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Chase Ultimate Rewards points are transferable to many airline and hotel partners. Below you’ll find a complete list of Chase transfer partners (direct and indirect) as well as quick tips for best uses.
Tips
Read all about Chase Ultimate Rewards points here: Chase Ultimate Rewards Complete Guide 2020.
Don’t transfer yet: Don’t transfer points until high value awards are available and you are ready to book them. Transfers are one-way only. Chase Ultimate Rewards points are valuable for their flexibility. Once you transfer, you are locked into a single program that may or may not have awards available.
Move points to a household member or business partner: You can freely move your points from one Chase account to another as long as the other account is owned by a household member or a business co-owner.
Always have at least 1 transferable account: Chase Ultimate Rewards cards with no annual fee (such as Freedom Flex, Freedom Unlimited, and Ink Cash) do not directly allow point transfers to partners. However, if you or a household member or business co-owner have at least one card that permits transfers, then you’re good to go. For example, points acquired through the Chase Freedom card can be moved to a Chase Sapphire Preferred account and then transferred to airline or hotel partners.
Cards that allow point transfers include: Chase Sapphire Reserve, Sapphire Preferred, and Ink Business Preferred.
Don’t forget about the option to “Pay Yourself Back”: Chase offers an option to use points at good value to “pay yourself back” for various types of purchases. With the Chase Sapphire Reserve card you’ll get 1.5 cents per point value via “Pay Yourself Back”. With other cards, you’ll get 1.25 cents per point value. In some cases paying yourself back will give you better value for your points than by transferring to loyalty programs. See this post for details: Chase “Pay Yourself Back.”
Don’t forget about the pay with points option: The Chase Sapphire Reserve card lets you pay with points for many types of travel. When you do so, you’ll get 1.5 cents per point value from your points. With other premium Chase cards (Sapphire Preferred, Ink Business Preferred), you’ll get 1.25 cents per point value. If you or a household member has the Sapphire Reserve card, then it makes sense to move points to that card first before paying with points for travel. In some cases paying with points will give you better value for your points than by transferring to other programs.
Current Transfer Bonuses
Chase rarely offers transfer bonuses but when they do details will appear here:
| Transfer Bonus Details | End Date |
|---|---|
| 40% transfer bonus from Chase Ultimate Rewards to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club | 11/30/24 |
Chase Transfer Partners: Hotels
| Rewards Program | Best Uses | Chase Transfer Ratio (and transfer time) |
|---|---|---|
| Hyatt | Use for Hyatt free nights, free suite nights, lounge upgrades, or suite upgrades. Hyatt points are often worth more than 2 cents each. Bonus: award nights are not subject to resort fees. | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| IHG | IHG dynamically prices their awards and sometimes offer very good value. IHG Premier and IHG Premier Business cards offer the fourth night free on award stays. | 1 to 1 (5 hours) |
| Marriott Bonvoy | 5th Night Free awards. Opportunities to get outsized value exist but can be hard to find. | 1 to 1 (1 - 2 days) |
Chase Transfer Partners: Airlines
| Rewards Program | Best Uses | Chase Transfer Ratio (and transfer time) |
|---|---|---|
| Aer Lingus Avios | Fuel surcharges are sometimes lower when booking with Aer Lingus rather than British Airways, Qatar, or Iberia. It's possible to move points (Avios) between Iberia, British Airways, Aer Lingus, and Qatar. See also: Avios Sweet Spots for Award Tickets. | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Air Canada Aeroplan | Redeem for Star Alliance flights and/or flights with Air Canada partners (such as Etihad). No fuel surcharges; $39 CAD award booking fee; 5,000 points to add stopover on one-way award. See: Air Canada Aeroplan: Everything you need to know. | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Air France KLM Flying Blue | Monthly Air France Promo Awards often represent very good value. Air France miles can be used to book Sky Team awards, including Delta awards. Air France often offers very good business class award pricing between the US and Europe & Israel. | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| British Airways Avios | While flights on British Airways itself often incur outrageously high fuel surcharges, many BA partners charge low or no fuel surcharges. Excellent value can often be had in redeeming BA points for short distance flights outside the US. It's possible to move points (Avios) between Iberia, British Airways, Aer Lingus, and Qatar. See also: Avios Sweet Spots for Award Tickets. | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Emirates Skywards | The best use of Emirates miles has been to fly Emirates itself. Unfortunately fuel surcharges can be extremely steep. One workaround is to book select routes such as JFK to Milan or Newark to Athens. See: How to find and book Emirates first class awards. | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Finnair Plus+ | Finnair points are now "Avios" and points can be moved to/from other Avios programs. Finnair uses zone based award charts rather than distance based. As a result, Finnair sometimes has better (and sometimes worse) pricing than other Avios programs. | 1 to 1 via BA (Instant) |
