I've had my card for a while and am thinking of redeeming points for a flight for the first time. Is there a difference between booking a flight on United or BA through UR, vs. crediting the points to my account and booking through the airline?

My sense is that some things, like an upgrade after purchase, would only work with miles (not points), but will the straight cost of the ticket (or availability of a rewards ticket) be any different between UR and the airline's FF program? What is the cancellation policy/penalty for UR tickets?

thanks, and happy new year!

If I understand your question correctly the answer is they are completely different.

Option 1: Transfer URs to airline partner to book an award ticket. This allows you to book at the airline's award rate. Typically (although not always) this ends up being cheaper for more expensive flights like international business and first class or really short flights on American if booked through British Airways as the redemption rate is based on the airline's award chart, not the ticket price. Award tickets are subject to the airline's cancellation policy and you do not earn miles for the trip.

Option 2: Book your flight through UR. This is really just buying a ticket for face value but paying with your points at a 1% rate, less a 25% (edit 20%) discount. A ticket purchased this way is treated by the airline the same as if the ticket was purchased through a travel agent like Expedia. You'll earn miles for the ticket and be subject to the airline's normal cancellation and change rules.

It's a 20% discount, the points are worth $0.0125 each. (If it were a 25% discount they would be worth $0.0133 each.)

Thanks for explaining-- guess I was completely clueless about how the UR ticket works, but I appreciate the helpful responses.

Two questions for the Chase experts:

1. How long does it take for the bonus points to post to the Chase UR account?

2. I'm looking to book 2x business class seats using UR points. United shows no avail on the days I want for saver awards. What other options do I have that will give me business class seats? (i.e. AeroPlan, Korean, etc)

If you mean the new card account bonus, they typically post at the end of the first billing cycle unless you satisfy the spending requirement in the last few days of the cycle, in which case they will post a month later.

Ultimate Rewards has no other Star Alliance partner. What is your route? You can redeem through BA for travel on OneWorld, KE for travel on SkyTeam and VS for travel on their various partners.

As a new Sapphire Preferred holder and a longtime United Mileage Plus Visa holder I have a related question.

Since I earn 3 points booking my airfare through Ultimate Rewards does it make more sense to do that rather than booking through through UAL.com if I am not using points or miles to pay?

Yes. You used to be able to get 2x by booking through Travelocity but it's only 1x now.

I had a great experience calling in to the CSP customer service line yesterday...I was transferring some points to Hyatt and I needed 22,000 total points. I had 10,300 in my Hyatt GP bank, and 11,700 in my UR bank, but Chase only allows transfers of even 1,000s.

I called in to see if they could do a transfer of 11,700 for me, or if I could borrow against the points that I have coming up for my statement that will close on Tuesday. The CSR said "I see here in your account that you make a lot of charges with us, and I'm happy to give you 300 points so you can just transfer 12,000 over". I asked if they'd be subtracted from my points that I'll get this week, and she said "No, it's just 300 points, I'm happy to give them to you".

It's not a ton of points (~$3 cash value), but it was the gesture, and the fact that she was willing and able to do it so quickly that impressed me. I've had the CSP a bit less than a year, but I am planning on paying the annual fee and keeping the card long term. It's my daily spender anyway (unless there are category bonuses elsewhere for different cards), but I've already seen a ton of value out of it and the customer service is really the cherry on top.

3x points on 1st Friday dining - thru 2014
 

Since it hasn't been mentioned in this thread, thought I'd flag the fact that the bonus for using your CSP for dining expenses on the 1st Friday of each month (3x points total) has been extended through 2014, per the Chase website.

[h/t to augustus21, who did mention this in http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/22055118-post29.html]

I have to say, I am also pleasantly surprised by Chase's wonderful CS. I had lots of missing points from the UR mall. The CS could see my purchases and promptly fixed the deficits. I like that I can speak to a real person who is empowered to fix things immediately.

I'm also pleased with the speed the transfers are made. It is my go-to card as well and I have been racking up the points. The trasfers have been worth $$$ vs if I bought the tix (which I couldn't have afforded OTW). It is well worth the AF (though I wouldn't mind a break here and there :D).

Chase customer service seems quite good. Fixed missing UR points issue from mall and then saw a second transaction that the agent feared would also fail to credit (same merchant) and proactively fixed that. It amazes me to see two companies so partnered with such different customer service values (UA and Chase).

Chase Sapphire Multipliers
 

Hey people,

I just want to get a clear baseline on multipliers, as I'll be doing some traveling in the coming weeks.

I have a Chase Sapphire Preferred, which gets me 2x on restaurants and 2x on travel.

If I book a flight through the Ultimate Rewards portal, does that give me an extra point per dollar spent on travel? Meaning I get 3x on ever dollar spent on those travel expenditures?

Outside of shopping through the Ultimate Rewards Mall, are there any other multipliers that I should be looking out for?

In terms of my traveling plans:
Probably looking flights to Singapore & Sydney from JFK (so probably flying Singapore Airlines & Qantas/codeshare American to get AA points)
Will probably AirBnB (my understanding is that this qualifies as a travel expenditure and I would get 2x on this expenditure)

Thanks!

Yes.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/chase...er-dollar.html

CSP doesn't offer primary rental insurance, does it?