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 Posts from January to mid-October 2018 have been archived to a separate thread.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.
Jan 30, 2019, 8:31 am
#196
Join Date: Sep 2017
Posts: 332
Sillyish question...So when booking off the Chase portal it will of course code as travel? Just don't want to give Chase the chance to say it's anything else so therefore won't give the 3x. Because I am looking to 3x my way through this msr.
Jan 30, 2019, 9:09 am
#197
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,756
There is a simple two step solution that you can propose. The problem will be finding someone with the authority to authorize:
- You purchase the ticket on expedia.com with Sapphire Reserve.
- When the transaction posts you redeem UR points to offset the charge at the rate 66 per USD, exactly the same as if you had made the purchase though the Chase portal.
If anything, the Tier 3 supervisors would/ should have suggest such a solution when it has been a week and many Chase personnel tried their hands on the issue with no solution in sight.
They should know airfare is not a statically priced goods staying on a shelf... It is very dynamic. The longer they drag on this the more likelihood the price would go up.
On top of that for a cruise related air, the cruiseline often has the best prices but then OP would need to pay actual money versus using points. Cruiselines have special arrangements with multiple airlines and more or less acted as a "consolidator". I seriously doubt Chase if it even agrees to your suggestion, would let OP use Cruise Air then reimburses him with the corresponding points - this STILL does NOT solve the issue because at the level of point balance, OP may be kept whole but he could NOT get back the SAME VALUE OF CASH by way of redeeming the pts to his bank as that would be 1 pt to 1 cent value...
OP specifically wants to use pts so to save the cash outlay. The above "solution" would still not keep him whole unless Chase deposits 1.5x of the pts equivalent... good luck for even getting the first solution, let alone the 1.5x because it would post challenge to those math-challenged people to understand that.
Last edited by Happy; Jan 30, 2019 at 9:14 am
Jan 30, 2019, 9:16 am
#198
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,756
I looked at various websites before I purchased the ticket on January 28, 2019. Sometime the cruise line has a lower fare than the carrier or other websites.
I didn't know what remedies would be available with Chase if any. I found the lowest fare for the multi-city on Kayak LAX to CNS and SIN to LAX on American Airlines. I booked the flight using my Chase Sapphire Reserve Card.
Why not a statement credit for the total amount of the tickets since the Chase Portal was not available? I made every effort to purchase the tickets through their portal.
I didn't know what remedies would be available with Chase if any. I found the lowest fare for the multi-city on Kayak LAX to CNS and SIN to LAX on American Airlines. I booked the flight using my Chase Sapphire Reserve Card.
Why not a statement credit for the total amount of the tickets since the Chase Portal was not available? I made every effort to purchase the tickets through their portal.
This!
I would bring this up on the next contact with whatever Tier 3 or higher up Chase people. May even need to write to the Exec Office to get this resolved.
That is why the log of contacts is important. You can document how many times how many Chase reps you have talked to, and are contacted by, but no solution in sight.
The UR pts reimbursement is bogus because you again is subj to the portal's dysfunction, plus you can only get back 1c per pt to offset your cash outlay on the booking. Unless Chase gives you 1.5 value otherwise this is NOT an equal exchange, as in the sense "You want to save the cash".
Jan 30, 2019, 9:53 am
#199
Join Date: Jun 2006
Programs: UA Premier 1K, Star Alliance Gold, Titanium Elite Marriott, Celebrity Elite, IHG, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 343
Chase ultimate rewards points
The issue that myself and other cardholders are having when we try to redeem our cumulated points through the Chase Ultimate Rewards Portal we can use our points because of technical errors with the UR portal. If we need to travel we must use other options to purchase our tickets
Jan 30, 2019, 10:52 am
#200
Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Miami, Mpls & London
Programs: AA & Marriott Perpetual Platinum; DL & HH Gold
Posts: 48,954
None, but American Express has done this for cardholders who were unable to book specific tickets. This type of thing needs to be arranged in advance, not after the fact. It's a negotiating gambit, proposing it allows you to gauge if the person you are speaking with is genuinely committed to solving your problem, -and- how much authority they have. This is very nearly a zero-cost concession by Chase. If they won't do this, why would you use their products?
