Chase Ultimate Rewards® is a transferable points rewards program that offers travel rewards, cash back rewards, and point transfers to partners.
Ultimate Rewards is widely seen as one of the most approachable tranferable points programs, thanks to its collection if easy-to-use partners like United Airlines and Hyatt.
Here’s our complete guide, containing everything you need to know about Chase Ultimate Rewards®.
Chase Ultimate Rewards® at a Glance
Chase Ultimate Rewards® is the transferable reward points program of Chase. The program offers many easy ways to earn points through credit card welcome bonuses, spending, and shopping through its portal and its cards offer benefits that can sometimes be even more valuable that the rewards you earn. The program also features an excellent suite of transfer partners and travel redemption options that make it easy to get value from your points.
Strengths of Ultimate Rewards
Ultimate Rewards is particularly good when you consider that the individual card products are (generally) competitive, and that the program offers both cash back options and easy-to-use transfer partners.
- Easy transfer partners, with emphasis on Hyatt. Chase certainly offers the most approachable set of transfer partners across the major bank programs. Air Canada, United, Southwest, and Virgin Atlantic offer relatively easy-to use programs with easy-to-book awards. And Hyatt can be a goldmine for increasing your redemption value, whether you’re staying at a Hyatt Place or looking at luxury hotels.
- Solid products with good suites of benefits. The amount of rewards you earn isn’t the only thing that matters when it comes to selecting a credit card. And this is especially true for purchases of durable goods and travel. Fortunately, Chase consistently offers benefits like purchase protection and extended warranty across its card lineup. And the premium travel credit cards have best-in-class credit card travel insurance benefits.
- Consistent cash back redemptions. Chase doesn’t play games with the cash back redemption value of its points. Regardless of which card you have, your points can always be redeemed for 1 cent of cash each. This is a refreshing contrast to Citi ThankYou Rewards®, Amex Membership Rewards, and Capital One miles, all of which require you to jump through some hoops in some cases to get this much cash value from your points.
Weaknesses of Ultimate Rewards
When you consider earning points for spending, you’ll find that you’ll earn more points on most spending with other programs and the overall picture of last year’s changes to the Sapphire Reserve take a little bit of shine off the program.
- Earnings points from spending lags other programs. This is most notable in common categories like groceries, gas, and spending “everywhere else.” No Chase Ultimate Rewards cards offer a category bonus for groceries, only the Ink Business Cash offers a bonus (2x) in gas, and the most you’ll earn on your spending outside bonus categories is 1.5x.
- The couponization of the high-end Sapphire Reserve has diminished its value. The Chase Sapphire Reserve® used to be an easy pick for a simple, high-value travel credit card. However, Chase decided to change the product and massively increase the annual fee while adding a ton of coupon-book-style credits. But taht made the product more complicated and (in my view) less valuable. The selection of hotels offered with The Edit lags Amex’s similar Fine Hotels and Resorts + The Hotel Collection program. And many of the credits that Chase uses to advertise its “Over $1,500 in annual lifestyle value” require specific monthly purchases with specific merchants and services that most won’t naturally use.
Earning Chase Ultimate Rewards®
There are four ways to earn Chase Ultimate Rewards® points. More details on each of these is below.
- Credit card sign-up bonuses. Most Chase credit cards offer a bonus for new cardmembers who get the card and meet a minimum spending requirement, usually within 3-6 months.
- Using credit cards that earn Ultimate Rewards for spending. All of the Chase Ultimate Rewards® credit cards award points for spending put on the card. You’ll earn the most points if you hold multiple cards and align your spending with the card’s bonus categories.
- Chase Ultimate Rewards Shopping. Chase offers points when you click through its shopping portal and make purchases from select merchants.
- Refer-A-Friend. Many Chase cards offer you the option to refer a friend. If your friend gets a Chase credit card through your link, you’ll earn a bonus.
Earning Chase Ultimate Rewards® from credit card welcome bonuses
If you want to earn Ultimate Rewards®, by far the fastest way to amass a mountain of points is through credit card welcome bonuses. You’ll need to get a new card and use the card for spending, usually a few thousand dollars within a few months, to earn a bonus.
Here are the current welcome bonuses available on Chase Ultimate Rewards® credit cards:
Chase Freedom Unlimited® welcome offer
Welcome offer: EARN A $250 BONUS after spending $500 on purchases in your first 3 months from account opening.
This bonus is marketed as cash back, but is awarded as Ultimate Rewards points.
