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 Posts from January to mid-October 2018 have been archived to a separate thread.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.
Feb 18, 2019, 9:28 pm
#256
Join Date: Jun 2006
Programs: UA Premier 1K, Star Alliance Gold, Titanium Elite Marriott, Celebrity Elite, IHG, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 343
Booking flights on ultimate rewards
AA miles can book EY from US to Abu Dhabi - it is just an hour or so drive between AUH and DXB. Too bad the spat between Qatar and Saudia / UAE continue - much longer than last time - so now it is a hassle to go thru DOH. QR is one of our favorite airlines to fly. There are a few routes using AA miles to fly QR are great deals. (US to Africa via DOH QR to QR, EU to Australia / New Zealand via DOH QR to QR, off the top of my head.)
Virtually all our international long haul air are business class awards with different programs depending on the availability and the routing. Star Alliance is much stronger for TATL, and TPAC too primarily because UA still allows routing thru Europe between Asia and US while AA does not. Aeroplan is almost anything goes only limited to MPM allowance. Therefore the AMEX Membership Reward pts to us are very valuable due to it is the primary way we gather our Aeroplan miles.
Abu Dhabi to Rome would sail thru Suez Canal. Celebrity Constellation has such sailing in March, but UR cannot book it. I dont like the itinerary primarily due to the arrival time to Aqaba too late at 10pm. By the time you get off the ship and with the over an hour car ride to Petra, you are there right around noon or 1pm - the hottest time of the day! No good. We were to visit Petra in a 2017 trip for Middle East and Asia. Alas, things happened and we modified the itinerary and dropped Jordan so no more Petra. Hence I would like to go to Petra on an itinerary that has Aqaba as port of call - but the Celebrity Constellation schedule makes it while possible would be very uncomfortable.
Also Constellation crosses Suez Canal at night with only the next morning for the last stretch - another poor schedule. The cruise is dirt cheap though at this moment, but the taxes are over $300. Still cheaper than Seabourn's $600 taxes on a reverse itinerary in the Fall. But Seabourn enters Suez Canal in the morning while Celebrity enters at night - may make a difference.
Yes, I used cruise critics for many years - usually would drop by a few weeks before a cruise to check on the latest, such transportation at the ports, if there are any interesting private tours posted on the Roll Calls, things of that sort. Our cruise agent was by referral thru a long time cruise critic member 10 or more years ago. Generally when I found a couple cruises we like, I emailed our agent and she would check on what prices she could offer, while she put the cruise on hold for 24 hours, often could be extended but not always. We tend to book cruises that are well after their final payment deadline - so the cruise lines have more solid ideas on how many unsold cabins therefore adjust their pricing accordingly. We use her exclusively but before that we used CruiseCompete and other sites before.
I will PM you when and if we pick an Oceania cruise to learn more on Oceania.
We do at least one TATL cruise a year, sometimes with the extension. (the back to back). There were years we did both directions - one in Spring to, and the other in Fall from. We had some really crazy years that had multiple long cruises, with long land trips in between. We really like doing TATL and then tag on weeks long land trip post cruise for the Spring crossing. We also add land portion pre cruise for the Fall crossing but we do less often the Fall crossing.
Can't do South America as needed Yellow Fever shots - family doctors both advise against the shot, and we dont want to take the health risk given the Yellow Fever outbreaks in Brazil in recent years, nor the health risk taking the shot. Hence Brazil and a good part of South America is a no go!
Virtually all our international long haul air are business class awards with different programs depending on the availability and the routing. Star Alliance is much stronger for TATL, and TPAC too primarily because UA still allows routing thru Europe between Asia and US while AA does not. Aeroplan is almost anything goes only limited to MPM allowance. Therefore the AMEX Membership Reward pts to us are very valuable due to it is the primary way we gather our Aeroplan miles.
Abu Dhabi to Rome would sail thru Suez Canal. Celebrity Constellation has such sailing in March, but UR cannot book it. I dont like the itinerary primarily due to the arrival time to Aqaba too late at 10pm. By the time you get off the ship and with the over an hour car ride to Petra, you are there right around noon or 1pm - the hottest time of the day! No good. We were to visit Petra in a 2017 trip for Middle East and Asia. Alas, things happened and we modified the itinerary and dropped Jordan so no more Petra. Hence I would like to go to Petra on an itinerary that has Aqaba as port of call - but the Celebrity Constellation schedule makes it while possible would be very uncomfortable.
