Feb 14, 2017, 7:47 am
Last edit by: beltway
This thread is for discussing the mechanics of points transfer: qualifying Chase cards, eligible partners, and typical speed of transfer. For advice on which partner to transfer to for a given travel goal, see Ultimate Rewards - Which airline/hotel should I transfer points to? and the master threads compiled there.
Holders of non-premium Chase UR cards,
Q. What airline or hotel programs can I transfer UR points into?
A. UR points may be transferred at no charge to these airline programs at a 1:1 exchange rate:
ONEWORLD
Transfers to Amtrak were previously available, but ended permanently on December 8, 2015. See Announcement regarding Chase Ultimate Rewards.
Q. Are transfers instant?
A. In many cases, yes, although transfers to at least one partner (Marriott) may take several days. A summary:
Q: After I transfer, when will my miles expire at that airline/hotel program? Is there anything I can do to avoid expiration there?
The Miles/Points that Do and Don't Expire wiki now lists all of the above Chase UR airline/hotel transfer partners and their respective expiration policies.
Q. Can I transfer to another person's airline or hotel program account?
A. Ultimate Rewards rules explicitly permit transfers to a spouse or domestic partner's frequent traveler account, and prohibit all other transfers. On November 13, 2015, Chase announced the further complication (and perhaps additional restriction) that effective November 15, 2015, as a holder of a UR-earning business card "you can only transfer points to yourself or an owner of the company who is listed as an authorized user on your card account." For discussion of this policy statement and its impacts, see this thread.
Transferring UR points from one household member to another's FF account:
If, for instance, you'd like to transfer UR points from your spouse to your United Airlines account, here are the rules: To transfer directly from [her] UR account to your UA account you would have to be members of the same household -and- you would have to be an Authorized User on [her] Chase card account.
Points can only be transferred to yourself, or one additional household member who is listed as an authorized user on your card account. Once you transfer points to an authorized user, that person will be the only authorized user on your account eligible to receive point transfers.
Combining UR point accounts: To combine points from a UR account with your UR account you would have to be members of the same household. Here are the rules:
You can move your points, but only to another Chase card with Ultimate Rewards belonging to you, or one member of your household. If we suspect that you've engaged in fraudulent activity related to your credit card account or Ultimate Rewards, or that you've misused Ultimate Rewards in any way (for example by buying or selling points, moving or transferring points with or to an ineligible third party or account, or repeatedly opening or otherwise maintaining credit card accounts for the sole purpose of generating rewards) we may temporarily prohibit you from earning points or using points you've already earned. If we believe you've engaged in any of these acts, we'll close your credit card account and you'll lose all your points.
Q. I heard that Chase has closed accounts for unauthorized transfers. What's the story?
A. Those reports involve sharing (aka combining) points from one Ultimate Rewards account to another Ultimate Rewards account. Ultimate Rewards rules explicitly permit combining points with a spouse's or domestic partner's UR account, and prohibit all other internal sharing of UR points. See this thread:
Chase closed my Sapphire Preferred account due to transfers to other UR accounts.
Credit card and rewards accounts may also be closed if Chase decides to close your personal or business bank accounts for any reason.
For the pre-2017 version of this thread, go here.
Q. Can I transfer UR points to airline/hotel programs?
A. Yes, but only from a UR account tied to one of the following premium (i.e., fee-based) Chase cards:
Q. Can I transfer UR points to airline/hotel programs?
A. Yes, but only from a UR account tied to one of the following premium (i.e., fee-based) Chase cards:
- Sapphire Reserve
- Sapphire Preferred
- JP Morgan Reserve
- JP Morgan Palladium (discontinued)
- JP Morgan Select (discontinued)
- INK Preferred
- INK Plus (discontinued)
- INK Bold (discontinued)
Holders of non-premium Chase UR cards,
- Freedom
- Freedom Unlimited
- Freedom Flex
- Sapphire (discontinued; different from Sapphire Preferred)
- INK Cash
- INK Classic (discontinued)
