How I Turned 200K Chase Points Into $10K+ Worth of Business Travel

Chase Ultimate Rewards points are some of the most valuable out there — and for good reason. The transferable points program has an impressive list of transfer partners, which include fan favorites like Air Canada Aeroplan and World of Hyatt.

I’ve used Ultimate Rewards points to book countless vacations since I opened my first Chase credit card almost 12 years ago. But since quitting my full-time job to freelance and build a business full time, I’ve also started using my points to book business trips. This includes conferences, client visits, and industry meetups. In the process, I’ve saved well over $10,000 when redeeming 200,000 Ultimate Rewards points for work travel.

Here, I’ll break down 4 work trips I’ve booked with Ultimate Rewards points. Plus, I’ll show you how easy it is to earn 200,000 (or more!) Ultimate Rewards points if you’re a business owner.

Earning 200K+ Chase Ultimate Rewards Points

Chase offers personal and business credit cards that earn Ultimate Rewards points. If you’re a business owner, you’re in luck, as Chase’s business credit cards tend to offer higher welcome bonus offers than their personal card counterparts. Better yet, the bank just launched a brand new ultrapremium business credit card, the Sapphire Reserve for Business℠ this year.

The Chase Sapphire Reserve Business card is one of the most premium business credit cards on the market. It includes access to various airport lounges, including the Sapphire Lounge by The Club, and has a slew of statement credits that help offset its admittedly expensive $795 annual fee. This includes an annual $300 travel credit valid on any travel purchase, $500 per year in hotel credits for The Edit, and $200 per year in Google Workspace credits, among others.

The card is also a great way to earn Ultimate Rewards points. It earns bonus points on flights, hotels, and advertising. Plus, it has a massive welcome bonus offer that’s worth at least $4,000, but can often be worth much more if you leverage Ultimate Rewards’ transfer partners.

Sapphire Reserve for Business℠

U.P. Rating 

The rating for this card has been determined by our own industry experts who know the ins and outs of credit card products. Bonuses, rewards as well as rates and fees are all taken into account. Compensation from the issuer does not affect our rating. We only recommend products we either use ourselves or endorse.

The Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business card is perfect for frequent traveler business owners who want premium perks.

Sapphire Reserve for Business℠

The Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business card is perfect for frequent traveler business owners who want premium perks.

Welcome Offer

Earn 200,000 bonus points after you spend $30,000 on purchases in your first 6 months from account opening.

200,000 points

UP's Offer Valuation*:

$4,000

Annual Fee

$795

APR

18.49% - 26.49% Variable

Credit Recommended

Upgraded Points credit ranges are a variation of FICO^®Score 8, one of many types of credit scores lenders may use when considering your credit cardapplication.

Excellent

Why We Like This Card

The Chase Sapphire Reserve Business card is a great pick for business owners who can easily make use of the annual credits for travel, Google Workspace, ZipRecruiter, and more. Plus, it offers helpful bonus categories such as ad spend and offers access to over 1,300 airport lounges — including Chase Sapphire Lounges.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• 8x points on Chase Travel purchases
• 4x points on flights and hotels booked directly
• 3x points on advertising purchases made with social media sites and search engines (uncapped)

Cons

• $795 annual fee

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Card Highlights

• Earn 200,000 bonus points after you spend $30,000 on purchases in your first 6 months from account opening and with more than $2,500 in annual value, there's no competition.
• Earn 8x points on Chase Travel℠ for airline tickets, hotels, including The Edit℠, car rentals, cruises, activities and tours.
• Earn 5x total points on Lyft rides through 9/30/27.
• Earn 4x points on flights & hotels booked direct.
• Earn 3x points on social media & search engine advertising.
• Get the most flexible travel credit compared to any other card, with up to $300 in statement credits each anniversary year on travel purchases.
• Enjoy complimentary access to the Chase Sapphire Lounge^® by The Club network and Priority Pass™ Select membership. Two guests may accompany the Primary Cardmember to the lounges free of charge.
• Member FDIC

Financial Snapshot

• APR: 18.49% - 26.49% Variable
• Foreign Transaction Fees: None

If you’re looking for a business credit card with a lower annual fee, Chase has you covered. The Ink Business Preferred^® Credit Card is another good card for earning Ultimate Rewards points, offering bonus points on common business expenses in exchange for a lower $95 annual fee. It has a high welcome bonus offer too.

Ink Business Preferred^® Credit Card

U.P. Rating 

The rating for this card has been determined by our own industry experts who know the ins and outs of credit card products. Bonuses, rewards as well as rates and fees are all taken into account. Compensation from the issuer does not affect our rating. We only recommend products we either use ourselves or endorse.