Also Constellation crosses Suez Canal at night with only the next morning for the last stretch - another poor schedule. The cruise is dirt cheap though at this moment, but the taxes are over $300. Still cheaper than Seabourn's $600 taxes on a reverse itinerary in the Fall. But Seabourn enters Suez Canal in the morning while Celebrity enters at night - may make a difference.
Yes, I used cruise critics for many years - usually would drop by a few weeks before a cruise to check on the latest, such transportation at the ports, if there are any interesting private tours posted on the Roll Calls, things of that sort. Our cruise agent was by referral thru a long time cruise critic member 10 or more years ago. Generally when I found a couple cruises we like, I emailed our agent and she would check on what prices she could offer, while she put the cruise on hold for 24 hours, often could be extended but not always. We tend to book cruises that are well after their final payment deadline - so the cruise lines have more solid ideas on how many unsold cabins therefore adjust their pricing accordingly. We use her exclusively but before that we used CruiseCompete and other sites before.
I will PM you when and if we pick an Oceania cruise to learn more on Oceania.
We do at least one TATL cruise a year, sometimes with the extension. (the back to back). There were years we did both directions - one in Spring to, and the other in Fall from. We had some really crazy years that had multiple long cruises, with long land trips in between. We really like doing TATL and then tag on weeks long land trip post cruise for the Spring crossing. We also add land portion pre cruise for the Fall crossing but we do less often the Fall crossing.
Can't do South America as needed Yellow Fever shots - family doctors both advise against the shot, and we dont want to take the health risk given the Yellow Fever outbreaks in Brazil in recent years, nor the health risk taking the shot. Hence Brazil and a good part of South America is a no go!
We arrived at Abu Dhabi late at night and had booked rooms at the Sheraton Sharjah Beach Hotel about 75 miles away.
Veterans Advantage membership required offers discounts on:
Airlines: Alaska, Lufthansa, Jet Blue, Southwest, Hawaiian and United. The United discounts are only 5% on domestic net fare.
They also offer discount on cruises through there travel partners
There is a booklet listing all the companies that offers discounts.
I only used the American Express Starwood Card soon to be Marriott Bonvoy. I use my Chase Sapphire Reserve for all my travel because of the point schedule.
We did Barcelona to Roma on Celebrity last year. December we took the Oceania Insignia MIA to MIA stopping three ports in Cuba. Celebrity Millennium last year Singapore to Hong Kong 14 days. Then back LAX to HKG to KMG. We stayed three days in Kunming back to Hong Kong boarded the Celebrity Millennium 14 days to Shanghai.
I had some points on American Airlines tried to use them to Europe there is some type of surcharge on their code sharing partners. Using them on a trip to Hawaii twice the miles as Delta or United.
Feb 19, 2019, 8:58 pm
#258
Join Date: May 2016
Location: SFO
Programs: UA, AS, Marriott, Hyatt
Posts: 46
In other words, the UR account is not linked to your replacement card and Chase IT could not figure out what is wrong?
Can the UR people see your card (the one with new number) at all? My experience when calling them has been, the rep would go thru the motion to tell you how many UR pts you have and that equal to how much $ you can use... Rather annoying when you are just trying to check on prices but have to wait thru the whole spiel.
Do they see your card and the UR balance at all?
Pretty sure there are many replacement cards over the course of a year due to fraudulent charges. Your unfortunate incident seems to be the first DP on this. Could this be something to do with the transition to Expedia have some glitch? Or the recent upgrade on Chase online? (though how the website display should not affect the back end linkage.)
Can the UR people see your card (the one with new number) at all? My experience when calling them has been, the rep would go thru the motion to tell you how many UR pts you have and that equal to how much $ you can use... Rather annoying when you are just trying to check on prices but have to wait thru the whole spiel.
Do they see your card and the UR balance at all?
Pretty sure there are many replacement cards over the course of a year due to fraudulent charges. Your unfortunate incident seems to be the first DP on this. Could this be something to do with the transition to Expedia have some glitch? Or the recent upgrade on Chase online? (though how the website display should not affect the back end linkage.)
