What am I missing about the Chase combo?

[EAJuggalo]

I have three Chase cards: Freedom, FU and CSP.  When I go online and check the travel portal to get the 25% bonus on my UR points I come away dejected.  I find better deals from companies that aren't available through the portal, through my other cards or just by using cash.  What am I missing?  The only time I've been able to use them for travel was a 1:1 transfer to Southwest.

[Anonymous]

You're not missing anything. I don't even understand why this question is here. Looks like you figured it out. The best use of your points (in most cases) is to transfer to partners. It's common knowledge.

[UpperNwGuy]

Forget the portal.  Transfer your miles to United, Southwest, Air France (for Delta), or British Airways (for American).

[AverageJoesCredit]

The soda?

[simplynoir]

The combo is to help you maximize your UR earnings with regards to your spend. Essentially, you take advantage of the quarterly categories on the Freedom, dining/travel on the CSP and everything else on the FU. How your points are spent are best used for transfers as the other posts point out.

[K-in-Boston]

The portal is essentially the same as other travel portals (Kayak, Expedia, etc.), no better no worse for availability and pricing.  With CSP you're essentially getting 1.25 cents per point toward a purchase there.  As others stated, the key to the Chase UR trio is to transfer your UR points to your preferred rewards program for far more value.  My choice is personally Marriott, and I'm averaging over 2 cents of value per UR point this year.

[EAJuggalo]

It seemed everyone was talking about using the portal to get the 25% bonus but I haven't found anything on the portal that is a better deal than I can get elsewhere even if you include the 25%.  Good to know.

[simplynoir]

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@EAJuggalo wrote:

It seemed everyone was talking about using the portal to get the 25% bonus but I haven't found anything on the portal that is a better deal than I can get elsewhere even if you include the 25%.  Good to know.

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The Chase portal (a lot of portals for that matter) is there probably more for comfort's sake for customers. They see that extra 25% they can get for their points when transferring and think it's a good deal when it's really not as you discovered.

[mongstradamus]

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@UpperNwGuy wrote:

Forget the portal.  Transfer your miles to United, Southwest, Air France (for Delta), or British Airways (for American).

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just would note sometimes its better for Ke for delta especially if you are an east coaster trying to get to hawaii 25k RT is quite nice if you can find availability that is :-)

[Anonymous]

I recently booked a United flight through the Chase portal because it was a better deal and I see better deals through the portal all the time.  The flight through United was $300 round trip, or 50K miles.  The same itinerary through the Chase portal was $253 or just under 17K UR points (I get 50% additional value on UR points booking through Chase).  I don't feel like transferring points at 1:1 to another travel partner is always a better deal, many times not.  I must be the one missing something.