Best Use of Chase Ultimate Rewards Points

[WalnutBaron]

The Points Guy offers an excellent summary of best uses for your Ultimate Rewards Points from the Chase Sapphire cards.

For those of us who like to travel (which must be just about everyone on TUG), the best way to stretch your points is by using the UR Travel portal available when you sign in to your account. It gives a 50% bonus on on points value, effectively providing you a one-third discount on travel expenses. You can book flights, hotels, excursions--even cruises--using this portal.

As I've posted elsewhere, Chase recently appointed a new President for this part of their business in light of the fact that Chase now believes they will never make a profit on the Chase Reserve and Chase Preferred cards as they are presently constructed. We all know what that means: the very likely possibility that a downgrade in points value is coming (though probably not until a year from now).

Time to use those points!

 

[rickandcindy23]

I don't think they will take points from you, but they could make them worth only 1.25X, and that would affect us. I see them doing something like that. Maybe they will just drop the expensive Priority Pass Lounge benefit. That would be fine with me. We rarely fly into airports with lounges.

We can book first class tickets to and from Hawaii for less UR points than we can book award seats on the same airline, which is usually Alaska, and we don't have to worry about availability with our Alaska points. I like it better. We are still building points, too, with Alaska, when we book our flights. It's working great. We usually fly first class from the coast and fly to the coast, spend the night, then fly from Oakland or Seattle. The seats are usually less than $500 so reasonable UR points.

 

[mjm1]

We have been using our Chase points for travel, which has been a nice benefit. We have also used the Priority Pass a lot, so hopefully they don’t drop that benefit. But it certainly sounds like they will do something in order to make it profitable for them.

Best regards.

Mike

 

[VacationForever]

I have only used them as transfer to my United account. I needed part of the points from UR to clobber together 720K for our 2 business round trip tickets for our South East Asia trip next year.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

I love using Chase to buy business class upgrades to Asia or Europe on UAL. We buy coach class UAL tickets directly on the Chase portal using chase points. This counts as a paid ticket on United and is not limited by UAL award availability. Because UAL awards tickets cannot be upgraded, once we get the "paid" UAL coach ticket, we then transfer miles to UAL to purchase a business class upgrade with cash and UAL points. This year we flew in lie-flats on the upstairs bubble of a 747 to Asia with a total cost of $500 per ticket each way in out of pocket plus points. This technique works when UAl pricing to Europe and Asia are low because the Chase tickets are tied to the cash cost of the points.

I also recommend calling in to chase to buy airline tickets via Chase portal because they have access to more ticket choices than what's available online.

We also enjoy using the Chase points to transfer to Hyatt for award stays.

 

[WalnutBaron]

I love using Chase to buy business class upgrades to Asia or Europe on UAL. We buy coach class UAL tickets directly on the Chase portal using chase points. This counts as a paid ticket on United and is not limited by UAL award availability. Because UAL awards tickets cannot be upgraded, once we get the "paid" UAL coach ticket, we then transfer miles to UAL to purchase a business class upgrade with cash and UAL points. This year we flew in lie-flats on the upstairs bubble of a 747 to Asia with a total cost of $500 per ticket each way in out of pocket plus points. This technique works when UAl pricing to Europe and Asia are low because the Chase tickets are tied to the cash cost of the points.

I also recommend calling in to chase to buy airline tickets via Chase portal because they have access to more ticket choices than what's available online.

We also enjoy using the Chase points to transfer to Hyatt for award stays.

Great tips, Calgal. Thanks!

 

[rickandcindy23]

Yes, Calgal! Thanks for the information. That was very helpful to me, especially calling into Chase to book flights not available through the portal. I didn't know there were more options with a phone call. You learn something new every day.

 

[VacationForever]

I love using Chase to buy business class upgrades to Asia or Europe on UAL. We buy coach class UAL tickets directly on the Chase portal using chase points. This counts as a paid ticket on United and is not limited by UAL award availability. Because UAL awards tickets cannot be upgraded, once we get the "paid" UAL coach ticket, we then transfer miles to UAL to purchase a business class upgrade with cash and UAL points. This year we flew in lie-flats on the upstairs bubble of a 747 to Asia with a total cost of $500 per ticket each way in out of pocket plus points. This technique works when UAl pricing to Europe and Asia are low because the Chase tickets are tied to the cash cost of the points.

I also recommend calling in to chase to buy airline tickets via Chase portal because they have access to more ticket choices than what's available online.

We also enjoy using the Chase points to transfer to Hyatt for award stays.

I have explored this option of requesting a biz class upgrade after paying for an economy seat but the system simply said that it was waitlisted on UAL. Were you waitlisted until date of flight?

We need guaranteed business lie flat seats and will not take a chance of being waitlisted.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

@VacationForever It depends on the flights and how full they are. You can check for availability in each class on the UAL site if you start to book a dummy ticket. If we order the tickets early then it is usually automatic. We have been waitlisted on certain legs but it clears about a week to 2 months before the flight but usually a month before the flight. This happened on a European business trip this year too. My DH is UAL silver elite and has the UAL Chase card so perhaps this helps us to get some priority?

