Update: As of 5/20/22 or earlier, LATAM is no longer available as a transfer partner from Hyatt. That’s unfortunate since this was the most interesting of Chase’s “secret transfer partners.”
Chase Ultimate Rewards points can be transferred 1 to 1 to a number of airline and hotel loyalty programs. At the time of this writing, Chase points transfer directly to the following transfer partners:
- Airlines: Air Canada, Air France/KLM, British Airways, Aer Lingus, Emirates, Iberia, JetBlue, Singapore, Southwest, United, and Virgin Atlantic.
- Hotels: Hyatt, IHG, and Marriott
Thanks to a reader going by the name “Bruce Wayne,” I recently learned that Chase has two more 1 to 1 transfer partners. Sort of. The trick is to transfer to Hyatt and then to these programs…
Chase points transfer 1 to 1 to Hyatt. And Hyatt allows transfers to a number of airline programs, but usually at a poor rate: 5K Hyatt points to 2K airline points; or 50K Hyatt points to 25K airline points. With some programs, though, Hyatt offers better conversion rates…
Transfer 50K to 50K: LATAM Pass, Aeroméxico
Hyatt offers better conversion rates for LATAM Pass (shown on Hyatt’s website as “LanChile Airlines”) and Aeroméxico. In both cases, you can transfer 5,000 Hyatt points to 4,000 airline points. Or, if you transfer 50,000 points at a time, you can transfer 50,000 Hyatt points to 50,000 airline points.
I don’t know of any good uses for Aeroméxico points, but LATAM Pass points do have good uses, especially for booking LATAM member airline’s themselves. We’ve covered this here: LATAM Pass: A sweet spot to South America hiding in Chase’s secret transfer partners. It’s also worth noting that none of the major transferable currencies transfer directly to LATAM Pass, so this may be the only practical way for many of us to get those points. Conversely, Amex Membership Rewards points transfer 1 to 1.6 to Aeroméxico, so if you want Aeroméxico points for some reason, that’s a better way to go.
Better than 2 to 1: Air China, Virgin Atlantic, Qantas, Southwest
In addition to LATAM Pass and Aeroméxico, Hyatt offers better than 2 to 1 conversions to Air China, Virgin Atlantic, Qantas, and Southwest. Here are the conversion ratios:
- Air China: 50K to 40K
- Virgin Atlantic: 50K to 37.5K
- Qantas: 50K to 30K
- Southwest: 50K to 30K
I can’t think of any reason that it would make sense to do any of these conversions, but I’ve included them for completeness. Virgin Atlantic and Southwest, in particular, make no sense to transfer from Chase since both are direct one to one partners from Chase.
Transfer 50K to 25K (no, don’t)
These airlines transfer at Hyatt’s normal rates (5K to 2K; or 50K to 25K):
- Air France
- ANA
- AA
- Asiana
- BA
- Cathay
- China Airlines
- China Southern
- Delta
- Emirates
- Etihad
- Hawaiian
- JAL
- Korean
- Qatar
- Royal Brunei
- Singapore
- Thai
- United
I do not recommend converting points to the above airlines at a 2 to 1 ratio except in very specific situations. For example, if you find an incredibly valuable award and have no other way of getting those miles, it may be worth doing the conversion. Keep in mind, though, that you may be better off simply buying miles in those cases rather than converting your points.
General Chase Transfer Info
Here’s some info you’ll need if you plan to convert points to miles as shown above:
- Chase points convert to Hyatt instantly.
- Hyatt’s terms state that conversions may take 6 to 8 weeks. I expect that it’s much faster in practice, but I haven’t yet tested it.
- Hyatt’s online conversion form is found here: world.hyatt.com/content/gp/en/rewards/air-auto/points-to-miles.html
- All conversions are final and non-reversible
Chase Secret Transfer Partners Conclusion
Via Hyatt, Chase Ultimate Rewards has indirect transfer partners that I wasn’t previously aware of. Among the options, I think some will find one to one transfers to LATAM Pass to be truly useful, especially if transfers happen much faster than Hyatt’s “allow 6 to 8 weeks”. Overall, though, for me this is just a fun and geeky thing to know about.
See Also:
- Chase Transfer Partners (includes more indirect transfer partners beyond the ones highlighted in this post)
- LATAM Pass: A sweet spot to South America hiding in Chase’s secret transfer partners