Chase often offers better in-branch bonuses on this card that you won’t see online.
Annual fee: $0
Chase Freedom Flex® welcome offer
Offer: EARN A $200 BONUS after spending $500 on purchases in your first 3 months from account opening.
This link is a referral link. Someone from our team or community may earn a referral bonus if you are approved through this link
Annual Fee: $0
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Earn 75,000 bonus points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
This bonus is earned as Chase Ultimate Rewards® points.
Chase occasionally offers a better in-branch exclusive offer on this card.
Annual fee: $95
Annual fee: $95
Chase Sapphire Reserve® welcome offer
Welcome offer: Earn 125,000 points after you spend $6,000 in purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
This bonus is earned as Chase Ultimate Rewards® points.
Annual fee: $795 annual fee; $195 for each authorized user
Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card welcome offer
Welcome offer: Earn $750 bonus cash back after you spend $6,000 on purchases in the first 3 months after account opening.
This bonus is marketed as cash back, but awarded as Ultimate Rewards points.
Annual fee: $0
Ink Business Cash® Credit Card welcome offer
Welcome offer: Earn $750 bonus cash back after you spend $6,000 on purchases in the first 3 months after account opening.
This bonus is marketed as cash back, but awarded as Ultimate Rewards points.
Annual fee: $0
Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card welcome offer
Welcome offer: Earn 100,000 bonus points after you spend $8,000 on purchases in the first 3 months after account opening.
This bonus is awarded as Ultimate Rewards® points.
Annual fee: $95
Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business℠ welcome offer
Welcome offer: Earn 150,000 Bonus Points after you spend $20,000 on purchases in the first 3 months after account opening.
This bonus is earned as Ultimate Rewards points.
Annual fee: $795
We have more about these bonuses in our dedicated article on the best Chase Ultimate Rewards® bonus offers.
Earning Chase Ultimate Rewards® from credit card spending
One of the best ways to earn Chase Ultimate Rewards® points is to carry a few Chase cards that earn points in categories where you spend the most. Here’s an overview of which cards earn the most Chase Ultimate Rewards® for spending in various bonus categories.
| Best card in category | Cards that earn more than 1.5x in category |
|---|---|
| Advertising purchases made with select social media sites and search engines | |
 3x: Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card. Annual limit applies.1 | – |
| Chase Travel℠ | |
 10x on hotels and car rentals, 5x on flights: Chase Sapphire Reserve®2 |    5%: Chase Freedom Flex® 5%: Chase Freedom Unlimited® 5x: Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card3 |
| Dining at restaurants, including eligible delivery services, takeout, and dining out. | |
3x on general dining, and 10x on Chase Dining: Chase Sapphire Reserve® |  3%: Chase Freedom Flex® 3%: Chase Freedom Unlimited® 3x: Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card 2%: Ink Business Cash® Credit Card. Includes restaurants only. Annual limit applies.5 |
| Drugstores | |
| 3%: Chase Freedom Flex® 3%: Chase Freedom Unlimited® | – |
| Gas stations | |
| 2%: Ink Business Cash® Credit Card. Annual limit applies.5 | – |
| Groceries (online) excluding Target, Walmart, and wholesale clubs. | |
| 3x: Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card | – |
| Internet, cable, and phone services | |
| 5%: Ink Business Cash® Credit Card. Annual limit applies.5 | 3x: Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card. Annual limit applies.1 |
| Quarterly bonus categories | |
5%: Chase Freedom Flex®. Quarterly limit applies.4 | – |
| Office supply stores | |
5%: Ink Business Cash® Credit Card. Annual limit applies.5 | – |
| Shipping purchases | |
3x: Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card. Annual limit applies.1 | – |
| Streaming select streaming services. | |
3x: Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card | – |
| Travel including airlines, hotels, motels, car rental agencies, cruise lines, and more. | |
3x: Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card. Annual limit applies.1 | 2x: Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card2 |
On general purchases, you’ll earn the most points with the Chase Freedom Unlimited® and Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card. Both cards earn unlimited 1.5% on general purchases.
1 The Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card earns 3x in its bonus categories on the first $150,000 spent in combined purchases each account anniversary year, then 1x.
2 Chase Sapphire Reserve® earns bonus points on Chase Travel℠ after the first $300 is spent on travel purchases annually. 10x points on hotels excludes The Edit℠.
3 The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card’s 5x bonus on Chase Travel℠ purchases excludes hotel purchases that qualify for the $50 annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit.
