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The Chase Sapphire Reserve® is one of the most popular credit cards on the market and has been for several years.
This card earns valuable Chase Ultimate Rewards points that can be transferred to both airline and hotel partners for award flights and hotel stays.
Additionally, you can use your Chase Ultimate Rewards points through the Chase travel portal at a rate of 1.5 cents per point, which can be particularly useful when there are cheap cash flights available.
Let’s take a look at how many Ultimate Rewards points you can expect to earn quickly once you have been approved for the card — and how you can get some great value out of those points.
A top player in the high-end premium travel credit card space that earns 3x points on travel and dining while offering top luxury perks.
If you’re looking for an all-around excellent travel rewards card, the Chase Sapphire Reserve® is one of the best options out there.
The card combines elite travel benefits and perks like airport lounge access, with excellent point earning and redemption options. Plus it offers top-notch travel insurance protections to keep you covered whether you’re at home or on the road.
Don’t forget the $300 annual travel credit which really helps to reduce the annual fee!
For many people, hitting the Chase Sapphire Reserve card‘s minimum spending requirement for the bonus will be as simple as putting all purchases on the card.
Some might find it helpful to use a service such as Plastiq to pay bills that otherwise don’t accept credit card payments. Plastiq can make hitting the minimum spending requirement a breeze since it allows you to pay bills like rent, utilities, and more with a credit card.
Hot Tip: Check out our guide to plenty of ways to meet credit card minimum spending requirements!
You might be wondering what exactly 80,000 Ultimate Rewards points can really get you. With several airline and hotel partners, you have tons of options to redeem Ultimate Rewards points.
Each of your Chase Sapphire Reserve points are worth 1.5 cents when used for travel in the Chase Ultimate Rewards travel portal.
The portal works just like any other, such as Expedia or Booking.com, except you can use your Chase points instead of paying cash.
All you have to do is log in to Chase’s portal, find the flight that you want to purchase, and use your points!
If you follow our advice, 80,000 points gets you about $1,200 in value, and it turns out that the average price of a round-trip economy flight to London is $500 to $600, so you and a friend or loved one could be on your way to the U.K.!
If you want to try economy class to or from Europe on Air France or KLM, you’ll benefit from the Promo Rewards that Air France-KLM Flying Blue runs every month.
Promo Rewards are listed at 25% to 50% off the standard award price. While it has been a long time since we’ve seen a 50% business class promo for a flight between Europe and the U.S., 25% off of economy is still a great deal. Rather than needing 30,000 Flying Blue miles, you’ll only need 22,500 miles. Chase Ultimate Rewards requires transfers to be in chunks of 1,000 points, so you’ll need to transfer 23,000 points to Air France-KLM Flying Blue for each ticket, you and 2 friends or family members can plan an adventure!
Very often, there will be at least 1 U.S. city in the list of options, which could make this the perfect chance for you to travel to Europe!
Hot Tip: There are tons of great ways to redeem Air France-KLM Flying Blue miles for award travel.
If you fly all the way to Europe, Asia, or even Australia, you might want to see more than 1 amazing city after traveling such a long way. Fortunately, you can use British Airways Avios to hop around from city to city on several continents rather than using cash for each additional flight.
For flights under 650 miles that are operated by British Airways, Iberia, or Aer Lingus, you will only need 4,750 Avios for an economy award ticket on off-peak dates and just 5,250 Avios on peak dates. For flights between 651 miles to 1,151 miles (think London to Rome), the award cost jumps to 7,250 Avios for off-peak and 8,250 Avios on peak dates — still a fantastic deal.
Make sure you’re looking for nonstop flights whenever possible since British Airways uses a distance-based award chart. This means BA will add up the flight distance of each segment, which could push you into the next redemption tier of its chart and require more Avios.
Since British Airways is a Oneworld airline, you can also use your Avios to book short haul awards on partners as well. If you visit Hong Kong (HKG), you could then book a flight on Cathay Pacific to Ho Chi Minh City (SGN) for 10,000 Avios. Next, you could hop over to Kuala Lumpur on Malaysia Airlines for just 7,500 Avios.
You can even redeem your British Airways Avios for flights aboard American Airlines within the U.S, with flights less the 650 miles costing just 7,500 Avios, and flights up to 1,151 miles in distance costing just 9,000 Avios.
