As you may recall, my husband and I were attempting to be as thrifty as possible to make our trip to Canada work out. Part of the plan was to use our Chase Sapphire Preferred points to make aspects of the trip "free" – like with "free" rooms and flights.
I don't have screenshots from December when I was booking nor am I any longer using my husband's Sapphire Preferred account for purchases, thus you have a screenshot of what the Chase Sapphire Reserve Ultimate Rewards Portal looks like when you log in…
A bit of background on the difference between Chase Sapphire Reserve and Chase Sapphire Preferred:
Chase Sapphire Reserve –
+ gives you a $300 travel credit per year (based on the year and not how long you've had the card)
+ provides a credit once every five years for Global Entry/TSA precheck
+ has a $450 annual fee
+ You get 3x the points on travel and dining, 1x the points on everything else
+ Ultimate Rewards with this card are valued at 1.5 cents
+ allows access for the cardholder to priority lounges
+ adding an authorized user adds an additional $75 to the cost
Chase Sapphire Preferred –
+ has a $95 annual fee
+ gives you 2x the points on dining and travel, 1x on everything else
+ values Ultimate Reward points at 1.25 cents
+ is free for authorized users
Plus, both cards provide travel insurance, access to visa signature offers, and don't charge a foreign transaction fee when you are abroad.
To learn more about the benefits for these cards, I recommend going here.
Anyway…
Even though I used the Chase Sapphire Preferred Portal when booking for our trip to Canada, if you have both cards, I recommend transferring your points to the Chase Sapphire Reserve portal and using them there. And yes, you can transfer points between chase cards and between family members who all own cards that earn Chase Ultimate Rewards Points.
To use your points…
You have a few options.
1. Book your travel through the Ultimate Rewards Portal.
2. Transfer points from Ultimate Rewards to your preferred hotel chain or airline.
3. Redeem for gift cards or cash back.
Number one and two offer the most "bang for your buck". I tend to have the best luck transferring to Hyatt or redeeming my points for boutique hotels.
While I could go into detail about how to redeem your Ultimate Reward points in any of the myriad of ways available, today we are just going to focus on redeeming through the Ultimate Rewards Portal. Here's a link to the TPG explaining how to transfer Ultimate Reward points for a stay at the Hyatt, just in case you are interested…
Redeeming Ultimate Rewards using the Portal…
For today's example I did a search at the Ultimate Rewards portal for a one-way trip from Atlanta to NYC.
With my screenshot, I'm just providing a basic overview of the process and what will be returned once you hit search. You will have Chase's price available for you to see (which isn't always the cheapest! Be sure to check Kayak and the airline's website to confirm you are getting the best deal!), the price you will pay in points, and detailed information on the flights you are looking at such as the airline, flight number, time of arrival, time of departure, number of stops, how many seats they say are left … and then, if you click for more details, you can…
see a seat map and figure out what seats are still available for the flight.
If you aren't happy with the immediate search results that show up on the portal, you can add filters to your search (but only after you do the initial search). You can filter for specific airlines, specific flight arrival and departure times, and filter for number of stops… If you know your flight number from having used Google Flights, you can even search for that!
Looking for a hotel is basically the same. You have the option to filter based on price, star rating, amenities, tripadvisor rating, or click through to see the map.
If the price is marked through and rewritten in orange, that means there is a sale going on in the portal and, rather than paying the higher price, if you book through the portal you will get the lower price. Woot! :)
Through the portal, you also have the option of searching for rental cars and activities…
or, if you are a Sapphire Reserve member, you can try out the Luxury Hotel Rental search which will get you free room upgrades, credits toward food and drink at the hotel, complimentary wi-fi, and early/late check=in/out.
The only time I've used LHR was when researching for a hotel in Boston (which I will be visiting this Friday!) and the price was a $100 more expensive than for the same room I found (with many of the same features – free upgrade, free breakfast, etc…) on the Visa Signature website.
The Ultimate Rewards Portal offers what feels like limitless possibilities for getting great prices on hotels, flights, and saving so much money as long as you use your Sapphire Reserve or Sapphire Preferred card wisely, without going into debt.
If you are a Chase customer, were you aware of all of the possibilities for using your Chase Ultimate Rewards points? If you aren't a Chase customer, would you consider becoming one? Do you think credit cards, credit card fees, and all the benefits they give you have become absolutely ridiculous? Or are you happy to have so many options?
If the price is marked through and rewritten in orange, that means there is a sale going on in the portal and, rather than paying the higher price, if you book through the portal you will get the lower price. Woot! :)
Through the portal, you also have the option of searching for rental cars and activities…
or, if you are a Sapphire Reserve member, you can try out the Luxury Hotel Rental search which will get you free room upgrades, credits toward food and drink at the hotel, complimentary wi-fi, and early/late check=in/out.
The only time I've used LHR was when researching for a hotel in Boston (which I will be visiting this Friday!) and the price was a $100 more expensive than for the same room I found (with many of the same features – free upgrade, free breakfast, etc…) on the Visa Signature website.
So anyway, there you have it.
The Ultimate Rewards Portal offers what feels like limitless possibilities for getting great prices on hotels, flights, and saving so much money as long as you use your Sapphire Reserve or Sapphire Preferred card wisely, without going into debt.
If you are a Chase customer, were you aware of all of the possibilities for using your Chase Ultimate Rewards points? If you aren't a Chase customer, would you consider becoming one? Do you think credit cards, credit card fees, and all the benefits they give you have become absolutely ridiculous? Or are you happy to have so many options?
