by Andrew Kunesh, Senior Reporter, Cards & Loyalty
Whether you have been building up a pile of Chase Ultimate Rewards points for years or are still eyeing the elevated welcome bonuses on the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and the Chase Sapphire Reserve® — 75,000 Ultimate Rewards points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening, you might be curious about the easiest ways to redeem the very valuable rewards you can earn from these popular Chase cards.
While we often talk about transferring Chase points to airline and hotel partners since it generally provides the maximum value for your points, if you’re new to Ultimate Rewards and want to keep things as simple as possible, you might not yet be interested in transferring your points to partners. And there’s good news: You don’t have to transfer your Ultimate Rewards points, as there are some easy, stress-free ways to put them to use.
A popular way to redeem Chase Ultimate Rewards points is through the Chase portal; if you have the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card, you can redeem your points at a fixed rate of 1.25 cents apiece. You can access the portal while logged in to your Chase account, and it works a lot like searching for travel on Expedia … except you can use points. For example, if you wanted to book a flight that would cost $350 if booked with cash, it would cost you 28,000 points. As a fun perk, you will typically earn airline miles and elite status credit with the airline you select by booking this way.
This way to use points works not only for airlines but also for many hotels and activities (such as some theme park tickets) available via the Chase Travel℠ portal. A 75,000-point welcome bonus would be worth $937.50 when used this way.
Pro tip: If this is how you prefer to redeem your points, the Chase Sapphire Reserve may be the right card for you, as it provides a value of 1.5 cents per point redeemed this way, which means a 75,000-point bonus would be worth $1,125.
If this way of redeeming points sounds better to you than dealing with transfer partners, here are some more articles to get you going.
Enjoy your weekend, whether it’s spent earning or redeeming points!
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Check out the current welcome offers across these Marriott Bonvoy credit cards from Chase and American Express. They can get you valuable bonus points to use for Marriott hotel stays.
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