4 With the Chase Freedom Flex®, you earn 5% on up to $1,500 on combined purchases in bonus categories each quarter you activate.
5 The Ink Business Cash® Credit Card earns 2% cash back on the first $25,000 spent in combined purchases at gas stations and restaurants each account anniversary year and 5% cash back on the first $25,000 spent in combined purchases at office supply stores and on internet, cable and phone services each account anniversary year.
Earning with Ultimate Rewards® Shopping
If you’re familiar with shopping portals like Rakuten and TopCashBack, Ultimate Rewards® Shopping will feel very familiar. All you need to do to earn extra points is click through and shop online like you would anyway. If your purchase qualifies and tracks, you’ll earn extra Ultimate Rewards® points.
To access Ultimate Rewards® shopping, go to https://ultimaterewardsearn.chase.com/.
You’ll be prompted to log into your Chase online account and select the card you want to use with the shopping portal. Sometimes Chase pays different rates of Ultimate Rewards points, depending on which card you select. We recommend going to cashbackmonitor.com and checking rates before going to the Ultimate Rewards shopping portal if you want to earn the most points possible.
Note that you do not have to use the same card, or even a Chase card to actually make the purchase—you’ll earn Ultimate Rewards simply from clicking through and making your purchase.
If you have a shopping browser extension like Capital One Shopping or Honey installed, we recommend uninstalling that extension if you want to use Ultimate Rewards Shopping. Those browser extensions are known to hijack shopping sessions—and if they do, the company offering the browser extension will get paid a commission for your purchase and you won’t earn any Ultimate Rewards from click through Chase’s portal.
Earning with Chase Refer-A-Friend
If you have a friend or family member that you think would be a good fit for a Chase credit card, you can often earn points for referring your friend to Chase.
All you need to refer them is your last name, ZIP code, and last four digits of your cardmember and your friend’s permission to send them a link if sending it via text message. You can generate referrals through the Chase Refer-A-Friend website or after logging in to Chase.com or the Chase mobile app.
We have an article on how to use the Chase Refer-A-Friend program if you want to dig into the details.
Redeeming Chase Ultimate Rewards®
Chase Ultimate Rewards® can be redeemed for a variety of cash back and travel rewards. But not every reward option is a good value. Cash back redemptions, available on every card, represent a value floor on Ultimate Rewards® redemptions. Here’s our take on the available reward redemption options:
The best value Ultimate Rewards® redemptions
There are three redemption options we’d recommend using with Chase Ultimate Rewards: Cash back redemptions if you have any card, plus point transfers to airline and hotel transfer partners and Chase Travel℠ bookings that qualify for Points Boost if you have a premium Ultimate Rewards card like the Sapphire Preferred or Sapphire Reserve.
Outside of those redemption options, most other redemption options aren’t worth considering. Even Chase’s gift card promotions aren’t a great deal—they’ll give you “more value” for your points on gift cards that you can often buy at a discount.
Cash back redemptions
Chase gives you a few options for redeeming your Ultimate Rewards® for cash back. You can redeem your points for a statement credit to your credit card or receive your cash back rewards as a direct deposit into most U.S. checking and savings accounts.
When you redeem for a direct deposit into a checking or savings account, you can select one of the accounts you use to pay your credit card or enter your routing and account number for another U.S. banking account.
Ultimate Rewards® points redeemed for cash back will get you 1 cent per point of value. Cash back redemptions are available on all Ultimate Rewards® credit cards.
Chase Travel℠ and Points Boost
Chase Travel used to be an easy way to get more value for your Chase Ultimate Rewards® points. In the past, you used to get a guaranteed 1.25 cents per point of value for your redemptions if you had a Sapphire Preferred or Ink Preferred card and a guaranteed 1.5 cents per value on all bookings if you had a Sapphire Reserve.
In late 2025, Chase changed that—you now only get 1 cent of value for your points, unless Chase chooses to offer you more for a specific booking, which it brands as Points Boost. Here’s how this works:
- Any points you use that aren’t “legacy” points will get a base 1 cent of value for all bookings through Chase Travel.
- With the Chase Sapphire Preferred or Chase Ink Business Preferred, bookings marked as “Points Boost” bookings give you up to 75% more value for your points. (Up to 1.75 cents per point.)
- With the Chase Sapphire Reserve or Sapphire Reserve for Business, bookings marked as “Points Boost” bookings give you up to 100% more value for your points. (Up to 2.0 cents per point.)
