Is Chase Ultimate Rewards worth using?
Collect it if
- You want one currency that covers hotels and Star Alliance flying without learning four programs.
- You can get under the 5/24 rule, which gates entry to the entire ecosystem.
- You want a defined cash floor underneath every point, which no airline mile has.
Look elsewhere if
- You need oneworld coverage. There is no American, no Cathay Pacific and no Qatar on this list.
- You were planning to wait for transfer bonuses to stretch a balance — Chase rarely runs them.
What is one Chase Ultimate Rewards point worth?
Short answer
1.9¢ in the Award Rate Q3 2026 model, the median of 14,820 sampled redemptions priced against the cash cost of the same booking on the same date. Half of those redemptions returned less than that figure. Nothing else in the category is close: Bilt Rewards, American Express Membership Rewards, Capital One Miles and Citi ThankYou Points — the other 4 major bank currencies we value — sit at a median of 1.75¢.
How the number is derived
The published Award Rate figure for Ultimate Rewards, the median of 14,820 sampled redemptions. Aeroplan business class and — for cardholders who still have it at 1:1 — World of Hyatt carry the median almost single-handedly. The Chase Travel floor, a fixed 1.25¢ or 1.5¢ per point depending on the card, is what caps it, because a large share of real redemptions happen there rather than through a transfer. The June 2026 cut of the Hyatt ratio to 4:3 on Preferred and Ink Preferred cards is not yet reflected in this figure: the sample predates it, and the model is revised on a published quarterly cycle rather than in reaction to a single announcement. Expect it to move at the next revision, and read the per-partner "one point becomes" column rather than this headline number if you hold a Preferred.
Chase Ultimate Rewards’s pricing mechanism
How does Chase Ultimate Rewards price an award?
What it means in practice
No award chart — priced through partners. There is no award chart here, because there are no awards here. A bank currency buys nothing directly; it becomes a partner’s currency and then prices at whatever that partner charges. So its value is not one mechanism but a weighted blend of every partner’s — plus the fixed-value floor the bank will always take the points back at, which is where a large share of real redemptions actually happen.
Read the pricing mechanism before the valuation, not after it. The valuation is a consequence of the mechanism rather than an independent fact about the program: a currency priced off the cash fare cannot beat the cash fare by much, however well you redeem, and a currency governed by a published table holds its value until the table changes.
How to earn Chase Ultimate Rewards points
Chase Ultimate Rewards is earned on credit card spend and nowhere else, which is the defining feature of a transferable currency: no flying and no stays are required to build a balance. Points from several cards in the same family generally pool into one account, so a no-annual-fee card can feed a balance that only becomes transferable through a premium one.
Cards that build a Chase Ultimate Rewards balance
These earn Chase Ultimate Rewards directly. Full terms for each are linked at the foot of this page.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Chase · Visa
- Welcome bonus
- 75,000 / $5K in 3 mo
- Annual fee
- $95
We are not compensated for this card. It is here because it earned its place.
Terms Apply$95 annual fee · 19.24% – 27.49% variable APR
See full rates & feesHide rates & fees
- Annual fee
- $95
- Purchase APR
- 19.24% – 27.49% variable
- Balance transfer APR
- 19.24% – 27.49% variable
- Balance transfer fee
- Either $5 or 5% of the amount of each transfer, whichever is greater.
- Foreign transaction fee
- None
- Cash advance APR
- 29.99% variable
- Cash advance fee
- Either $10 or 5% of the amount of each transaction, whichever is greater.
- Penalty APR
- Up to 29.99%. Applies if you make a late payment.
- Late payment fee
- Up to $40
- Returned payment fee
- Up to $40
- Minimum interest charge
- $0.50
Cards are issued by JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. Member FDIC. Offers, rates and terms are subject to change without notice.
Rates and fees reconciled against Chase’s published pricing and terms on . Issuers may change offers, rates and terms at any time without notice; confirm current terms on the issuer’s own page before you apply. Chase rates & terms
Chase · Visa
- Welcome bonus
- 20,000 / $500 in 3 mo
- Annual fee
- $0
We are not compensated for this card. It is here because it earned its place.
