la_cigogne

Hi I have both 400k ur points and 300k mr points as well as few hundred thousands of miles from different partners, I have upgraded to chase saphire reserve to cash out my UR points.

Now that I know I ll have very little travel plans, I was wondering if I should cash out all of my UR points at 1.5 cpp ?

The reason is that to my knowledge, the only major travel partners that Chase has and that are exclusive to Chase are Southwest and United and those points are valued much less than 1.5 cpp on my watch.

I could see with ANA, why would someone want to keep some MR points, but right now is there really any sweet-spots left that are exclusive to Chase ? Or should I get my $6k ?

mia

...and Hyatt.

la_cigogne

yes I have hesitated about mentioning it,but while you may have the ability to get 2pp with hyatt, I ll be better off using the money to book an independent hotel with cash. (There are many alternatives to hotel chains unlike airlines)

But you haven't quiet answered my question, are there any sweet spots exclusive to Chase (other than Hyatt then) that will justify not liquidating all my 400k UR ?

example of exclusive sweet spot : ANA with amex (where you can get 4+ cpp), Virgin Atlantic but available for both Amex and Chase.

openwheelracing

50% bonus via portal is a sweet spot if you know what you are doing. 50% bonus pay-yourself promo is another. At such return you can just buy with cash which generally get better deal then utilizing miles. Chase gives more flexibility. They are only missing a couple more partners to force another major Amex change.

la_cigogne

well obviously it makes no sense to redeem points on chase travel portal anymore, when we can redeem for cash at 1.5 cpp and then use the cash to pay for travel expenses on a travel credit card.

The question is basically (except for Hyatt) are there any opportunities to redeem UR points at more than 1.5 ccp with transfer partners that are exclusive to Chase ?

Happy

A sounding NO to us. Hyatt has been our only transfer usage. Cruises, occasional flights and lodgings are our usage of booking thru UR.

However as reported by many people, UR travel bookings are full of perils even at the best time. Right now we are still waiting for several thousands $ worth pts to come back to our account, after almost 90 days of wait that Princess finally released 100% refund back to Connexions' payment card on May 29. No records shown in Connexions system and the rep herself called Princess and was told the identical information. Then the rep told me, accounting dept has to go thru the refunds line by line on the payment card - it will take time before our "line" is being looked at. This is contrary from what I was told 2 months ago when cruises were universally canceled by cruise lines - Connexions rep at that time told me the refund comes with clear information as to which booking it is related with sailing date / ship / booking confirmation... That prev rep told me it was relatively easy to identify the refund. I dont believe cruise bookings have a number anywhere near flight bookings and lodging bookings...

It is MUCH BETTER to get back the cash at the same 1.5x and then book whatever travels with own credit card in the future (that would not be booked with loyalty program redemption).

We are redeeming as much UR pts thru this new feature as possible.

halamadrid

But it doesn't exactly work as a cash redemption at 1.5 cpp correct? What you are allowed to do is offset grocery, dining, or home improvement charges at 1.5 cpp (at least that's my understanding). Considering all the current ongoing bonuses on those categories the actual redemption feels a bit less enticing. I guess that if you need the cash to spend in those areas then it's a good option, but I feel that one invests in UR and MR for the upside on travel redemptions. Right now one is sort of selling low on the points b/c of all the uncertainty in the travel space. It's sort of like cashing out your investment portfolio right after the market tanks - if one needs the cash it makes sense, but if the purpose of the investment was the upside vs. regular cash instruments then perhaps a little patience wouldn't hurt. Again, everyone's individual situation is different so if you have a short term need for cash then it is what it is, but redeeming because of current uncertainty might not be the best move long term. Worst case scenario you are at least 1 cpp cash back.

la_cigogne

1. CSR is offering 5pts/$1 on grocery (up to $3000 for may + june, so half of my 400k pts) (altough thats kind of irrelevant...)
2. As I mentioned in my original post I also have 300k Mr points + few hundred thousands on different mileage programs (bonvoy, delta, AA etc...), with covid 19 I should be covered for a while, unless there are some special sweet-spots only usable through Chase points use. ( a la ANA on Amex)

Need

We used it for Hyatt and United Business International. I probably wouldn't keep it just for Hyatt, but Business class international for 10+ hours flight is really nice.

Happy

Better pray for United not to bring out yet another devaluation next year after it has the nerve to devalue recently amid the Pandemic.

Those who say "you are selling low now" when you could transfer the pts for premium cabin flights in the future, seriously miss an ongoing, and not trivial, issue - the frequent devaluation of all airline and hotel loyalty programs, sometimes the interval between devaluation is even less than 12 months... Only 2 years ago that 10 hour UA flight between US and Europe was at 60K one way. Today it is 80K or more, under dynamic pricing. Who knows what might be in 2021?

DiMAn0684

My plan is to cash out most of my UR stash at 1.5 CPP. I can fairly easily acquire Hyatt points for ~1.2-1.3 CPP, and don't particularly chase J/F flights. I don't particularly need the cash, but this will allow me create a 'travel fund' that I'll gladly use towards experiences I'd be more hesitant to spend money on.

lexdevil

So far as we've seen, they are not taking back the points earned on that spend. It's certainly not mentioned in the terms of the promotion. It is reasonable to believe that a credit on your card in the amount that you spent on something is not the same as returning an item and having the cost refunded to the card. I could be wrong and we could be in for a nasty surprise, but I think that we would have grounds to kick up a fuss.

Additionally, even if they do claw back the points, the surprise is not really that nasty. I redeemed 271,879 points for $4,078.40 credit on my card. To be lazy about it, I'll assume that about half of my spend was dining out and half was groceries, so I racked up those points at an average rate of 4 points per dollar spent. That means that the spend brought in roughly 16,314 UR points, with a value of $244.70, assuming that I use it to purchase travel on the Chase portal. This means that if Chase does claw back the points from the spend for which the credit was received, I got 1.41˘ cash value per point redeemed, rather than 1.5˘. That's not the end of the world, and it's still a lot better than the usual 1˘ cash value of UR points. Also, I'm pretty sure that a higher percentage of my spend was on restaurants (more like 60%), so my actual rate should be a bit better than 1.41˘ per point.

econ

More like only 2 months ago. I'm afraid it might get worse before end of 2020!

Happy

You know, from 60K to 80K, that is a 33% increase of the points needed to redeem the SAME award. Yet many fail to even recognize this. Many dont have the concept of opportunity cost.

When UR pt has a guarantee value of 1c per pt - that one way award would be $800 + taxes. That award also does not earn anything. People ought to know that TATL flights often have sales at around $2K+ R/T, and such flights earn miles plus the payment with CC also earn points. When you factor everything in, and do the hard calculation - such premium class redemption at current level (and the most likely even worse level in the future), often just yield 1.2c or so per point value. How 1.2c is bigger than 1.5c in some folks' mind is beyond me.

We do not need cash but we would like to redeem as much as we could thru the new temporary feature - the cash that comes back to our pocket can pay for travel in the future should we travel again. The key is, with this opportunity to liquidate the stash, those points would not just sit there without doing anything other than guaranteed to lose more value over time. Instead, it essentially turns into cash, at a much much better rate than before - essentially paying eligible purchases at a 33.33% discount. A no brainer.

Super Mario

I will be cashing out quite a bit at 1.5. That is what I was getting before from my travel redemptions. Squeezing every penny out of it by booking Hyatts and flights I would have never otherwise bought, does nothing for me. This outcome works even better for me because when booking travel, I'd much rather use my credit cards to get even more points and freedom of my own terms and choices.