Chase Will Honor Whole Foods As Part Of The Amazon 5x Freedom Category For Q2 2023

A Chase spokesperson confirmed today with Doctorofcredit that they will honor Whole Foods as part of the Amazon category to earn 5x points on the Chase Freedom and Freedom Flex cards during the second quarter of 2023.

We pointed out in our original post that Whole Foods was included in the fine print of the Amazon category to earn 5x during Q2 2023, yet the Chase system was not automatically awarding those points. This has now been fixed, and everyone should automatically get the proper 5x rewards for purchases since April 1st and continuing through June 30th.

We appreciate you and our cardmembers for flagging this issue, and can report that we’ve taken the necessary steps to research, identify, and rectify the error. Cardmembers will be retroactively rewarded and will have no issues with Whole Foods, as part of the Amazon rewards category, moving forward. And, cardmembers who activate by 6/14 will be rewarded on any applicable spend from 4/1 through 6/30.

View Comments (34)

  • Did anyone receive their 5% for Whole Foods? Did you need to call or contact Chase?

  • I just called customer service to get my 5% bonus for a Whole Foods purchase. I call two and both of them say Whole Foods is not part of the promotion

  • I was at Whole Foods yesterday.
    I took at look at the gift cards they sold and noticed a new one.
    Chewy. It is variable load with maximum of $250.

  • Made two purchases at a Whole Foods on 5/10 with a CFF, one transaction for groceries and one for a 3rd party gift card (Panera). Store required gift cards to be purchased separate from groceries at the Customer Service counter. I have the one year +5% grocery welcome bonus from opening this card in January and both transactions show up as +9% in the pending transactions section of my Rewards Activity dashboard. Probably won't officially post until I pay this statement off but I have no reason to expect it not to go through, transactions looked the same for the stack with regular grocery bonus in Q1.

    They carry Lowe's and Amazon gift cards so you are better off buying these gift cards at Whole Foods for 9X if you have the grocery welcome bonus rather than using the Q2 categories directly with either merchant.

    Gift card selection isn't as large as my usual Kroger store but still some useful options. Saw quite a few VGCs as well as various third parties - Uber, Disney, Delta for travel, some smaller clothing chains like TJ Maxx, Gap, and Lululemon. Lowe's and Home Depot for hardware, some of the Happy cards. No cruise line gift cards unfortunately.

    • 9X points has posted officially on the transactions from last month. I've gone twice since to a Whole Foods and found gift card policies are inconsistent - some stores require purchasing them at Customer Service, others let you buy them as part of a regular grocery order at checkout.

      Groceries mixed with $600 in gift cards went through fine but a separate transaction for a single $500 Amazon gift card was blocked as potentially fraudulent. Didn't get the fraud notification while in store so I couldn't clear it and try again. Cashier couldn't include it with the first transaction due to a limit on the register, I'm guessing for over $1K in gift cards in one purchase.

  • Odd observation on my CF and P2's CFF regarding WH purchases, CFF currently has the 12-month grocery bonus. I activated each card late last month, used each at a WH for small purchases on 4/5 and didn't see the extra points on either purchase summary. I read the original post, then this post and checked again to find no additional extra points.

    Last night I checked my statements, got a notice to activate the bonus categories on each card - verified in the mobile app that the bonus categories were not activated yet, so I went through the activation process (again). Called Chase, was told by a CSR that some card holders may need to re-activate the bonus categories again. Posting here FYI, YMMV.

    I will try again next week, not a total loss with the CFF as I got and fulfilled the BB Offer at 10% up to $25 back, bought an Amazon GC…

    • I shop Whole Foods from time to time for quality. Their prices aren’t bad on a lot of items, compared to Safeway/Albertsons. Like any store, you just have to know what to buy and where to buy it for the best prices.

      • I lol when I read, "Their prices aren’t bad on a lot of items," -- then you saved yourself "compared to Safeway/Albertsons."

        But haven't seen Safeway's in my realm (virginia) this century.... so my comparison points are Kroger, Lidl, Aldi, and Wegman's.... compared to them, I don't know of ANY prices all Whole Wallet that are in the same zip code (yah, sarcasm)....

        Now, presume this will work for gift cards at Whole Wallet, (e.g amazon) and maybe that's the way to go with this promo. Thanks DoC for the effort to get this fixed with Chase.

        • It will work for gift cards if Chase truly fixed it.

          I have a very picky eater in my household so quality of meats is important and no reliable butchers in the area so WF is best for that. Produce is good but overpriced. Pantry items I buy there are similar or cheaper than many stores in the area. I don’t have any of the stores you mentioned except for Aldi but their selection is so limited it’s not worth stopping there. All about location I guess.

      • Yeah, I suppose if you follow the ad maybe? In my experience I find it a lot more expensive than Safeway/Albertsons especially when you consider in rewards/J4u.

        • True. I have limited my shopping at Safeway/Albertsons, their prices have skyrocketed, to only their JFU deals. A lot of their products that I buy are about 20-30% more than Target and Meijer. I suppose it also depends on the area and competition on what is cheaper and what isn't. The Whole Foods near me also has an Amazon Fresh, Meijer, Woodman's, Marianos, etc. within short distances.

  • Very frustrating. Didn’t buy anything at Whole Foods because I didn’t know. That’s 2 months left with 0 compensation after I waited after multiple times to get it cleared for a month with wasted time for points for the quarter (still waiting). Provided multiple screenshots. *sigh* 2nd major disappointment with Chase.