Fly to Pattaya, Thailand for Free: Unlocking the Power of the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card

Last Updated on September 23, 2025 by admin

Want to fly to Thailand for free from the US? You can do it with points using the Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card. The current sign-up bonus offers 75,000 Ultimate Rewards points: enough for a roundtrip ticket to Bangkok. Just spend $5,000 within the first three months of account opening, allow about a month for the points to post, then book through the Chase Ultimate Rewards travel portal.

Booking Your Free Flight to Thailand: An Example

On Chase’s travel portal, I priced out a 2 week trip for October, 2025 from JFK airport to Bangkok (BKK). Several options below 75K Ultimate Rewards (UR) points appeared. One great option was on Ethiad Airways in Economy Class:

In cash, the price was $911 but using points it’s only ~73K.

What’s the Catch?

There’s no catch, but you will have to pay a $95 annual fee. If you use the card for everyday expenses within the first 90 days of opening the account, you’d be able to get a ~$900 flight for around $95. Technically not 100% free, but free enough! The bank is heavily subsidizing your trip. Pro tip: use the points to book a trip, then cancel within 11 months so you don’t have to pay the annual fee twice (unless you want to keep it).

Other Alternatives & Conclusion

Another nice feature of the Chase Sapphire Preferred card is that you can transfer points 1:1 to other partners including United Airlines. So if you currently have United Airlines miles, you could use the Chase UR points to “top off” your United account to qualify for an award seat. It never hurts to price out award seats on United itself to see if it gives you cheaper or more convenient flight options than the Chase travel portal itself. With United, you’d have access to all Star Alliance airlines as well.

If you choose to apply for the Chase Sapphire Preferred card using my referral link here, I’ll receive bonus points and you get the same great offer. You’ll probably be shown an offer for the Chase Sapphire Reserve (CSR) card, which has a higher sign-up bonus; but its annual fee is $795, negating the free travel. Just look within the page for the Chase Sapphire Preferred  (CSP) application link.