How To Use Chase Travel℠ to Book a Trip on Points

If you’re anything like me, you love traveling — especially when it’s discounted or even free through points accumulated from your regular credit card spending! 

Chase Ultimate Rewards® is one of the best rewards programs for travelers, and Chase offers different cards to help you maximize your points.

Chase’s online travel booking platform, Chase Travel℠, lets you use your credit card points toward airline tickets, hotels, rental cars, or cashback (or a combination of those). 

And with some select Chase cards, points can be worth 25% to 50% more when used for travel. 

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How Do Chase Ultimate Rewards® Work?

There are two distinct categories of cards from Chase: cashback cards and travel cards. 

Both accumulate points that can be used for travel, but they offer different benefits. 

Cashback cards, such as the Chase Freedom Flex® and the Ink Business Cash® Credit Card, give you a point redemption value of $0.01 per point. 

This means if you have 100,000 points, these are worth $1,000 toward travel or cashback.

COMPARE: Best Cashback Credit Cards

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However, to maximize your travel rewards, you need to select one of the higher-tier travel cards, such as the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, Chase Sapphire Reserve®, or Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card. 

These travel cards come with an annual fee, but their points redemption value is higher. 

With these cards, Ultimate Rewards® points can be redeemed for 1.25x up to 1.5x value — meaning 100,000 points could be worth $1,250 to $1,500 when used toward booking travel.

COMPARE: Best Travel Credit Cards

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A great benefit of Chase cards is that you can combine your points. You can take points earned on a cashback card and transfer those to a card with Ultimate Rewards®. 

READ MORE: Your Ultimate Guide to Chase Ultimate Rewards®

How To Book Flights Through Chase Travel℠

Since I am self-employed, I have the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card as my travel card, through which I earn Ultimate Rewards® points. 

You’ll see that I have the option to book with Chase Travel℠, transfer points to travel partners, or redeem for cashback. 

We’ll first book a flight through Chase Travel℠, the first option shown below.

From here, you fill out your travel details. For this example, I looked for flights from New York (JFK) to Los Angeles (LAX).

Once you select which flight you’d like, a box on the right shows how much the flight will cost in points, cash, or a combo of both. 

You can even fill in how many points you’d like to use if you want to split them a different way. 

In this example, since I don’t have enough points to cover the entire cost of the flight, Chase is giving me the option to pay for the flight for $249, or apply my 6,691 points and pay $166. 

Some quick math shows that 6,691 points are worth $83 in this case ($249 – $166), or approximately 1.24 cents per point including taxes and fees.

If you’d like to use a portion of your points, Chase lets you customize how many points to use. 

Once you select your flights, you will be taken to a page where you can input exactly how many points you’d like to use.  

Here’s an example where I requested to use 5,000 of my points toward the flight instead of using them all:

How To Book Hotels Through Chase Travel℠

Booking a hotel through Chase Travel℠ follows a similar process to booking flights. 

Navigate to the “How to use your points” dropdown in your account and, rather than looking up flights, search for hotels at your destination (in my example, Los Angeles).

Once you select the hotel, you can select the room you’d like, and the menu on the right will give you a breakdown of the dates of your reservation, and multiple price options. 

You also have the option to pay with points instead of cash.

Transferring Points Through Chase Travel℠

You can also transfer your Ultimate Rewards® points directly to participating airline and hotel rewards programs. 

This might be a good option if you prefer to travel with a specific airline or if an airline is offering promotions for transferring your Chase points directly to them (otherwise, transfer rates are usually 1:1). 

Currently, Chase’s travel partners include:

• Aer Lingus
• Air Canada
• Air France KLM
• British Airways
• Emirates
• Hyatt
• Iberia
• IHG Hotels & Resorts
• JetBlue
• Marriott Bonvoy
• Singapore Airlines
• Southwest Airlines
• United Airlines
• Virgin Atlantic

You can make your transfer directly through Chase Travel℠ by accessing the “Transfer to Travel Partners” section.

You’ll be prompted to enter the amount of points you want to transfer (note that they must be in increments of 1,000).

Once you’ve chosen your amount and transfer partner, you’ll input the account info for that program. If you don’t yet have a loyalty account with that airline or hotel, the system will ask you to create an account first.  

READ MORE: How To Use Credit Card Points for Travel

Should You Use Points or Cash with Chase Travel℠?

Choosing between points versus cash ultimately depends on your budget and travel schedule. 

If you’re only using cashback cards, the value is about the same ($1 in travel is worth $1 in cash). 

But if you’re using a travel card, you can stretch your points further. Chase says a redemption is generally a good deal if you get a value of 2 cents or more per point.

In my example above, I was only getting a value of 1.24 cents per point — but if I must fly at that time and I have the points to spare, it may be worth it to me to use them, even if it’s not the best deal.

If you do end up paying cash, you don’t have to book through Chase Travel℠, but you may want to. That’s because some cards offer extra points when paying cash through Chase Travel℠. 

That said, there may be cheaper flight prices elsewhere. Shop around to see if it’s worth booking through Chase Travel℠ for that extra boost. 

READ MORE: How To Earn Credit Card Points Fast for Travel

Which Chase Card Is Best For Me?

If you want the card with the highest point redemption value, that would be the Chase Sapphire Reserve® at 1.5x (when booked through Chase Travel℠). The Reserve does come with a pretty hefty annual fee but also offers generous benefits.

If you are self-employed, perhaps you’d prefer the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card. This card has a lower annual fee, but still a 1.25x redemption value when used to book through Chase Travel℠. 

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While travel cards do come with a fee, many offer perks like travel credits, airport lounge access, trip insurance, and more.

The great thing about Chase is that they allow you to combine points — so to earn the higher redemption value available through Ultimate Rewards®, you only need to sign up for one travel credit card. 

You can transfer points earned on cashback cards to a travel card — which is when the magic happens since some cashback cards have different bonus categories. You could put groceries on one card, dining out on another, business expenses on yet another, and combine all these points toward travel! 

COMPARE: Best Chase Credit Cards

FAQs

How do you combine Chase points?

You can combine your Chase Ultimate Rewards® points from different cards directly through Chase Travel℠. 

Simply select which card you want to transfer points from, then select the “Earn/Use” option, followed by “Combine points.” You can then select which card to transfer to, and how many points you’d like to move over.

Do you get more points for booking through Chase Travel?

Yes, some Chase cards, such as the Sapphire Reserve® and Sapphire Preferred®, earn you extra points when you book through Chase Travel℠ rather than elsewhere. 

While it’s a cashback card rather than a travel card, the Ink Business Premier® Credit Card earns a boosted cashback rate on Chase Travel℠ bookings.

Does Chase Travel℠ have an app?

Yes, Chase also has a mobile app where you can see all your accounts and book travel with your points straight from your phone. 

TL;DR: Is Chase Travel℠ Worth It? 

Yes, it can be! But make sure you are using credit responsibly before venturing into credit card rewards. The key is to put expenses you already would have onto credit cards to earn points — not to start spending beyond your means. 

Using Chase Travel℠ has enabled me to travel for free — I haven’t paid for a flight in almost 10 years! Ultimate Rewards® points have enabled my partner and I to take an annual trip to Europe for the past few years without worrying about paying for airfare.

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Disclosure: Opinions expressed here are the author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.