Chase Ultimate Rewards is a transferable points program available through a number of Chase cards. In my comparison of transferable points programs, Chase Ultimate Rewards came out ahead of Amex Membership Rewards, Citi ThankYou Rewards, and Capital One “Miles.” Chase offers a great combination of easy-to-earn points and both easy and valuable point redemptions. Those who are primarily interested in luxury international award flights will likely do even better with Amex, but if you’re interested in hotel awards, domestic flights, or miscellaneous travel value, Chase is a great pick.
Chase updated their Sapphire Preferred and Reserve cards in August 2021 with new point earning opportunities and perks. For the Sapphire Preferred in particular, this helps to at least bring the card on-par with the fee-free Freedom cards which Chase updated in 2020.
Chase’s Ultimate Rewards points can be earned primarily via new account bonuses, referral bonuses, and credit card spend. As long as you have at least one Ultimate Rewards card with an annual fee, those points can then be transferred to airline or hotel partners, used to pay for travel at better than 1 cent per point value.
Below, you’ll find everything you need to know about Chase Ultimate Rewards…
How To Earn Chase Ultimate Rewards Points
Credit Cards
| Card Offer and Details |
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All of the cards listed above earn Ultimate Rewards that can be transferred to travel partners provided you have at least one Ultimate Rewards-earning card that has an annual fee.
There is an exception though. The Chase Ink Business Premier card earns Ultimate Rewards and has an annual fee. What’s important to know though is that Ultimate Rewards earned on that particular card (a charge card rather than a credit card) aren’t transferable – they can only be redeemed for cash or some other redemption options.
| Card Offer and Details |
|---|
Ultimate Rewards cards no longer available to new applicants
| Card Name w Details & Review (no offer) |
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| Card Name w Details & Review (no offer) |
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Bank Products
Some Chase banking products also earn Ultimate Rewards points bonuses. If you can find a good signup bonus (like this expired one), you can earn as many as 60,000 points that way. Similar offers occasionally surface for things like new mortgage accounts, though you’ll want to be sure you’re getting the best rate along with your points.
Keep in mind that points earned through banking are generally taxable. However, unlike points earned from Citi’s banking products, Chase Ultimate Rewards points earned from bank account bonuses can be transferred to airline partners or combined with another member of your household.
Refer Friends
Referring friends is often a good way to earn extra points with Chase products, but referral offers come and go over time. When referral offers are available, Chase sends emails to eligible cardholders with the offer details. Cardholders can also look for Chase friend referral offers here.
Redeem Points
Ultimate Rewards points are worth 1 cent each when redeemed for cash. That said, there are a few ways in which it is possible to get more value:
- “Pay Yourself Back”: Up to 1.5 cents per point value.
- Redeem points for travel: Up to 1.5 cents per point value.
- Transfer points to airline and hotel partners: Value depends on how your airline or hotel points are used.
- Redeem points for gift cards: A selection of brands go on sale for 10% off each month, although in many cases you’d be better off redeeming points for cash and buying the gift cards for more than 10% off elsewhere.
Move Points to a Premium Card First
Points earned on fee-free Ultimate Rewards cards are not directly eligible for any of the above better-than-one-cent-per-point redemptions, but you can move points first to a premium card (Sapphire Preferred or Ink Business Preferred, for example) or ultra-premium card (Sapphire Reserve) in order to get the best value from your points. In fact, you only need one premium or ultra-premium card per household since points can be freely moved from one card to another within a single household. A family working together, for example, could have a single Sapphire Reserve card and use that one card as the vehicle for redeeming points. All points earned on the family’s other Ultimate Rewards cards (Freedom, Ink, etc.) would be moved to the Sapphire Reserve account for that purpose.
Pay Yourself Back
Chase allows most Sapphire, Freedom, and Ink cardholders to “Pay Yourself Back”. The basic idea is that you can exchange your Chase Ultimate Rewards points for statement credits against certain categories of purchases. Here’s the link to use this feature yourself.
