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)
Nov 8, 2018, 4:46 pm
#256
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: PDX/HIO
Programs: AS MVPG; Hertz Pres; Tanquery Million Minier
Posts: 375
Problems with UR transfer to BA
Has anyone else run into trouble transferring UR points to BA? I don't just mean delays in crediting the Avios, but not being able to transfer them at all. I was not able to transfer from my CSR UR account to my BA account online, and the representative I talked to could not do it either. She opened a ticket with the UR team. Just curious if anyone else has run into this since the CSR changes earlier this year.
Nov 8, 2018, 5:18 pm
#257
Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Miami, Mpls & London
Programs: AA & Marriott Perpetual Platinum; DL & HH Gold
Posts: 48,952
Nov 26, 2018, 5:34 am
#260
Join Date: May 2017
Programs: Delta, Marriott
Posts: 187
Question for the thread: In terms of using UR for "luxury" experiences, is Suites on Singapore Air probably top of that list? None of the other airline transfer partners seem to have an amazing J setup unless I'm missing something.
Wy wife and I have 250k UR each and are looking for a way to burn them. What would be some fantasy 500k redemption?
Wy wife and I have 250k UR each and are looking for a way to burn them. What would be some fantasy 500k redemption?
Nov 26, 2018, 6:42 pm
#261
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: NYC
Programs: DL Platinum, AA Plat Pro, Bonvoy Lifetime Platinum, JetBlue Mosaic 3, Amtrak Select
Posts: 965
Question for the thread: In terms of using UR for "luxury" experiences, is Suites on Singapore Air probably top of that list? None of the other airline transfer partners seem to have an amazing J setup unless I'm missing something.
Wy wife and I have 250k UR each and are looking for a way to burn them. What would be some fantasy 500k redemption?
Wy wife and I have 250k UR each and are looking for a way to burn them. What would be some fantasy 500k redemption?
To some, Lufthansa F is a bucket list item similar to Singapore Suites. I have never booked a Singapore suite, but thoroughly enjoyed the J upper deck on the A380 JFK-FRA flight
Dec 3, 2018, 11:09 pm
#263
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: PDX/HIO
Programs: AS MVPG; Hertz Pres; Tanquery Million Minier
Posts: 375
Has anyone else run into trouble transferring UR points to BA? I don't just mean delays in crediting the Avios, but not being able to transfer them at all. I was not able to transfer from my CSR UR account to my BA account online, and the representative I talked to could not do it either. She opened a ticket with the UR team. Just curious if anyone else has run into this since the CSR changes earlier this year.
Jan 3, 2019, 10:41 am
#266
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: Austin, TX USA
Programs: BA, CX, LH, WN
Posts: 211
Just to follow-up: received a rather unhelpful letter from Chase saying that they can't transfer points to BA as my EC number is invalid. That, of course, is not true. They do mention that the name on the EC account needs to match exactly with the name on the Chase account. I think that is somewhat unreasonable since it's common to use a short name (e.g. Nick/Jon/Sue/Julie) on credit card accounts. I doubt Chase is going to care enough to support that if it is the problem though. I can transfer points to other airline partners just fine, so it's still very BA-specific.
I verified this my transferring points to United which was also blocked before because of name issue. But even after fixing the name, I'm not able to add BA to Chase UR and I get "Special Handling" required message. I read on reddit that you need to have "earned" Avios in the BA account, else it will not accept a transfer. is this true? This is the reason you will not be able to transfer UR points to a newly created BAEC account with no avios earned activity. This is apparently new policy and has been implemented in the last 12 months. My last "earn" activity on my BAEC is 12/2016. i'm not sure if there is a time limit which makes the account "inactive" to recieve transfers. I will talk to BAEC and Chase but want to make sure what resolution others got.
EDIT:
I'm not able to top-op Avios from within BAEC too using Purchase Avios option. I get the following error "We are sorry but to purchase Avios you must have at least one Avios point in your Executive Club account. To find out more about the many ways to collect Avios click here." This is strange because I have 10 Avios in my account as I used most of them for a recent booking. Have written to BAEC - will update here after I get response from them. I think the rejection is coming from BAEC and not Chase because I'm able to xfer UR to my brother's BAEC account who is also an authorized user on my Chase account.
Last edited by techblr; Jan 3, 2019 at 1:29 pm
Jan 4, 2019, 11:30 am
#267
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: Austin, TX USA
Programs: BA, CX, LH, WN
Posts: 211
I'm having similar issue. I have 2 names as my last name with a space in between then. This has created a lot of problems for me in the past and hence I always make sure to use my full last name across all my accounts incl. cc and frequent flier accounts. In this case, BA had my correct legal name: Lastname1 Lastname2, firstname but Chase had only lastname2, firstname. I had it fixed on Chase to match my legal name - so the name on chase matches to BA.
I verified this my transferring points to United which was also blocked before because of name issue. But even after fixing the name, I'm not able to add BA to Chase UR and I get "Special Handling" required message. I read on reddit that you need to have "earned" Avios in the BA account, else it will not accept a transfer. is this true? This is the reason you will not be able to transfer UR points to a newly created BAEC account with no avios earned activity. This is apparently new policy and has been implemented in the last 12 months. My last "earn" activity on my BAEC is 12/2016. i'm not sure if there is a time limit which makes the account "inactive" to recieve transfers. I will talk to BAEC and Chase but want to make sure what resolution others got.
EDIT:
I'm not able to top-op Avios from within BAEC too using Purchase Avios option. I get the following error "We are sorry but to purchase Avios you must have at least one Avios point in your Executive Club account. To find out more about the many ways to collect Avios click here." This is strange because I have 10 Avios in my account as I used most of them for a recent booking. Have written to BAEC - will update here after I get response from them. I think the rejection is coming from BAEC and not Chase because I'm able to xfer UR to my brother's BAEC account who is also an authorized user on my Chase account.
I verified this my transferring points to United which was also blocked before because of name issue. But even after fixing the name, I'm not able to add BA to Chase UR and I get "Special Handling" required message. I read on reddit that you need to have "earned" Avios in the BA account, else it will not accept a transfer. is this true? This is the reason you will not be able to transfer UR points to a newly created BAEC account with no avios earned activity. This is apparently new policy and has been implemented in the last 12 months. My last "earn" activity on my BAEC is 12/2016. i'm not sure if there is a time limit which makes the account "inactive" to recieve transfers. I will talk to BAEC and Chase but want to make sure what resolution others got.
EDIT:
I'm not able to top-op Avios from within BAEC too using Purchase Avios option. I get the following error "We are sorry but to purchase Avios you must have at least one Avios point in your Executive Club account. To find out more about the many ways to collect Avios click here." This is strange because I have 10 Avios in my account as I used most of them for a recent booking. Have written to BAEC - will update here after I get response from them. I think the rejection is coming from BAEC and not Chase because I'm able to xfer UR to my brother's BAEC account who is also an authorized user on my Chase account.
Jan 24, 2019, 8:24 am
#269
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 8,135
See the wiki at the top of this page for full details on points transfer options.