Feb 19, 2019, 9:49 pm
#259
Join Date: Jun 2006
Programs: UA Premier 1K, Star Alliance Gold, Titanium Elite Marriott, Celebrity Elite, IHG, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 343
Booking flights on ultimate rewards
I would like to let the group know that after many exasperating calls to Card Services and UR, I FINALLY found out that it was a "known" error that was somehow created when the system thought there was a fraud event. In my case, it was requesting a replacement card while traveling through SE Asia. I knew something odd was up when I could book UR travel using my Ink but not my CSR. When I got this tidbit from a senior UR agent, I decided to go ahead and try closing the 2nd (replacement) card and request a 3rd one be sent to my hotel in Vietnam. I did not log into UR during this time (like I had while the 2nd card was on its way) and POOF, upon activating my 3rd CSR, I was magically able to book UR again. Moral of the story - if this happens to you, replace your card!
Feb 20, 2019, 11:54 am
#260
Join Date: May 2016
Location: SFO
Programs: UA, AS, Marriott, Hyatt
Posts: 46
You may have tried when the Portal was down. The Portal has been down for long periods of times about month ago. There have been many complaints from old and new cardholders about trying to complete booking on the UR Portal. I had just received a replacement card when I tried to book my flights. It took a couple of days for my points to transfer over to the new card number. I tried for two weeks to book my flights. I finally had to book my flight with the airline carrier. Two weeks later I book another trip with a minor error that required that I start over to complete the booking. I think Expedia sells franchises or licenses with no support on location. Once the UR Portal goes down there is no one on the support staff can do anything to assist the cardholder.
Feb 20, 2019, 6:21 pm
#261
Join Date: Jun 2006
Programs: UA Premier 1K, Star Alliance Gold, Titanium Elite Marriott, Celebrity Elite, IHG, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 343
Booking travel on ultimate rewards
It was definitely pinned specifically to my CSR. Reason I know this is I was able to make bookings with my Ink during this time but ended up only getting 1.25 instead of 1.5 like I should have with the CSR. After many calls, the most info I got was it was a system error tied to fraud alerts.
Feb 21, 2019, 12:07 am
#262
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,754
I would like to let the group know that after many exasperating calls to Card Services and UR, I FINALLY found out that it was a "known" error that was somehow created when the system thought there was a fraud event. In my case, it was requesting a replacement card while traveling through SE Asia. I knew something odd was up when I could book UR travel using my Ink but not my CSR. When I got this tidbit from a senior UR agent, I decided to go ahead and try closing the 2nd (replacement) card and request a 3rd one be sent to my hotel in Vietnam. I did not log into UR during this time (like I had while the 2nd card was on its way) and POOF, upon activating my 3rd CSR, I was magically able to book UR again. Moral of the story - if this happens to you, replace your card!
This tidbit makes sense now why your replacement card is not mapped to the UR- Your 1st card was canceled with the replacement card was sent, but not yet received, therefore not yet verified the receipt - meanwhile you were trying to book travel during this vacuum time - so the system blocked you thinking the account has active fraud alert.
While this is pure guessing, but from the logic of programming this might be the reason why the CSR UR account was blocked.
Moral of the story - do not attempt to log in UR account when you have not verified receipt of a replacement card.
If you accidentally logged in without thinking, then the fix is to order another replacement card and make sure you activate it first before going to UR site.
Feb 21, 2019, 8:41 pm
#263
Join Date: Jan 2019
Posts: 10
Thanks for posting it and your solution to resolve the frustrating issue that Chase does not seem to have a clue on how to fix.
This tidbit makes sense now why your replacement card is not mapped to the UR- Your 1st card was canceled with the replacement card was sent, but not yet received, therefore not yet verified the receipt - meanwhile you were trying to book travel during this vacuum time - so the system blocked you thinking the account has active fraud alert.
While this is pure guessing, but from the logic of programming this might be the reason why the CSR UR account was blocked.
Moral of the story - do not attempt to log in UR account when you have not verified receipt of a replacement card.
If you accidentally logged in without thinking, then the fix is to order another replacement card and make sure you activate it first before going to UR site.
This tidbit makes sense now why your replacement card is not mapped to the UR- Your 1st card was canceled with the replacement card was sent, but not yet received, therefore not yet verified the receipt - meanwhile you were trying to book travel during this vacuum time - so the system blocked you thinking the account has active fraud alert.