Terms ApplyNo annual fee · 18.24% – 27.74% variable APR
See full rates & feesHide rates & fees
- Annual fee
- $0
- Purchase APR
- 18.24% – 27.74% variable
- Intro purchase APR
- 0% for 15 months, then 18.24% – 27.74% variable
- Balance transfer APR
- 0% for 15 months, then 18.24% – 27.74% variable
- Balance transfer fee
- Intro fee of either $5 or 3% of the amount of each transfer, whichever is greater, on transfers made within 60 days of account opening. After that, either $5 or 5% of the amount of each transfer, whichever is greater. Chase notes this account may not be eligible for balance transfers.
- Balance transfer window
- Transfers must post within 60 days of account opening to receive the intro rate
- Foreign transaction fee
- 3%
- Cash advance APR
- 28.49% variable
- Cash advance fee
- Either $10 or 5% of the amount of each transaction, whichever is greater.
- Penalty APR
- Up to 29.99%. Applies if you fail to make a minimum payment by its due date or make a payment that is returned unpaid, and can remain in effect indefinitely. A minimum payment 60 days late also ends the introductory rate.
- Late payment fee
- Up to $40
- Returned payment fee
- Up to $40
Cards are issued by JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. Member FDIC. Offers, rates and terms are subject to change without notice.
Rates and fees reconciled against Chase’s published pricing and terms on . Issuers may change offers, rates and terms at any time without notice; confirm current terms on the issuer’s own page before you apply. Chase rates & terms · Chase card page
- Welcome bonus
- 100,000 / $6K in 3 mo
- Annual fee
- $795
We are not compensated for this card. It is here because it earned its place.
Terms Apply$795 annual fee · 19.49% – 27.99% variable APR
See full rates & feesHide rates & fees
- Annual fee
- $795
- Purchase APR
- 19.49% – 27.99% variable
- Balance transfer APR
- 19.49% – 27.99% variable
- Balance transfer fee
- Either $5 or 5% of the amount of each transfer, whichever is greater. Chase notes this account may not be eligible for balance transfers.
- Foreign transaction fee
- None
- Cash advance APR
- 28.49% variable
- Cash advance fee
- Either $10 or 5% of the amount of each transaction, whichever is greater.
- Penalty APR
- Up to 29.99%. Applies if you fail to make a minimum payment by its due date or make a payment that is returned unpaid, and can remain in effect indefinitely.
- Late payment fee
- Up to $40
- Returned payment fee
- Up to $40
- Authorized user fee
- $195 per card
Cards are issued by JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. Member FDIC. Offers, rates and terms are subject to change without notice.
Rates and fees reconciled against Chase’s published pricing and terms on . Issuers may change offers, rates and terms at any time without notice; confirm current terms on the issuer’s own page before you apply. Chase rates & terms · Chase card page
Chase Ultimate Rewards transfer partners
All 14 partners Chase Ultimate Rewards publishes — including the ones we tell readers not to use, because a partner list with its bad entries removed cannot be used to make a decision. Ranked by what one point is worth after the transfer rather than by the ratio, which is the only ordering that answers the question you are asking.
| Transfer timeTypical, not guaranteed | Sweet spot — what to actually book | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| World of Hyatt | 4:3fewer points out than inReduced from 1:1 on June 15, 2026. The 4:3 ratio applies immediately to Sapphire Preferred and Ink Business Preferred cardholders approved on or after that date, and from October 1, 2026 to everyone approved before it. Sapphire Reserve and Sapphire Reserve for Business keep 1:1. | Instant to 1 hour | 1.42¢Loses value−0.48¢ vs. keeping the points as Chase Ultimate Rewards | Category 1–4 standard rooms, where the fixed chart still means a 12,000-point night at a hotel selling for $400 during a conference. At 4:3 that night now costs 16,000 Chase points rather than 12,000, so the redemption survives the cut — it still returns roughly 1.42¢ per Chase point against the 1.0¢ Chase Travel floor, a real gain — but the margin is a third of what it was, so it now has to be justified by a specific booking rather than assumed, and anyone whose Chase strategy is mostly Hyatt should be holding a Sapphire Reserve instead, which kept the 1:1 ratio.Transfer bonuses: Chase has never run a transfer bonus to Hyatt. It has now run a devaluation instead: anyone who wants 1:1 from a Chase card needs a Sapphire Reserve. |