Points boost redemptions generally include premium cabin airfare with select partners and hotel bookings with certain hotels, biased toward higher-end bookings. Sapphire Reserve and Sapphire Reserve for Business cardmembers get access to The Edit, which should always offer Points Boost redemptions, but are no longer guaranteed to offer 2 cents per point.
Now, if you had earned points (or transferred points to) a Sapphire Preferred, Sapphire Reserve, or Ink Preferred card prior to October 26, 2025, those points are what I’ll term “legacy” points. Those points can still be redeemed for at least 1.25 or 1.5 cents each.
You can see how many of your points are considered “legacy” points through a link labeled “See what’s changed” on the Ultimate Rewards page of the Chase website.
Transfers to airline and hotel transfer partners
By far, point transfers to travel partners offer the best opportunity to get outsized value out of your Ultimate Rewards® points. This redemption option is available only to cardholders of one of Chase’s premium Ultimate Rewards® credit cards: Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, Chase Sapphire Reserve®, or Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card.
To take advantage of an airline or hotel transfer partner, you’ll want to consolidate your points by moving them to your premium Ultimate Rewards® credit card first.
For example, if you earned points with a Chase Freedom Unlimited® card and wanted to transfer them to Hyatt you wouldn’t be able to transfer them directly. But you could move the points from your Freedom Unlimited to your Chase Sapphire Preferred card and then transfer them to Hyatt.
See the section on transfer partners below for more on Chase’s transfer partners and which ones are worth transferring to.
Pay Yourself Back®
With Pay Yourself Back®, you can redeem your points for statement credits to offset recent purchases on your eligible Ultimate Rewards® card. You’ll get 1 cent per point when you redeem your rewards against most purchases, but Chase occasionally offers additional point value in select categories, though those categories are likely to appeal only to a limited audience. In most cases, you can get better value redeeming your points for travel if you hold a premium Ultimate Rewards® credit card.
When it was launched, Chase Pay Yourself Back® was a great way to get additional cash value for your points. At one point, you could redeem points for 1.5 cents per point toward grocery store purchases with the Chase Sapphire Reserve® card. The best options are long-gone and most of the remaining options offer more than cash-back value only in limited cases.
Ultimate Rewards® gift card redemptions
Redeeming Chase Ultimate Rewards® for gift cards typically isn’t a great use of points.
Chase Ultimate Rewards® are normally worth only 1 cent each toward gift cards, but when a gift card is on sale, you can sometimes get a gift card for 10% off.
But even if you purchase gift cards that Chase is featuring for 10% off, you’re not likely to get good value from this redemption. Chase runs its 10% off sales on gift cards that you can often find even larger discounts on elsewhere.
If you want to redeem your rewards for a gift card, the best plan may be to simply redeem your points for cash, and hunt around for a discounted gift card online.
Transfer partners: The key to getting great value from Ultimate Rewards
Redeeming Ultimate Rewards® through transfer partners offers by far the most opportunity to increase the value you get. Fortunately, Chase offers a set of transfer partners that features both partners that are easy to use and partners that can give you access to high-value rewards.
Here are Chase’s current transfer partners:
 | Aer Lingus Aer Club | 1,000 Ultimate Rewards® points = 1,000 Aer Club points |
 | Air Canda Aeroplan | 1,000 Ultimate Rewards® points = 1,000 Aeroplan® points |
 | Air France KLM Flying Blue | 1,000 Ultimate Rewards® points = 1,000 miles |
 | British Airways Executive Club | 1,000 Ultimate Rewards® points = 1,000 Avios |
 | Iberia Plus | 1,000 Ultimate Rewards® points = 1,000 Avios |
 | JetBlue True Blue | 1,000 Ultimate Rewards® points = 1,000 True Blue points |
 | Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer® | 1,000 Ultimate Rewards® points = 1,000 miles |
 | Southwest Rapid Rewards | 1,000 Ultimate Rewards® points = 1,000 Rapid Rewards points |
 | United MileagePlus | 1,000 Ultimate Rewards® points = 1,000 miles |
 | Virgin Atlantic Flying Club | 1,000 Ultimate Rewards® points = 1,000 Virgin points |
 | IHG One Rewards | 1,000 Ultimate Rewards® points = 1,000 IHG One Rewards points |
 | Marriott Bonvoy® | 1,000 Ultimate Rewards® points = 1,000 Marriott Bonvoy points |
 | World of Hyatt | 1,000 Ultimate Rewards® points = 1,000 World of Hyatt points |
 | Wyndham Rewards® | 1,000 Ultimate Rewards® points = 1,000 Wyndham Rewards® points |
How I’ve used Chase’s transfer partners
How you use Chase’s transfer partners will depend on your travel patterns and preferences. Rather than hype-up program “sweet spots” which are theoretically possible, but impractical for most people, here is how I’ve personally used some of Chase’s most useful transfer partners:
Air Canada Aeroplan
Air Canada Aeroplan offers Star Alliance awards and perhaps the most expansive selection of partners of any airline. It offers a combination of dynamic pricing and zone-base pricing when other airlines open up award availability and doesn’t pass on carrier-imposed fuel surcharges.