Jan 30, 2019, 10:54 am
#201
Join Date: Jan 2019
Posts: 10
I did have luck with one of my flights where they recommended I book directly through the airline and use a statement credit option for points. The rep then calculated the point differential (1 vs 1.5x travel) and put in notes to get them added to my account. I do not recommend this path at all though. It literally took about 6 calls after the fact to get the points. Lots of hoops, I was told different stories along the way including being told they had no such record of my call with the original agent (even though I had an E- case number). Finally I did have someone who re-listened to the call and told me I was right and they'd get this sorted out. Three more calls later to follow up, and I finally see the points added. I really just want to be able to use the UR travel portal!
Jan 30, 2019, 11:53 am
#202
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 3,785
I did have luck with one of my flights where they recommended I book directly through the airline and use a statement credit option for points. The rep then calculated the point differential (1 vs 1.5x travel) and put in notes to get them added to my account. I do not recommend this path at all though. It literally took about 6 calls after the fact to get the points. Lots of hoops, I was told different stories along the way including being told they had no such record of my call with the original agent (even though I had an E- case number). Finally I did have someone who re-listened to the call and told me I was right and they'd get this sorted out. Three more calls later to follow up, and I finally see the points added. I really just want to be able to use the UR travel portal!
Jan 30, 2019, 12:05 pm
#203
Join Date: Jan 2019
Posts: 10
I am actually surprised you got them at all. Usually when this kind of things happened, the result would be something like "The first agent gave you incorrect info, we are so sorry, so here is 1000 points for the trouble." BTW, was this before or after UR portal switched to use Expedia?
Jan 30, 2019, 2:41 pm
#204
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,756
I did have luck with one of my flights where they recommended I book directly through the airline and use a statement credit option for points. The rep then calculated the point differential (1 vs 1.5x travel) and put in notes to get them added to my account. I do not recommend this path at all though. It literally took about 6 calls after the fact to get the points. Lots of hoops, I was told different stories along the way including being told they had no such record of my call with the original agent (even though I had an E- case number). Finally I did have someone who re-listened to the call and told me I was right and they'd get this sorted out. Three more calls later to follow up, and I finally see the points added. I really just want to be able to use the UR travel portal!
In other words, did they add back the amount of points that you can redeem as CASH, equivalent to the same amount you shelled out to buy the ticket with Credit Card?
Agree this is NOT any process one would go thru - lots of hoops to jump thru and lots of time wasted.
For those being affected, I would suggest you contact the major bloggers, esp TPG who has inside connection at Chase (Chase asked him in 2016 before launching the CSR how his website would be able to help - little did Chase know the CSR basically launched itself but but because Chase had signed a contract with TPG, the site earned MILLIONS from the CSR sign up).
This is mentioned in a write up on MSN.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/comp...ack/ar-BBRGIIk
OMAAT, ViewfromtheWing, and this blogger https://loyaltylobby.com/, may be able to give some exposure of this ongoing issue that seems going on for weeks or shortly after Expedia has taken over.
Hopefully this would bring some much needed attention to the need of fixing the broken portal.
Good luck to those who have the immediate needs to book flights but unable to use their UR pts to do so. We need to make this problem as widely known as possible to make Chase feels some urgency to fix it.
Jan 30, 2019, 2:47 pm
#205
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: DTW/MBS
Programs: UA 1K, HHonors Diamond, Hyatt Globalist, Formerly Starbucks Gold
Posts: 3,525
Did you get back the 1.5x of points so to equal to the cash you paid for the ticket? Because that is the only way to keep you whole.
In other words, did they add back the amount of points that you can redeem as CASH, equivalent to the same amount you shelled out to buy the ticket with Credit Card?
Agree this is NOT any process one would go thru - lots of hoops to jump thru and lots of time wasted.
For those being affected, I would suggest you contact the major bloggers, esp TPG who has inside connection at Chase (Chase asked him in 2016 before launching the CSR how his website would be able to help - little did Chase know the CSR basically launched itself but but because Chase had signed a contract with TPG, the site earned MILLIONS from the CSR sign up).
This is mentioned in a write up on MSN.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/comp...ack/ar-BBRGIIk
OMAAT, ViewfromtheWing, and this blogger https://loyaltylobby.com/, may be able to give some exposure of this ongoing issue that seems going on for weeks or shortly after Expedia has taken over.
