You can get 60,000 Ultimate Rewards points with the Chase Ink Bold and the Chase Ink Plus after spending $5,000 within 3 months up to Saturday, June 22, 2013. The sign-up bonus reduces to 50,000 points after that, which is still a great deal.
Blog traffic is at an all time high because of this offer, and I’ve been getting lots of emails on how to use Ultimate Rewards points, so I though I’d share a few ways to use 65,000 Ultimate Rewards points.
You get 60,000 points from the sign-up bonus and 5,000 points from the $5,000 minimum spending requirement.
1. $650 CASH BACK
You can turn your 65,000 Ultimate Rewards Points into $650 cash back in the form of a statement credit.
Step 1 – Sign Into Ultimate RewardsSign into your your Ultimate Rewards account.
Click on “Pay Yourself Back” which is on the left side of the screen under “Use Points“
The Ultimate Rewards portal will automatically assume that you want cash back for your entire Ultimate Rewards balance. But you can change this to any amount you want, as long as it is at least 2,000 points or more.
2. $812 TRAVEL VIA ULTIMATE REWARDS PORTAL
Ultimate Rewards Points are worth 1.25 cents per point when you book travel via the Ultimate Rewards portal. This means that you will get $812 in travel with 65,000 Ultimate Rewards points.
Step 1 – Sign Into Ultimate RewardsSign into your your Ultimate Rewards account.
Click on “Flights, Hotels, or Car Rentals” under the Under the “Travel” drop down tab.
Let’s say that you want to go to the Chicago Seminars in October.
A roundtrip flight from Kansas City to Chicago would cost 17,424 points or $217. The advantage of using the Ultimate Rewards portal is that it can sometimes cost less than the 25,000 miles required on other airlines for a flight.
Another great advantage is that you can book any flight with Ultimate Rewards points. It would have been cheaper to use 9,000 Avios points to book the American Airlines flight below, but there was no availability on American Airlines.
But you can still book it with ~17,000 Ultimate Rewards points.
3. Transfer to HYATT
Link: Hyatt Award Chart
You can transfer Ultimate Rewards points to Hyatt in a 1:1 ratio, so you’ll get 65,000 Hyatt points.
65,000 Hyatt points is enough for almost 3 nights in a top category Hyatt hotel such as the Park Hyatt Sydney or the Park Hyatt Paris-Vendome, where Emily and I stayed for our honeymoon.
The Park Hyatt Paris-Vendome over Labor Day weekend starts at ~$750 a night with taxes! So 3 nights will cost $2,250.
But it is only 22,000 Hyatt points per night!
You don’t have to use your points at the top tier Hyatt hotels, but can save money by using them at other Hyatt hotels as well.
You could also stay 3 nights at the Andaz Napa or the Grand Hyatt Singapore (each for 18,000 Hyatt points per night) AND 2 nights at the Hyatt Place in Denver (5,000 points per night) and still have 1,000 points leftover.
Emily & I have used our Hyatt points to stay at the Hyatt Regency in London,
Another great use of Hyatt points is to pay the cash rate for a room, but to use only 6,000 Hyatt points to upgrade to a suite or 3,000 points to upgrade to a Club room with lounge access for up to 4 nights.
4. UNITED FLIGHTS
Link: United award chart
United is a transfer partner for Ultimate Rewards so you could redeem miles on United or a Star Alliance airline partner such as Lufthansa, Thai, Air Canada etc.
It is only 25,000 miles for a domestic round trip ticket and 12,500 miles for a coach one-way ticket on United Airlines. 65,000 Ultimate Rewards Points is enough for two round trip tickets and one one-way ticket in coach!
You’d only be 5,000 miles short of two round trip tickets to the Caribbean for 35,000 miles each in coach.
A one-way ticket in business class to Europe is only 50,000 United miles or ~60,000 miles to Asia. You can search for these at United.com
The same flight costs $2,000 to $3,000!
60,000 miles will also get you a roundtrip coach award ticket Europe.
You could also fly one-way to or from India for 40,000 miles in coach, 60,000 miles in business class, or 80,000 miles in first class.
Or you could fly roundtrip to Asia in coach for 65,000 miles.
5. SOUTHWEST
You can also transfer Ultimate Rewards to Southwest Airlines in a 1:1 ratio. Southwest Rapid Rewards points are worth 1.67 cents per point. 65,000 Rapid Rewards Points gets you ~$1,085 in flights (65,000 Points X 1.67 cents per point).
A roundtrip ticket from Kansas City to Chicago costs $329.
6. BRITISH AIRWAYS
You can also transfer points from Ultimate Rewards to British Airways in a 1:1 ratio. British Airways has a distance based award, and some of the best uses of British Airways Avios points is for short distance travel.
For example, it is only 4,500 Avios points for a 1-way coach award from Kansas City to Chicago using British Airways Avios points.
Another good use of Avios points is to redeem them for flights on American Airlines from the West Coast to Hawaii for 12,500 points in coach for a 1-way award.
British Airways charges high fuel surcharges for most awards, but you don’t pay high fuel surcharges when you use your Avios points:
- In the US, North America and South America
- On Air Berlin or Aer Lingus flights from the US to Europe
7. Priority Club
Priority Club hotels include Candlewood Suites, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Hotel Indigo, Intercontinental Hotels & Resorts, and Staybridge Suites brand hotels.Transferring Ultimate Rewards Points to Priority Club isn’t the best transfer ratio because you can get more value by booking the hotel directly via the Ultimate Rewards travel portal.
But it is worth it to transfer points to take advantage of the PointsBreak list when hotels only cost 5,000 points a night instead of 10,000 to 50,000 points.
bottom line
You can turn 65,000 Ultimate Rewards Points into at least $650 in cash or $812 in travel, but much more when you transfer them to airlines or hotel partners such as Southwest, United, or British Airways, or Hyatt.
The 60,000 point sign-up bonus on the Chase Ink Bold and the Chase Ink Plus ends on Saturday, June 22, 2013. But see this post on how to evaluate limited time sign-up offers for yourself!