How To Use Chase Points For Flights

Transfer To Airline Programs

Transferring your Ultimate Rewards points to one of Chase’s airline transfer partners is one of the best ways to yield outsize value. Points transfer to all partners at a 1:1 rate unless a temporary transfer bonus promotion is being offered.

To get started, just sign in to the Ultimate Rewards site, select ‘Transfer to Travel Partners’ and choose one of the many airlines that partner with Chase. It’s as easy as that. 

Do keep in mind that, while there are several Chase credit cards that allow you to earn Ultimate Rewards, the points earned through some of those cards unfortunately don’t come with the ability to transfer out to airline programs. Only those Ultimate Rewards earned through the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, the Chase Sapphire Reserve® and the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card can be then transferred to partners.

However, if you hold more than one Ultimate Rewards-earning card, you are able to pool all of your points together into one account. So as long as one of the cards you own allows transfers, you will be able to circumvent this limitation.

Using the Chase Travel℠ Portal

You can use your Ultimate Rewards to book flights through the Chase Travel portal. After logging into your account, go to the main menu on your Ultimate Rewards site and click on ‘Travel.’ Then, start searching for the flights you’d like to book using your points.

If you have the Chase Sapphire Reserve®, you will be able to use your points at a rate of 1.5 cents point – making this a very valuable card to have in your wallet. If you have the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card or the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card, your points will be worth 1.25 cents per point instead.

Redeem for Cash Back

Redeeming your Ultimate Rewards for cash back and applying it as a statement credit is not the best-value redemption out there. You’ll receive at an inflexible 1 cent per point rate. But it does come in handy in certain circumstances, like when trying to book flights on airlines that aren’t Chase transfer partners or that can’t be booked through Chase travel.

Once you have booked the flights you want directly with the airline, just go to Ultimate Rewards and select ‘Cash Back’ on the main menu. You will be able to choose the amount of Ultimate Rewards you would like to cash in and whether you’d want to apply it as a statement credit or even deposit the amount into your checking or savings account.

Of all the ways to earn Chase Ultimate Rewards points, one of the easiest and most effortless ways is to leverage one of the Ultimate Rewards-earning credit cards issued by Chase. Most of them regularly rank high on our list of best Chase credit cards, thanks to both their generous welcome bonus offers as well as their earning potentials.

Chase runs a shopping portal that you can use to get even more points for your regular, everyday purchases. Instead of going directly to the retailer’s website, go to the Chase shopping portal first, search for the brand or the item you’d like to purchase and the portal will route you to the website for you to finish your purchase. With just a few extra clicks, you’re on your way to double-dipping your Ultimate Rewards points-earning.

On the earnings side, you can maximize earning your Ultimate Rewards points by choosing the card that works best for you given your spending patterns and leveraging the bonuses categories on each credit card. For example, travel booked through Chase Travel will earn 5 points per dollar spent when you use your Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, whereas if you used your Chase Sapphire Reserve®, you would be earning 10 points per dollar spent booking hotels and rental cars.

The best way to maximize your redemptions with Ultimate Rewards is by going after all of those options that will yield anything over the 1 cent per point minimum that you can obtain by cashing out your Ultimate Rewards in the way of cash back or gift card redemptions.

There is more than one way to redeem your Chase points for flights once you know all the ins and outs of the Ultimate Rewards program. You can redeem them in the Chase travel portal, but most people will find that the best value exists when you’re transferring your points out to partner airlines.

The flexibility of the Chase Ultimate Rewards platform is one of its defining strengths. But it also means that you’ll have to do a little research before redeeming your points to determine which method makes the most sense for you and your travel goals.