How To Use the Chase Travel Portal?
If you’ve ever been on a vacation, you know how quickly travel costs can add up. In the US, an average person spends nearly $2,000 per vacation, with costs varying depending on destinations and activities. But what if you could reduce those costs by saving on flights and hotels? With the Chase Travel portal, you can do just that.
The Chase Travel portal offers exclusive perks to the bank’s cardholders. In this article, we’ll explore the benefits of using this service and provide a step-by-step guide on how to maximize your savings for your next voyage.
What is Chase Travel?
The Chase Travel platform allows users to book hotels, flights, car rentals, cruises, tours, and other travel experiences online. It’s pretty straightforward, with no hidden fees or other complexities. Here’s how it works: when you book with Chase Travel and pay in cash, you earn bonus points that you can later use for booking. Alternatively, cardholders can transfer Ultimate Reward points to make the reservations directly. The service allows you to schedule your trips without worrying about blackout periods, capacity constraints, or airlines and hotel availability.
To access the Chase Travel portal, start by logging into your account on the Chase website or mobile app. Navigate to the “Ultimate Rewards” section, which you can find in the main menu or dashboard. From there, simply select “Travel” to enter the portal, where you can book flights, hotels, and more.
Alternatively, you can go directly to the official Chase Ultimate travel portal website and type in the credentials of your rewards-earning card. This will give you direct access to the portal, where you can purchase travel services using either points or your credit card.
Benefits of Booking through Chase Travel
Gain Points for Booking
Every Chase cardholder can earn reward points for making reservations via the portal. Moreover, these cards come with a great reward rate, but each one has a different level of available benefits. The best of them is the Chase Sapphire Reserve, which gets 10 points for every dollar spent on hotel reservations made through the portal. In contrast, reservations made through other channels will earn you only 3 points.
Even though other cards won’t bring you 10X points on trips and eating out, they still can be very helpful. For example, booking travel with the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card via the Ultimate Rewards Portal earns you 5 points per dollar, plus 3 points for each dollar spent on eating. Also, you’ll get $50 in statement credits for the nights booked with the portal.
Exchange Points with Chase Travel
When redeeming points for trips booked with Chase, some Ultimate Rewards cards are better than others, with the Ink Business Preferred Credit Card and the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card offering some of the best conversion rate (1.25 cents per bonus point). The Chase Sapphire Reserve is even better in this regard, offering 1.5 cents per point. This is a significant boost compared to the standard 1/1 rate you would receive if you opt for cashback.
This additional value—25% or even 50%—can translate into significant savings, especially if you’ve built up a substantial points balance from a welcome bonus or several large purchases. For example, when you earn 50,000 Sapphire Reserve points, you get $500 in cashback. But if you use these to travel with Chase’s portal at a 1.5 cents per point rate, you’ll receive $750 instead. This feature significantly increases the purchasing power of your points if you’re planning a trip.
How to Use the Chase Ultimate Travel Tool to Book Travel?
Purchasing Airfares
Booking flights via the Chase Travel portal has certain benefits and limitations. The platform is ideal if you don’t have the luxury of choosing your departure time, as it doesn’t have any blocked days or award availability limits. However, it’s important to compare the number of points required to book through the portal with that needed to book directly through an airline. Some low-cost airlines, such as Allegiant Air, Frontier Airlines, or Spirit Airlines, are not available on this portal, but Alaska, Southwest, Delta, JetBlue, American, and United flights are.
Booking through Chase Travel allows you to earn miles and elite flight credits. These tickets are classified as “paid” instead of “award flights” because a traveler uses points to purchase them instead of cash. However, you should consider taxes and fees and compare the amount of points and miles you’ll earn depending on how you book. The interface allows you to filter and sort tickets by various metrics like cost, provider, departure terminal, booking class, departure and arrival times, etc.
To book flights via the portal:
- Log in to your Chase account and navigate to the “Ultimate Rewards” section.
- Select the “Travel” option, then choose the “Flights” tab.
- Enter your travel details, such as departure city, destination, travel dates, and the number of passengers.
- After selecting your flight, follow the prompts to complete the booking.
Booking Hotels
If you don’t like staying at chain hotels or prefer brands like Hilton, Choice Hotels, or Wyndham, transferring Chase Ultimate Rewards travel points to the bank’s travel portal is your best friend. The good thing is having black dates and limitations on award nights won’t be a problem. However, note that you won’t gain any hotel points this way because providers treat the Chase platform as any other reservations agency.
Hyatt hotels may have better deals when you book directly, with a 1:1 points exchange ratio. Contrastingly, Marriott and IHG offer better deals through the Chase Travel portal. That’s why you should check the cost in points both on the portal and on the hotel’s website.
When searching for hotels on the Chase portal, you can filter the results by price, customer and star ratings, convenience, and location. Choose your hotel, press “Add to trip,” then complete your reservation by using either a Chase card or points.
Booking Auto Rentals, Cruises, and Other Vacation Experiences
To book a cruise, you need to contact Chase’s customer service. In other cases, the steps are basically the same as for booking flights and hotels.
If you book a car rental with Chase Sapphire, the travel portal allows you to use the card’s bonus rewards and still enjoy primary rental car insurance as an added benefit. Remember that you’ll have to decline the collision damage waiver offered by a rental company to get this coverage! Make sure to charge your card at least a dollar or two instead of using points to cover the entire booking price. This way, you’re technically “paying” with a card, which ensures you qualify for the card’s rental car insurance. The portal allows visitors to filter the search by daily pricing, size, vehicle type, brand, and automobile options.
To book a tour, click on the Travel option and select the category for Activities or Tours in your Chase account. Then, enter your destination and travel dates to browse available tours and activities. You can also pay with Chase points, credit cards, or both.
Conclusion
Is Chase Travel worth it? Well, the bank certainly has a lot to offer. It allows not just transferring points to travel partners but also earning them for bookings paid with cash. Having the right combination of points and credit cards can save you a lot of money for future trips, so stay attentive!