While this is pure guessing, but from the logic of programming this might be the reason why the CSR UR account was blocked.
Moral of the story - do not attempt to log in UR account when you have not verified receipt of a replacement card.
If you accidentally logged in without thinking, then the fix is to order another replacement card and make sure you activate it first before going to UR site.
Feb 21, 2019, 9:25 pm
#264
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,754
I wished and prayed that this was it. I ordered a replacement card yesterday and got it today. Just tried booking after UR points re-linked but got the same "Sorry" message. I've come to the conclusion that my points are useless for 1.5x and my only way to use them is to transfer them to an airline...
If you went from regular account online site to UR site - what were the cards and their corresponding numbers shown on the redirect screen?
Did you see your new replacement card's number next to the card image on that screen?
Personally I stopped going directly to UR site for almost 2 years now because I had tremendous issues when I went to UR site directly during the time I tried to book lodgings for our last South Africa trip in early 2017. At the end I found out if I went from the regular account online, most of t he issues I experienced, did not occurred.
At the time I thought it was because the accounts were still under the Old business account interface, i.e. the no-nonsense, clean business log in that we much prefer. We made the personal accounts merged to the business accounts log in after we had serious problem with the personal mobile site during a trip in Australia when we could not get the BA credit card number that was needed to cancel an Avios award booking (the mobile site at the time could NOT show PDF statement file therefore no way to get the CC number. A Chase phone rep literally told me "You need to find a computer in order to be able to view the online statement..." So when we returned home, we promptly made all personal accounts merged to the business log in to prevent such stupid thing from happening again. I later found out that if I go to UR from regular account online, a lot of the UR glitches seemed to go away.
To this day I still would not log in UR directly but always from the regular account log in.
Feb 22, 2019, 8:27 am
#265
Join Date: Jan 2019
Posts: 10
Did you go to UR site from the regular account online site or you went directly to UR?
If you went from regular account online site to UR site - what were the cards and their corresponding numbers shown on the redirect screen?
Did you see your new replacement card's number next to the card image on that screen?
Personally I stopped going directly to UR site for almost 2 years now because I had tremendous issues when I went to UR site directly during the time I tried to book lodgings for our last South Africa trip in early 2017. At the end I found out if I went from the regular account online, most of t he issues I experienced, did not occurred.
At the time I thought it was because the accounts were still under the Old business account interface, i.e. the no-nonsense, clean business log in that we much prefer. We made the personal accounts merged to the business accounts log in after we had serious problem with the personal mobile site during a trip in Australia when we could not get the BA credit card number that was needed to cancel an Avios award booking (the mobile site at the time could NOT show PDF statement file therefore no way to get the CC number. A Chase phone rep literally told me "You need to find a computer in order to be able to view the online statement..." So when we returned home, we promptly made all personal accounts merged to the business log in to prevent such stupid thing from happening again. I later found out that if I go to UR from regular account online, a lot of the UR glitches seemed to go away.
To this day I still would not log in UR directly but always from the regular account log in.
If you went from regular account online site to UR site - what were the cards and their corresponding numbers shown on the redirect screen?
Did you see your new replacement card's number next to the card image on that screen?
Personally I stopped going directly to UR site for almost 2 years now because I had tremendous issues when I went to UR site directly during the time I tried to book lodgings for our last South Africa trip in early 2017. At the end I found out if I went from the regular account online, most of t he issues I experienced, did not occurred.
At the time I thought it was because the accounts were still under the Old business account interface, i.e. the no-nonsense, clean business log in that we much prefer. We made the personal accounts merged to the business accounts log in after we had serious problem with the personal mobile site during a trip in Australia when we could not get the BA credit card number that was needed to cancel an Avios award booking (the mobile site at the time could NOT show PDF statement file therefore no way to get the CC number. A Chase phone rep literally told me "You need to find a computer in order to be able to view the online statement..." So when we returned home, we promptly made all personal accounts merged to the business log in to prevent such stupid thing from happening again. I later found out that if I go to UR from regular account online, a lot of the UR glitches seemed to go away.
To this day I still would not log in UR directly but always from the regular account log in.
