With all of the frenzy around Chase’s latest credit cards it is important for you to know how they work. When Brad and I were at lunch the other day with a couple of friend we started explaining how the Ultimate Rewards work, and realized that we’ve never clearly defined who the partners are and how to use the Ultimate Rewards Points. Here goes nothing…
Chase has named its loyalty program Ultimate Rewards (with good reason). Just as McDonald’s has the Ronald McDonald Club, Chase has their Ultimate Rewards. These points can be used just like any other bank will allow you to use points to redeem for headphones or pencil sharpeners, but what makes them stand out is the Ultimate Rewards travel partners.
How to Earn Ultimate Rewards
Some of Chase’s proprietary cards offer you Ultimate Rewards for every dollar that you spend on their cards. Each of the cards have a sign on bonus after you meet certain spending requirements. These bonuses can be very lucrative, and can help you to get your free travel faster. Some cards have categories that pay more than one point per dollar.
- Chase Sapphire PreferredSM Current Bonus is 40,000 UR after $3000 in spending within the first 3 months.
The Sapphire Preferred card pays 2 points per dollar spent on restaurants and travel.
- Ink Bold® Business Card Current Bonus is up to 50,000 UR. Get 25k with the first purchase and 25k more when you spend $10k within 3 months.
Both of the Ink cards will offer 5 points per dollar spent at office supply stores, and on cellular phone, landline, internet and cable TV services.
- Ink Plus® Business Card Current Bonus is up to 50,000 UR. Get 25k with the first purchase and 25k when you spend $10k within 3 months.
With the Ink Plus card you can earn 2x points per $1 on the first $50,000 spent annually at gas stations and for hotel accommodations when purchased directly with the hotel
All of your Ultimate Rewards points accrue in a safe account until you are ready to splurge.
Spending Ultimate Rewards (AKA Having FUN)
Brad already explained how the Ultimate Rewards can be spent as cash, so if you’re interested, review that post. Chase has a variety of partners that accept the Ultimate Rewards on a 1:1 ratio.
- United Airlines
- British Airways
- Southwest Airlines
- Hyatt
- Priority Club
- Marriott
- Korean Air
Incredibly you can transfer as many points as you need. So if you’re a few points short this works well to top off the tank with any one of the above mentioned companies. Also, the points generally transfer on the spot.
Why You Need More Ultimate Rewards
These points are incredibly versatile. They should be a part of any worldwanderluster’s portfolio of miles and points. The most feasible offer comes from the Sapphire Preferred Card. It requires the lowest spending requirement, but a generous 40,000 UR. Start stockpiling your points today and wanderlust with us.
for a trip from SLC to DEN would it be better to get a Chase card and transfer points or the Southwest card? Thanks in advance!!
Jamie-
Great question, and I’m thrilled to answer it because I have great news. Looking at http://www.iflyswa.com it will cost you as little as 2880 points each way to fly Southwest between SLC and DEN.
Really it depends on how many people and/or trips you want to make.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred gives you 40k points after meeting the spending requirement(as many as 13 one-ways). The Southwest card gives you 50k (as many as 17 one-ways).
Really, then it depends on what else you want to do. The nice thing about the Sapphire Preferred is that you could transfer only what you need to SW and use the rest to book a hotel, or use elsewhere, but the overall reward on the Southwest Card is higher.
Both are Chase cards, so you’ll have to wait at least 30 days between applying if you want both.
Just another FYI, too, if you want to try out a train ride, Amtrak goes between DEN and SLC and you can transfer your UR points to Amtrak.
Whatever you do, please report back to us and let us know how your trip goes. So glad to have you wanderlusting with us!
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We have had the Chase Sapphire card for almost a year. We called to cancel it before getting charged the annual fee for the next year but was told we would lose our points. Where do you think we should transfer our points to get the most value out of them? We’re not sure yet how we want to use them. We have a Marriott account but it takes so many more points with them to get one free night. What would you do? Thanks!
Christy- This is always a tough time. With so many transfer partners it can making a decision difficult. It really depends on what you would like to do. If your main objective is flights, then you can transfer the points to United Airlines, British Airways, or Southwest Airlines. Any of these three are good, but one can be much better than another depending on where you’d like to go. British Airways is amazing for short, single leg flights, but not so good for international flights. Southwest is probably the best for domestic that are not serviced by American Airlines, and United is going to be your best bet for international.
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