Credit Card | Referral Bonus |
Chase Sapphire Preferred | Earn 20,000 bonus points for each friend who gets approved, up to 100,000 points per year |
Chase Sapphire Reserve | None |
Chase Freedom | None |
Chase Freedom Unlimited | Earn $100 cash back for each friend who gets approved, up to $500 per year |
Chase Freedom Student | None |
Ink Business Cash | None |
Ink Business Unlimited | None |
Ink Business Preferred | None |
Bear in mind that referral bonuses can change, and cards that are not currently offering a bonus may have one in the future.
Limited-Time Offers
From time to time, Chase may run a promotion to encourage card users to spend more in certain categories or overall. For example, some of the program’s consumer cards are currently offering bonus rewards on Lyft spending through March 2022.
So make sure you’re receiving emails from Chase with notices about promotions for your particular card. Also, check the fine print to ensure your purchases are eligible for the bonus rewards.
How to Redeem Ultimate Rewards Points
The Chase Ultimate Rewards program offers several different redemption options, and most of them are worth at least 1 cent per point. That’s impressive, considering many travel-focused rewards programs offer reduced value if you want to use your points or miles to get cash back.
You can redeem your rewards by logging into your Ultimate Rewards account. If you have more than one Ultimate Rewards card, you’ll need to select the card you want to redeem points from. Then you’ll see a menu at the top of the page with the redemption options for that card.
Redemption options include:
- Cash back
- Gift cards
- Travel
- Experiences
- Shop with points
- Transfers to partners
In most cases, points are worth the same. However, the program’s travel credit cards offer some opportunities to squeeze more value out of your rewards, especially through travel partners.
Cash Back
You can request your cash back in the form of a statement credit or a deposit into your bank account. Points are worth 1 cent apiece with this redemption option, and this is available on all Ultimate Rewards-earning cards.
Gift Cards
You can use your points to purchase gift cards from more than 150 brands, including retailers and restaurants. All of the program’s cards have this redemption option, and points are worth 1 cent each on gift card purchases.
Travel
Chase’s Ultimate Rewards travel portal functions similarly to a discount travel website like Expedia or Orbitz. But you can pay with points, cash, or a mix of both. Cardholders can book flights, hotels, rental cars, activities, and cruises through the portal.
For most cards, points are worth 1 cent each when booking travel. However, if you have the Chase Sapphire Preferred or Ink Business Preferred, your points are worth 1.25 cents apiece when using them to book travel through Chase. And if you have the Chase Sapphire Reserve, your points are worth 1.5 cents each with this redemption option.
Experiences
The Chase Experiences portal gives cardholders access to exclusive events, preferred seating, and other offers, and you can use your points to book them. Choices include sporting events, concerts, shows, and culinary experiences.
If you want to use your points this way, they’re worth 1 cent each. Keep in mind, though, that some events may be available only to customers with particular credit cards.
Shop With Points
Cardholders who link their Ultimate Rewards credit card to an Amazon.com account can use their points when they check out. Unfortunately, this is the only redemption option that offers less than 1 cent per point in value—you’ll get just 0.8 cents per point if you redeem this way.
You can also redeem your points for Apple products through the Apple Ultimate Rewards Store. This redemption option will give you 1 cent per point in value.
Transfers to Partners
If you have one of the Chase Sapphire credit cards or the Ink Business Preferred, you can transfer your points to one of 13 airline and hotel partners at a 1:1 ratio. The partners are:
- Aer Lingus, AerClub
- British Airways Executive Club
- Emirates Skywards
- Flying Blue Air France / KLM
- Iberia Plus
- JetBlue TrueBlue
- Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
- Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards
- United MileagePlus
- Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
- IHG Rewards Club
- Marriott Bonvoy
- World of Hyatt
In most cases, there’s no cost to transfer your points, and the transfer occurs instantaneously. However, Chase’s program guide does state that some transfers may include a fee, and you’ll get a notification if that’s the case before you complete your transfer. Also, in some cases, it may take up to seven business days to complete a transfer.
Points transfers can be one of the best ways to maximize your Chase Ultimate Rewards. This is because redemption values with airline and hotel rewards programs are generally dynamic.
For example, if you redeem your points for cash back, they’ll be worth 1 cent apiece no matter when you redeem. But if you transfer your points to, say, World of Hyatt, the value of your points can vary based on your travel dates, the hotel’s category, the cash price of the stay, and more.
While this makes things a bit more complicated, it opens up opportunities to get more value than you’d get if you simply book travel through Chase. One of the more popular ways to maximize Ultimate Rewards points is to transfer them to one of the program’s airline partners and use them to book international first- and business-class flights.
Maximizing points this way does require a little work. But even if you’re inexperienced with travel rewards, some airline and hotel programs offer a consistently higher average value than you could get through Chase.
For example, World of Hyatt points are worth 2.22 cents each on average, according to Investopedia research. And the Flying Blue program gives you 1.6 cents per mile on average.
The Bottom Line on Chase Ultimate Rewards
The Chase Ultimate Rewards program offers credit card users a lot of value and flexibility, even for those who aren’t interested in stretching their rewards through the program’s travel bonuses and transfer partners.
But if you have the time and desire to maximize rewards, you’ll have plenty of opportunities with one of the program’s travel credit cards. Also, because you can transfer your points between cards, having multiple Ultimate Rewards cards lets you earn bonus rewards across several spending categories and then maximize the value of those rewards by pooling them together.
Chase Ultimate Rewards isn’t the only flexible rewards program out there, though. Cardholders may also want to consider American Express Membership Rewards and Citi ThankYou Rewards, both of which offer flexible redemptions, including transfer partners.
But if you want maximum value across all of your redemption options, the Ultimate Rewards program is the best of the bunch.