- INK Unlimited
Q. What airline or hotel programs can I transfer UR points into?
A. UR points may be transferred at no charge to these airline programs at a 1:1 exchange rate:
ONEWORLD
- British Airways Executive Club (BA)
- Iberia (IB)
- Flying Blue (Air France/KLM) (AF)
- Virgin Atlantic Flying Club (VS)
- Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer (SQ)
- United Airlines MileagePlus (UA)
- Air Canada Aeroplan (AC)
- Chase Aeroplan credit cardmembers get a 10% transfer bonus after transferring 50,000 or more Ultimate Rewards points in a single transaction from an eligible Chase credit card to their Aeroplan account. Maximum of 25,000 bonus points per calendar year. This offer was previously scheduled to end on 12/31/23, but has now been made permanent.
- 20% bonus on transfers ended Jan. 15, 2024
- Aer Lingus (EI)
- Emirates Skywards (EK)
- JetBlue (B6) - 25% bonus on transfers ended on Jan. 10, 2024
- Southwest Rapid Rewards (WN)
- IHG Rewards Club - 60% bonus on transfers through March 1, 2024
- Marriott Bonvoy
- World of Hyatt
Transfers to Amtrak were previously available, but ended permanently on December 8, 2015. See Announcement regarding Chase Ultimate Rewards.
Q. Are transfers instant?
A. In many cases, yes, although transfers to at least one partner (Marriott) may take several days. A summary:
- AC: Variable. Generally posts instantly (as noted in this July 2023 post). On the other hand, a report from August 2021 indicated a delay of 72-96 hours and a June 2023 post reflects a delay of roughly 30 hours.
- BA: usually Instant
- SQ: "Most Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer point transfers process within 2 business days." Several reports suggest it takes 24-48 hours, although there appears to be a lot of variation.
Post #128 reports 7 business days; post #214 reports a turnaround of 2hrs 15mins. NOV 2017 - 24 hours - WN: Normally Instant but see posts starting at #451 about delays
- UA: Normally instant, but see this thread: UR to United transfer is not reliably instant
- AF: Instant
- VS: Instant.
- Hyatt: Occurs within a minute or less (numerous reports)
- IHG:
One business day.Instant on 10/30/19. Instant on 9 March 2022. - Marriott: Transfers "will process by the next business day"; actual experience is approx. 2 business days
- Ritz:
Q: After I transfer, when will my miles expire at that airline/hotel program? Is there anything I can do to avoid expiration there?
The Miles/Points that Do and Don't Expire wiki now lists all of the above Chase UR airline/hotel transfer partners and their respective expiration policies.
Q. Can I transfer to another person's airline or hotel program account?
A. Ultimate Rewards rules explicitly permit transfers to a spouse or domestic partner's frequent traveler account, and prohibit all other transfers. On November 13, 2015, Chase announced the further complication (and perhaps additional restriction) that effective November 15, 2015, as a holder of a UR-earning business card "you can only transfer points to yourself or an owner of the company who is listed as an authorized user on your card account." For discussion of this policy statement and its impacts, see this thread.
Transferring UR points from one household member to another's FF account:
If, for instance, you'd like to transfer UR points from your spouse to your United Airlines account, here are the rules: To transfer directly from [her] UR account to your UA account you would have to be members of the same household -and- you would have to be an Authorized User on [her] Chase card account.
Points can only be transferred to yourself, or one additional household member who is listed as an authorized user on your card account. Once you transfer points to an authorized user, that person will be the only authorized user on your account eligible to receive point transfers.
Combining UR point accounts: To combine points from a UR account with your UR account you would have to be members of the same household. Here are the rules:
You can move your points, but only to another Chase card with Ultimate Rewards belonging to you, or one member of your household. If we suspect that you've engaged in fraudulent activity related to your credit card account or Ultimate Rewards, or that you've misused Ultimate Rewards in any way (for example by buying or selling points, moving or transferring points with or to an ineligible third party or account, or repeatedly opening or otherwise maintaining credit card accounts for the sole purpose of generating rewards) we may temporarily prohibit you from earning points or using points you've already earned. If we believe you've engaged in any of these acts, we'll close your credit card account and you'll lose all your points.
