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Booking Flights, Rooms, Cars, etc. w/ Ultimate Rewards Points, 2014-2017

Old Feb 8, 2017, 9:00 am
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: mia
This thread covers how to use Ultimate Reward Points for booking all types of travel via the Ultimate Rewards portal.


1) How do I book a ticket? Choose my airfare class?
Login to ultimaterewards.com
Click: Use points > Explore and Book Travel
Click the button that defaults to [1 Traveler, All]
Change "Class" (the first entry in the pull-down) from All to Business
Click: Close

2) How far in advance can I book?
In mid-November 2017 it was reported that airline reservations are available only 270 days in advance. Read HERE.

3) How do I book hotels?
Follow the steps above to log on. There are standard looking search engines offered for airfare, hotel, etc at that point.

4) How do I get the better redemption rate offered on some Chase cards?
The upper left corner of the UR page will show you which card you are logged in with. If you hold a Chase Sapphire Reserve card, you will be shown a better price on points bookings, as a 1.5 redemption rate is offered as one of the benefits of this card. If you log in to the UR portal from a different UR card, such as the Ink, you will not be offered this rate.

5) Where else can I find information?

This thread is a consolidated resource which covers topics including:

Fare buckets, here
Price differences between open market air fares and UR bookings, here
Selecting seat classes
Using cash and points to pay for tickets

and more.

The previous discussion, through 2016, can be found here: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/chase...ly-2015-a.html
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Booking Flights, Rooms, Cars, etc. w/ Ultimate Rewards Points, 2014-2017

Old Aug 16, 2017, 3:09 pm
  #346  
 
Join Date: Sep 2011
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Posts: 1,385
Originally Posted by Need
Yeah I looked thru that thread, but my case is a little different. I know my tickets were non-refundable (normally), but Delta Air has done the refund due to death in the family. I just don't know what happened to the "refund". I have send a secure message to Chase to see if they know where the refund is. I am just wondering if anyone has experience with a Chase UR Travel points refund on CSR. Lets say you spent 100,000 points, do you get get 100,000 points back? Or you get $1000 back? Or dare I dream $1500 back because that would be the value of the points with CSR using UR Travel.
I discussed this in the other "BEWARE" thread. You get back the same method you used to book (i.e. if you used points, you get points refunded).

Since you cancelled the points tickets direct through Delta, you will have to start getting in touch with Chase, since they were not expecting a refund. They won't be able to piece it togethet until you explain the situation, and will probably call Delta in real time with you on the line to verify.

I am sorry for your loss.
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Old Aug 17, 2017, 7:41 am
  #347  
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 3,782
Originally Posted by moe8555
I discussed this in the other "BEWARE" thread. You get back the same method you used to book (i.e. if you used points, you get points refunded).

Since you cancelled the points tickets direct through Delta, you will have to start getting in touch with Chase, since they were not expecting a refund. They won't be able to piece it togethet until you explain the situation, and will probably call Delta in real time with you on the line to verify.

I am sorry for your loss.
I cancelled the tickets with UR Travel. I was going to try to file insurance with Chase CSR, but the eclaim page said that I have to contact the airline first to see what they would do. So I contacted Delta for the bereavement refund and I can see that they gave me a full refund on the tickets I bought with credit card (not points). Delta never actually contacted back telling me "we have refunded you..." but I saw the credits show up on my CSR.

My message to Chase UR got a reply which is kind of ambiguous. It said that "We are happy to look into this for you." but then after that it gives me instruction to call Chase Travel to cancel the tickets. If they read my message, they would have know my tickets are already cancelled. I guess I just have to call them.
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Old Aug 18, 2017, 8:15 am
  #348  
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: PHX
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Originally Posted by Need
Does anyone have experience on a flight ticket refund from the airline when the ticket is purchased thru Chase UR Travel with UR points? I bought some tickets with cash and some with points on Delta. I had to cancel the trip and the tickets because of a death in the family. Delta approved the refund due to bereavement and I can see the cash bought tickets refund shows up on my CSR a week ago. I have not seen any refund for the tickets I got with UR points.. (either in points or cash equivalent).
I had a similar situation where AA discretionarily refunded me due to a schedule change. It was cash and points. It took Chase about 3 weeks to redeposit the points and credit the cash.

It was interesting because the AA refund showed the last 4 digits of the card to which the refund went and they were different from the last four of my Chase reserve. It took a while, but I finally got someone at ultimate rewards travel to explain it to me. They have a "master" card or cards that pay the airlines out of one card account (or a handful). When refunds come back to the master account it takes a while to reconcile it, and then another period for connexions or whatever to ping chase to refund the account.
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Old Aug 18, 2017, 8:55 am
  #349  
 
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Originally Posted by lkar

It was interesting because the AA refund showed the last 4 digits of the card to which the refund went and they were different from the last four of my Chase reserve. It took a while, but I finally got someone at ultimate rewards travel to explain it to me. They have a "master" card or cards that pay the airlines out of one card account (or a handful). When refunds come back to the master account it takes a while to reconcile it, and then another period for connexions or whatever to ping chase to refund the account.
I discovered the same thing when I looked at a ticket I'd purchased through Chase and didn't recognize the last 4 digits. I was concerned because it was my first time flying the airline (Brussels Air) and I didn't want to have a problem if asked to produce the CC when checking in. I call Chase and they explained that they use the "master" card to pay.
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Old Aug 18, 2017, 11:05 am
  #350  
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Originally Posted by mot29
... and I didn't want to have a problem if asked to produce the CC when checking in. I call Chase and they explained that they use the "master" card to pay.
But how does that prevent a problem if you are asked to produce the CC when checking in? It seems like Chase left you hanging regarding your concern.
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Old Aug 18, 2017, 11:49 am
  #351  
 
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Washington, DC, Chapel Hill, NC (RDU)
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In my case there wasn't a problem. I guess I woul have called Chase?
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Old Aug 18, 2017, 3:00 pm
  #352  
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 3,782
Originally Posted by lkar
I had a similar situation where AA discretionarily refunded me due to a schedule change. It was cash and points. It took Chase about 3 weeks to redeposit the points and credit the cash.