Hopefully this would bring some much needed attention to the need of fixing the broken portal.
Good luck to those who have the immediate needs to book flights but unable to use their UR pts to do so. We need to make this problem as widely known as possible to make Chase feels some urgency to fix it.
In other words, did they add back the amount of points that you can redeem as CASH, equivalent to the same amount you shelled out to buy the ticket with Credit Card?
Agree this is NOT any process one would go thru - lots of hoops to jump thru and lots of time wasted.
For those being affected, I would suggest you contact the major bloggers, esp TPG who has inside connection at Chase (Chase asked him in 2016 before launching the CSR how his website would be able to help - little did Chase know the CSR basically launched itself but but because Chase had signed a contract with TPG, the site earned MILLIONS from the CSR sign up).
This is mentioned in a write up on MSN.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/comp...ack/ar-BBRGIIk
OMAAT, ViewfromtheWing, and this blogger https://loyaltylobby.com/, may be able to give some exposure of this ongoing issue that seems going on for weeks or shortly after Expedia has taken over.
Hopefully this would bring some much needed attention to the need of fixing the broken portal.
Good luck to those who have the immediate needs to book flights but unable to use their UR pts to do so. We need to make this problem as widely known as possible to make Chase feels some urgency to fix it.
Jan 30, 2019, 2:47 pm
#206
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,756
None, but American Express has done this for cardholders who were unable to book specific tickets. This type of thing needs to be arranged in advance, not after the fact. It's a negotiating gambit, proposing it allows you to gauge if the person you are speaking with is genuinely committed to solving your problem, -and- how much authority they have. This is very nearly a zero-cost concession by Chase. If they won't do this, why would you use their products?
I would negotiate a STRAIGHT STATEMENT CREDIT to offset the Spending instead of in the form of points. The statement credit also serves another purpose - it negates the 3x earning on the purchase which the system would treat it as a Travel spend. Not to mention that this is soooo much more straight forward instead of the bogus 1.5x gimmick (which essentially is a 33% discount of the price but try to make people understand it...) I think a Straight Statement Credit with the simplicity could be a selling point if it comes to that point.
Personally I think everyone who holds CSR has a vested interest to see this get resolved or if not able to, some work around way to make the cardholder whole.
As you said, Chase should do the right thing because it does not cost them anything extra, just to keep the cardholder whole for the benefit that Chase counts it as a selling point of the high end card.
Jan 30, 2019, 2:52 pm
#207
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,756
The loyaltylobby blog seems to be more pro-consumers - they called out Marriott's craps from the beginning on how Marriott screwed the members on many fronts, incl the infamous Travel Packages that Marriott mapped 2 categories DOWN, but at first would not give back 30K refund of the overpayment, amount other issues.
https://loyaltylobby.com/
Last edited by Happy; Jan 30, 2019 at 3:05 pm
Jan 30, 2019, 3:37 pm
#208
Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Miami, Mpls & London
Programs: AA & Marriott Perpetual Platinum; DL & HH Gold
Posts: 48,954
Jan 30, 2019, 5:19 pm
#209
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,756
Chase has the duty to make sure the UR pts work as it should.
I dont believe the cardholders need to be subj to the problems that the software of the bank's provider is not working. This is Chase own problem that Chase needs to resolve, by the way that is fair to the cardholder as the cardholder has been inconvenienced a great deal already.
On top of that it is Chase advertised benefits of the UR travel portal - just how Chase can get away from it when its provider's software not working?
Do you think you as the cardholder should put up with this until however long the bank works out a solution?
Chase does not give you the free ticket, Chase give you the statement credit to offset the cost of the ticket, then take the value against the UR pts they should have deducted - i.e. divide the value of the ticket by 1.5, then use this number to deduct the same amount of UR pts.
Only the above is fare to the cardholder because the UR pts travel redemption fails to work as advertised.
I understand trying to get the above achieved would be an uphill battle, especially the gimmick of the 1 to 1.5 is involved.
Jan 30, 2019, 5:25 pm
#210
Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Miami, Mpls & London
Programs: AA & Marriott Perpetual Platinum; DL & HH Gold
Posts: 48,954