Chase Ultimate Rewards Transfer Partners and How to Use Them [2020]
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Chase Ultimate Rewards points are perhaps the most valuable points out there. In fact, thanks to their flexibility and transfer options, we regularly give them one of the best valuations in our monthly valuations. There are plenty of great ways to earn Ultimate Rewards points, and even more fun ways to redeem them for award flights and hotel stays.
In this post, we’ll show you all of Chase’s transfer partners, how to transfer Ultimate Rewards to these partners, and much more. After reading this you’ll be ready to book an amazing getaway!
Table of contents
Table of Contents
Chase Airline Transfer Partners
The Chase Ultimate Rewards program currently has 10 airline transfer partners — the latest program, Emirates Skywards, was added in August 2019.
Points transfer to all these airlines at a 1:1 ratio, which is one of the reasons Ultimate Rewards points are so valuable.
| Chase Airline Transfer Partner | Min Transfer | Transfer Ratio (Chase > Airline) | Transfer Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aer Lingus AerClub | 1,000 | 1:1 | Almost Instant |
| British Airways Executive Club | 1,000 | 1:1 | Almost Instant |
| Flying Blue AIR FRANCE KLM | 1,000 | 1:1 | 1 hour |
| Emirates Skywards | 1,000 | 1:1 | New, pending reports |
| Iberia Plus | 1,000 | 1:1 | Almost Instant |
| JetBlue | 1,000 | 1:1 | Almost Instant |
| Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer | 1,000 | 1:1 | 1-2 days |
| Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards | 1,000 | 1:1 | Almost Instant |
| United Airlines MileagePlus | 1,000 | 1:1 | Almost Instant |
| Virgin Atlantic Flying Club | 1,000 | 1:1 | Almost Instant |
Chase Hotel Transfer Partners
Ultimate Rewards can also be transferred to 3 hotel rewards programs. Like Chase’s airline partners, all transfers to hotel partners occur at a 1:1 ratio.
| Chase Hotel Transfer Partner | Min Transfer | Transfer Ratio | Transfer Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| World of Hyatt | 1,000 | 1:1 | Almost Instant |
| IHG Rewards Club | 1,000 | 1:1 | 1 day |
| Marriott Rewards | 1,000 | 1:1 | 2 days |
Hot Tip: Use our transfer partner tool to see how many points you’ll get when you transfer your Chase Ultimate Rewards to partner airlines and hotels!
Earning Ultimate Rewards
With several Chase card options available to you, there are ample opportunities to earn Ultimate Rewards points that can help you book your next trip.
Recommended Chase Cards (Personal)
| Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card - This is our favorite beginners travel rewards card which has a 60,000 point bonus (highest ever) after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. This sign up bonus is worth $750 in travel purchases (flights, hotels, car rentals etc) when you redeem your points through Chase's travel portal, which works like Expedia. The bonus alone could get you multiple round-trip flights or hotel stays. |
| Chase Sapphire Reserve® - Consider this premium card if you want to get into a lot of airport lounges. The current sign up bonus is 50,000 points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. You'll also get a $300 travel credit per year which wipes away a big chunk of the $550 annual fee. |
| Chase Freedom Unlimited® - A simple, no annual fee card that earns you a $150 bonus after you spend $500 in your first 3 months. Earn 1.5% cash-back on all purchases, but you won't get any travel benefits or the ability to earn bonus points with this card. |
Recommended Chase Cards (Business)
| Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card - This is our #1 recommended business card and right now comes with a 100,000 sign up bonus after you spend $15,000 on purchases in the first 3 months after account opening. This bonus is worth $1,250 when you redeem through Chase Ultimate Rewards for travel purchases (flights, hotels etc). Pay your cell phone bill with this card to receive up to $600 in cell phone insurance coverage per year. |
| Ink Business Cash℠ Credit Card - earn $500 bonus cash back after you spend $3,000 on purchases in the first 3 months after account opening. This no annual fee business card earns up to 5% cash back on a range of business expenses such as office supply stores, internet, cable, and phone services. |
You can also shop through the Chase shopping portal to earn extra Ultimate Rewards points when making purchases online. This is an easy way to boost your earnings on purchases you were going to make anyway.
