Introduction
The Chase Ultimate Rewards (UR), one of the most valuable transfer currencies available, can be redeemed through the Chase UR portal.
You will get a value of 1.25 cents per point if you have a Chase Sapphire Preferred and 1.5 cents per point if you have a Chase Sapphire Reserve.
Once you have earned your Chase Ultimate Rewards, you’re now ready to use them for your travel.
But, before you go ahead and book your trip, pay heed to these do’s and don’t’s to maximize your points.
Chase Transfer Partners
You can transfer Chase points to its transfer partners at a 1:1 ratio in 1000-point increments. Chase UR has 14 travel partners — that includes 11 airlines and 3 hotel programs.
Here’s the list of airline frequent flyer programs:
- Air France-KLM Flying Blue
- Aer Lingus AerClub
- Air Canada Aeroplan
- British Airways Executive Club
- Emirates Skywards
- Iberia Plus
- JetBlue TrueBlue
- Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
- Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards
- United MileagePlus
- Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
- IHG One Rewards
- Marriott Bonvoy
- World Of Hyatt
Top 3 Transfer Partners for Best Value
British Airways Executive Club
British Airways (BA) is a part of the Oneworld alliance which includes 14 different airlines that serve about 170 countries giving you more transfer and travel options.
The British Airways Avios is one of the best options to travel to Hawaii. You can fly non-stop from the west coast to Hawaii for just 13,000 points!
Since BA uses a distance-based award chart, you can redeem as few as 9000 Avios when you fly under 1151 miles within North America.
Air Canada Aeroplan
Even if you are not a regular with Air Canada, it is still one of the best travel partners for Chase UR. This is because it is a part of Star Alliance which now gives you the flexibility to redeem your Aeroplan points for flights on over 45 alliance and non-alliance partners.
You can fly for as low as 6000 Aeroplan miles in North America. Flights to Europe can also have some sweet spots with very reasonable costs. For instance, a trip from San Fransisco to Paris can cost you 40,000 points in Economy, one-way. (You can always check out the number of points you will need using the Points Predictor Tool on their website.)
World Of Hyatt
This is our personal favorite. World of Hyatt is the best option for low-cost high-value redemption.
You can get rooms for as low as 5000 points per night on standard dates which could also drop to 3500 points on off-peak dates.
The cash equivalent for the 3500 points is at least $75 — giving you 2.5 cents per point. This is one of the highest values for any program.
3 Transfer Partners To Avoid
IHG One Rewards
IHG points are valued at only 0.5 cents per point which is much lower than the 1.25 cents redemption you can avail of using Chase Sapphire Preferred or 1.5 cents using Chase Sapphire Reserve.
In such cases, you are better off using the Chase Ultimate Rewards Travel Portal to book your rooms.
Marriott Bonvoy
Similar to the issues with IHG, it is more cost-effective if you use the Ultimate Rewards Portal to book a room with Marriott. Additionally, the Marriott Bonvoy points are valued at only 0.7 cents per point.
JetBlue TrueBlue & Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards
JetBlue and Southwest are both tied for the 3rd least favorable transfer partner. Both the airlines have no award charts and the redemptions are always tied to the cash price.
Unless you find really low cash fares, it is not recommended to use these two partners for transfers.
Moreover, once you transfer your points to Southwest Airlines, you are limited to travel by Southwest Airlines ONLY since it has no other alliance/partners.
Final Thoughts
Always choose your transfer partners wisely.
Watch out for the right redemption values, airline alliances, and travel partners to book the best deal.