Chase Ultimate Rewards is one of the most popular travel rewards programs and offers fantastic value if you can take advantage of some great transfer partners. Here’s a complete guide to Chase transfer partners, and a few tricks to getting the most out of your points.
Complete List of Chase Travel Partners:
- Aer Lingus
- Air Canada
- Air France – KLM
- British Airways
- Emirates
- Iberia
- Jetblue
- Singapore Airlines
- Southwest Airlines
- United Airlines
- Virgin Atlantic
Hotels:
- IHG
- Marriot
- Hyatt
The Basics
Chase let’s you transfer points at a 1:1 ration in 1,000 increments from their Ultimate Rewards program. While most transfers are instant, sometimes there could be a short delay. Regardless, it is always in your best interest to confirm the necessary award space before you transfer points. I strongly advise against speculatively transferring points from Chase Ultimate Rewards.
Redemption values can vary highly, but there are numerous ways to get great redemption value by transferring points.
How to Earn Chase Points?
Chase points are typically earned through credit card spend and new credit card sign up offers. While you can also earn bonus points for shopping in the Chase shopping portal, I typically find them offering lower rates. In order to have full access to the Chase Ultimate Rewards program, you need to have one of the three Chase travel cards( Ink Preferred, Sapphire Preferred, Sapphire Reserve).
Airline Breakdowns!
Aer Lingus
Founded by the Irish Government, Aer Lingus is the flag carrier of Ireland. Aer Lingus is not currently a member of any of the Big 3 airlines alliances. Aer Lingus’s rewards program uses Avios. the same family as British Airways, Emirates, and Iberia. Even better, you can also combine Avios from those accounts.
Air Canada Aeroplan
Air Canada is currently a member of Star Alliance which has notable members such as United Airlines, ANA (All Nippon Airways), Lufthansa, and Singapore Airlines. Air Canada’s reward program known as Aeroplan is one of the more underrated programs as they offer the ability to add a stopover(with some easy to understand rules) for just an additional 5,000 miles. Additionally, you are able to add as many as 6 stopovers as long as your the total distance of all the other flights do no exceed the actual start and end route itself. This pretty generous perk creates plenty of value for Aeroplan!
British Airways
A mixed bag of sorts, British Airways uses a distance based award chart that can provide great value. On the other hand, award space seems to be fairly limited and high fuel surcharges can add up quickly. Part of the Oneworld alliance that includes American Airlines, Alaska Airlines, and Cathay Pacific, British Airways can take you almost anywhere on the globe. While awards aren’t great, the one sweet spot of this program would be partner awards for short trips.
Iberia
Iberia also uses Avios and but award space on this program is either hard to find or way overpriced with “peak pricing”. Nothing noteworthy here.
Emirates
One of the true bougie Middle-Eastern Airlines, Emirates offers a variety of routes. The airline is also well known for its glamorous first class, but there can be solid award options from the United States to Asia or Australia.
JetBlue
JetBlue has some good award redemptions in economy and also partners with Hawaiian Airlines. You can snag a one way economy seat from West Coast U.S. to Hawaii for 22,000 points which could come in handy during peak season. Otherwise, carry on.
Singapore Airlines
Singapore Airlines is one the most renown asian airlines, offering both a true first class suite with a premium experience to an industry leading economy seat. Singapore airline award space can be pretty hard to find, but you if you’re lucky, first calls seats from East Coast to U.S. start around 132,000 points and would normally cost over $4,000.
Warning: Transferring points from Chase to Singapore Airlines typically take a few days.
Southwest Airlines
Nothing to note here. Solid redemptions that follow a somewhat fixed points valuation. Southwest doesn’t have assigned seats so this is a no go for me.
United Airlines
Oh how the mighty have fallen. United Airlines used to offer some of the best award redemptions before shifting to a dynamic award chart. Prior to the switch, I was able to book domestic first class seats for just 25,000 points each way. Even better, business class tickets from San Francisco to Hong Kong could be had for only 75,000 points. Such great value is difficult to find in this day and age. You can still find great value, but it might take time.
