mia

True, but there is certain to be internal competition at Chase between the Ultimate Rewards program manager and the managers responsible for each of the co-branded affinity cards. If UR is seen to be cannibalizing co-branded card accounts the managers of those cards will press for changes, perhaps to improve their products, but perhaps also to hobble UR.

Remember, United did not join UR until the merger with CO was in an advanced stage, and Fairmont has not joined.

Agreed, and I think UA will not hesitate to make adjustments to niche features, such as partner redemptions, even if they are reluctant to change the high profile charts for UA-operated flights.

augustus21

Or if Star Alliance partners make it more difficult to use UA miles on their metal, like Lufthansa has done with its first class product. The ability to transfer to UA is, for me, a key feature. I'd likely move to another product if UA (or its partners) tinkered with anything.

Until then, I'll be enjoying Lufthansa/Thai business & first class

I don't doubt that competition exists amongst product managers in Chase's credit card division, but Gordon Smith has gone on the record stating that as long as spend is going on a Chase card at the expense of a competitor, cannibalization of other Chase credit cards is fine:

djc205

I say use them or lose them... Been happily redeeming T.Y., U.R. and W.P. for a pretty good return. Travel back and forth on weekends to visit my partner almost every weekend one of us traveling, these programs have made this a possibility for us.

The return I've experienced since January is the average of all the programs together redeeming for 37 segments, $4,615.77 worth of flights/hotels using 354,153 worth of all point redemptions added together. (Cost of these points I estimate at $854.00 ~$122 per 50,000 points) Now I am booking seriously far out in order to use rather then lose my T.Y. points so the cost of the flights have been rather high, but I say use em up! Get the best value now, bank what you have left and use them quickly.

United has been kind to me - an 11 minute schedule change and I can alter a reservation's routing, dates times fee free... valuable award flight redemptions by tacking on extra segments etc etc etc!

For those points I don't use in U.R. I hang on to with that option to push via transfer partners or buy 20% off flights or more specifically towards hotels as necessary and use T.Y. towards all flights as I soon as I earn the points.

Ultimately I have really liked Chase, they issued a 10,000 U.R. retention offer for Ink + a 15,000 Mileage offer for the United Club card (and for some reason also the $100 statement credit) - based on a flight I recently booked, this 15,000 retention was worth $366 - so that nearly covered the cost of my annual fee... And the 10,000 U.R. which I transferred to United was worth $245 way more then the $95 annual fee...