Hi everyone, first post, sorry for the noob question. I currently have a Sapphire Preferred that I want to upgrade to a Sapphire Reserve. Since I'm going to be doing this anyway, I've been looking for a way to get the Reserve's 50,000 point signup bonus. I understand that when you upgrade directly from the Preferred to the Reserve you're not eligible for the bonus. I know that I can cancel my Preferred and then sign up for Reserve but by doing so I'd forfeit all of my current Ultimate Rewards points.
My question is this. Is it a viable workaround to downgrade my Sapphire Preferred to a Freedom Unlimited, open a new Sapphire Reserve, and then transfer my current points from the Freedom Unlimited to the Sapphire Reserve? Will this successfully meet my goals of keeping all of my existing points intact, and getting me the 50,000 point Reserve signup bonus?
Also, because I think you can only get a new card bonus once every 24 months, I got my Preferred card in June, 2018 and hit the sign-up bonus in August, 2018, so it's been more than 24 months since the last time I opened a card, but not quite 24 months since I last qualified for a card-opening bonus.