Navigating the world of credit card rewards can feel like a lot, but with the right strategy, it can also be incredibly rewarding – literally. There are various points and miles programs, but Chase Ultimate Rewards® is my favorite. Whether you’re new to points and miles or an experienced traveler, understanding how to earn, maximize, and redeem Chase Ultimate Rewards® is key to successful award travel. This guide will walk you through everything you need to know.
What are Chase Ultimate Rewards®?
Chase Ultimate Rewards® are points earned from a variety of Chase credit cards. They are flexible points, meaning there are multiple ways they can be used, including transferring to travel partners if you hold the right credit card. Ultimate Rewards® are both easy to earn and easy to use, making them a favorite among the points and miles crowd – myself included.
Ways to Earn Ultimate Rewards
CREDIT CARDS
The fastest way to earn a ton of Ultimate Rewards® is by opening a new credit card and earning the big welcome offer. There are seven credit cards which earn these points – the first three earn fully flexible points, while the other four are considered cash-back cards. However, Chase makes it easy to combine your points onto one of the three flexible points cards – more on that later – essentially making them all earn flexible points.
These are the three cards that earn fully flexible points:
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card
These are the three cards that earn “cash-back”, but actually earn Ultimate Rewards®:
Ink Business Cash® Credit Card
Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card
Related: Business Cards Are Easier Than You Think
SPENDING
You can also earn Ultimate Rewards® by spending money on your credit cards. Each card has specific spending categories that earn anywhere from 1-5X back on your spending. For example, the Sapphire Preferred earns 3X on travel, and the Ink Business Cash earns 5X at office supply stores.
REFERRING FRIENDS AND FAMILY
To earn additional points, you can refer your friends and family members to a Chase card. To do this, first log in to your account. Then, click on your card, then click the down arrow that says “More”, then choose “Account services”, then “Refer a friend”.
Alternatively, you can visit this direct Refer A Friend link.
You can refer friends and family to the exact same card you have or, in some cases, a card that is within the same family. For example, you can refer someone from your Ink Business card to any of the other Ink Business cards.
CHASE OFFERS
One additional way to earn extra Ultimate Rewards® is to take advantage of Chase offers. These are offers that give you a points boost for shopping with specific stores. You will first need to activate the offer to be eligible for the extra points.
Ways to Redeem Ultimate Rewards®
TRANSFER POINTS
My favorite way to use Ultimate Rewards® is to transfer them to travel partners. To access Chase’s transfer partners, you will need a Sapphire Preferred, Sapphire Reserve, or Ink Preferred. All points transfer at a 1:1 ratio in increments of 1,000.
Here are the partners:
- Aer Lingus
- Air Canada
- Air France-KLM
- British Airways
- Emirates
- Iberia
- JetBlue
- Singapore
- Southwest
- United
- Virgin Atlantic
- Hyatt
- IHG
- Marriott
We often transfer our Ultimate Rewards® to Hyatt. Hyatt’s points rates are much lower than those of other hotel chains, which means we can get really great value out of them.
However, we’ve also used them for things like Flying Blue (Air France) flights to Paris, Southwest flights to Hawaii, Virgin Atlantic flights to Cabo, and more. They really are the very best points.
HOW TO TRANSFER POINTS
Log on to your Chase account and navigate to your Ultimate Rewards®. Next, click Travel, then Transfer points to partners.
After this, you’ll see all of the available partners. Select the partner you want to transfer to.
Next, enter your loyalty account information.
Then, enter how many points you want to transfer.
Finally, review the details then hit Submit.
USE THEM WITH CHASE TRAVEL℠
Another way to use your Ultimate Rewards® is by booking travel through Chase Travel ℠. This works like any other travel search portal and allows you to run searches across all airlines and hotels to find the best option for you.
If you have the Sapphire Preferred or Ink Business Preferred, your points are worth 25% more when redeemed in the portal. So every 10,000 points is worth $125. If you have the Sapphire Reserve, your points are worth 50% more when redeemed in the portal. So every 10,000 points is worth $150.
This seems like a great deal, and sometimes it is, but it’s important to compare the cost of booking directly with travel partners. Many times, it will cost fewer points to transfer and book directly than to book in the portal.
However, it’s definitely a great option for rental cars, cruises, and other activities since you can’t transfer points to book directly with those companies. It’s also a good option when booking boutique hotels that may not be part of a larger program like Hyatt or Marriott.
CASH THEM OUT
Your final option is to cash out your points as a statement credit. If you do this, you’re getting a one-cent per point value, meaning every 10,000 points is worth $100. While this is the lowest value, it’s still a viable option if you’d rather save yourself the extra steps of the travel portal or transferring to partners. (But don’t let transferring intimidate you – I promise you that it’s easier than you think!)
Other important things to know
COMBINING POINTS
The ability to combine points is useful since there are certain cards that earn Ultimate Rewards® but don’t give you access to Chase’s transfer partners. If you earn points on one of these cards – Ink Business Cash, Ink Business Unlimited, Freedom Flex, or Freedom Unlimited – you will want to move them to one of the three cards that give you transfer partner access – Sapphire Preferred, Sapphire Reserve, or Ink Preferred. I use my Sapphire Preferred as my main card, where all of our Ultimate Rewards® live.
To combine your points, log in to your Chase account and go to your Ultimate Rewards®. Hover over Rewards Details, then click “Combine points.”
Choose which cards you want to move points from and to, enter the number of points you want to move, and hit confirm. Voila!
Combining points can be done between your own accounts or between you and one other member of your household. To do this, you will first need to call to have your accounts linked. Moving forward, you will be able to do it online just like you do between your own accounts.
DOWNGRADING AND CLOSING CARDS
Many cards earn Ultimate Rewards®, which makes it easy to move points around, keep accounts active, and decide what to do with your cards after the first year. We always keep a Sapphire Preferred open so that we can access Chase’s transfer partners. However, we don’t both need one. So, after the first year, we downgraded Ryan’s Sapphire Preferred to a Freedom Flex since that card has no annual fee.
We have also closed an Ink Preferred because we didn’t want to keep paying the annual fee after the first year. Since we have the Sapphire Preferred, we don’t need to access Chase’s transfer partners with the Ink Preferred, so it was an easy choice to close it.
POINTS EXPIRATION
Points do not expire as long as you have one card open with which your points can live. If you are closing a card that currently has points on it, you will first want to combine them with one of your other Ultimate Rewards-earning cards so that you don’t lose your points.
Conclusion
Chase Ultimate Rewards® are my favorite points for multiple reasons. They’re incredibly easy to come by, thanks to seven different cards that earn them, and they are also quite easy to use, thanks to a variety of ways to use them.
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Opinions expressed here are the author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.