Our back-up plan is if we don't get into business we upgrade to economy plus seats. However this has never happened. He travels on business so his company will pay for Eplus but not business class so worst case is not bad.

 

[VacationForever]

@VacationForever It depends on the flights and how full they are. You can check for availability in each class on the UAL site if you start to book a dummy ticket. If we order the tickets early then it is usually automatic. We have been waitlisted on certain legs but it clears about a week to 2 months before the flight but usually a month before the flight. This happened on a European business trip this year too. My DH is UAL silver elite and has the UAL Chase card so perhaps this helps us to get some priority?

Our back-up plan is if we don't get into business we upgrade to economy plus seats. However this has never happened. He travels on business so his company will pay for Eplus but not business class so worst case is not bad.

I am UAL Silver and also have UAL Chase card. When you said automatic when booking early, does it mean instant?

My husband does not want to take the risk of not having lie flat seats.

 

[Sandy VDH]

I have only used them as transfer to my United account. I needed part of the points from UR to clobber together 720K for our 2 business round trip tickets for our South East Asia trip next year.

Wow that is a chunk of points. I got my South East Asia Business Class seat for this year for 160K Per ticket. ANA out and TK back. Lie flat beds both in bound and outbound. I actually circumnavigate the globe for the first time ever, as I always travel east.

Wow 720k is a huge chunk of point, could you NOT find any discounted point fares. I obviously did.

 

[VacationForever]

Wow that is a chunk of points. I got my South East Asia Business Class seat for this year for 160K Per ticket. ANA out and TK back. Lie flat beds both in bound and outbound. I actually circumnavigate the globe for the first time ever, as I always travel east.

Wow 720k is a huge chunk of point, could you NOT find any discounted point fares. I obviously did.

With CalGalTraveler, I am now playing with the UAL site and her method of getting paid upgrades do work for some of the dates, but not prime period. The best case appears to be Economy base rate + $1200 + 60K, which is absolutely fabulous. I have a flight which I am flying to Singapore in March and tried to upgrade and I was successful on one leg (SFO-SIN) and waitlisted for the one coming back. Pretty neat. We plan to try that for our Dec 2018 trip to SIN and return from HKG. My concern is that it is during the holiday season and it may not work.

I can fly Economy Plus but it is non-negotiable with my husband, he could only tolerate lie flat or nothing.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

@VacationForever Yes automatic = instant upgrade.

Another option is to check how many points a business class ticket booked directly from Chase portal would cost (you don't need to limit yourself to United for this). Because Chase UR are revenue-based (and Int'l flights seem to be cheaper than flying to the midwest these days) sometimes they are a lot less points than UAL award rates. Chase also allows cash + points and you can decide on how much cash.

Recommend that you call Chase travel to get all the business class flight options.

 

[VacationForever]

@VacationForever Yes automatic = instant upgrade.

Another option is to check how many points a business class ticket booked directly from Chase portal would cost (you don't need to limit yourself to United for this). Because Chase UR are revenue-based (and Int'l flights seem to be cheaper than flying to the midwest these days) sometimes they are a lot less points than UAL award rates. Chase also allows cash + points and you can decide on how much cash.

Recommend that you call Chase travel to get all the business class flight options.

But can you use cash + points upgrade with Chase or are you looking at a 2-step process, i.e., buy from Chase and then do the upgrade on UAL?

We like UAL because it only has one-stop from SE Asia back to the West Coast and vice versa. Other airlines have 2 stops.

 

[CalGalTraveler]

Cash + points works for any chase portal flight reservation - Econ to UAL 2 step, or bus purchase directly. Slider on last page before you buy or ask Chase CSR.

You need to try each option to find most cost effective option

 

[rickandcindy23]

Just to make people feel better about the OP's post #1:
We have the Chase Ink Bold and Ink Plus cards, both of which were discontinued years ago. We have been warned on Flyertalk over and over again that when those cards go to renew, we won't get the same benefits we originally had. We do have the very same benefits. Not one of the benefits were taken away over the last three years of having the card after it became defunct.

I imagine Chase will still offer the card and will reduce benefits, but they probably won't reduce benefits for those who already have the card. That was my point.

I was worried when Rick received an envelope from Chase a few days ago. It said there were going to be changes to his credit card. It was his Ink Bold. They basically decided to make it a Visa and not a MC and kept our benefits intact.

The benefits are great. We can buy office supplies for 5X points. We can buy gift cards for 5X points as well. This is a great benefit to us because we do buy Visa gift cards and buy money orders, then we deposit those to our account. I could also pay money orders for some resorts we own that we cannot get 3X (or even pay via credit card), but I choose to deposit the money orders. I can pay DVC with gift cards, which is great because I get 5X on those gift cards. We can do our home improvements with Lowe's and Home Depot gift cards for 5X. Then we transfer those points to our Chase Sapphire Reserve and get 50% more value through the UR portal.