How to Transfer Ultimate Rewards
Once you have some Ultimate Rewards points and are ready to transfer them to a partner to book your next big vacation, here are the simple steps to make the transfer process easy.
Here are the steps to make after logging into the Ultimate Rewards site.
Step 1: Select the appropriate card. If you want to transfer points, you will need to select a premium Ultimate Rewards card with an annual fee — these include the Chase Sapphire Reserve® card, Chase Sapphire Preferred® card, and the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card. You can combine Ultimate Rewards points under your chosen card from others that don’t have annual fees.
Step 2: Select Transfer to Travel Partners under the Use Points drop-down menu.
Step 3: Choose your desired airline or hotel partner and select Transfer Points.
Step 4: If you haven’t already added your frequent flyer number or hotel rewards number, you will be prompted to do so.
Step 5: Once you have linked your airline or hotel account to your Ultimate Rewards account, choose how many points you would like to transfer. Transfers must be done in increments of 1,000.
Step 6: Confirm the number of points you are transferring and complete to transfer.
Step 7: Head over to the appropriate airline or hotel program’s website to book your award flight or award stay.
Booking Travel With the Chase Travel Portal
In some cases, it can make a lot of sense to make your flight or hotel booking through the Chase travel portal. With the Chase travel portal, the points needed for specific redemption are tied to the cash cost. So, if a flight or hotel stay is relatively inexpensive, to the point where the point cost ends up being less than going through a transfer partner, then the Chase travel portal is a perfect option.
If you have the Chase Sapphire Reserve card, each Ultimate Rewards point is worth 1.5 cents when booking through the portal. If you have a Chase Sapphire Preferred card or Ink Business Preferred card, each point is worth 1.25 cents when booking with the Chase travel portal.
Hot tip: Check out the valuable benefits of the Ink Business Preferred, there are bound to be a few that you’re not aware of!
Similar to the transfer process, you simply select Explore & Book Travel under the Use Points drop-down menu.
Check out an example of a travel portal booking below:
This round-trip economy class booking is with Star Alliance airline Air Canada from Boston to Dublin (connecting in Toronto) and costs 35,717 Ultimate Rewards points.
Should You Transfer to a Partner or Book Through Chase?
Let’s think about the booking discussed above. If you were to book this same itinerary by transferring the points to Chase partner United Airlines, it would cost 60,000 points. In this case, booking through the portal would be a much better deal.
To ensure you get the most out of your points, it’s important to check both the portal and transfer options when booking economy class.
Other Ways to Use Your Points
The Chase travel portal also allows you to book hotels at the same 1.5 cents per point for cardholders of the Chase Sapphire Reserve card, or 1.25 cents per point with the Chase Sapphire Preferred card or Ink Business Preferred card.
You can also redeem your points for gift cards to merchants like Airbnb, Lowe’s, Home Depot, or Amazon. Additionally, you can redeem your points for statement credits. Unfortunately, these options are a very poor use of points in terms of value and we do not recommend them!
Combining Ultimate Rewards From Different Accounts
Combining Ultimate Rewards from your different Chase accounts is a simple process. In the menu bar, you will see the points you have earned on your selected card. If you hover over the points available, you will see a drop-down menu of your cards and the available points from each.
Select Combine Points to consolidate your points under a single card. If you have the Chase Sapphire Reserve card, make sure to hold your Ultimate Rewards points there since they’ll be worth a minimum of 1.5 cents each.
Hot Tip: You can also combine points with 1 other household member. This is a great way to pool points with your significant other for a great redemption.
Redeeming Ultimate Rewards
It’s clear that using your Ultimate Rewards points for travel is the best way for getting the most value out of them. With multiple transfer partners and countless ways to redeem points for travel, it can be overwhelming!
Fortunately, we’ve compiled multiple lists of the best ways to use your Chase Ultimate Rewards for some incredible travel experiences. See below:
- The Best Ways to Use Ultimate Rewards (for Max Value)
- The Best Ways to Use 100,000 Ultimate Rewards (for Max Value)
- The Best Ways to Use 10,000 (or fewer) Chase Ultimate Rewards
Final Thoughts
The Chase Ultimate Rewards program should be a staple in your points-earning strategy. In fact, if you are just starting your miles and points journey, we recommend earning Ultimate Rewards initially. Check out our Express Guide to get started on the right track.
