuses though. I don’t own a car in Germany, I rarely go to hotels, I won’t be in the states until after my Master’s degree, so most of the bonuses were not worth it to me.

The one singular thing that I would extract maximum benefit from with this structure change in the credit card is the year of Apple TV. I don’t know if this is a promotion by Apple to gain more users, or a promotion by Chase to attract more card applications, but I was already a user and an account owner. I was already willing to pay close to $160 for Apple TV, and the Sapphire Preferred went ahead and covered that for me, at the cost of $95. So instead of spending $160 to watch Formula 1 for the next year, I only spend $95, and I get a fairly powerful credit card as a bonus.

This is what I consider a huge win, but one thing has to be discussed. I recently wrote about The Coupon Book Model and how this is a dangerous framing. In brief, credit card companies will offer you credits or discounts to trick you into rationalizing that you are saving by using their product. This is always true with credit cards. Simply because a free credit card exists, no amount of spending on an annual fee will make the product more ‘worth it’. The whole point of that post and this post are to cover the pros and cons of coupon book credit cards. In general, I would never recommend a coupon book credit card for the coupons. That being said, there are a very small amount of situations where it can actually prevent you from spending more, but you have to be vigilant and financially responsible.