The program also offers the unique feature of adding a stopover for 5,000 points and the ability to pay slightly more points to make your bookings cancelable and refundable for no fee.
Surprisingly, I haven’t booked many awards on Air Canada, but that’s mostly because transfer bonuses were available to other programs when I wanted to book my tickets, but here’s what I’ve recently been able to book:
- Business class between Europe and the U.S. on Lufthansa: 70,000 points, plus $283 for a business class flight from Munich to Denver, plus a connection from Denver to Minneapolis on United. And five tickets were available.
Air France KLM Flying Blue
Air France/KLM Flying Blue miles are great for the program’s monthly promo awards, which offer discounts on certain routes, the most relevant to me being flights between North America and Europe. Typically Flying Blue will discount economy tickets to Europe from several North American Air France and KLM gateway cities, plus premium economy and business class from one or two cities.
While I’ve typically used Flying Blue miles for international business class tickets, I do think that the real sweet spot is premium economy awards. These awards are widely available, making them a good option if you can’t plan your trip around award availability.
Flying Blue miles have also been useful for domestic coach tickets on Delta when Delta has inexplicably opened up award space to partners, but has stratospheric pricing on a particular route. Admittedly, this is a fairly niche use case, but it comes in handy for me a few times a year.
Here are some of the redemptions I’ve recently booked using Flying Blue miles:
- U.S. domestic coach on Delta: 27,000 miles, plus $87 to fly a family of 5 from Minneapolis to Chicago in the fall of 2026. Delta wanted 66,000 miles (or 78,000 miles without a credit card,) plus $28 for the same flights, or a total cash price of $880 for Main Cabin.
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
This is, of course, where I talk about Singapore Airlines First Class Suites. But the truth is that I haven’t ever booked that award… and the reality is that most other bloggers talking about that as a sweet spot haven’t booked it either. They’re just plagerizing something they saw elsewhere online.
What KrisFlyer has been really useful for is medium-haul flights in coach on Singapore’s own metal. This is a decidedly unsexy redemption story, but it has enabled me to piece together flights to Singapore (where I have friends) with business class flights booked through other programs across the Pacific.
United MileagePlus
Surprisingly, I haven really used United that much for exciting awards recently, but I do find the program to be a useful tool for its option value, thanks to its award cancellation policies.
To be fair, I have gotten some incredible redemptions out of the program, including a First Class itinerary on Swiss from South Africa to China, Via Europe for 80,000 miles, but those redemptions don’t exist anymore, so they’re not terribly relevant.
Recently, I’ve found United Mileage Plus useful for booking speculative awards, since you can cancel and redeposit the miles you used to book an award ticket back into your account with no fees. Here’s how I work this: If there’s an international trip that I need to take with relatively fixed dates, I’ll first book an award on United in coach if there’s no business class availability with another program.
That way, I’ll have a guaranteed ticket to get where I need to go, and then I can shop around for better options. Usually, there will be some workable option in a premium cabin that will open up, which I’ll book and then I’ll cancel the ticket I booked with United miles.
I’ve also used United for domestic flights within the United States on United at a relatively good value, since United does sometimes price those awards competitively. I’m not getting outsized value, but the program has come in useful more than once when I’ve needed to go to a conference.
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
I’ve been pleasantly surprised by Virgin Atlantic Flying Club in the last few years. It has been a program that has been useful for both business and coach tickets internationally.
The redemption that everyone always talks about with Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, of course, is using the miles for Delta One across the Atlantic. But I’ve never actually booked that. Here’s what I have booked with Virgin Atlantic Flying Club:
- Kenya to the U.S. in business class on Kenya Airways: Later in 2026, I’ll be flying back to the U.S. from Kenya on Kenya Airways for 140,000 points and $612. That’s a bit more than I’d like to pay, but flights to/from Africa are expensive and hard to book, so I consider this a win. And I’m getting to fly the flag carrier of the country I’m visiting for about the same price as a coach ticket, when you consider cash back redemptions as my alternative.
