With CHASE Ultimate Rewards from my Sapphire Reserve I will probably have enough points next year for an international Business flight for my wife and I.
Thinking UK/Europe.

Now, apologies if this is covered elsewhere.

1. Would I be required to book via CHASE Travel Portal? (Treated as cash and counts towards status?)
2. Or transfer the points to United? (Becomes bog standard United points?)

If 1, would I have access to seat maps, points accelerator and any other feature that the actual United website prefers?

(I attempted doing a dummy via the portal this morning. It was a mess as my chosen filters didn't stick and instead kept reverting to no filters.)