Earning points is often the easy part, but it’s really common to get some ‘analysis paralysis’ when it comes to the best way to turn those points into real-world trips.
Case in point: If you have a credit card that earns Chase Ultimate Rewards points, like the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card or the Chase Sapphire Reserve®, you have several options when it comes to redeeming those points for travel … but which is better?
Chase has 14 different transfer partners, including 11 airlines and three hotel programs. If you’re like me, that may sound like a lot, but the upside of using these partners is that you can leverage award charts and partner awards to get outsized value from your rewards.
For example, you can transfer 60,000 points to Aeroplan and book a lie-flat business-class award to Europe that would sell for thousands of dollars. But … then you have to deal with finding award availability and navigating different award charts and prices. If you want to get 2 – 3 cents per point (or more) in value from your Chase points, this is how you do it.
But if that last paragraph stressed you out, I still have the perfect solution for you: the Chase Travel℠ portal.
Chase Travel is an online booking platform where you can redeem Ultimate Rewards points directly for flights, hotels, rental cars, cruises and more in a way that feels a lot like booking on Expedia or similar.
With the Sapphire Preferred Card, your points are worth a fixed 1.25 cents per point when used this way However, on the plus side, you typically earn frequent flyer miles on the flights you book with those points.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred currently has an elevated welcome offer of 60,000 bonus points after spending $4,000 on purchases within the first three months of account opening, plus a $300 Chase Travel credit for the first year. This means you could earn the equivalent of $1,050 toward travel through the Chase Travel portal from the welcome offer alone.
Or, if you want to stretch the value of those points and are willing to deal with point transfers and award availability, the sky is the limit with partner programs like Air Canada Aeroplan, Flying Blue, World of Hyatt and beyond.
There are no wrong ways to use your Chase points and these stories can help you better understand the pros and cons of using transfer partners versus keeping it simple in Chase Travel.
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