| Air Canada Aeroplan | 1:1 | Instant to 24 hours | 1.5¢Loses value−0.40¢ vs. keeping the points as Chase Ultimate Rewards | Star Alliance business class from North America to Europe, priced off Aeroplan’s published distance-and-region table, with a stopover added anywhere on a one-way for 5,000 points.Transfer bonuses: Occasional — Chase has run bonuses of 25–30% to Aeroplan roughly once a year since 2023. Not frequent enough to plan around. |
| Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer | 1:1 | 12–48 hours | 1.4¢Loses value−0.50¢ vs. keeping the points as Chase Ultimate Rewards | Saver awards in Singapore Suites and Singapore long-haul business class — seats the airline releases to its own members and almost never to Star Alliance partners.Transfer bonuses: Rare from Chase. Note that KrisFlyer miles carry a hard three-year expiry from the date they land, so speculative transfers here are riskier than anywhere else on this list. |
| Virgin Atlantic Flying Club | 1:1 | Instant | 1.4¢Loses value−0.50¢ vs. keeping the points as Chase Ultimate Rewards | ANA round-trip business class between the US and Japan, priced off a fixed partner table and unavailable through any other transferable currency at that rate.Transfer bonuses: Chase runs a Virgin Atlantic bonus of 25–30% roughly once a year; Amex and Citi bonus it more often. |
| British Airways Executive Club | 1:1 | Instant | 1.35¢Loses value−0.55¢ vs. keeping the points as Chase Ultimate Rewards | Short-haul American and Alaska segments priced by distance band — the cheapest way to buy a domestic hop with points. Avoid BA’s own long-haul metal, where surcharges swallow the value.Transfer bonuses: The most frequently bonused Chase partner: 25–50% bonuses to British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus have run roughly twice a year since 2023. |
| Iberia Plus | 1:1 | Instant to 24 hours | 1.35¢Loses value−0.55¢ vs. keeping the points as Chase Ultimate Rewards | Off-peak transatlantic business class on Iberia’s own metal between Madrid and the US East Coast, at a fraction of British Airways pricing on the same alliance and with far lower surcharges.Transfer bonuses: Bonused alongside British Airways and Aer Lingus in the periodic IAG promotions, typically 25–50%. |
| Southwest Rapid Rewards | 1:1 | Instant | 1.35¢Loses value−0.55¢ vs. keeping the points as Chase Ultimate Rewards | Any Southwest flight while you hold the Companion Pass — the companion flies for taxes only, so every transferred point effectively buys two seats.Transfer bonuses: Chase has never bonused Southwest. Points transferred in do not count toward Companion Pass qualification. |
| United MileagePlus | 1:1 | Instant | 1.35¢Loses value−0.55¢ vs. keeping the points as Chase Ultimate Rewards | Multi-city Star Alliance awards that trigger the Excursionist Perk, where a whole segment in a second region prices at zero miles. Partner business class to Europe also prices off a semi-fixed table rather than the cash fare.Transfer bonuses: Chase has never run a public transfer bonus to United. Assume 1:1 permanently. |
| Aer Lingus AerClub | 1:1 | Instant | 1.3¢Loses value−0.60¢ vs. keeping the points as Chase Ultimate Rewards | Off-peak transatlantic business class from Dublin to the US East Coast, which prices below BA for the same crossing and carries materially smaller surcharges.Transfer bonuses: Included in the periodic IAG (BA/Iberia/Aer Lingus) bonuses, 25–50%. |
| Air France-KLM Flying Blue | 1:1 | Instant to 24 hours | 1.3¢Loses value−0.60¢ vs. keeping the points as Chase Ultimate Rewards | The monthly Promo Rewards list, which discounts selected Air France and KLM routes by 25–50% in business class. Transfer only after you have confirmed the award prices at the promo level.Transfer bonuses: Occasional from Chase, typically 20–25%. Amex and Citi bonus Flying Blue far more often, so compare before you move Chase points. |
| JetBlue TrueBlue | 1:1 | Instant | 1.3¢Loses value−0.60¢ vs. keeping the points as Chase Ultimate Rewards | Mint transcontinental seats during ordinary (non-peak) pricing, when TrueBlue’s revenue-based formula happens to lag the cash fare. Check the cash price first; often it does not.Transfer bonuses: None from Chase. |
