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I'm relatively new to the miles/points game. I have the CSP and a bit over 100,000 pts. Everyone is telling me that the best way to maximize your points is to transfer them to a chase partner airline or hotel vs cashing them in for a statement credit of what ever. Would love to hear on how some of you maximized on your chase ur points. Thanks.
I just booked a roundtrip ticket to Tokyo in business class by transferring the points to UA (flying on an Asiana A380). I was able to get 2.55¢/mile with my points using this method. If you cash out, they are only worth 1¢/mile.
A good site to check redemption rates is AwardHacker. This will tell you how many UR points are needed to travel and then you can look up the value of your points based on current ticket prices. Most of the value will come from using your points in the premium cabins. This is when you get the 2+cents per point redemption rate.
There are whole blogs and people who make a living answering your question - and I don't say that as a "go search" response but rather a it gets very complicated and can be overwhelming.
So, yes, for the MOST part, transferring to mileage partners is usually always going to be the best value. The time this wouldn't be the case is when transferring would give you a value that is less than 1.25 cents per point (because you can purchase travel through the Chase UR portal using your points valued at 1.25 cents per point). While I love Marriott and I have a lot of their points - I likely wouldn't ever transfer my UR points to Marriott because I typically can only get up to 1 cent of value per Marriott point and I can easily get better than that by transferring my UR points to an airline or Hyatt hotels.
Now that that is out of the way, and hopefully that made sense, you need to figure out #1 what do you want to use your points for and #2 you then want to attempt to maximize the value. Hyatt gives excellent value typically. For example - a couple of months back I needed a hotel in San Antonio - and the Grand Hyatt was availabe for 8,000 points. I checked out how much it would cost me if I paid cash and it would have been $259 plus taxes and fees - so likely around $285 or so. When I took $285 and divided it by 8,000 points I figured out I would get 3.56 cents per point - which I thought was an excellent value - and I booked the hotel.
For domestic flights - I've found Southwest is typically the cheapest and best - and I usually get 1.7 cents per point for those. As the above poster said, these points can be great for booking airfare internationally and if I did that I would be using them for business class as well - you get better bang for your points (though you will end up using more of your points) and the flight experience is much better vs economy.
Maximizing your points usually takes some work, as you have to search for award flights and in some cases to squeeze the most value out of your points you have to transfer them twice (i.e. transfer to one international airline then call that airline and have them transfer to another domestic airline that flies internationonally). I would highly recommend following The Points Guy - I get a lot of leads on cheap flights and booking award fares from him - but know that it will require a little bit of work and research from you if you want to get the best value.
@Anonymous wrote:I'm relatively new to the miles/points game. I have the CSP and a bit over 100,000 pts. Everyone is telling me that the best way to maximize your points is to transfer them to a chase partner airline or hotel vs cashing them in for a statement credit of what ever. Would love to hear on how some of you maximized on your chase ur points. Thanks.
I understand you are applying for a mortgage in 2018. Respect that. However if you did add the CSR to your colleciton assuming you were <5/24 or checked in branch for prequalified offer, after paying the $450 AF, you'd have 200k URs and $600 in travel. Those 100k urs you had before would not be worth 1500 through chase UR travel portal, and well, by adding the card you have doubled the balance. So really, taking one inquiry and $450, raises your total to $600 and $3k towards travel. Downgrade CSP to FU when AF htis. Downgrade CSR to CS, CSP, etc when its AF hits after you have maximized the travel. Or you basically pay another $150 to get another year to get the 1.5x value on your bonus.
Many credit unions consider a score of 700+ to meet the requirements for the best rates for mortgages. As long as you don't have a ton of cards with balances reporting or you have literally too many cards with tons of available credit that could pose a risk, really a mortgage in 2018 does not preclude you from the CSR.
For you, the best place would be www.reddit.comr/r/awardtravel let them know where you want to go and your point balances.
I choose to use my points in a few different ways. Mostly hoarding so that I can have experiences I wouldn't normally get to have, using them for free uber/train rides, and also free nights when they don't cost a lot of points. I always compare sales online, current promos with specific brands, etc. I am lucky to be able to do quite a bit of flying for free without using my points so if I don't always get the best redemption, I am ok with it in moderation. Besides who knows what devaluations might happen in the future?
If you are new, and have the CSP with 46k more points than what it came with, that means you have spent 23k on travel related expenses. Maybe you had URs before or from another card, but wow, had you spent that 23k with the CSR you would have netted another 23k points, so 69k total, worth 1035 towards travel, vs 575 on the CSP 46k.
Again this could be totally wrong if you had prior chase cards, but the above example shows how a basically $150 AF card those 3x categories are really 4.5x back redeemed on travel, vs CSP 2.5%. There are articles that explain which card makes sense to keep long term based on annual spend if you are curious, google it.
Anyone that is <5/24 that doesnt travel should still consider the card even. You just dont see bonuses like these often.
Back to the topic, I believe there is an option for the OP to transfer chase URs to mariott and get a companion pass (if that would be a benefit for them?) ? I discovered this from awardtravel when discussing my point balances. I realized I could exchange 150k amex MRs and 40k SPG points and end up with 7 nights at mariott, 120k sw points, and instant companion pass status. Kinda neat!