It was interesting because the AA refund showed the last 4 digits of the card to which the refund went and they were different from the last four of my Chase reserve. It took a while, but I finally got someone at ultimate rewards travel to explain it to me. They have a "master" card or cards that pay the airlines out of one card account (or a handful). When refunds come back to the master account it takes a while to reconcile it, and then another period for connexions or whatever to ping chase to refund the account.
Ah that's what I was suspecting. I guess my dream of getting 1.5x cash back to my CSR is crashed. LOL. If I just get the points back I would be very happy.

Edit: Okay Chase said it will take up to 30 days to credit Ultimate Reward Travel refund.... I guess maybe in Sept!

Last edited by Need; Aug 22, 2017 at 7:47 pm
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Old Aug 26, 2017, 10:55 am
  #353  
 
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If I need to cancel a refundable hotel stay booked with UR, is the credit in the form of points or dollars?
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Old Aug 26, 2017, 12:50 pm
  #354  
 
Join Date: Sep 2011
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Originally Posted by Stgermainparis
If I need to cancel a refundable hotel stay booked with UR, is the credit in the form of points or dollars?
Refund is issued in manner paid (points back to points, cash back to cash).
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Old Aug 29, 2017, 6:53 am
  #355  
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 3,782
Originally Posted by lkar
I had a similar situation where AA discretionarily refunded me due to a schedule change. It was cash and points. It took Chase about 3 weeks to redeposit the points and credit the cash.

It was interesting because the AA refund showed the last 4 digits of the card to which the refund went and they were different from the last four of my Chase reserve. It took a while, but I finally got someone at ultimate rewards travel to explain it to me. They have a "master" card or cards that pay the airlines out of one card account (or a handful). When refunds come back to the master account it takes a while to reconcile it, and then another period for connexions or whatever to ping chase to refund the account.
I just got the last 4 digits from Delta on the refund and it is different from my credit card. Here is what Delta's email said:

"If you do not recognize the credit card number listed above, it is possible the travel agency who issued the ticket used an agency credit card to purchase the ticket. Please contact the travel agency directly with any questions."

So now I just need to wait until 30 days (Chase said it takes 30 days on points refund) from the date of the refund (8/7) to see if the points will come back. About 1 more week to go.
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Old Sep 3, 2017, 1:54 pm
  #356  
 
Join Date: Nov 2016
Posts: 812
I recently booked a hotel in Mexico through the portal, for a total of $1,366, paid half with points and half with my card. I also searched on the hotel website to verify that the price was the same as the market, and it was.

I was curious if the price had gone down, so I searched the hotel site again today, and it looks like it has decreased, to $1,229. So I went to the UR portal to see if I could get that price, and it actually showed $1,033! I cancelled my original booking, and once the points were back in my account, I rebooked to this price.

I just checked my receipts to compare, and it appears that the original booking charged $218 in taxes, while the new booking did not charge any taxes. Should I be concerned about this? Will the hotel charge my card that amount when I arrive?
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Old Sep 4, 2017, 8:52 am
  #357  
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
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Using UR for roundtrip flights - mandatory same airline both ways?

Looking to buy roundtrip airline tickets from EWR-LHR in the Fall and noticed when I use the UR portal if I choose say Virgin Atlantic on the way to London it only gives me VA as choices on the way home. Is there a way to choose different airlines for the different legs? I am torn as VA is a 787 which I've never flown but UA is my main airline and I understand I may get Mileage Plus points booking through the UR portal. Any thoughts on both of these? Thanks.

Last edited by gores95; Sep 4, 2017 at 9:01 am
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Old Sep 4, 2017, 3:05 pm
  #358  
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Posts: 158
Certain Hotels not Showing Up In Chase Rewards

Hello,

I have been doing some searching today for some hotels for an upcoming trip. I have looked at several possible locations, and many of the 5 star hotels I am looking for are not showing up? Should they be? Is there a reason they wouldn't be?
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Old Sep 4, 2017, 3:11 pm
  #359  
mia
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Originally Posted by swf83
...many of the 5 star hotels ...
You my receive more helpful replies if you provide examples. Do the hotels appear on Expedia? (The travel booking site is operated by Connexions, and they seem to run much of their hotel bookings through Expedia.)
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Old Sep 4, 2017, 3:13 pm
  #360  
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Posts: 158
Originally Posted by mia
You my receive more helpful replies if you provide examples. Do the hotels appear on Expedia? (The travel booking site is operated by Connexions, and they seem to run much of their hotel bookings through Expedia.)
For example, I cannot find any of the Aman chain hotels available through the portal. Also, I cannot find a hotel called "Cap Rocat" in Mallorca, Spain. I can find all of them on Expedia.com, however.
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