Chase UR Points Redemption Advise

[MrPepperoni]

Hi Community,

I have a question  - What is the best way to redeem Chase UR points?
I have around 140k points currently and I was thinking that the best way / most value is to transfer to airline and hotel partners.
Well, signed up for miles programs with Emirates,British and AF/KLM today to see their rates to buy tickets for points and I ended up making a conclusion that each of those is more expensive than buying a ticket just through Google Flights. Also there is Turkish Airlines on the market which beats each of those by a lot even if I buy for points. So basically I can just buy directly from Turkish and pay myself back (that will give me a better return vs transferring points to airline partners and buying that way).

So, the question is - do I do something wrong ? What is the most effective way to redeem UR points? Maybe hotel partnners have better deals?

Thank you in advance!

[Anonymous]

awardhacker.com can show you some decent info on award redemption efficency

I think Hyatt's pretty neat

[longtimelurker]

Sometimes it is indeed not worth transferring.   If the ticket price is low (as it often is now with COVID) paying cash may win.   You can also consider paying with points through the Chase portal at 1.25 cpp, although this is better with the CSR which gives 1.5cpp.

Generally, the big wins, from a cents per point view, come on premium cabin international flights, but if that is not what you want, the valuation doesn't really matter!

[Loquat]

You're not doing anything wrong.  Understanding transfer partners, how they work, peak and off peak, saver space vs. non saver space, is a long and time consuming learning experience.  Most of us have been at this for years and I can tell you from experience that the minute you think you've masted a point/transfer program, the airline does some sweeping change, joins or drops an alliance, or they have a major devaluation.  Understanding distance based award charts vs. dynamic pricing, it all becomes too much which is where travel portals come into play. 

With points and miles, sometimes you win, most times you don't.  As mentioned, the biggest value comes from international business class flights.  I've gotten to the point where I almost never transfer to a partner for domestic flights because I can usually do better via a portal.  American Airlines dominates in my city and I can almost always find a better rate via the Amex travel portal and their Insider Rate.  Add to that I have a business card that gives 25% of my redeemed points back on my selected airline or first class cabins and I usually beat even buying directly from the airline.

The true value in transferring points to an airline and getting outsize value is first understanding saver space and how it works.  If your airline of choice doesn't have availability in their saver space then you can probably still obtain the flight that you want it'll just cost you a lot more to get it.  

If you want transfer your points to a partner for outsize value, start first with goggling as much as you can about each airline, their alliance, and saver space.  There is a lot of info and YouTube videos that can give you an general idea of how to get started.

[K-in-Boston]

One thing that I will add is that with Air France/KLM, the number of points needed for a redemption can vary wildly and you may need to try multiple dates if you are flexible.  A crazy example I used a few years ago was that it cost fewer points to fly round-trip from Boston to Tel Aviv via NYC than it would have to just take those exact same flights from Boston to NYC and back!  Also lots of cases where Business Class flights cost fewer points than Economy.  There are some great deals to be had using FlyingBlue, but it will often require time to find them and some flexibility.

[MrPepperoni]

Thank you everyone!
Will start researching more on this!

[MrT_521]

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@MrPepperoni wrote:

Hi Community,

I have a question  - What is the best way to redeem Chase UR points?
I have around 140k points currently and I was thinking that the best way / most value is to transfer to airline and hotel partners.

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Others have pointed out useful tips for you. I'm not going to give you a new tip, but I will expand a bit on what has already been said.

You will read here, and on other credit card/travel forums, that the best redemption value for credit card points is to transfer them to travel partners such as airlines and hotels. While this is technically true (most of the time), it also comes with a huge caveat.

Basically, the only way to profit by doing this is if you normally travel in business or first class on international flights, and pay for those tickets. The cash price is usually very high, many times higher than the cheapest economy flights. However, the points needed for award tickets for these flights isn't nearly as inflated, maybe only double that of the economy tickets. This is why the redemption value of your points can be higher for premium seats on international flights.

Let's use an example to illustrate. I'll use fabricated numbers here, and actual prices may vary, but it will demonstrate the logic behind this. The principle will apply in pretty much all cases.

You want to travel from New York City to London. A round trip economy ticket costs $450. An award ticket for the same flights and cabins takes 60,000 points (plus some cash, but we'll ignore that here). If you have a CSR, you can buy the ticket for 30,000 UR points, based on CSR's 1.5x point redemption when purchasing travel. However, it will take 60,000 UR points to transfer to the airline and get an award ticket. Because the ticket costs $450 cash, your redemption value is 0.75x if you transfer points and redeem an award economy ticket.

Now, let's say you want to travel in business class. The ticket costs $2,400. It takes 120k points for an award ticket. This gives you a redemption value of 2x ($2.4k/120k points). The redemption value is almost 3x higher than redeeming an economy ticket, and still higher than the 1.5x redemption rate for purchasing the economy ticket.

However, while the redemption value is higher for the business class ticket, it still costs you a lot more than the economy ticket. You're spending 120k UR points, rather than the 30k points for the economy ticket. It is costing you 4x as much, even though the redemption rate is higher.

In conclusion, it's not just about the redemption value. There is a lot more to it than that!

[BlueSea]

Try Iberia or Hyatt. 

[longtimelurker]

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@MrT_521 wrote:

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However, while the redemption value is higher for the business class ticket, it still costs you a lot more than the economy ticket. You're spending 120k UR points, rather than the 30k points for the economy ticket. It is costing you 4x as much, even though the redemption rate is higher.

In conclusion, it's not just about the redemption value. There is a lot more to it than that!

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Right, this really goes to the two contradictory views about high-value redemptions, both of which I agree with!

The first, simple view, is really the above calculation.   Take the cash price of the ticket/stay, divide by the points, and arrive at a cents per point value, that can be very high.   So more extreme, if I can find an award flight with a cash price of $20,000 and I just need 200K points, that's a great 10cpp redemption, a must!

The other view asks "But would you pay $20K for that in the first place?" and argues that the "real" value is what you would be willing to pay in cash, and use that instead of the cash price.   That of course gives an individual valuation, I might be willing to pay more or less than you.   

And there is some merit in that.   If LTL Bank Reward Program (leading the industry since 2021) offers "A lightly crumpled blank sheet of A4 paper" for either $10,000 or just 500 Reward Points, well, that's a massive redemption value you would be kicking yourself to miss!  But for some reason our marketing department reports a smaller than expected response, perhaps people are still too stunned at the offer to be calling yet.

But against that, if you really DO want the first class international ticket (or the piece of the paper) your choices are limited to paying the cash price or using the points, you cannot (usually) say "This is what I think it is worth and so that is what I will pay"   From that view, the simple redemption value calculation reflects reality.

[K-in-Boston]

I like how you added "(usually)" specifically so I can't bring up Virgin Atlantic's bidding program for Premium and Upper Class seats.  Well played.