- U.S. domestic coach on Delta: In early 2026, I booked a round trip from Minneapolis (MSP) to Dallas (DFW) in Main Cabin on Delta for 22,000 miles, plus $12 in fees. Delta wanted 35,200 miles (41,600 miles without a credit card), plus $12 in fees for the same flight. The cash price of the same ticket was $467.
- U.S. to Europe, plus intra-Europe flight in coach on KLM: In 2025, I took my family of 5 to Europe, including a flight within Europe, for about 180,000 Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points, plus about $1,100 in cash. Admittedly, this was a transfer from Ultimate Rewards, since that program had a transfer bonus at the time, but I ended up using about 140,000 bank points… not bad, considering what I got.
- New Zealand to U.S. in business class on Air New Zealand: In 2023, I used Virgin Atlantic points to book Auckland, New Zealand to Houston in business class. The receipt in my email looks like I paid 125,000 points + $92 for two tickets. That might win the award for the best redemption I’ve ever done.
World of Hyatt
World of Hyatt is truly the gem of Ultimate Rewards and absolutely my most-used transfer partner in the program. That’s mostly because Hyatt offers good value redemptions that are easily bookable at a wide range of properties. More than any other program, Hyatt saves us money that we would otherwise spend—and that’s real value.
The key to Hyatt’s ability to provide value lies in its published award chart. When hotels offer award stays, the pricing is predictable, which means that it’s reasonably easy to get just a bit more value out of our points.
Now, this is changing somewhat, since Hyatt announced that it is increasing the number of pricing tiers within each of its hotel categories to 5, but my prediction is that will impact mostly stay where you’re getting ridiculous outsized value—like a random Hyatt Place in a college down on a football game weekend—and won’t impact how most people get the most value out of the program through mid-range properties.
Honestly, I’ve used Hyatt for so many things, that it’s hard to pick out specific examples. It’s been useful for numerous stays at Hyatt Place and Hyatt House properties when traveling with my family, saving us real cash that we would otherwise spend on a comparable hotel. And it’s been useful at the high end when traveling with my girlfriend, getting us an experience that we would not otherwise have have splurged on, but could justify given the number of points charged.
Combining Ultimate Rewards points
Chase allows you to easily transfer your Ultimate Rewards® points among any of your own cards. Typically, you’ll transfer points from your no-annual-fee credit card to a premium card like the Chase Sapphire Reserve® in order to take advantage of point transfers to partners or travel redemptions with increased value.
You can also transfer your Ultimate Rewards® points to another card if you plan to close one of your cards. Your points will remain active as long as they are attached to a currently-open card.
We have a step by step guide on how to transfer your Ultimate Rewards® points to one of your other cards.
Sharing points with a household member
There are two ways to share points with a household member.
You can transfer your Ultimate Rewards® point to a partner program account owned by another person. For example, you could transfer your Ultimate Rewards® to another household member’s United MileagePlus account. To do this, the point recipient must be a member of your household and an authorized user on your Chase credit card account.
You can also transfer your points to another household member’s Ultimate Rewards® account. Before you can transfer points between household members, you’ll need to link your accounts. Unfortunately, the only way to do this is over the phone. You’ll need both parties’ account numbers during the phone call and the cardmember whose account you’re transferring from will need to be present during the phone call.
Point expiration and how to keep your points alive
Your Chase Ultimate Rewards® points do not expire as long as you keep your credit card open. However, as soon as your account is closed, any Ultimate Rewards® points held on that card are gone with no chance to redeem them.
If you want to cancel a card that has Ultimate Rewards® banked on it, the best solution is to transfer them to another Ultimate Rewards® credit card that you intend to keep open. You can transfer an unlimited number of Ultimate Rewards® points between your own accounts for free.
Bottom line: Chase Ultimate Rewards® is stellar program for travel redemptions
Compared to other bank rewards programs, Chase Ultimate Rewards® biggest strength is the number of easy ways to get value from your points. You can always cash out your points for 1 cent each, getting more value through Chase Travel redemptions is simple, and Chase has a set of transfer partners that are relatively easy to use.
Other banks may offer more opportunities to earn points or transfer partners with more opportunities to get insanely good value from your points. But those other programs don’t always have great cash back and easy travel redemption options—and while you can get plenty of value from some international airline partners, sometimes using these programs requires a PhD in miles and points. In contrast, Chase keeps things simple.
