Many Chase credit cards are part of the Chase Ultimate Rewards program, meaning that they earn you Chase Ultimate Rewards points when you spend on those cards. You earn these points automatically when you use the cards for everyday spending. Ultimate Rewards points are really flexible to use: you can redeem them for cash, merchandise, gift cards, or Shop with Points at amazon.com. However, there are only a few Chase credit cards that let you transfer your Ultimate Rewards points to participating frequent flyer programs around the world. If you are someone who loves traveling, read on to find out how to redeem Chase Ultimate Rewards points for air miles on frequent flyer programs.

• Chase Ultimate Rewards Travel Portal

Chase Sapphire Preferred: $354/1.25= 283; 283 X 100= 28,300 Ultimate Rewards points; SO HERE ARE YOUR TOTALS: Transfer to Marriott (60,000 Ultimate Rewards points per night) Redeem through the Chase Ultimate Rewards booking portal. With CSP (28,300 Ultimate Rewards points per night) with CSR (23,663 Ultimate Rewards points per night).

The following Chase cards are eligible for points transfer to frequent flyer programs:

Earning and Redeeming Power of Chase Ultimate Rewards Points

Although these do each have annual fees – ® Card'>Chase Sapphire Preferred^® Card has a $95 annual fee and Chase Sapphire Reserve Card^sm has a $450 annual fee – their promotional and ensuing rewards are generous. Depending on the card, you can accumulate 60,000 to 100,000 points for threshold purchases made within the first 3 months of card approval.

While both cards offer a 1% reward on all purchases, Chase Sapphire Preferred^® Card gives you double points, Chase Sapphire Reserve Card^sm triple for purchases ranging from travel and dining, hotels and gas stations, and office supplies and telecommunications services.

Plus, each card comes with assorted perks like no foreign transaction fees, annual travel credits, or trip interruption and cancellation insurance. The best perk, however, is the ability to turn those points into miles.

Valuing Chase Ultimate Rewards Points

Yes, Chase Sapphire Preferred^® Card, Chase Sapphire Reserve Card^sm and Chase Ink Plus Business Card let you convert your Chase Ultimate Rewards points into frequent flyer miles. Before you do it, though, understand that once you click on the button to transfer them, these rewards points cannot be refunded.

You may want to check your options first through the Chase Ultimate Rewards travel portal, as each point used there is actually worth 1.25 for Chase Sapphire Preferred^® Card and Ink Plus Business customers and 1.5 for Chase Sapphire Reserve Card^sm customers.

While 500 points are worth 500 miles in your frequent flyer program, 500 points could actually be worth 625 or even 750 miles through Chase's travel portal. Even so, however, for many savvy travelers, the ability to transfer points to their favorite frequent flyer program wins hands down.

Choosing Frequent Flyer Programs

You can transfer your Chase Ultimate Rewards points in 1:1 ratio, in 1,000-point increments to any of the seven airline programs. In addition, some of the airlines belong to global airline alliances, have partnerships with other airlines or both. These help broaden your miles redemption options considerably:

• British Airways has its Executive Club and is part of the 14-member Oneworld alliance.
• Korean Air SKYPASS as well as FlyingBlue (the frequent flyer program of Air France and KLM Royal Dutch), are all part of 20-member SkyTeam.
• United Airlines, with its United MileagePlus program, and Singapore Airlines, with KrisFlyer, are part of the 27-member Star Alliance network.
• Southwest Airlines is an independent airline, its Rapid Rewards program will help you travel more.
• Virgin Atlantic has its Flying Club and partners with 11 other airlines, including Air China, Air New Zealand, All Nippon Airways, Delta Air Lines, Hawaiian Airlines, Jet Airways, Malaysia Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Virgin Australia, South African Airways and Virgin America.

Chase Ultimate Rewards Travel Portal

Screenshot showing how many points you'll need for a round-trip flight from NYC to London

Transferring Chase Ultimate Rewards Points

As long as you've already established a frequent flyer account with your airline of choice, transferring points from your Ultimate Rewards account is simply a matter of indicating how many points you want to transfer, pointing and clicking on your selected program. You must be registered in the frequent flyer program that you want to receive your points before you attempt the transfer.

