Mar 30, 2018, 8:02 am
Last edit by: 747FC
This thread covers how to use Ultimate Reward points for booking all types of travel via the Ultimate Rewards portal.
In 2018 Chase changed the outsourced booking portal operator from Connexions to Expedia. Posts from January to mid-October 2018 have been archived to a separate thread. Those posts discussed the portal as operated by Connexions, -and- the transition process to Expedia.
There is another thread to discuss booking by transferring to airline of hotel programs: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/chas...tc-2017-a.html
Pay special attention to booking via Chase UR/Expedia with regard to rewards and benefits. Chase UR + Expedia is considered OTA (Online Travel Agency). Travelers purchase or pre-pay travel with the OTA and is subject to the T&C from the OTA. In general, travelers receive miles rewards on flights, but do not receive night credit on hotel stays. Also, in general, travelers lose the airline or hotel status and do not receive the associated benefits (free breakfast, room upgrade etc).
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.
3.5) How to book cruises?
Chase outsources this to a travel agency specializing in cruises. (I believe they are available solely by telephone.) Agents there can book cruises for you using your URs for payments from initial deposit to final payment. It's also possible to transfer an existing cruise booking to that travel agency. That agency can then make payments (full or partial). However, to transfer a booking, there are some constraints to be aware of. A) The booking and deposit has to be made directly with the cruise line. If you use another agency, you're out of luck. B) The cruise lines limit the window when you can transfer a booking from their control to an agency's. It closes as early as 30 days after initial deposit up to final deposit due date (typically 75-120 prior to sail date) depending on the particular cruise line's rules (which are subject to change).
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 or JPMR 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.
4.5) How do Refunds Work?
When cancelling a booking (and a refund is due), points will be added back to your UR balance and dollars will be refunded to the credit card account used.
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 2017, can be found here: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/chas...14-2017-a.html
In 2018 Chase changed the outsourced booking portal operator from Connexions to Expedia. Posts from January to mid-October 2018 have been archived to a separate thread. Those posts discussed the portal as operated by Connexions, -and- the transition process to Expedia.
There is another thread to discuss booking by transferring to airline of hotel programs: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/chas...tc-2017-a.html
Pay special attention to booking via Chase UR/Expedia with regard to rewards and benefits. Chase UR + Expedia is considered OTA (Online Travel Agency). Travelers purchase or pre-pay travel with the OTA and is subject to the T&C from the OTA. In general, travelers receive miles rewards on flights, but do not receive night credit on hotel stays. Also, in general, travelers lose the airline or hotel status and do not receive the associated benefits (free breakfast, room upgrade etc).
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.
3.5) How to book cruises?
Chase outsources this to a travel agency specializing in cruises. (I believe they are available solely by telephone.) Agents there can book cruises for you using your URs for payments from initial deposit to final payment. It's also possible to transfer an existing cruise booking to that travel agency. That agency can then make payments (full or partial). However, to transfer a booking, there are some constraints to be aware of. A) The booking and deposit has to be made directly with the cruise line. If you use another agency, you're out of luck. B) The cruise lines limit the window when you can transfer a booking from their control to an agency's. It closes as early as 30 days after initial deposit up to final deposit due date (typically 75-120 prior to sail date) depending on the particular cruise line's rules (which are subject to change).
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 or JPMR 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.
4.5) How do Refunds Work?
When cancelling a booking (and a refund is due), points will be added back to your UR balance and dollars will be refunded to the credit card account used.
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 2017, can be found here: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/chas...14-2017-a.html
Booking Flights, Rooms, Cars, Cruises, Activities through Chase/Expedia portal.
Aug 15, 2019, 7:03 am
#466
Moderator: Travel Buzz
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Sunny San Diego
Posts: 3,099
Welcome to FT, @bcf turntable. I think you'll get your refund since it's their fault. It's escalated to an investigator, which is good. Keep us posted on the investigation.