Virgin Atlantic
Virgin Atlantic is a lone ranger airline with plenty of partnerships including a notable one with Delta Airlines. Back July, I flew Delta One from London back to the United States and was able to use both the Virgin Atlantic Upper Class Wing and Premium Clubhouse Lounge as part of this partnership. If you plan on booking Virgin Atlantic with points, be sure to find partner airlines where fuel surcharges do not carry over.
Hotel Transfer Partners
IHG
IHG like Marriott and Hilton also use a dynamic award chart. While dynamic award charts aren’t the end of the world, their close ties to cash prices leave less room for getting outsized value. Rooms will typically run you anywhere form 10,000-70,00 points per night with a handful or more luxurious properties costing 100,000 points. There is room to find good value here!
Marriott
Marriott is not a great program to transfer points. Only do this if you need to top off for an award redemption otherwise steer clear.
Hyatt
Hyatt is an area where you can outsized value from transferring chase points. Rooms at category 1 Hyatt Hotels start at just 3,500 points off peak. For top end resorts, expect to pay somewhere from 25,000 to 45,000 points per night. This could provide exception value as you can easily get over 2 center per point on many redemptions. Prior to the Brand’s inclusion of Category 8, Jen and I were able to use 30,000 points for a night at the Alila Napa Valley where daily rates were nearly $2,000, getting us an insane redemption of over 6 points per dollar. Hyatt continues to be a great sweet spot for Chase points.
Sweet Spots ( The Juicy Part)
Now that we’ve gone through the various transfer partners, let’s dive into sweet spots of Chase Ultimate Rewards that will get you outsized value. Here’s my top 3!
1: Transferring Points to Hyatt for free nights
Hyatt hotels is my favorite brand because of their service and their great award chart. Low end hotels start at just 3,500 points per night, while high end property top out at 45,000 points per night. Since you are transferring points from Chase at a 1:1 ration in 1,000 point increments, a 45,000 point redemption with Hyatt substantially beat a Marriott redemption of 90,000 points. Hyatt also allows you to book both standard and premium suites on points!
In addition, Hyatt offers free parking and waived resort fees on all award stays.
Some of our favorite Hyatt Properties include:
- Carmel Valley Ranch – Carmel, CA
- Hyatt Regency Birmingham – Birmingham, UK
- Alila Napa Valley – Napa, CA
- Hyatt Regency Lake Tahoe – Lake Tahoe, NV
Additional Reads on Hyatt
Hyatt Globalist, The Crown Jewel of Hotel Elite Status
2: Booking flights with Stopovers on Aeroplan
Aeroplan is a heavily underrated program. While I have planned on taking advantage of the stopover policy, I haven’t been able to make it fit my schedule. None the less, Aeroplan offers the ability to add a stopover for just an additional 5,000 points. If booking a flight from New York to Rome in business class, a stopover in Paris and the Paris to Rome flight would only cost you an additional 5,000 points. Even better, you can add multiple stopovers and go from New York to Rome via Barcelona and Paris for only an extra 10,000 points.
3. Stretching Miles with Transfer Bonuses
Transfer bonuses are pretty freaking awesome! Chase periodically rolls out 20-30% transfer bonuses that can stretch your miles further. Imagine transferring 100,000 points to Virgin Atlantic and getting an additional 30,000 as a free bonus. Not too shabby. Transfer bonuses are nice for those who have plenty of flexibility and are table to take advantage when said offers are available. With that being said, transfer bonuses for a program often last at minimum several weeks giving you time to pick and plan a future trip!
Current Chase Transfer Bonuses (Nov. 2, 2022)
- 30% Bonus for Virgin Atlantic through Nov. 12, 2022
- 30% Bonus for Air Canada(Aeroplan) through Nov. 30, 2022
- 40% Bonus for Marriott through Dec 20, 2022
Past Transfer Bonuses include:
- 30% Bonus for British Airways/ Avios (Seems to be semi-frequent and most common)
- 25% Bonus for Air France/KLM
- 50% Bonus for Marriott
While transfer bonuses seem to happy every so often, it appears that British Airways and the Avios program are frequently offering a transfer bonus.
Delta One can be booked through Virgin Atlantic
Final Thoughts!
There you have it. A quick rundown of Chase Travel Transfer Partners. I hope you found this post helpful. Happy Traveling!
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