Most transfers are instantaneous, but Southwest Airlines, for example, may take up to 72 hours to post account changes. If you don't already have a frequent flyer account, opening one is easy, but be aware that airlines differ in how each addresses Ultimate Rewards, what points are worth and how you can use them.

What Are Your Points Worth?

Each airline has its own mileage tables and rewards conversion tables, and no two airlines' mileage rewards redemption calculators are identical. All the variables that normally affect fare price like date, time, season, destination and cabin class determine how many miles a fare is worth.

United offers a handy awards chart based by region, with one-way saver award economy fares from North America to Europe for as little as 30,000 points or to the Caribbean for as little as 17,500. When Southwest offers its sale fares, the discount applies to its Rapid Rewards miles, too.

One restriction to keep in mind is that your miles cover the actual airfare only. You'll still have to pay taxes, fees and additional carrier charges out of pocket. British Airways offers a Reward Flight Saver option that lets you pay your fare in Avios plus a flat fee, but the additional fee is still out-of-pocket. Something else to note, too, is that United discontinued its round the world air rewards as of October 6, 2016.

Paying For Fares

Most airline frequent flyer programs require that you pay for your fare entirely in points or miles. If you need more miles to cover a fare, you can either transfer more Ultimate Rewards points if you have them or purchase more miles through the applicable frequent flyer program to make up the difference. You cannot buy more Ultimate Rewards points from Chase, but you can buy more points from the airline frequent flyer programs.

Just as you can usually spend in increments of 1,000, you usually have to buy in increments as well. Flying Blue flyers, however, must purchase them in 2,000-mile units 'starting from €55,' or about $60. United charges about $35 for 1,000-mile increments, allowing you to buy up to half the fare's required miles. Similarly, you can purchase miles with Southwest in 1,000-point units during promotions but in increments as small as 500 miles or otherwise stated.

Most programs also cap how many miles you can buy within a certain time period. Flying Blue, for example, caps miles purchases for Ivory status tier members at 75,000 miles annually but leaves the ceiling unlimited for Elite status flyers. Southwest caps miles purchases at 60,000 miles daily while British Airways will let you purchase up to 100,000 Avios for each year, for both you and someone else as well.

Transferring, Pooling and Combining Chase Ultimate Rewards Points

One of the most confusing issues surrounding Chase Ultimate Rewards points stems from questions regarding transferring, pooling or combining rewards points or miles from other cards or with other people. The fact that each airline also has its own policies regarding transferring, pooling or combining points only adds to the confusion.

Within the Chase family of cards, you can transfer or combine all your accumulated points from different cards onto one account just about instantaneously. You can also transfer points to a spouse, domestic partner or joint business owner through that person's Chase Ultimate Rewards account or their frequent flyer program account.

Ultimate Rewards will allow you to transfer any amount of points to their Ultimate Rewards account. Transfers to frequent flyer program accounts must follow the 1,000-point increment rule. Note that Chase 'awards' any abuse of this privilege by zeroing out your points and closing your account, so honor the rules to the letter.

Within the airline frequent flyer programs, transferring, pooling and combining practices differ with each one. With British Airways, for instance, you can have a household account, and members can share Avios with up to six household members for free, with a 27,000-mile cap.

With United, you must pay a fee to transfer from one member to another – a $30 transaction fee plus $7.50 for each 500-mile increment, with a 25,000-mile cap. Southwest doesn't allow combining or pooling, but it does allow transfers from one Rapid Rewards member to another for a fee. So, it pays to know in advance what your options are when transferring or applying miles once you've redeemed your Ultimate Rewards points toward a frequent flyer program.

Upgrading With Points

One of the clever options is that you can book your flight through any website, access it through your frequent flyer program and use points to upgrade it.

For example, on United's MileagePlus site, as long as you have a confirmation number and a last name, you can save it into your account and manage adjustments or changes as necessary.

As flyers have been increasingly using this tactic, however, the cost of the points to upgrade may more than make up your bargain discount, and availability may be limited, especially in peak travel times. However, it's an option still well worth checking out.

Using Your Chase Ultimate Rewards Points Well

As you can tell by now, to redeem the greatest benefit from your Ultimate Rewards points, you must explore a number of venues. While sometimes complex, the rules form the bridge connecting your own individual Ultimate Rewards account with those of other Ultimate Rewards members and your accounts with Ultimate Rewards frequent flyer airline partners. Despite and thanks to all the variables, you have tons of options and really, for most flyers, only a few restrictions.