Aug 15, 2019, 11:06 am
#467
Join Date: Aug 2019
Posts: 2
Appeal for cancel/return points
Welcome to FT, @bcf turntable. I think you'll get your refund since it's their fault. It's escalated to an investigator, which is good. Keep us posted on the investigation.
Hopefully it will go better this time. They said I"ll get call back in 48-72 hours. It's very close to 72 hours now, so I'm wondering if I should try to remind them.
Again thanks for your encouragement.
Aug 15, 2019, 11:57 am
#468
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: EWR
Programs: UA MM GS, Marriott Titanium
Posts: 519
Booking UA premium plus via chase ur
hi
I am extremely frustrated with the complete lack of ability to book anything but basic economy on the Chase UR portal. I am trying to book Premium Plus on a certain routing and cannot force it online and the call center is basically a glorified website input help as they use the same interface.
Has anyone successfully managed to find a workaround? Or do I book on a chase and then call UA to buy up, which renders the Chase points a lot less valuable than they are portrayed to be....
thanks
I am extremely frustrated with the complete lack of ability to book anything but basic economy on the Chase UR portal. I am trying to book Premium Plus on a certain routing and cannot force it online and the call center is basically a glorified website input help as they use the same interface.
Has anyone successfully managed to find a workaround? Or do I book on a chase and then call UA to buy up, which renders the Chase points a lot less valuable than they are portrayed to be....
thanks
Aug 15, 2019, 12:30 pm
#469
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2014
Location: MSP
Programs: DL PM, UA Gold, WN, Global Entry; +others wherever miles/points are found
Posts: 14,416
They used to have an actual travel agency with agents, but I heard they outsourced to Expedia and are now useless. (I used to be able to call and construct a ticket - haven't tried recently.)
As a GS, do you not have more mundane personal travel on which you can redeem UR points? They're not special so they don't need to be saved for inspirational travel and domestic F should work just fine
As a GS, do you not have more mundane personal travel on which you can redeem UR points? They're not special so they don't need to be saved for inspirational travel and domestic F should work just fine
Aug 15, 2019, 12:33 pm
#470
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: GVA (Greater Vancouver Area)
Programs: DREAD Gold; UA 1.035MM; Bonvoy Au-197; PCC Elite+; CCC Elite+; MSC C-12; CWC Au-197; WoH Dis
Posts: 52,140
Aug 15, 2019, 2:44 pm
#471
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: DEN
Programs: UA 1P-1MM, Marriott LT Titanium
Posts: 3,930
hi
I am extremely frustrated with the complete lack of ability to book anything but basic economy on the Chase UR portal. I am trying to book Premium Plus on a certain routing and cannot force it online and the call center is basically a glorified website input help as they use the same interface.
Has anyone successfully managed to find a workaround? Or do I book on a chase and then call UA to buy up, which renders the Chase points a lot less valuable than they are portrayed to be....
thanks
I am extremely frustrated with the complete lack of ability to book anything but basic economy on the Chase UR portal. I am trying to book Premium Plus on a certain routing and cannot force it online and the call center is basically a glorified website input help as they use the same interface.
Has anyone successfully managed to find a workaround? Or do I book on a chase and then call UA to buy up, which renders the Chase points a lot less valuable than they are portrayed to be....
thanks
Aug 15, 2019, 2:58 pm
#472
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Between AUS, EWR, and YTO In a little twisty maze of airline seats, all alike.. but I wanna go home with the armadillo
Programs: CO, NW, & UA forum moderator emeritus
Posts: 35,429
In the advanced search options (look to the left of the "Search" button), you can select Premium Economy as the class of service. This will show you options for Premium Economy (Premium Plus for UA). If you select Economy, it will show all the flights as Basic Economy (when that exists on the route), but once you select flights, you can "upgrade" to a regular Economy fare that doesn't have the BE restrictions before you purchase the ticket.
ve.
Aug 15, 2019, 6:45 pm
#473
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,762
In the advanced search options (look to the left of the "Search" button), you can select Premium Economy as the class of service. This will show you options for Premium Economy (Premium Plus for UA). If you select Economy, it will show all the flights as Basic Economy (when that exists on the route), but once you select flights, you can "upgrade" to a regular Economy fare that doesn't have the BE restrictions before you purchase the ticket.
