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The New Year arrived seemingly out of nowhere (even though we had plenty of advance notice!). And here we are, almost a week into 2026!
5X on Dining!
This is just a quick reminder that you can earn 5X total Chase points on Dining purchases with the no-annual-fee Chase Freedom Flex® (It’s also available on the legacy Chase Freedom, which is no longer open to new applicants.) (All information about the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom was collected independently by Eye of the Flyer. It was neither provided nor reviewed by the card issuer.) .
Dining is one of the Chase Freedom Flex®‘s 5X categories from January through March. (The other two are Norwegian Cruise Lines and donations to the American Heart Association.)
You can earn a maximum of 7,500 bonus points across the Q1 promotional categories. Once you hit that mark or the promotion ends — whichever comes first — your Dining earnings revert back to 3X. That’s still pretty good — especially for a $0 annual free card!
Manual enrollment is required. Do that at ChaseBonus.com or through your Chase account. Registration is open through March 14.
Exclusions
Per Chase, the following merchants are excluded:
Merchants that sell food and drinks located within facilities such as sports stadiums, hotels and casinos, theme parks, grocery and department stores will not be included in this category unless the merchant has set up such purchases to be classified in a restaurant category. Bakeries, caterers, meal kit delivery services, and gift card merchants are not included in the category.
“Bakeries” is an interesting exclusion. I wonder if that refers more to industrial-oriented bakeries — not necessarily the corner donut shop. Perhaps someone will need to fall on the sword and visit their local bakeries and report back!
Final Approach
5X on Dining is fantastic — and those points add up quickly!
Make sure the Chase Freedom Flex® is in your wallet right now and earn those points!
Advertiser Disclosure: Eye of the Flyer, a division of Chatterbox Entertainment, Inc., is part of an affiliate sales network and and may earn compensation when a customer clicks on a link, when an application is approved, or when an account is opened. This relationship may impact how and where links appear on this site. This site does not include all financial companies or all available financial offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities. Some links on this page are affiliate or referral links. We may receive a commission or referral bonus for purchases or successful applications made during shopping sessions or signups initiated from clicking those links.
These 1st quarter bonus categories are SO weak.
This promotion does not seem to be available for the Chase Freedom Unlimited® card.
Correct. Just the Flex and the legacy Chase Freedom. The Unlimited is its own, separate product. What separates that is that it earns at least 1.5X on all purchases, whereas the Flex’s and legacy’s minimums is 1X.