| Emirates Skywards | 1:1 | Instant to 24 hours | 1.1¢Loses value−0.80¢ vs. keeping the points as Chase Ultimate Rewards | Emirates first class on routes departing Asia, where the carrier surcharge is a fraction of what it is out of the US or Europe. Everywhere else the surcharge makes this a poor transfer.Transfer bonuses: Occasional, typically 20–30%, and usually timed to an Emirates route launch. |
| Marriott Bonvoy | 1:1 | 24–48 hours | 0.7¢Loses value−1.20¢ vs. keeping the points as Chase Ultimate Rewards | There isn’t one worth naming. A 1.9¢ point becoming a 0.7¢ point destroys nearly two-thirds of the value; use it only to complete a Bonvoy balance you are a few thousand points short on.Transfer bonuses: Chase has run occasional Bonvoy bonuses of 25–30%. Even at 30% the transfer loses money against our valuations. |
| IHG One Rewards | 1:1 | 24 hours | 0.6¢Loses value−1.30¢ vs. keeping the points as Chase Ultimate Rewards | A four-night InterContinental stay for a Premier cardholder, where the fourth night is free — that discount is the only thing that makes a 1.9¢-to-0.6¢ conversion defensible, and only when the cash rate is unusually high.Transfer bonuses: Rare. IHG runs its own points sales near 0.5¢, which is usually a better way to top up than transferring. |
Transfers are one-way and permanent. No bank has ever reversed one. Confirm the ratio on Chase Ultimate Rewards’s own transfer page and find award space in the partner’s program before you move a single point — a transfer made against space that turns out not to exist cannot be undone. Points do not expire while you hold at least one open Ultimate Rewards-earning account in good standing. Closing your last such account forfeits the balance immediately, so transfer out before you close a Sapphire or Ink card. Points are also forfeited if Chase closes the account for cause, and they cannot be inherited or transferred to another person’s account except to a household member of the same address.
The redemptions that make Chase Ultimate Rewards worth collecting
A currency is worth collecting because of specific redemptions, not because of an average. These are the ones that justify Chase Ultimate Rewards, ranked by what one transferred point is worth when it lands.
Chase Ultimate Rewards Air Canada Aeroplan
Star Alliance business class from North America to Europe, priced off Aeroplan’s published distance-and-region table, with a stopover added anywhere on a one-way for 5,000 points.
Chase Ultimate Rewards World of Hyatt
Category 1–4 standard rooms, where the fixed chart still means a 12,000-point night at a hotel selling for $400 during a conference. At 4:3 that night now costs 16,000 Chase points rather than 12,000, so the redemption survives the cut — it still returns roughly 1.42¢ per Chase point against the 1.0¢ Chase Travel floor, a real gain — but the margin is a third of what it was, so it now has to be justified by a specific booking rather than assumed, and anyone whose Chase strategy is mostly Hyatt should be holding a Sapphire Reserve instead, which kept the 1:1 ratio.
Chase Ultimate Rewards Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
ANA round-trip business class between the US and Japan, priced off a fixed partner table and unavailable through any other transferable currency at that rate.
Chase Ultimate Rewards Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
Saver awards in Singapore Suites and Singapore long-haul business class — seats the airline releases to its own members and almost never to Star Alliance partners.
Chase Ultimate Rewards United MileagePlus
Multi-city Star Alliance awards that trigger the Excursionist Perk, where a whole segment in a second region prices at zero miles. Partner business class to Europe also prices off a semi-fixed table rather than the cash fare.
Chase Ultimate Rewards British Airways Executive Club
Short-haul American and Alaska segments priced by distance band — the cheapest way to buy a domestic hop with points. Avoid BA’s own long-haul metal, where surcharges swallow the value.
Chase Ultimate Rewards Iberia Plus
Off-peak transatlantic business class on Iberia’s own metal between Madrid and the US East Coast, at a fraction of British Airways pricing on the same alliance and with far lower surcharges.
Chase Ultimate Rewards Southwest Rapid Rewards
Any Southwest flight while you hold the Companion Pass — the companion flies for taxes only, so every transferred point effectively buys two seats.
What Chase Ultimate Rewards does well, and what it does badly
The weaknesses below are the reason the strengths are worth believing. Every one of them is something we have watched cost a reader money or a booking.
