Does anybody have any experience (good or bad) with the customer service of the travel group when buying tickets through the ultimate rewards website (ticket changes, cancellations, etc) ?

Buying the tickets through ultimate rewards to get an extra point is worth in some instances for me, but don't want the extra points if the decline in customer service is dramatically different then everybody else.

Thanks.

Note that you can earn two extra points if you book through Travelocity using the link in the Ultimate Rewards Mall shopping portal.

Thanks, I just got the card and still working through all of extras. That solves my issue, because I usually book through orbitz so that is the 1 extra as well.

Of course, I can't get the itinerary I need to price the same on orbitz vs travelocity, but I figure that out.

So what is the best way to blow through the points?

I'll have about 55k soon, with the sign up bonus. I'm going to be taking a trip to europe soon, so I'm thinking of using the 55k points to just offset the price of the ticket. The ticket will be heavily discounted, and I'll get the miles that go with it.

I'd be interested if anyone thinks this is a waste of the points. I'd rather fly coach and save points, and this seems the best option considering the BA redemption model.

Accumulate 5k more points and redeem for a CO/UA SuperSaver award to Europe.
Or, if you want to go upscale, buy a Premium Economy ticket on BA and upgrade with 25k miles (or upgrade for 50k from Y, but eligible economy fares are only slightly cheaper than E+).
Best option for economy is probably to avoid Europe and use BA miles to fly AA or LAN to South America (40k) or JAL/CX to Asia (50k). I did both and paid less than $200 in fees in both cases.

Allrighty, that sounds good. But I'm a bit confused about how this might work. I'd like to review the mechanics of doing this.

First, let's find this offer. From the UR Mall home page, I click "Earn Points" on the left of the screen, then "Browse by Merchant."

On the next page, under "Shop by Category," I see "Travel." And next to travel, I see "Flights." OR I could just check "T" and find Travelocity.

Let's say I want to book air or hotel. If I link to Travelocity via the U.R. mall, I'll get 2 extra U.R. points per dollar spent at Travelocity if I pay with my Sapphire Preferred card, right?

Now, if I then pay for that air or hotel purchase on Travelocity with the Sapphire Preferred card, should I expect to also get my usual U.R. points because I'm using the card (rather than some other card)? I'm thinking that the answer is yes.

If there are the usual points for paying with the Sapphire Preferred, is that 1 point per dollar or 2? (The Sapphire Preferred is designed to provide double points on most travel expenses, such as air, hotel, dining, and car rental. So, in this example, if I'm buying airfare on Travelocity, and if there are additional points for paying with the Sapphire Preferred, would those be double U.R. points or not?) I'm going to guess 1 extra point per dollar, but perhaps I'm wrong?

And in addition, since this is paid airfare (or hotel), I figure I should also get the frequent flyer miles from the airline (or hotel points) after I fly (or stay at the hotel). Correct?

Yes something from the mall indeed earns extra points in addition to the standard 1 or 2 points per transaction.

For Travelocity, you would earn 4 pts total per dollar and would earn FF miles for purchasing through the link . I also noticed Priority Club is 3 pts extra that links directly to the website, so you should get something like 5 pts per doller and PC pts as well.

Cheers.

Thanks!

I may actually be in a situation where using the points to help pay for the ticket is the best option. Where I want to go in Europe is around $950, and 55k of points would offset all but around $200 of costs--similar to a reward ticket.

The South America option is good too, but I've spent a lot of time in South America recently and would rather go elsewhere.

Does BA have bonus periods where you get better than 1-1 mileage for transfers to their program?

That is a good find ^ That is one extra point than booking through UR. All my bookings through UR correctly earn me one extra point and i would like to see if Travelocity will be as smooth.

First mentioned in post 22 of this thread by CMHFlyerOH on July 23, 2011.

Chase Sapphire Preferred AFTER CO/UA merger?
 

Will I be able to transfer points to UA after the merger?

I only see CO among the partners listed for transferring points.

Has Chase or CO/UA indicated what might happen?

After earning the 50k points and transferring, is there going to be a reason to hang onto the card for Star Alliance members?

Chase has not officially stated that United will be an Ultimate Rewards transfer partner, but there is a lot of speculation that it will happen, and I read a blog post stating a non-working United link had been spotted on the Ultimate Rewards site.

There is also the open question of whether or not Amtrak will be a 1:1 transfer partner as it has been in the past with Continental.

Considering both are in UR and both chase-affiliated it seems natural they would continue to be transfer partners, but who knows.

Adding UA to Ultimate Rewards Preferred has been discussed previously in this thread. Begin reading at post 143 ,