Feb 22, 2019, 9:55 am
#266
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,754
Ok, so after I received the card and verified it, the Chase site showed my old card with $0 balance and my new card with the balance. The UR points box had "--" so I didn't click on anything. Later on in the evening, the only card reflected was my replacement number and my UR points were reflected so I clicked the link. The UR site had my new card linked also on that page. I really thought this would do the trick as I had done what that other posted had done in trying to book with UR in between replacement card coming. Unfortunately, still in the same position as before. Chase twitter support has been completely unhelpful and can't seem to grasp the issue, focusing on what browser I'm using even though I've told them multiple times that their own agents can't book through my account. What's hilarious is that I can't even book with my credit card on the Travel site, so it's not just the points.
Now it seems the site once again put your account in active Fraud Alert - both the UR account, AND the replacement card itself.
Really, the Chase system often takes 24 to 48 hours to finish the updating every change happens to your account(s). Act too soon only create problems - learned this from other issues though not related to UR. (Had a saving account with 0.01 balance and a Pending Cancellation status for 3 days, eventually required manual entry by the SM rep to transfer the 0.01 to checking and then close the account. I cannot do it myself due to the "Pending Cancellation" status so it would not allow me to transfer the 0.01 out!)
You may put yourself back to the same vicious circle unfortunately.
My suggestion is to get Fraud Alert involved and see if that dept can clear stuff - you may want to read back several pages to find more info as IIRC the Fraud Alert dept was definitely mentioned in some posts as a suggested solution to resolve the blocking.
Last edited by Happy; Feb 22, 2019 at 10:24 am
Feb 22, 2019, 12:37 pm
#267
Join Date: Jan 2019
Posts: 10
I am afraid you jumped the gun before the system is fully updated - My suspicion is, had you waited till everything has been fully updated after an OVERNIGHT PROCESSING to fully finish the linkage of the replacement card, the site might behave correctly.
Now it seems the site once again put your account in active Fraud Alert - both the UR account, AND the replacement card itself.
Really, the Chase system often takes 24 to 48 hours to finish the updating every change happens to your account(s). Act too soon only create problems - learned this from other issues though not related to UR. (Had a saving account with 0.01 balance and a Pending Cancellation status for 3 days, eventually required manual entry by the SM rep to transfer the 0.01 to checking and then close the account. I cannot do it myself due to the "Pending Cancellation" status so it would not allow me to transfer the 0.01 out!)
You may put yourself back to the same vicious circle unfortunately.
My suggestion is to get Fraud Alert involved and see if that dept can clear stuff - you may want to read back several pages to find more info as IIRC the Fraud Alert dept was definitely mentioned in some posts as a suggested solution to resolve the blocking.
Now it seems the site once again put your account in active Fraud Alert - both the UR account, AND the replacement card itself.
Really, the Chase system often takes 24 to 48 hours to finish the updating every change happens to your account(s). Act too soon only create problems - learned this from other issues though not related to UR. (Had a saving account with 0.01 balance and a Pending Cancellation status for 3 days, eventually required manual entry by the SM rep to transfer the 0.01 to checking and then close the account. I cannot do it myself due to the "Pending Cancellation" status so it would not allow me to transfer the 0.01 out!)
You may put yourself back to the same vicious circle unfortunately.
My suggestion is to get Fraud Alert involved and see if that dept can clear stuff - you may want to read back several pages to find more info as IIRC the Fraud Alert dept was definitely mentioned in some posts as a suggested solution to resolve the blocking.
Feb 22, 2019, 3:03 pm
#268
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,754
Ugh, I debated waiting. My wife just spent the past hour on the phone with Chase, no fraud issues. Was told that they know the issue and the team is being trained on a fix in the next 1-2 days. She asked why they can't fix ours today and after another hold was told sorry nothing we can do for you today. They said to keep trying the website and you'll know it works when it works. No compensation, just have a nice day. Chase is an absolute joke. Honestly not sure why I don't just shift all my purchases to my Amex Platinum where at least the customer service is light years ahead...
This last thing really IRKED me as I had spent enough time and left enough messages to the handler (could only get to via a number that only transferred to an extension - no way to talk to a human). Finally several weeks later when we returned from another trip I called the centralized CS number, asked for a manager and complained about the whole mishandling. The manager only took 2 min to look at the item I referred to and immediately issued $40 credit on the spot - the credit showed up the next day.