The Ink Business Preferred card is hard to beat, with a huge welcome bonus offer and 3x points per $1 on the first $150,000 in so many business categories.

Ink Business Preferred^® Credit Card

The Ink Business Preferred card is hard to beat, with a huge welcome bonus offer and 3x points per $1 on the first $150,000 in so many business categories.

Welcome Offer

Earn 90k bonus points after you spend $8,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.

90,000 points

UP's Offer Valuation*:

$1,800

Annual Fee

$95

APR

20.24% - 26.24% Variable

Credit Recommended

Upgraded Points credit ranges are a variation of FICO^®Score 8, one of many types of credit scores lenders may use when considering your credit cardapplication.

Good to Excellent (670-850)

Why We Like This Card

The Ink Business Preferred^® Credit Card is a powerhouse for earning lots of points from your business purchases, especially for business owners that spend regularly on ads.

Plus the card offers flexible redemption options, including access to Chase airline and hotel transfer partners where you can achieve outsized value.

Business owners will also love the protections the card provides like excellent cell phone insurance, rental car insurance, purchase protection, and more.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• 3x Ultimate Rewards points per $1 on up to $150,000 in combined purchases on internet, cable and phone services, shipping expenses, travel, and ads purchased with search engines or social media sites
• Cell phone protection
• Purchase protection

Cons

• No elite travel benefits like airport lounge access

Read Full Review

Card Highlights

• Earn 90k bonus points after you spend $8,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening
• Earn 3 points per $1 on the first $150,000 spent on travel and select business categories each account anniversary year. Earn 1 point per $1 on all other purchases
• Round-the-clock monitoring for unusual credit card purchases
• With Zero Liability you won’t be held responsible for unauthorized charges made with your card or account information.
• Redeem points for cash back, gift cards, travel and more – your points don’t expire as long as your account is open
• Points are worth more when you redeem for travel through Chase Travel^SM
• Purchase Protection covers your new purchases for 120 days against damage or theft up to $10,000 per claim and $50,000 per account.
• Member FDIC

Financial Snapshot

• APR: 20.24% - 26.24% Variable
• Foreign Transaction Fees: $0

Rewards Center

Chase Ultimate Rewards

By earning these welcome bonus offers and charging business expenses to a Chase business credit card, it’s not hard to rack up 200,000 or more Ultimate Rewards points within a few months. You can charge everything from business taxes to inventory and online advertising to your Chase card, giving you plenty of ways to quickly earn your new card’s welcome bonus offer.

Maximizing 200K+ Chase Ultimate Rewards Points

Once you have Ultimate Rewards points in your account, it’s time to put them to good use. We’ve covered countless ways of redeeming Ultimate Rewards points for vacations and family trips in the past.

But if you run a business, you can also use your points to offset your business travel expenses and pad your bottom line. You can redeem your points for everything from flights to a client’s office to hotels near your next industry conference.

To inspire your travel planning, here are 4 ways that I recently redeemed 200,000 Ultimate Rewards points for over $10,000 in business travel by leveraging Chase’s extensive list of airline and hotel transfer partners.

Flights to Phoenix for an Industry Conference

I need to fly to Phoenix (PHX) for a conference focused on credit card media, CardCon Expo, next April. However, this is also when much of the U.S. is on spring break, and since Phoenix is a popular spring break destination, round-trip flights were nearly $400. This was more than I wanted to spend, so I turned to my Ultimate Rewards points for help.

I used Award Tool — my favorite tool for finding award flights — to look for flights I could book with my Ultimate Rewards points. I usually book one-way flights instead of round-trip itineraries, as this can make it easier to change or cancel a single leg of my itinerary.

To get to the conference, I booked this one-way, Blue fare economy JetBlue flight from New York (JFK) to Phoenix for 13,300 TrueBlue points, plus $5.60 in taxes and fees. Ultimate Rewards points transfer 1:1 to JetBlue TrueBlue. This ticket would have cost $194 if I’d paid for it out of pocket.

Meanwhile, I booked a United Airlines flight from Phoenix to Newark (EWR) for 15,000 United MileagePlus miles plus $5.60 in taxes and fees. Like TrueBlue, you can transfer Ultimate Rewards points instantly to MileagePlus at a 1:1 transfer rate. Since I have United Premier Gold elite status, I can get benefits like complimentary Economy Plus seat selection on my flight back.