Q. I heard that Chase has closed accounts for unauthorized transfers. What's the story?
A. Those reports involve sharing (aka combining) points from one Ultimate Rewards account to another Ultimate Rewards account. Ultimate Rewards rules explicitly permit combining points with a spouse's or domestic partner's UR account, and prohibit all other internal sharing of UR points. See this thread:
Chase closed my Sapphire Preferred account due to transfers to other UR accounts.
Credit card and rewards accounts may also be closed if Chase decides to close your personal or business bank accounts for any reason.
Ultimate Rewards - Airline and Hotel Transfer Partners, Rules, Timelines, (2017 on)
Mar 24, 2017, 7:35 am
#46
Join Date: Sep 2007
Programs: jetblue
Posts: 21
United Transfer
This may be old news to some folks, but I just did a transfer, first from my wife's card to mine, then 400,000 points to United. The entire transaction took about 15 minutes including time on the phone with Chase to move my wife's points.
The points hit United basically instantly.
The points hit United basically instantly.
Apr 1, 2017, 4:18 pm
#47
Join Date: Mar 2011
Programs: AA Platinum Pro, Hilton Diamond, Hyatt Exploralist, Marriot Silver
Posts: 2,065
Chase to Hyatt transfer time
Transferred points from Sapphire Reserve to Hyatt last night. Usually posts instantaneously but this time the points have yet to post on the Hyatt end. Does anyone have any similar observations?
Apr 1, 2017, 8:06 pm
#49
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: Hawai'i Nei
Programs: Au: UA, Marriott, Hilton; GE
Posts: 7,132
Apr 3, 2017, 3:31 pm
#51
Join Date: Mar 2011
Programs: AA Platinum Pro, Hilton Diamond, Hyatt Exploralist, Marriot Silver
Posts: 2,065
Apr 3, 2017, 7:18 pm
#52
Join Date: Nov 2016
Posts: 5
Good SFO that you got your points transferred. Not as much luck yet for me. My points haven't been transferred yet to Hyatt from Chase (Initial transfer 3/31 evening). Called Hyatt rep who said they haven't received the request from Chase. Called Chase rep who escalated the issue and told me keep checking within the next 2 days for the transfer. Will report back here once this gets resolved.
Apr 4, 2017, 5:22 pm
#53
Join Date: Nov 2016
Posts: 5
Points finally posted from Chase to Hyatt (4 days later than ordered). I recommend for others to call next day if points don't transfer. This ended up screwing up another reservation I had planned for another hotel that was no longer available on the website I planned to order it from.
Apr 5, 2017, 1:42 am
#54
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: Hawai'i Nei
Programs: Au: UA, Marriott, Hilton; GE
Posts: 7,132
Points finally posted from Chase to Hyatt (4 days later than ordered). I recommend for others to call next day if points don't transfer. This ended up screwing up another reservation I had planned for another hotel that was no longer available on the website I planned to order it from.
Apr 9, 2017, 8:42 am
#55
Join Date: Nov 2009
Posts: 519
I have Chase freedom and chase ink (classic no fees) cards. My wife has chase ink (fee card). I can transfer my Freedom/Ink UR points to her Ink card and from there I can transfer to airline partners. I have United Airline mileage plus account and have few points there but I am short about 10k points to book reward ticket. Is there anyway I can transfer UR points from my wife's account to my mileage reward account?
Apr 12, 2017, 12:15 pm
#59
Join Date: Sep 2013
Posts: 401
Apr 13, 2017, 10:09 am
#60
Join Date: Nov 2009
Posts: 519
I have Chase freedom and chase ink (classic no fees) cards. My wife has chase ink (fee card). I can transfer my Freedom/Ink UR points to her Ink card and from there I can transfer to airline partners. I have United Airline mileage plus account and have few points there but I am short about 10k points to book reward ticket. Is there anyway I can transfer UR points from my wife's account to my mileage reward account?