Simply put, Chase Ultimate Rewards points are easy to earn, easy to redeem, and can get you excellent value when you use them properly. Before you know it, you’ll be taking a trip of a lifetime… and then doing it again!
can i no longer transfer ultimate chase rewards to my southwest account???
my drop down menu does not look like your photos
great web page…
thank you!
Hi Sean – when you login to your Chase account, on the right hand side you should see the number of Chase Ultimate Rewards that you have. Just click on it and you’ll get taken to the screenshot you see in the article!
Sorry i’m new to this – how do i find out the number of points from a partner airline to see if its worth transferring or not. Unless you have an account with them they only show the price in $ and not in points.
Hi Leah!
I’d recommend using awardhacker.com or google to search for the award chart that you want to use with the miles that you have. For example, if you’re wanting to use Chase Ultimate Rewards to fly Delta using Korean Air, I’d google “korean air partner award chart.” Please let us know if you have a specific redemption that you’re looking to book.
Thanks so much !! So helpful
It looks things have changed and certain transfer are (the word is purposefully) not instant any longer. You may want to research this. At the minimum it applies to Flying Blue.
Hey, thank you for the info. In your experience, how long has Flying Blue taken? More like a couple hours vs instant or?
Here is the info: http://www.seat31b.com/2018/06/near-disaster-chase-ultimate-rewards-and-flying-blue/
Awesome, thanks so much John. We’ve confirmed this and have adjusted the timeframe. Hopefully FlyingBlue can resolve this issue and get it reverted back to “near instant”.
Hi,
Thanks for the helpful info! I’m planning a trip to Italy and see a flight that is by KLM, but operated by Delta airlines. In this kind of situation, should I transfer my Chase Ultimate Reward Points to KLM or Delta? Thanks for the insight!
Hi Li! That’s awesome that you are going to Italy. You actually have a couple of options for using your points. First, check to see if the flight is available on the Ultimate Rewards Travel Portal and how many points it would cost. If you have a premium Chase credit card you’ll get the most value for your points, otherwise they’ll be worth 1 cent per point towards travel. If you are looking at a business class ticket, the cost may be prohibitive on the travel portal, however economy tickets on the Travel Portal can be excellent value. Since Delta is not an airline transfer partner of Ultimate Rewards, the other option would be to transfer points to KLM. You’ll need to compare the two options to see which is a better value.
Thank you so much Christine, that’s super helpful!
Hey guys, fantastic site! I feel like I owe y’all a lot because I have gotten really into the points game over the past year and it’s all thanks to this website, I tell everyone I know about it haha. You all have taught me a lot about how to get points efficiently, and I’ve done it fairly well for the last year or so. Now I’m ready to book and a little confused.
Do you find it is more efficient when using points for business-class, international flights to book each flight individually and build you itinerary one leg at a time with the same airline? Or to try to book with points in a “round-trip” itinerary on their website? I see you guys talk about having to call the airlines often to actually book business/first class seats so I’m just kind of stuck and trying to figure out how to actually find the best value for my points because the costs I’m finding are pretty dang high! Thanks so much for all the help!
Hi Marc,
Thank you for your kind words! We appreciate all of our readers and viewers, and we hope to continue bringing you great content.
Typically if you build an itinerary one leg at a time like you’re proposing, you’ll have to pay the miles for each segment, which can cost a ton of points. We generally do not suggest doing this. You generally want to book the complete itinerary in one go. Another thing too is that if you book each flight individually, you’ll have different reservation numbers. Therefore, if you miss one leg of a flight due to a weather or maintenance delay for example, your entire itinerary is jeopardized. Essentially, you don’t have any “insurance”. If it’s all in one itinerary, the airline must rebook you if they miss your connecting flights. Combining reservations is something that must be done over the phone, and even then it’s not guaranteed.
It is for these reasons we like booking a complete itinerary all at once.
