Get $140 extra on top of the Chase Sapphire's 100,000-point bonus

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If you’ve been considering picking up the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card with its limited-time sign-up bonus of 100,000 points, now's the time to move on it. We've gotten word that this deal will expire on May 15th, so there's only a short time left to snag it.

But there’s now also a twist. You can squeeze even more value out of this offer by going through the Rakuten shopping portal, which is offering an extra $100 to successful CSP applicants.

And if you've never been a Rakuten member, you can even pocket yet another $40 in cash, or even more in points. It's honestly a pretty amazing deal, so here’s how to make the most of this opportunity.

Let’s start with the headline offer. The 100,000-point bonus on the Chase Sapphire Preferred is pretty much the deal of the year so far. In the world of travel rewards, 100,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points are incredibly flexible. When redeemed through Chase’s travel portal, they’re worth $1,250.

But savvy users can get even more value by transferring points to partners like United, Hyatt, Air Canada, or a dozen other airline and hotels, where redemptions can be worth potentially much more.

The card itself carries a $95 annual fee, but its benefits — including 3x points on dining, 2x on travel, and an annual $50 hotel credit — make it a staple in many travelers’ wallets.

Here’s where things get more interesting. Right now, on top of the 100k bonus, Rakuten is offering an additional $100 if you apply for the Chase Sapphire Preferred through its shopping portal. You'll get the extra $100 after your card is approved and you keep it open for at least 3 months.

If you're already a Rakuten member, the easiest way to do this is to log into Rakuten, go to this page for the Sapphire Preferred, and apply using the link they provide.

If you have an ad blocker of any sort, make sure it's off and that you complete the application in the same browser window to ensure proper tracking.

But wait! If you’ve never used Rakuten before, right now you can stack an additional $40 bonus on top of that $100 offer.

Now through May 12th, new Rakuten members who sign up through a referral link and make $40 in qualifying purchases within 90 days get an extra $40 in cash back.

Note that the Sapphire Preferred application does not count as spending $40, so you'll need to complete some other purchase through Rakuten in the first 90 days to earn the extra $40 bonus.

But Rakuten has literally thousands of retailers, so it shouldn't be hard to make the threshold at some point in the next 3 months. You can even just buy a $40 gift card for yourself at giftcards.com through Rakuten and earn the bonus that way.

Keep in mind you must use a referral link to get this extra $40, so ask your friends and family who already use Rakuten for one, or feel free to use ours here at Points Path (and we greatly appreciate it if you do).

If you prefer points over cash, you can opt to earn Amex Membership Rewards points instead of cash back at Rakuten. When you choose this option, for each $1 you'd normally earn as cash back, you'll earn 100 points instead.

And right now, if you're an American Express cardholder, you can sign up for Rakuten through the special Amex-Rakuten portal and earn 7,500 Amex Membership Rewards points after spending just $25 with a participating retailer.

You can’t stack the $40 referral bonus and the 7,500 Amex point offer together. But either one adds a nice kicker to the main Chase Sapphire Preferred deal.

Finally, if someone in your family already has a Chase Sapphire Preferred, they should be able to generate a referral link that earns them at least 10,000 bonus points.

If that family member is someone you normally travel or share points with, you might prefer to jointly collect 10,000 extra Chase points versus the Rakuten points or cash back. But if you're eligible for one of the Rakuten new member bonuses, that might still be your best bet.

It’s not often that we see a credit card offer that’s this generous — and even rarer to see one that can be stacked so easily with third-party cash-back and referral bonuses. So if you’ve been holding off on applying for the Chase Sapphire Preferred, this is your sign to go for it before it disappears on May 15th.