Chase changes or renews the eligible categories every few months. When using this feature, Sapphire Reserve cardholders get 1.25 cents per point value for most categories, and all other eligible cardholders get 1 cent per point value. Chase used to offer 1.5 cents per point value for Sapphire Reserve cardholders and 1.25 cents per point value for Sapphire Preferred cardholders. That was a decent deal. With the lower redemption values in play today, we no longer recommend this option. More details about Chase's Pay Yourself Back feature can be found here.
Travel
- Redeem points for travel booked through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal at a value of 1.25 cents per point with the Chase Sapphire Preferred or Ink Business Preferred
- Redeem points for travel booked through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal for 1.5 cents value with the Chase Sapphire Reserve.
Redeeming points for travel through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal
With many no-annual-fee Chase credit cards, you can redeem points for travel booked via Chase Ultimate Rewards at a rate of just 1 cent per point (or you could alternatively book travel anywhere and cash out your points for a statement credit at a value of $0.01 each). As an example, if you have a card like the Chase Freedom Unlimited card, a $600 flight would cost you about 60,000 points. See this example of a flight that costs $601.20 or 60,120 Ultimate Rewards points.
However, with the Chase Sapphire Preferred or Chase Ink Business Preferred card, you'll get 1.25 cents per point value. The same example flight would cost just 48,096 points when booked through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal.
You'll get the most value with the Chase Sapphire Reserve at 1.5 cents per point. The same example flight would cost just 40,080 points with the CSR when booked through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal.
Cardholders can book airfare, hotels, cruises, and car rentals in this way. Airfare purchased via the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal still earns airline miles and elite qualifying miles. Hotels booked this way do not earn hotel rewards. Worse, hotels booked via the Ultimate Rewards portal often will not offer you elite benefits even if you have status.
Fortunately, when you pay with points for travel, Chase's automatic travel protections do apply. So, you can be covered for things like trip delays, trip cancellation & interruption, lost luggage, etc. The coverage you receive will be based on which card's rewards were used to book the trip. For example, if you have both a Chase Sapphire Preferred and a Sapphire Reserve, you would want to move your Ultimate Rewards points from the Preferred to the Reserve and then use the Reserve points to book your trip. You will get both better value (1.5 cents per point) and better travel protections.
The following chart summarizes travel insurance provided automatically by each Ultimate Rewards card. Cells in green indicate best in class coverage, yellow indicates good coverage, red indicates worse than peers' coverage. "Pay partial" means that you can get full coverage even if you pay only part of your transportation costs with this card. For example, you could pay just the taxes and fees for an award flight. Or, you could pay part of a cruise with gift cards and the rest with the credit card. See Ultimate Rewards credit card travel insurance for a more detailed comparison beyond this chart summary.
| Sapphire Reserve | Sapphire Preferred | Ink Business Preferred | Ink Cash, Ink Business Unlimited | Freedom, Freedom Flex, Freedom Unlimited | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver | Primary | Primary | Primary for Business* | Primary for Business* | Secondary* |
| Roadside Assistance | 4X per year limit | Pay per use | Pay per use | Pay per use | Pay per use |
| Trip Cancellation and Interruption | Pay partial | Pay partial | Pay partial | N/A | Pay partial |
| Trip Delay | 6 hour delay Pay partial | 12 hour delay Pay partial | 12 hour delay Pay partial | N/A | N/A |
| Lost Luggage | Pay partial | Pay partial | Pay partial | N/A | N/A |
| Baggage Delay | 6 hour delay Pay partial | 6 hour delay Pay partial | 6 hour delay Pay partial | 6 hour delay Pay partial | N/A |
| Travel Accident Insurance | Pay partial | Pay partial | Pay partial | Pay partial | N/A |
| Emergency Evacuation and Transportation | $100K limit Pay partial | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Emergency Medical and Dental | $2,500 limit Pay partial | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
* Each of these cards offers primary coverage outside of your country of residence. Unfortunately, the Ink Cash, Ink Business Unlimited, Freedom, Freedom Flex, and Freedom Unlimited cards all incur foreign transaction fees outside of your country of residence.