At the time of writing, this United flight cost $199 in standard economy, bringing my total savings for this business trip to $393 in exchange for 28,300 Ultimate Rewards points. I booked a paid hotel stay at a nearby Hilton brand during the conference because it had very reasonable rates.

Hotels and Flights for the Chicago Seminars

I’m heading to the Chicago Seminars next month — one of the longest-running events in the points-and-miles world. It offers a wide range of informational talks that can teach even the most advanced award travelers something new. Even better, all proceeds generated by the event go to charity.

The annual event takes place in conference rooms at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare Chicago. As such, I needed flights from New York to Chicago and a hotel room at the venue — and I was able to book both with my Ultimate Rewards points.

I booked a United flight from New York (LGA) to Chicago (ORD) through Chase Travel for 7,565 Ultimate Rewards points. This flight would have cost $114 if I’d paid out of pocket. I was able to get this redemption rate thanks to Points Boost, which gives a higher redemption rate to select hotel and flight redemptions.

I booked my return flight to New York with JetBlue by transferring just 6,600 points to TrueBlue and paying $5.60 in taxes and fees. This same flight would’ve cost $100 for a Blue fare ticket, which is what I booked with TrueBlue points.

The Hyatt Regency O’Hare Chicago is a Category 2 World of Hyatt property, meaning award nights cost between 6,500 and 9,500 points per night. The Chicago Seminars happen on a standard price date, so I paid 8,000 points per night for a total of 24,000 points for 3 nights at the hotel. This 3-night stay would have cost $578 without points.

Added up, I redeemed 38,165 points for $792 in savings. These aren’t the most impressive redemption rates for Ultimate Rewards points, but it’s nearly $800 that I can reinvest into my business.

Meeting With a Business Partner in Paris

I’m working on a side hustle project with a friend who lives in a different city. We try to meet a couple of times every year. We picked Paris as our next destination and booked travel earlier this month. I used Ultimate Rewards to book my flights for massive savings when compared to paying out of pocket.

I found business class award space for both legs of my journey. I’m flying Air France business class for my outbound journey since I found a 1-way ticket from New York to Paris (CDG) for just 48,500 Virgin Atlantic Flying Club miles and $298 in taxes and fees. Ultimate Rewards points transfer 1:1 to Flying Club. This ticket would have cost $2,308 if I’d paid out of pocket for $2,010 in savings.

I also used Flying Blue to book my ticket home to New York. However, I plan to spend 2 nights in London before flying home. I booked my business-class ticket, operated by Virgin Atlantic, for just 29,000 miles and roughly $691 in taxes and fees. This ticket would have cost $2,518 if I’d paid out of pocket, giving me $1,827 in savings.

I booked a relatively cheap Accor hotel stay during my trip. There were plenty of Hyatt hotels that I could’ve booked by transferring Ultimate Rewards points to World of Hyatt, but they started at 25,000 points per night, which was more than I wanted to spend for a business trip.

In the end, redeeming 77,500 Ultimate Rewards points saved me a huge $4,528 on business class flights to and from Europe. This also let me travel more comfortably, as spending $4,000 or more on a business class ticket is well out of my price range.

Quick Business Trip to Toronto

Finally, I recently booked a work trip to Toronto (YYZ) for next summer. I was able to fully fund this trip with Ultimate Rewards points, including both my round-trip flights and a 3-night hotel stay.

I booked round-trip economy flights on Delta Air Lines through Air France-KLM Flying Blue for 13,000 miles and $80.17 in taxes and fees. This ticket would have cost $436 if I’d paid cash, giving me just over $356 in savings. Ultimate Rewards points transfer to Flying Blue at a 1:1 ratio.

I booked the Hyatt Regency Toronto for 18,000 points per night, meaning my total stay was 54,000 World of Hyatt points. This brings me slightly above 200,000 Ultimate Rewards points when totaling up all redemptions in this article, but I earned these when I was working toward the Chase Sapphire Reserve Business card’s welcome offer. This hotel stay would have otherwise cost roughly $1,935.

In the end, I redeemed 67,000 Ultimate Rewards points to save a huge $2,291. This discretional work trip would have been out of my budget if I hadn’t had points available, making this redemption even more valuable to me.

Final Thoughts

I earned 200,000 Ultimate Rewards points after applying for the Chase Sapphire Reserve Business card when it launched this past summer. I’ve already redeemed these points for over $10,000 in business travel across 2 domestic and 2 international trips.

If you’re a business owner, consider adding an Ultimate Rewards-earning business credit card to your company’s financial stack. It can help you and your business save thousands of dollars on work travel every year, freeing up your finances and letting you invest more into growing your business.