1-800-935-9935. Ask to speak to a manger and dont waste your time with the front line rep - just tell him or her that the issue is complicated and would probably required higher up, who has more authority to handle things.
Good luck.
Last edited by Happy; Feb 22, 2019 at 3:18 pm
Feb 26, 2019, 5:10 pm
#269
Join Date: Jan 2019
Posts: 29
Rental Car Using ultimate Reward Points
A quick question: I was looking to book a car rental on August 11 from ABE and returning to PHL on the same day. On Expedia, the total price for an economy car is $30 but on the Ultimate rewards site the cheapest economy car is $118.98 or 9,518 points + $50 one way rental fee. Does this make any sense?
Feb 26, 2019, 10:16 pm
#270
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Florida
Posts: 29,754
DP in booking a Celebrity "Exciting Deals" cruise with UR.
The cruise is also on Expedia site, so I figure UR can book it.
1) Need to call. Front line agent would transfer you to the cruise booking dept.
2) Hold time before a cruise dept agent came on the phone was 25 min.
3) Booking process took 35 min as he needed to get each required information to put in his booking interface.
Once all were input, the system would calculate the UR pts cost. Then the agent would re-read the details on the cash cost, and the equivalent of UR pts, asked you explicit consent in the usage of the pts.
When that process finished, he was able to provide Celebrity booking reference.
Unlike booking hotels or airline tickets online, My Trip did not show the cruise booking for a long time, despite Celebrity site showed the booking when searching with the booking reference with very little delay. Confirmation email from Chase eventually came in about an hour or more later.
Even though I gave the Expedia agent our Celebrity Captain's Club numbers, the numbers did not attach to the booking. I have to manually add them in, also still have to call Celebrity agent to add my husband's number in.
At the end, it is still a major improvement from before when they could not see a Princess cruise price even though it was a public offer on Princess site and multiple OTA's sites incl Vacationtogo. Expedia price was more than 20% higher. On this Celebrity cruise the price was identical with what was shown on Celebrity site and other OTAs site.
A FAIR WARNING
Apparently cruise booking does NOT show up under Trips. Despite the agent told me it would just take a few hours for the confirmation email from Chase to come, and then the booking would show under Trips in the account - the email did come after several hours, versus cruise line site actually showed the booking almost IMMEDIATELY after the agent gave me the cruise line's booking number. The cruise NEVER shows up on UR site.
As long as the cruise line shows the cruise in the account as 1 Upcoming Cruise, I dont much care how the UR portal behaves - which still show a trip of a previous flight search that is never booked...
The cruise is also on Expedia site, so I figure UR can book it.
1) Need to call. Front line agent would transfer you to the cruise booking dept.
2) Hold time before a cruise dept agent came on the phone was 25 min.
3) Booking process took 35 min as he needed to get each required information to put in his booking interface.
Once all were input, the system would calculate the UR pts cost. Then the agent would re-read the details on the cash cost, and the equivalent of UR pts, asked you explicit consent in the usage of the pts.
When that process finished, he was able to provide Celebrity booking reference.
Unlike booking hotels or airline tickets online, My Trip did not show the cruise booking for a long time, despite Celebrity site showed the booking when searching with the booking reference with very little delay. Confirmation email from Chase eventually came in about an hour or more later.
Even though I gave the Expedia agent our Celebrity Captain's Club numbers, the numbers did not attach to the booking. I have to manually add them in, also still have to call Celebrity agent to add my husband's number in.
At the end, it is still a major improvement from before when they could not see a Princess cruise price even though it was a public offer on Princess site and multiple OTA's sites incl Vacationtogo. Expedia price was more than 20% higher. On this Celebrity cruise the price was identical with what was shown on Celebrity site and other OTAs site.
A FAIR WARNING
Apparently cruise booking does NOT show up under Trips. Despite the agent told me it would just take a few hours for the confirmation email from Chase to come, and then the booking would show under Trips in the account - the email did come after several hours, versus cruise line site actually showed the booking almost IMMEDIATELY after the agent gave me the cruise line's booking number. The cruise NEVER shows up on UR site.
As long as the cruise line shows the cruise in the account as 1 Upcoming Cruise, I dont much care how the UR portal behaves - which still show a trip of a previous flight search that is never booked...
Last edited by Happy; Mar 3, 2019 at 2:37 pm