The world of points and miles has many opportunities to work with a spouse or significant other to maximize your rewards. One of my favorite opportunities comes from Chase: the ability to effectively pool your you and your household partner's Ultimate Rewards points into a single account.
And late last week, we were notified of a potential change to this feature.
In short, Chase's website no longer allows you to add a household member with which to combine your points. However, you can do so over the phone — per an emailed statement from a Chase representative to TPG:
"Currently, if a cardmember would like to add a new card from someone within their immediate household, they can call the number on the back of their card for help to do so."
And I have verified that this functionality does (in fact) still work over the phone.
Here's a full rundown of what we know.
TPG reader Joe Gilbride reached out to me early Friday morning after reading my guide to this process. He was trying to send points from his Chase Sapphire Preferred Card to his wife's Ultimate Rewards account, where she would ultimately transfer them to United MileagePlus. His wife holds Premier 1K status with United, so using miles out of her United account confers a number of additional benefits — including better award availability and select fee waivers.
Unfortunately, he didn't see the option to add his wife's card as a member of his household.
I quickly logged into my own Ultimate Rewards account and found the same thing.
I then popped over to my wife's account. She has the Chase Freedom Unlimited® and Ink Business Cash® Credit Card — and every few months, I transfer her points to my Chase Sapphire Reserve account since they are worth more to us from that account. This allows her to utilize bonus categories on those cards and then effectively convert those earnings into fully-transferable Ultimate Rewards points.
Read more: How to maximize your Chase Ultimate Rewards points
I went ahead and transferred all but a few of her points (my Sapphire Reserve was still showing as a saved card), and then — as a test — I deleted it.
Sure enough, the option to add my card back as a household member is now gone.
Here's what that page used to look like:
And here's what I saw on her account:
Note that the option to add a household member or company owner is no longer there.
What's interesting is that the verbiage just below the above screenshot still indicates that this is an option (emphasis mine):
"You can move your points, but only to another Chase card with Ultimate Rewards belonging to you, or one member of your household or owner of the company, as applicable."
A Chase representative confirmed to TPG that there has been no change in policy — just the process for adding a household member. Here's the full statement:
"Cardmembers still have the ability to combine points between the cards they currently have on file – cards belonging to you or one member of your household – by going online or through Ultimate Rewards in the Chase Mobile App. Currently, if a cardmember would like to add a new card from someone within their immediate household, they can call the number on the back of their card for help to do so."
This morning, I called the number on the back of my wife's Freedom Unlimited, and after being transferred to an agent, I explained that I was trying to add my Sapphire Reserve to her account so I could combine our Chase points. After taking my full card number and initiating a transfer, my card now — once again — appears as a "saved card" in her Ultimate Rewards account.
It's unclear whether this is a temporary situation or a permanent change to the online interface. The agent I spoke to on the phone indicated that they were doing some "maintenance" on the site, which could explain the problem. However, only time will tell if the functionality to add a household member online is eventually restored.
In the meantime, if you're not seeing the option to add a household member, call the number on the back of your card. It's frustrating to have this added hurdle to combine your Chase points, but thankfully, it's just a one-time call to get it set up.