Hello,
Is there a credit card that has NO annual fee that I can transfer points to United Mileage Rewards? Or a credit card that I can sign up with no annual fee that is affiliated with United Mileage Rewards? I’d rather not pay an annual fee. I’m trying to prevent my wife’s account miles from expiring by spending a few dollars so the mileage doesn’t expire until we book the next flight that can accumulate miles. Thanks, Bruce
Hi Bruce! You would need a premium Ultimate Rewards credit card (with an annual fee) to transfer points to United MileagePlus. If you had a no-annual fee Chase credit card that earns Ultimate Rewards, you can transfer those points to a Chase premium card, then transfer the points to United MileagePlus. However, to extend the life of the United miles you have, you can just purchase a small amount of miles from United. You can also purchase an item from United Plus shopping and the earned miles will extend the life of your current miles. I hope this helps. https://www.united.com/web/en-US/content/mileageplus/default.aspx
Every year for 6 years, I have booked cars for a 3-month vacation in FL through the Chase travel portal. I have checked the portal 5 days a week for 2 months and there is never a car available for any day in Jan, Feb or March for PBI or Orlando, even if I change dates. But there are all kinds of cars if I go to the Expedia site. I called the travel number they could not book for me either. I called the reservations number and was told the travel site was separate from the card and could not help. I want to use my rewards, any suggestions?
Hi J,
That’s really strange. I just did a search for PBI in January and found plenty of options. If you keep having problems, I would suggest calling Chase Travel to see if you can speak with someone else. There are definitely cars available, so I am not sure why they aren’t showing up on your end. Good luck!
I am new to this and am trying to book a vacation to South Africa. It is not a travel zone mention much in your article. I have about 200,000 Chase points and I am wondering how to best uses them to book flights and/or hotels for 2 people. Any suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks!
Hi B.B.
What U.S. city will you be flying out of? Generally, your best bet with Chase Ultimate Reward points to get to South Africa would be to transfer them to United. For example, you can book round-trip through United from EWR to Johannesburg for 80,000 points.
Thanks for reading!
Can I use my accumulated points to fly with a non-partner airline like Cathay Pacific?
Hi Domingo,
Yes, you can use your Chase Ultimate Reward points through their travel portal to book a flight with any airline available in your search. Depending on which Chase card you have, your points can receive a 25%-50% boost in value as well.
Usually, we recommend using transfer partners as that is often where you can get the best value for your points. But if you’re certain you want to use them for a flight with Cathay Pacific then the Chase travel portal is your best bet!
Thanks for reading!
I have a ton of miles on American Airlines, but it seems that every time I try to look for a flight to Europe in business class they only have flights on British Airlines. These awards have a high tax cost — do you have any suggestions on how to otherwise redeem my miles? Thanks!
Hey Ana!
Thanks for reaching out. We recommend searching for alternate dates and destinations to find awards on American Airlines — these will have the lowest tax cost to Europe. You can also search for space on Finnair or Iberia as these carriers also have low tax cost.
Further, you may find that some routes have a lower tax cost on British Airways. We’ve found that tickets from Europe TO the U.S. generally charge less tax. One good example of this is Prague (PRG) to Chicago (ORD). I found an award ticket on British Airways that charges just $275 in tax one-way. Play around with destinations and you may be able to find something affordable on your return leg.
Best,
Andrew
Great article! Unfortunately, I’m no longer seeing “Transfer to Travel Partners” as an option on the Ultimate Rewards website. It shows all of the other options for using my points, but not that one. Is it still there — maybe hidden somewhere? Thanks!
Hi Zach. I just checked my Ultimate Rewards accounts and it is there, between gift cards and travel at the top of the Ultimate Rewards website page. It will not be an option on all Ultimate Rewards earning cards, only premium cards. The Ink Business Cash, Freedom, Ink Business Unlimited, etc. do not have this option.
Thanks for your reply, Christine!
This was super informative. I didnt know that chase offered the occasional transfer bonuses. Where do I find these listed ?
Hi Nicholaus,
You can always check out our transfer calculator tool for the most up to date info on transfer bonuses!
My basic Chase Freedom account wouldn’t let me transfer points to airline partners. I just qualified for and opened a Chase Sapphire Reserve Card, moved points from my Freedom account, and then transferred them to my United MileagePlus account, in the space of about 30 minutes. The $95 annual fee and 1:1 transfer rate makes it a no-brainer at this card level.
Hi Paul!
I’m glad you’re able to start making use of the Chase transfer partners now, and thanks for reading!