Now that you’ve amassed a huge stash of Ultimate Rewards points after listening to Episode 271, how what? Today, we talk about the top 10 best (and bottom 5 worst) uses of Chase Ultimate Rewards points.
Watch the full episode below, or listen on your favorite podcast platform. You can click the timestamps below to navigate directly to a specific part of the episode within YouTube.
For a transcript of this episode, click “Watch on Youtube” on the video below, then click the “…more” link in the video description. This will expand full video details. Scrolling down past the timestamps and chapters, you’ll see a “Show Transcript” button. If you’re an Apple Podcast listener, you can touch and hold a podcast episode to reveal an option to view a transcript.
Chase points: 10 Best and 5 Worst uses of Ultimate Rewards | Ep272 | 9-13-24
01:10 Announcements
01:12 New “How to” series on Youtube
02:54 Using buying groups to increase spend
04:10 Giant Mailbag: Online grocery is more broadly useful than you think
07:43 Card News
07:45 Increased offers on the Wyndham cards
11:39 What crazy thing…..did Wyndham Rewards do this week?
17:00 Mattress Running the Numbers: Aeroplan to Marriott to MGM
23:41 Award Talk
23:47 United vs Aeroplan
29:59 Discount partner awards for United Premier status
33:12 Which award search tool is best?
37:50 Graduate Hotels via Hilton Honors (earn & redeem is now live)
38:47 Main Event: Top 10 best and 5 worst uses of your Chase points
39:21 #10: Booking travel through the Chase Travel portal with the Sapphire Reserve at a value of 1.5c per points
40:40 #9: 70% transfer bonus to Marriott
42:07 #8 Transfer to Emirates and book first class from New York JFK to Milan or Newark EWR to Athens for 102,000 points + ~$130
44:41 #7 Transfer to United for positioning flights
48:10 #6: Transfer to British Airways Avios to fly Qatar Qsuites to Doha for 70K
49:58 #5: Transfer to Iberia Avios to book business class from the east coast to Europe from 34K Avios one-way
53:33 #4: Transfer to Hyatt to book a suite
56:10 #3: Transfer to Air Canada Aeroplan and book a multi-partner award with a stopover for just 5,000 additional miles
01:00:36 #2 Transfer to Flying Blue to book Air France or KLM Business Class for only 50K one way
01:05:33 #1 : Transfer to Hyatt to book hotels for great value
01:12:18 In-between: Cash out for $0.01 per point
01:14:18 The worst of the worst uses of Chase points
01:14:23 #5 Transferring to any program to book a low-value award
01:16:23 #4 Buying gift cards with your points
01:17:16 #3 Transfer to Marriott without a transfer bonus
01:18:45 #2 Using your points to shop at sites like Amazon
01:20:54: #1 Transfer points to IHG One Rewards
01:23:59 Question of the Week: How do you protect your miles and points?
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Nick and Greg, I wanted to comment about the on-line grocery usage. We have discovered that using the app to pay instore at Fred Meyer (I would assume other Kroger stores also) codes as on-line grocery.
So even after UA’s excursionist perk was basically the single reason Greg won 40k-To-Far-Away with Chase points, it doesn’t even warrant a mention in the 10 best uses of UR?
Not yet seeing the pod on Spotify
Thank you for commenting. Oddly, the podcast platform showed that it was successfully published to Spotify, but after your comment I checked and saw that you were right, it wasn’t there. Carrie is on vacation this week and I uploaded the audio in a different format and it seems that Spotify must not have liked the format I used. I just converted the file to match the usual format and now I see it on Spotify. Thanks again for the comment!
Believe it or not, Marriott points “forfeit” after 24 months of inactivity. Unfortunately that bit me in the past, had a not insignificant amount go bye bye from my wife’s account.
Thanks for the great episode breakdown and transcript instructions, Nick.
Per your increased Wyndham Card reward section (7:47), you highlighted the Business Earner card’s 15K annual bonus being worth the annual fee. I agree.
But given your noting those features of that card, I think it’s also worth emphasizing the uniquely generous category bonuses (8x gas and hotel stays, 5x on all utility charges) and the outstanding Caesars Diamond matching / Cruise matching opportunities that you’ve highlighted elsewhere.
I argued several months back in these comments that the Business Earner card is easily the single best “signup and hold” travel credit card, assuming one can make good use of the points (via Vacasa, transfer to Caesars, or for Wyndham stays). Moreover, it’s perpetually unappreciated because most other bloggers don’t promote it because it doesn’t earn them affiliate commissions.
Recently, approval for the card has seemed harder for many. All the more reason to hold this gem rather than try to churn it.