If you would like to use points earned on other cards with a card like the Sapphire Preferred or Sapphire Reserve, combine your Ultimate Rewards points with other cards in your name or with one other member of your household or business partner.
Transfer points
The best use of Ultimate Rewards points, in my opinion, is to transfer points to airline and hotel partners in order to book high value awards. Your best bet is usually to wait until you find a great flight or night award before transferring points. Points transfer at a ratio of 1:1 as shown in the list of transfer partners below. Keep in mind that while transfers are instantly posted to most loyalty programs, transfers to Singapore Krisflyer and Marriott Bonvoy are not instant.
Current transfer bonuses
If there are any current transfer bonuses from Chase Ultimate Rewards, details will appear here:
| Transfer Bonus Details | End Date |
|---|---|
| Chase: 30% transfer bonus to Virgin Atlantic | 2023/06/15 |
Chase Ultimate Rewards Transfer Partners
| Rewards Program | Best Uses |
|---|---|
| Aer Lingus Avios | Fuel surcharges are sometimes lower when booking with Aer Lingus (Avios.com) 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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 be had in redeeming BA points for short distance flights. It's possible to move points (Avios) between Iberia, British Airways, Aer Lingus, and Qatar. See also: Avios Sweet Spots for Award Tickets. |
| Emirates Skywards | The best use of Emirates miles has been to fly Emirates itself. Unfortunately fuel surcharges can be steep. See: Emirates Sweet Spot Awards - First class from 30K miles round trip. |
| Hyatt | Use for Hyatt free nights, free suite nights, lounge upgrades, or suite upgrades. Hyatt points are often worth at least 2 cents each, but they’re sometimes worth far more. Bonus: award nights are not subject to resort fees. |
| Iberia Avios | Iberia offers very low award prices on their own flights 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. |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| Marriott Bonvoy | 5th Night Free awards. Opportunities to get outsized value exist but can be hard to find. |
| 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) |
| 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). |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| Virgin Atlantic Flying Club | Virgin Atlantic offers a few great sweet spot awards including US to Europe on Delta One business class for 50K points one-way. See: Best uses for Virgin Atlantic points (Sweet Spot Spotlight). |
Cash back
Chase Ultimate Rewards cardholders can redeem points for 1 cent each either as statement credits or as cash back. Cash back can be taken as a statement credit or via check or ACH transfer.
Other ways to redeem points
You can also use points to pay some merchants directly (Amazon.com, for example or via Chase Pay). Don't do this. These options offer very poor value. Further, they may compromise the security of your account (i.e. if someone hacks into your Amazon account, they might spend your Ultimate Rewards points - causing you a headache in getting your points reinstated).
Sweet spot awards
Our post, Chase Ultimate Rewards sweet spots, details the best value uses of Chase Ultimate Rewards. Either click here or click below to jump to a section of the post:
- Hotels
- Domestic US flights
- Hawaii
- Europe
- Asia
- Caribbean / Latin America
- Africa
- Australia / New Zealand / Oceania
Manage Points
Combine Points Across Cards
If you intend to cancel a Chase Ultimate Rewards card, you should first combine your points with a card you intend to keep active. Once you cancel, you will forfeit any unused points in that account (See: My 90,000 Ultimate Rewards Points mistake). A product change should not affect your balance, but some people prefer moving points before a product change as well just to be safe.
Share Points Across Cardholders
Why this is valuable:
- You earn points with the card offering the best return on purchases and then use points with the card offering the best redemption rate.
- Only one member of your household needs to maintain a premium card for transferring to partners or booking travel (though note that the primary cardholder can only transfer points to partner loyalty programs in the name of the primary cardholder or authorized users).
How to Keep Points Alive
More information
Chase’s official Ultimate Rewards page can be found here.
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