Aug 16, 2019, 7:05 am
#474
Join Date: Sep 2011
Posts: 1,857
Has anyone booked a mass-market cruise using UR since the change to Expedia? I may do so soon and if I do, will share my experience, but I'm curious how it's gone for others.
Aug 16, 2019, 5:48 pm
#475
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,762
Just make sure you know the prices (both the fare and the taxes/fees) of the cruise you intend to book because UR does not always have the same prices. I have found Celebrity has no difference but UR always price Princess cruises much higher, even higher than Princess own website, let alone than our cruise agent who often gets access to unpublished rates. As a result, we booked the Celebrity cruise with UR pts and booked the preceding Princess cruise the usual way with our cruise agent, took advantage of 2 AMEX offers too. I do not know whether UR can handle applying the Princess future cruise deposit (if you cruise with Princess or Holland you know about the benefit of that $100 future cruise deposit while Royal / Celebrity hardly honor the benefits so dont bother to do it.)
You have to call to book. The front line rep would transfer you to the "cruise specialist". I NEVER receive a confirmation from Chase UR and the booking is NEVER showing on UR under My trips despite the rep insisted it would, after a few hours... It never does.
However the important thing is, the booking IMMEDIATELY showed up in our loyalty accounts on Celebrity website while we were still on the phone when I asked the rep the Celebrity confirmation number. There was the end of dealing with UR. Everything else later I was dealing with Celebrity directly (we had a change of embarkation location on that cruise - from Yokohama to Tokyo Industrial Pier).
Aug 16, 2019, 6:23 pm
#476
Join Date: Sep 2011
Posts: 1,857
Thanks Happy. I was hoping you would see my post and respond. The cruises I'm looking at are on Celebrity, so your response is encouraging. I like Celebrity's product.
One other question for you if you don't mind. When I look at cruises online, Expedia offers OBC in addition to the cruise line's OBC. In your experience, have you gotten any travel agent OBC when booking with UR?
Thanks again!
One other question for you if you don't mind. When I look at cruises online, Expedia offers OBC in addition to the cruise line's OBC. In your experience, have you gotten any travel agent OBC when booking with UR?
Thanks again!
Aug 16, 2019, 7:01 pm
#477
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,762
Thanks Happy. I was hoping you would see my post and respond. The cruises I'm looking at are on Celebrity, so your response is encouraging. I like Celebrity's product.
One other question for you if you don't mind. When I look at cruises online, Expedia offers OBC in addition to the cruise line's OBC. In your experience, have you gotten any travel agent OBC when booking with UR?
Thanks again!
One other question for you if you don't mind. When I look at cruises online, Expedia offers OBC in addition to the cruise line's OBC. In your experience, have you gotten any travel agent OBC when booking with UR?
Thanks again!
I used to check prices on possible cruises on Cruise-n-More before the site changed to its current form. Nowadays I use Vacationtogo to check prices then email our cruise agent about the cruises I am looking at. Being the top agent of all mass market lines she will have the same pricing as Vacationtogo, and sometimes has other incentives that she can pass on. My experiences have been Vacationtogo probably has the most competitive advertised pricing, plus it also tells you if there are special discounts for returned passengers. The only quirk with Vacationtogo is it does not show the amount of taxes and fees - that can be very substantial in some itineraries.
The Celebrity cruise I booked had a $50 OBC for the cabin but I did not know where that came from as the rep never mentioned there was an OBC.
It was when I looked at the booking on Celebrity website, it said I had $50 credit that I could use to pay for excursions or drink packages etc online before sailing. I did not do anything and the OBC stayed in the shipboard account and offset the total shipboard expenses.
Last edited by Happy; Aug 16, 2019 at 8:15 pm
Aug 16, 2019, 7:26 pm
#478
Join Date: Sep 2011
Posts: 1,857
It was when I looked at the booking on Celebrity website, it said I had $50 credit that I could use to pay for excursions or drink packages etc online before sailing. I did not do anything and the OBC stayed in the shipboard account and offset the total shipboard expenses.
