Chase Ultimate Rewards - Transferring Ultimate Rewards Points

I'm a little new to FlyerTalk and had a basic question:

I have 80,000 Ultimate Rewards from Chase. I can book flights for the same price as I see them on Kayak (assuming 1 point = 1 cent). Why do all of the airline blogs talk about transferring at a 1:1 ratio? What does that accomplish? Are there upgrades etc. if I transfer the points to a specific airline and then book the flight?

There is an entire encyclopedia worth of answer to that question, but here is a very basic primer, in the form of an example.

Chase UR points are transferable to UA if you have the Chase Sapphire Preferred card.

I just booked a flight to the east coast from Orange County. When I looked up the flight, it was $508 to purchase. So, ~50,800 UR points. However, the same flight, when using UA's award redemption, was 25K miles round trip. That's over $0.02/mile value. That's still not that high, but it fits with my schedule and I have an abundance of miles and limited cash, at the moment.

In most cases, you'll get the most "value" out of your points if you can transfer them into a FF/rewards program, and wait for high value opportunities. Taking them as cash at a straight $0.01/point redemption should only be a last resort.

I have 80,000 Ultimate Rewards from Chase.

Welcome to Flyertalk.

There are several versions of Ultimate Rewards. If you have only a free (no annual fee) Sapphire, Freedom or Ink Classic card the points cannot be transferred to any other program. You must have a Sapphire Preferred, Ink Bold, JP Morgan Select or JP Morgan Palladium card to have the transfer option.

...as $508 to purchase. So, ~50,800 UR points.

I believe that when used to purchase airfare Sapphire Preferred points are worth $0.0125 each, which means $508 ticket would require 40,640 points, still considerably more than 25,000 for an award ticket. However, the paid ticket would earn miles and elite credit which would be valuable to some.

Thanks guys!

There is an entire encyclopedia worth of answer to that question, but here is a very basic primer, in the form of an example.



Is this true for all the other credit cards points like Thank You points and Membership Rewards?

What are some other reasons?

Thanks guys!



Is this true for all the other credit cards points like Thank You points and Membership Rewards?

What are some other reasons?

Right now, the ability to transfer to airlines is only for full Ultimate Rewards points and full Membership Rewards points (which you get from Amex Platinum, gold, green, etc. but not Amex blue cards).

Citi Thank You points do not currently transfer, but there was a rumor circulating that they would soon be transferable to a few airlines.

Thanks guys!



Is this true for all the other credit cards points like Thank You points and Membership Rewards?

What are some other reasons?

As aarif1 mentioned, TY points are not currently transferable, but there are rumors of that starting sometime soon. MR points are transferrable as long as you have premier AMEX cards (plat/gold/green). That's another example of where points can gain a lot of value through transfering. AMEX MR to British Airways right now has a 50% transfer bonus. I could take 70K MR points (worth $700 in gift cards), and transfer them to 105K BA miles. With those miles, I could book 4 RT economy tickets from LAX to Hawaii, worth ~$2K. from the original MR points, that's nearly $0.03/point which, for economy, is a great value.

The best offer on the TY network is the Citi Thankyou Premier card, by most accounts. In addition to the 50K TY point signup offer, it offers a 33% discount on TY point redeemed airfare (ex: $400 ticket = 40K TY points = 30K TY points with the Premier discount). Until TY points become transferable, this is the best redemption value you'd be able to get from them. With all the chatter about the implementation of transferability though, a lot of people are hanging on to their TY points for now.

I'd note that the use of the points is governed by the card you have at the time, not how you earned them. If you earn Chase points on a Freedom card and then later get a Sapphire Preferred, your Freedom points are now transferrable. I bought "Freedom" points from someone at my company and immediately transferred them to Hyatt. Likewise, if you have UR points and downgrade to Freedom, you will now longer be able to transfer those points.

To another poster - in most cases, 2 cents per point is a pretty decent redemption value. Sometimes you can get that value or even a little better for overseas coach tickets. It's true that compared to the posted prices, award tickets for premium cabin travel are the best value, i.e. 100K points for a $4000 ticket in J is better than 60K points for a $1200 ticket in Y. But it doesn't follow that because the airline charges $4000 for a ticket that it's worth it. I would pay 20K extra points (or about $250 in value) to upgrade each way, but I wouldn't pay $1400 in cash.

However, I would always keep a "stash" of points for whatever a realistic emergency is. I once had a woman I liked a lot and she had a surprise 5-day weekend, a paid ticket would have been $2000 but I found a 25K reward for her for the next day. I might not have paid $2000 to see her but I'd certainly have paid $1000. Yes I was lucky to find availability, but I'd have been really annoyed if I'd burned all my points.