In full disclosure, I didn't get the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card until about halfway through my trip. Initially, I had the Chase Sapphire Reserve® but I was downgraded to preferred after a year because I wasn't using the premium features enough to justify the annual fee.
But both cards have similar functionality and work under the Chase Ultimate Rewards® ecosystem, so the features I'll explain below apply to both. However, for most travelers, I'd recommend starting with the Preferred: you get most of the same basic benefits, but with a much lower annual fee.
Here's why Chase travel cards are my favorite:
Chase Transfer Partners
Chase has 11 air transfer partners, including domestic and international airlines, as well as three hotels. transfer partners. Although Chase does not have the most transfer partners among the major credit card rewards programs (American Express, Chase, Capital One, and Citi), its set of partner airlines is broad enough that you can find decent award bookings in most parts of the world if you know how to search for them.
Chase really shines with one transfer partner in particular: The world of Hyatt, the Hyatt hotel loyalty program. Of the major credit card rewards programs listed above, Chase is the only one that can transfer to Hyatt. The Bilt World Elite Mastercard® also transfers to Hyatt, but this card is a bit more specialized and not part of any of the credit card ecosystems above. When you're trying to spend as few points as possible, Hyatt points are hands down the best way to get a good value on hotel redemptions. Awards evenings for Hyatt Category 1 properties start at 3,500 points per night. That's much lower than what you'll typically find with other major hotel loyalty programs (Hilton, Marriott, and IHG), even for rooms with similar cash prices.
There is a good selection of Category 1 hotels around the world and the hotels themselves are high quality and often sell for over $100 a night. Some of my favorites include the Story Hotel Studio Malmö and the Hotel Lindner Antwerp.
The Chase Travel℠ portal
For most credit card travel portals, your points have a fixed value when used to book travel through the portal, usually one cent. In cases where the portal value is the same as what you can get by redeeming your points for cash, there is no point if you plan to use points for booking. Simply book directly with the hotel or airline and refund yourself with cash back if you can't find a better use for the points.
THE Chase Travel Portal is different. Ultimate Rewards points are worth 1.5 cents each when redeemed through Chase for Reserve cardholders and 1.25 cents each for Preferred cardholders. Yes, that value is less than what you can get with a good award flight or award night redemption through a transfer partner, which is why some points and miles experts snub the portal. But as I mentioned previously, finding opportunities to effectively use transfer partners as a budget traveler can be difficult when cash alternatives are often cheaper.
The Chase Travel portal lets you access some of these low-cost options, primarily accommodations, that you can't book through a traditional loyalty program. I was able to book budget hostels and hotels through the portal and get a decent value for my points.
The Cash Back Option
Redeeming travel rewards points for cash back can seem like a waste to many travel rewards enthusiasts. But sometimes it's cheaper to book travel with cash and get reimbursed with cash back rather than trying to redeem your points through a portal or loyalty program. If I have to choose between redeeming 10,000 points for an award night at a hotel or $100 in cash back that I can spend on five nights at a $20 hostel, I will choose the option that allows me to travel longer, although pennies…the per point value of the latter is technically worse.
Chase makes this easy while still using points, offering both direct cash back and statement credits at a flat value of 1 cent per point. You can easily liquidate your points for cash at any time without any hurdles to jump through. Some other travel rewards programs offer terrible cash back redemption rates, like American Express® Gold Card (Conditions apply, see rates and fees), which lets you redeem for statement credits at 0.6 cents per point. Others only give you a decent rate when you redeem your points as statement credit for specific purchases, like Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card (rates and fees), which lets you redeem for a statement credit toward travel purchases at 1 cent per mile, but only gives 0.5 cents per mile for direct cash back.
Personally, I haven't yet redeemed my Ultimate Rewards points for cash back because I still have enough money to pay for my purchases outright and I prefer to keep my points in their original state for maximum flexibility. But if the day comes when I run out of money, my Chase points will be waiting for me.