Thanks again for your always well-thought-out answers. I appreciate the help.
Aug 16, 2019, 8:21 pm
#479
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,762
That makes sense about how the difference sources of OBC would behave.
I assume you could ask the booking agent the OBCs you saw available from both Celebrity and Expedia.
Please post back your experiences should you end up booking thru UR. My feeling is, cruises are the best ways to use the 1.5x value if you can get the same pricing and same incentives with UR portal. Hope you are able to achieve that.
Aug 17, 2019, 4:41 pm
#480
Join Date: Aug 2014
Posts: 70
Chase Travel Center and Surpise Charges - Chase doesn't have your back
At this point, I'm done wasting time on this issue. I'm out $48.83 and it's no longer worth my effort to keep pursuing.
I figured I would share my experience so others know what to expect.
The Situation:
Booked an Avis Rental via Chase Travel Center prepaid with UR points and cash. Itinerary clearly states "The total price includes all mandatory taxes and fees."
Pickup/Drop-off Location is clearly indicated on Itinerary. Panama City (Tocumen International).
Avis refused to give me the rental until I paid an additional $48.83 for a 'mandatory airport fee'. After arguing with the agent and unable to get through to the Chase Travel Center, I put the charge on my Sapphire Reserve as it is very late and I have the whole family with me. After getting back to the states, I disputed the $48.83 with Chase.
Despite two rounds of submitting my documentation and talking to several 'agents', it is very clear that Chase understands the situation and does not intend to make it right. Chase Travel Center reps verbally repeat that the itinerary includes all mandatory taxes and fees, but will not send me a breakdown of what they paid in writing. Chase Sapphire reps repeatedly want to 'mediate' a call with Avis to kindly ask for refund from them (interesting how long the agent was willing to wait on hold with me to call Avis), but each time I run out of time before getting through to an Avis Rep. Chase Sapphire Rep and Chase Travel Center reps refuse to reach out to each other.
My situation involved a car rental, but via Google searches did find at least one person complain about the same thing happening with a Hotel Reservation (Didn't see any followup if they disputed with Chase).
Personally, I don't have any advice on what else to do if this happens to you, but know that it won't be as simple as disputing the charge later if you do decide to pay the surprise charges.
This is one data point and is likely to be uncommon as I don't see anyone else complaining about it in the Flyertalk Forums.
I figured I would share my experience so others know what to expect.
The Situation:
Booked an Avis Rental via Chase Travel Center prepaid with UR points and cash. Itinerary clearly states "The total price includes all mandatory taxes and fees."
Pickup/Drop-off Location is clearly indicated on Itinerary. Panama City (Tocumen International).
Avis refused to give me the rental until I paid an additional $48.83 for a 'mandatory airport fee'. After arguing with the agent and unable to get through to the Chase Travel Center, I put the charge on my Sapphire Reserve as it is very late and I have the whole family with me. After getting back to the states, I disputed the $48.83 with Chase.
Despite two rounds of submitting my documentation and talking to several 'agents', it is very clear that Chase understands the situation and does not intend to make it right. Chase Travel Center reps verbally repeat that the itinerary includes all mandatory taxes and fees, but will not send me a breakdown of what they paid in writing. Chase Sapphire reps repeatedly want to 'mediate' a call with Avis to kindly ask for refund from them (interesting how long the agent was willing to wait on hold with me to call Avis), but each time I run out of time before getting through to an Avis Rep. Chase Sapphire Rep and Chase Travel Center reps refuse to reach out to each other.
My situation involved a car rental, but via Google searches did find at least one person complain about the same thing happening with a Hotel Reservation (Didn't see any followup if they disputed with Chase).
Personally, I don't have any advice on what else to do if this happens to you, but know that it won't be as simple as disputing the charge later if you do decide to pay the surprise charges.
This is one data point and is likely to be uncommon as I don't see anyone else complaining about it in the Flyertalk Forums.