Hot Tip: Check out some of the best ways to redeem British Airways Avios for some more inspiration.
One of the easiest ways to book a trip to Europe is with United MileagePlus miles. With 80,000 Ultimate Rewards from your Chase Sapphire Reserve card, you can transfer them to your United account and book 2 round-trip economy class award tickets to Europe.
Many of United’s Star Alliance partners will require you to pay carrier-imposed surcharges when you book awards through their respective programs. Fortunately, United MileagePlus does not hit you with these surcharges, so you’ll only need to take care of the taxes and fees.
That’s not all that makes this a great redemption, though. If you book a round-trip award with United MileagePlus miles, you can take advantage of the Excursionist Perk — United’s version of a stopover.
With the Excursionist Perk, you are allowed a free one-way ticket in the same region as your destination. This means you could book a flight from Chicago (ORD) to Zurich (ZRH) on SWISS, and then book your free one-way flight to Copenhagen (CPH) on either Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) or SWISS. Copenhagen would be your destination, while Zurich would be your stopover. You could then return to Chicago from Copenhagen on SAS.
If that sounds complicated, don’t worry. You can handle the entire booking process online by choosing “multi-city” on the booking page and entering each leg of the journey and your desired travel dates.
Hot Tip: Want some more fun travel inspiration? Take a look at some great ways to redeem United MileagePlus miles.
Another great sweet spot for an economy class award is with Air France-KLM Flying Blue. You can fly from the U.S. to places like Israel and Morocco from only 50,000 Flying Blue miles. That’s not the total for a one-way award ticket, though: it’s the total miles required for a round-trip economy class award.
You might be wondering how this is possible! Well, Air France-KLM Flying Blue classifies both of these countries — as well as a few other countries in northern Africa — as part of the European region. This classification makes Flying Blue a go-to program for booking economy class award flights to Israel, Morocco, and more.
If you earn a few more Ultimate Rewards points, you could even book a one-way business class award ticket for 62,500 Flying Blue miles.
For those who have the Southwest Companion Pass, earning the welcome offer bonus and authorized user bonus from the Chase Sapphire Reserve instantly opens up a ton of options for you.
Sure, you can book 2-for-1 cash tickets to take advantage of the Southwest Companion Pass, but you can also book the same flights by transferring Ultimate Rewards to your Southwest Rapid Rewards account and booking award flights. In other words, the 2-for-1 applies to award flights as well!
With flights operating across the U.S. and to Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central America, you and your designated companion will be able to have some serious fun.
Considering Southwest flies to Hawaii from several cities on the West Coast, does it get any better than 2-for-1 award flights to paradise?!
Hot Tip: Take a look at some great ways to use the Southwest Companion Pass, and you’ll be booking 2-for-1 awards before you know it!
One of the biggest advantages of Chase Ultimate Rewards points is that they can be transferred to your World of Hyatt account to book award stays. Hyatt has some amazing properties around the world that you won’t want to miss.
A favorite of many is the Park Hyatt Sydney, with its amazing view of the Sydney Harbour and the Sydney Opera House. Not only do you get a fantastic view, but the rooms are phenomenal and the service is top-notch.
You also have easy access to ferries that can take you across the harbor to Manly Beach and the Sydney Zoo. If you like heights, you can go just around the corner to the Sydney Harbour Bridge. You can even schedule a tour of the bridge and climb to the top!
This Category 8 hotel is available for 35,000 points off-peak, 40,000 points standard, and 45,000 points peak, meaning you could get 2 nights at the off-peak or standard rates with your 80,000 points!
There are so many ways to utilize the welcome offer bonus and authorized user bonus from the Chase Sapphire Reserve card. Any of the options above will be a blast, and there are plenty more fun ways to redeem Ultimate Rewards points.
Make sure you have a plan to hit the minimum spending requirement to earn the welcome offer bonus, so you don’t miss out on a large chunk of points. It will all be worth it once you book your next amazing vacation or getaway!
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Founder and CEO of Upgraded Points, Alex is a leader in the industry and has earned and redeemed millions of points and miles. He frequently discusses the award travel industry with CNBC, Fox Business, The New York Times, and more.
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