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I've read and heard Chase is reluctant to PC Slate to anything else. You certainly don't want to lose an account that age, though. It doesn't hurt to ask so I'd recommend he calls and asks if he can convert to Freedom. If they say no. I'd apply for something else and sock drawer the Slate and use it for either a small recurring charge like Netflix or something, or just a tank of gas every 3 or 4 months.
My experience w/Chase (and what they told me every time I asked) is that they don't PC. They said you have to app for the card you want and then (if/when approved), you can transfer the CL from your older card to the new one and close the old one.
I suppose you could always transfer the CL from the new card to the old one and cancel the new one, as well. Still you're looking at a new and closed CC on your CRA. I pointed that out to them and they just confirmed that it would report that way, but didn't seem concerned about the negative effect on my CR. That's just their policy.
Of course, on this forum, you'll always hear about an exception, so you never know. You could call and ask CS to PC, or threaten to close your acct if they won't PC, and see what happens. But that's what Chase told me.
PC is not that complicated. Just have him call chase and say that he'd like to do a product change to another card. Since you've been a long account holder, I doubt that you'll have a problem.