Thankfully, blackout dates aren't one of them.

Credit Card	Features	Intro APR	Regular APR	Annual Fee	Why we like it	We least like	Credit Required	Related links

Credit Card	Features	Intro APR	Regular APR	Annual Fee	Why we like it	We least like	Credit Required	Related links

The Chase Sapphire Reserve® is a premium card with an unprecedented slate of cardholder goodies. They include a drool-worthy sign-up bonus, ample spending rewards, a suitcase full of premium travel perks, travel credits worth hundreds of dollars annually and many lesser-known gems.

The list of benefits and rewards is dizzying — and you pay a hefty annual fee of $450 to get them. That makes it crucial to extract as much value from the card as possible. Making the most of the Chase Sapphire Reserve® means taking full advantage of the perks it provides, as well as accumulating and spending rewards wisely. Here’s how to do that.

Earn the sign-up bonus

When you’re approved for any new credit card, you want to meet the requirements to collect its sign-up bonus. This is especially important with the Chase Sapphire Reserve® because the bonus unlocks much of the card’s overall value.

Chase describes the bonus like this: Earn 50K bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. That's $750 toward travel when you redeem through Chase Ultimate Rewards® .

So you’ll want to use the card heavily at first. For many people, that means using it for everyday spending and large purchases. Big spenders who can meet the threshold easily might use it more strategically by spending mostly in the bonus categories of dining and travel. Just make sure you hit the required spending level by the deadline.

Balance transfers don’t count toward the required spending — and the card is a poor choice for balance transfers anyway, with a fee of 5% of the amount transferred. The ongoing APR is 19.24% - 26.24% Variable APR.

Rack up rewards points

The rewards on the Chase Sapphire Reserve® encourage you to keep using the card long after you’ve pocketed the bonus.

The card gives you unusually good rewards in two popular categories: travel and restaurants, which earn 3 Ultimate Rewards points per $1 spent. It gives 1 point per $1 spent on other purchases. Points can be worth 1.5 cents apiece or more, depending on how you redeem them, so never miss an opportunity to earn bonus rewards.

• Triple points for travel doesn’t apply just to airfare and hotels. Use the card for other expenses that qualify as travel, such as taxi rides, train fares, even parking lots and garages. Gas doesn’t count as travel, however.
• Triple points for dining out means the Chase Sapphire Reserve® should always be the card you hand to the waiter. Fast food and fast casual qualify, too.

Chase’s website includes an FAQ that spells out what kinds of merchants count in which categories.

Use the travel credit

The Chase Sapphire Reserve® is a general travel credit card that doesn’t require loyalty to a specific airline or hotel chain. That makes using its $300 annual travel credit much easier.

The card’s daunting downside, the annual fee of $450, becomes much easier to stomach if you know you’ll use the travel credit. That lowers the effective cost of the card to $150 per year.

Travel reimbursement is granted annually based on your cardholder anniversary. (For accounts opened after May 20, 2017. For older accounts, annual meant a calendar year.) Unused credit doesn’t carry over from year to year. Chase applies the credit automatically to your travel purchases, essentially erasing the first $300 worth each year. The credit applies to the same kinds of purchases that qualify for triple points as travel.

» MORE:How credit card issuers define travel

Redeem points for travel through Chase

Chase offers multiple ways to use your rewards points — cash back or gift cards at a rate of a penny per point, for example. But most aren’t as valuable as using them to book travel through the Chase Ultimate Rewards travel portal. There, points are worth 1.5 cents each, or 50% more than their cash value.

That means the rewards rate you earn by using the Chase Sapphire Reserve® on dining and travel effectively jumps from 3% to 4.5% if you spend points by booking travel through Chase. And spending on everything else returns 1.5%, putting it on par with some of the better flat-rate rewards cards.

When booking travel through Chase, there are no flight blackout dates.

If you do just three things — earn the sign-up bonus, use those points to book travel through Chase and use your annual travel credit — you’ve essentially covered the annual fee for five years. That’s because the bonus is worth $750 and the effective annual fee after travel credits is $150.