| Iberia Avios | On their own flights, Iberia offers low award prices and a very reasonable 25 Euro cancellation fee. Partner awards can offer good value under some circumstances as well, but these are usually nonrefundable. Fuel surcharges are sometimes lower when booking with Iberia rather than British Airways, Aer Lingus, or Qatar. It's possible to move points (Avios) between Iberia, British Airways, Aer Lingus, and Qatar. See also: Avios Sweet Spots for Award Tickets. | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| JetBlue | JetBlue points offer the most value when cheap ticket prices are available and when award taxes are high relative to the overall cost of the ticket (more details can be found here). The JetBlue Plus Card and the JetBlue Business Card offer a 10% rebate on awards, so you can get more value by holding one of these cards. | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Qatar Privilege Club Avios | Qatar has reasonable award prices for flying Qatar itself. Points are now transferable 1 to 1 to British Airways (and from there to Aer Lingus or Iberia). It is now also possible to book JetBlue flights with Qatar Avios. | 1 to 1 via BA (Instant) |
| Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer | Use to book Singapore Airlines First Class awards (generally reserved for their own members), Alaska Airlines economy awards, or for Star Alliance awards (including United Airlines). | 1 to 1 (~1 day) |
| Southwest Rapid Rewards | Award flights are fully refundable. Point values vary due to certain taxes not being charged on awards, but tend to average around 1.5 cents per point. | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| United MileagePlus | United offers free award changes and free cancelations. Like Avianca and Aeroplan, United never charges fuel surcharges for awards. Unfortunately, United charges many more miles for international first class awards. Good uses of miles include United's Excursionist Perk awards and (sometimes) dynamically priced United economy awards. | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Virgin Atlantic Flying Club | Virgin Atlantic offers a few excellent sweet spot awards. See: Best uses for Virgin Atlantic points (Sweet Spot Spotlight). | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
Chase Transfer Partners: Indirect
In some cases it is possible to transfer to an airline or hotel program in order to then transfer from that program to another program. I’ll leave it to the reader to decide whether or not it is a good idea to transfer in these ways (hint: these transfers usually represent poor value, but there are exceptions).
| Rewards Program | Chase Indirect Transfer |
|---|---|
| AeroMexico ClubPremier | 50K to 50K via Hyatt |
| Air China Phoenix Miles | 50K to 40K via Hyatt |
| American AAdvantage | 50K to 25K via Hyatt |
| ANA Mileage Club | 50K to 25K via Hyatt |
| Asiana | 50K to 25K via Hyatt |
| Cathay Pacific Asia Miles | 50K to 25K via Hyatt |
| China Southern Airlines’ Sky Pearl Club | 50K to 25K via Hyatt |
| Delta SkyMiles | 50K to 25K via Hyatt |
| Etihad Guest | 50K to 25K via Hyatt |
| Hawaiian Miles | 50K to 25K via Hyatt |
| Hilton | 10K to 15K via Virgin Atlantic |
| JAL (Japan Airlines) Mileage Bank | 50K to 25K via Hyatt |
| Korean Airlines | 50K to 25K via Hyatt |
| Qantas Frequent Flyer | 50K to 30K via Hyatt |
| Royal Brunei Royal Skies | 50K to 25K via Hyatt |
| Thai Airways International Royal Orchid Plus | 50K to 25K via Hyatt |
Which Chase Transfer Partners Are Best?
In my opinion, Hyatt is clearly Chase’s best transfer partner. While you won’t always get great value from Hyatt points, it is often possible to do so. This is especially true when booking a stay that includes resort fees. Hyatt never charges resort or destination fees for award stays. Additionally, Hyatt makes it possible to book standard and premium suites with points. At times it is possible to get unbelievable luxury with a reasonable number of points. See: 5 paths to extreme luxury with Hyatt and World of Hyatt Complete Guide.
The next best transfer partner, in my opinion, is Air Canada Aeroplan. Like United, Air Canada is a Star Alliance member and does not impose fuel surcharges on award tickets. Air Canada, though, often has better award prices, especially on international premium cabin awards.
Most of Chase’s other transfer partners are useful, but only under specific situations. If you have found a high-value use for miles or hotel points and you don’t already have enough, it can make sense to transfer from Chase.
Which Chase Transfer Partners Are Worst?
The one program that I would never recommend transfers to is IHG. It’s not that IHG points aren’t valuable — at times they are. However, IHG often has point sales offering points for only a half cent each. This means that if you cashed out your Chase points for only a penny each, you could indirectly transfer Chase points to IHG at double the normal rate: 1 Chase point = 2 IHG points (during such sales).
See Also
- Amex Transfer Partners
- Capital One Transfer Partners
- Chase Transfer Partners (this page)
- Citi Transfer Partners
- Marriott Transfer Partners
- Transfer Partner Master List
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[…] best way to enjoy them is by transferring them out to travel partner airlines and hotels, here is a guide on how to do this. I usually transfer out to United and Hyatt primarily. Sometimes Southwest. It depends on what I am […]