@Anonymous wrote:
Back to the topic, I believe there is an option for the OP to transfer chase URs to mariott and get a companion pass (if that would be a benefit for them?) ? I discovered this from awardtravel when discussing my point balances. I realized I could exchange 150k amex MRs and 40k SPG points and end up with 7 nights at mariott, 120k sw points, and instant companion pass status. Kinda neat!
I don't think so - at least from their end. You are able to do that because you have a lot of MR/SPG points which when converted to Marriott points triple - so your 90,000 MR/SPG points go to 270,000 Marriott points. That's the lowest amount of Marriott points needed to do the 7 night/120,000 Rapid Rewards points - which could then be used to get the companion pass.
It seems to me that if I was looking to do an awesome vacation I would be looking for a 100k Amex Platinum offer, hit the spend, move those points over to SPG, then move them to Marriott (for 300k Marriott points), then do the air+travel option which would get the companion pass.
@Anonymous wrote:I just booked a roundtrip ticket to Tokyo in business class by transferring the points to UA (flying on an Asiana A380). I was able to get 2.55¢/mile with my points using this method. If you cash out, they are only worth 1¢/mile.
A good site to check redemption rates is AwardHacker. This will tell you how many UR points are needed to travel and then you can look up the value of your points based on current ticket prices. Most of the value will come from using your points in the premium cabins. This is when you get the 2+cents per point redemption rate.
Ok I will check into this...thanks. I read articles from TPG when he comes out with his monthly redemption rates but it'll be good to have a source where I can check it on the fly.
@nachoslibres wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:Back to the topic, I believe there is an option for the OP to transfer chase URs to mariott and get a companion pass (if that would be a benefit for them?) ? I discovered this from awardtravel when discussing my point balances. I realized I could exchange 150k amex MRs and 40k SPG points and end up with 7 nights at mariott, 120k sw points, and instant companion pass status. Kinda neat!
I don't think so - at least from their end. You are able to do that because you have a lot of MR/SPG points which when converted to Marriott points triple - so your 90,000 MR/SPG points go to 270,000 Marriott points. That's the lowest amount of Marriott points needed to do the 7 night/120,000 Rapid Rewards points - which could then be used to get the companion pass.
It seems to me that if I was looking to do an awesome vacation I would be looking for a 100k Amex Platinum offer, hit the spend, move those points over to SPG, then move them to Marriott (for 300k Marriott points), then do the air+travel option which would get the companion pass.
100k amex MRs equals 33,333 SPG points. That equals 100k Mariott points, not 300k just fyi.
And also the lowest redemption is 250k where you only get 100k rapid rewards, not 120.at least what I have seen
@nachoslibres wrote:"There are whole blogs and people who make a living answering your question - and I don't say that as a "go search" response but rather a it gets very complicated and can be overwhelming."
Thanks for that. I always check the net first, but with that comes alot of information and its hard to depict which is accurate.
"I would highly recommend following The Points Guy - I get a lot of leads on cheap flights and booking award fares from him - but know that it will require a little bit of work and research from you if you want to get the best value."
I've been following him for a few days now, also millionmilesecrets. Am also using flyertalk when I can access it from work lol
@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:I'm relatively new to the miles/points game. I have the CSP and a bit over 100,000 pts. Everyone is telling me that the best way to maximize your points is to transfer them to a chase partner airline or hotel vs cashing them in for a statement credit of what ever. Would love to hear on how some of you maximized on your chase ur points. Thanks.
|"If you are new, and have the CSP with 46k more points than what it came with, that means you have spent 23k on travel related expenses. Maybe you had URs before or from another card, but wow, had you spent that 23k with the CSR you would have netted another 23k points, so 69k total, worth 1035 towards travel, vs 575 on the CSP 46k."
I've had the CSP since November 2014, and the only points given where the points that I achieved for meeting the spend amount. I have the chase slate but I do not earn any points with that. I'm considering the CSR, its an ongoing battle lol. I have two cards with chase, and I really dont want to have 3 with them. Maybe with the great success of the CSR Amex will step up their points for the plat card, which I really want.
@Anonymous wrote:
@nachoslibres wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:Back to the topic, I believe there is an option for the OP to transfer chase URs to mariott and get a companion pass (if that would be a benefit for them?) ? I discovered this from awardtravel when discussing my point balances. I realized I could exchange 150k amex MRs and 40k SPG points and end up with 7 nights at mariott, 120k sw points, and instant companion pass status. Kinda neat!
I don't think so - at least from their end. You are able to do that because you have a lot of MR/SPG points which when converted to Marriott points triple - so your 90,000 MR/SPG points go to 270,000 Marriott points. That's the lowest amount of Marriott points needed to do the 7 night/120,000 Rapid Rewards points - which could then be used to get the companion pass.
It seems to me that if I was looking to do an awesome vacation I would be looking for a 100k Amex Platinum offer, hit the spend, move those points over to SPG, then move them to Marriott (for 300k Marriott points), then do the air+travel option which would get the companion pass.
100k amex MRs equals 33,333 SPG points. That equals 100k Mariott points, not 300k just fyi.
And also the lowest redemption is 250k where you only get 100k rapid rewards, not 120.at least what I have seen
Ah, ok. You can tell I don't have any MR products. Sorry for the misquote on the transfer rate - what you are saying makes much more sense. And yes, you are correct, you can get it with 100k rapid rewards instead of 120k.