What Chase Ultimate Rewards does well
- World of Hyatt is still the only major hotel currency governed by a published award chart, and Chase is the only bank that reaches it — at 1:1 from a Sapphire Reserve, at 4:3 from a Sapphire Preferred or Ink Preferred since June 2026.
- Transfers post in 1,000-point increments and are instant to most partners, so you can move exactly what an award costs rather than over-transferring and stranding a balance.
- The Chase Travel floor — a fixed 1.25¢ or 1.5¢ per point depending on which card you hold — means the currency has a defined cash value that no airline mile can claim, and it applies to any flight or hotel that is for sale.
- Points earned on a no-annual-fee Freedom card become fully transferable the moment they are combined into a Sapphire or Ink account, so the earning side of the ecosystem costs nothing.
- Chase’s partner list is short but has almost no dead weight: eleven of the fourteen partners have a redemption worth naming.
What Chase Ultimate Rewards does badly
- Fourteen partners is the shortest list of the major bank currencies, and oneworld coverage is limited to the three Avios programs — there is no American AAdvantage, no Cathay Pacific, no Qatar.
- Transfer bonuses are rare and small compared with Amex. You cannot plan a redemption around getting 30% more points, because most months there is nothing on offer.
- A transferable balance requires an open annual-fee Sapphire or Ink card. Close it and the points revert to cash-back value or, if you have no other Ultimate Rewards card, disappear.
- Transfers are irreversible and Chase will not reverse a mistaken transfer under any circumstances — not to the wrong program, not to the wrong account, not within the same hour.
- The 5/24 rule gates entry to the entire ecosystem for anyone who has opened five or more personal cards in the past 24 months, regardless of issuer.
- Hyatt, the partner that made this currency worth collecting, is now tiered by card: 1:1 on Sapphire Reserve, 4:3 on Sapphire Preferred and Ink Preferred. A ratio that depends on which Chase card you hold is a ratio that can be cut again.
Do Chase Ultimate Rewards points expire?
Policy in full
Points do not expire while you hold at least one open Ultimate Rewards-earning account in good standing. Closing your last such account forfeits the balance immediately, so transfer out before you close a Sapphire or Ink card. Points are also forfeited if Chase closes the account for cause, and they cannot be inherited or transferred to another person’s account except to a household member of the same address.
Expiration policy is the fact most worth checking before you build a balance and the one most often stated loosely elsewhere. An inactivity clock that any qualifying activity resets is a mild inconvenience; a hard deadline that runs from the day the points land is a different kind of risk entirely, and it changes whether a speculative transfer into this program is defensible at all.
Policy above verified against the program’s own terms on . If it has changed since, tell us and we will log the correction.
Frequently asked questions
How much is one Chase Ultimate Rewards point worth?
1.9¢ in the Award Rate Q3 2026 model. That is the median, not the maximum — half of the redemptions behind it returned less. The published Award Rate figure for Ultimate Rewards, the median of 14,820 sampled redemptions. Aeroplan business class and — for cardholders who still have it at 1:1 — World of Hyatt carry the median almost single-handedly. The Chase Travel floor, a fixed 1.25¢ or 1.5¢ per point depending on the card, is what caps it, because a large share of real redemptions happen there rather than through a transfer. The June 2026 cut of the Hyatt ratio to 4:3 on Preferred and Ink Preferred cards is not yet reflected in this figure: the sample predates it, and the model is revised on a published quarterly cycle rather than in reaction to a single announcement. Expect it to move at the next revision, and read the per-partner "one point becomes" column rather than this headline number if you hold a Preferred.Is Chase Ultimate Rewards better than Bilt Rewards, American Express Membership Rewards, Capital One Miles and Citi ThankYou Points?
On value per point, yes, and by a margin: 1.9¢ against 1.75¢, the median of those other 4 bank currencies. Every currency we value, side by side.Which programs can I transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards to?
Chase Ultimate Rewards publishes 14 transfer partners. The ones worth using are World of Hyatt, Air Canada Aeroplan, United MileagePlus; the full list, with ratios, transfer times and what one point is worth after each conversion, is in the table on this page.What is the biggest mistake people make with Chase Ultimate Rewards?
Redeeming through the travel portal by default and never learning the transfer side at all. It is the failure mode we see most often, and in a program with dynamic pricing there is no chart to fall back on when it goes wrong.