» MORE:Chase Ultimate Rewards review

Transfer points for more value

One option for redeeming your points is more limited but could yield even better value than booking through Chase: transferring points to a partner airline or hotel loyalty program.

You can transfer Ultimate Rewards points to one of Chase’s partner airlines or hotel loyalty programs at a 1:1 rate.

For example, say you found a $500 United Airlines flight for 25,000 miles at united.com. You could convert 25,000 Ultimate Rewards points into 25,000 United miles and then pay for the ticket with them, giving you a redemption rate of 2 cents per point. That’s higher than the 1.5 cents per point you get for booking the same flight through the Chase travel agency, where the $500 fare would cost 33,333 points.

Transfer partners are:

Airlines:

• Air France/KLM.
• British Airways.
• Korean Air.
• Singapore KrisFlyer.
• Southwest.
• United.
• Virgin Atlantic.

Hotels:

• Hyatt.
• Marriott.
• InterContinental Hotels Group.
• Ritz-Carlton.

Avoid other redemption options

You can also redeem points for cash starting at 2,000 points ($20) with a statement credit or electronic deposit into a checking or savings account. That’s not terrible, but not as lucrative as redeeming for travel. Gift cards are available but aren’t a deal unless they’re offered at a discount, making your points worth more than a penny each. Using points for Amazon shopping is an even worse deal; points there are worth 0.8 cent each.

Capitalize on other travel perks

The Chase Sapphire Reserve® includes other perks that add value:

• Lounge access: Be sure to activate your included membership in Priority Pass Select, which gives you access to more than 1,000 airport lounges worldwide. To find a lounge at airports you frequent, see the list.
• Global Entry or TSA PreCheck: The card will reimburse you the application fee for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck, programs that give you access to special — and often speedier — lines at airport security and customs. The fee is $100 for Global Entry and $85 for TSA PreCheck. You are reimbursed for one or the other. Both programs are good for five years, and you’re eligible for reimbursements once every four years — presumably so you can reapply before your membership in a program expires. You must charge the application fee to the Chase Sapphire Reserve®, and you’ll receive a statement credit automatically.
• Rental car discounts: Discounts are available when booking with the card at National Car Rental, Avis and Silvercar.
• Hotel perks: Chase promises special benefits if you book your hotel stays through the Luxury Hotel and Resort Collection program, LHRCollection.com. Benefits vary by hotel but could include a room upgrade, breakfast and early check-in and late checkout.
• Other benefits: The card has no foreign transaction fees and includes travel and purchase protections, travel assistance and concierge service. Many of these perks stem from the card being on the Visa Infinite platform.

Team it with a different card

The bonus categories on the Chase Sapphire Reserve® are good for earning Ultimate Rewards points, but if you’re willing to use a complementary card in tandem, you can rack up points even faster.

Two good choices from Chase also earn Ultimate Rewards points, which you can transfer to the Chase Sapphire Reserve® and redeem for travel at the higher rate.

They are the Chase Freedom®, which gives 5% back in rotating bonus categories and 1% back on everything else, and the Chase Freedom Unlimited®, which pays a flat 1.5% back regardless of what you’re buying (in the first year, that rate rises to 3% on the first $20,000 in spending). Chase markets these as cash-back cards, but they earn rewards in points you can transfer to the Chase Sapphire Reserve®.So, for example, if restaurants are a quarterly bonus category for the Chase Freedom®, it’s a better card to use for dining out than the Chase Sapphire Reserve®. That’s because you get 5 points per dollar spent instead of 3 points, at least up to the Chase Freedom® spending limit of $1,500 per quarter.

Then, to get the most of those points, you could transfer them to your Chase Sapphire Reserve® account and book travel through Chase, getting a reward boost equivalent to a 7.5% return.

How to redeem rewards on the Chase Sapphire Reserve®

To redeem your points:

1. Log on to your Chase account.
2. Select “Ultimate Rewards” at the bottom left, and select the card you want to access. If you have several Chase cards, they’ll all be displayed together.
3. Choose how you’d like to use your points.

The Chase Sapphire Reserve® has oodles to offer frequent travelers, but it’s worth getting only if you can extract enough value from rewards and perks to outweigh the annual fee. If you make the most of the card, you will do just that.

You may also like