Before you do anything with your Chase Ultimate Reward Points, please read all the steps to see if it is worth it for you. Assuming you have Chase Ultimate Reward Points, I will show you how you can transfer them to other non-transfer partners. First things first, you need to log into your Chase Ultimate Rewards account.
Then click the Point Transfer tab.
Here are all the current Chase Ultimate Reward Transfer Partners. I will show you how you can transfer points to other partners not on the list.
The Amtrak and Points.com Approach
Click Amtrak Guest Rewards.
Start by transferring 1,000 Chase Ultimate Reward Points to your Amtrak Guest Rewards account.
Verify your account details and click Transfer Points.
Congratulations, your 1,000 Chase Ultimate Reward Points are now 1,000 Amtrak Guest Reward points.
You will get an email from Chase that says the transfer was successfully completed.
If you log into your Amtrak account, you will see 1,000 points in your account.
Now, go over to Points.com (sign up link) and add your Amtrak account to your Points.com account. You will see Amtrak Guest Rewards with a 1,000 point balance.
Click the Trade, Exchange & Buy tab at the top of the page, click the circle to move out of a program, select Amtrak Guest Rewards, type 1000, and click search now.
Skip this section. You do not want to pay money to trade points with other people.
Here is where you will see all the free exchanges you can make between your frequent flyer programs and other loyalty programs. As you can see, the exchanges are not very good.
More possible exchanges.
… and more possible exchanges.
Points.com and Amtrak will not let you move less than 1000 points at a single time.
This is what 1000 Amtrak points will get you:
| 1000 | Amtrak |
| 296 | Delta |
| 593 | Hawaii |
| 296 | JetBlue |
| 329 | United |
| 425 | Aeroplan |
| 637 | Asia Miles |
| 395 | Life Miles |
| 348 | Frontier |
| 425 | Iceland |
| 637 | IHG |
An Alternate Approach through Hyatt
We are going to start at the beginning again, but this time, we will transfer Chase Ultimate Reward Points to Hyatt instead.
Continue with all the usual steps and head over to your Hyatt account after you have made the transfer. Click the Hyatt Gold Passport tab in the upper right corner.
Then click Convert Points to Miles.
Here is where you can convert your Hyatt Gold Passport Points to frequent flyer miles in a wide range of domestic and international airlines. It takes 2.5 Hyatt Gold Passport Points to create 1 frequent flyer mile, with a minimum conversion of 5,000 Hyatt Gold Passport Points.
5,000 Hyatt Gold Passport Points / 2.5 points/mile = 2,000 frequent flyer miles. At the bottom of the page, there are a few exceptions where you will get more than 2,000 frequent flyer miles for each transaction. If you want the absolute best transfer ratio, you can convert 50,000 Hyatt Gold Passport Points into 25,000 frequent flyer miles.
The table below shows how much 5,000 Hyatt Gold Passport Points would get you for all of their frequent flyer mile partners. I then divided that number by 5 to show how much 1,000 Hyatt Gold Passport Points would be. Lastly, I compared the number of frequent flyer miles created by this transfer with the Amtrak / Points.com transfers above.
The dark gray boxes represents Chase Ultimate Reward Partners. You are better off transferring Chase Ultimate Reward Points directly into those partner accounts.
| Hyatt | 5000 Hyatt Pts | 1000 Hyatt Pts | Amtrak |
| Aeromexico | 4000 | 800 | |
| Air China | 3200 | 640 | |
| Air France/KLM | 2000 | 400 | |
| All Nippon | 2000 | 400 | |
| American | 2000 | 400 | |
| Amtrak | 2000 | 400 | Chase Partner |
| Asia Miles | 2000 | 400 | 637 |
| Asiana | 2000 | 400 | |
| British Airways | 2000 | 400 | Chase Partner |
| China Airways | 2000 | 400 | |
| China Eastern | 2000 | 400 | |
| Delta Air Lines | 2000 | 400 | 296 |
| Emirates | 2000 | 400 | |
| Etihad | 2000 | 400 | |
| Hawaiian | 2000 | 400 | 593 |
| Japan | 2000 | 400 | |
| Jet | 2000 | 400 | |
| Korean Air | 2000 | 400 | |
| LanChile | 4000 | 800 | |
| Lufthansa | 2000 | 400 | |
| Qantas | 2400 | 480 | |
| Qatar | 2000 | 400 | |
| Royal Brunei | 2000 | 400 | |
| Singapore | 2000 | 400 | |
| South African | 2000 | 400 | |
| Southwest | 2400 | 480 | Chase Partner |
| Thai Internation | 2000 | 400 | |
| United | 2000 | 400 | Chase Partner |
| Virgin Atlantic | 3000 | 600 | Chase Partner |
Is it worth it?
If you are starting at 0, then you would be losing a lot of value by transferring Chase Ultimate Reward Points around, but if you are close to being able to redeem for an award (say, a few hundred or thousand miles short), then it would probably be worth it to you. If you have any questions, please leave a comment below.
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It’s useful to see the Amtrak vs Hyatt comparison, esp to see when Hyatt wins by default.
Would be even more useful if you also showed it against 1k direct transfers from SPG. For example, I know JL is a partner of SPG, but some other guys might not be, therefore Chase via a Hyatt intermediary might be one of the only options.
Good idea Ed, I will do some research on that. Thanks for the suggestion.
how long does this take to complete? I want to buy tickets tonight.
If you go through Points.com, it will take a few days. SPG transfers might be instant.
Does this short cut from UR to Delta points still work? If so, this is a game changer!
I’m not sure, I haven’t tested this method in a few months.
It should still work. Just check yours Points.com account and see how much 1,000 Amtrak points can get you.
What about booking a hotel stay with UR points via travel portal OR transfer to Hyatt and then book a hotel…which is a better use/value?
It depends. You will earn stay/night credit if you book through UR Mall. But it might cost more than using Hyatt Points. Can you give me an example of price vs. Hyatt points?
Hello Grant,
I like your posts. They are detailed and to the point. And one thing that distinguishes you from most other travel bloggers is that you bother to answer reader questions. I came here and read your other posts because Cathay is the only airline that would allow four/five stopovers, which I have. Any insight you can share would be most appreciated.
Here’s the desired routing: SIN-LHR, LHR-YYZ, YYZ-DSM, DSM-BHM, BHM-SFO, SFO-SIN.
I count four stopover cities: LHR, YYZ, DSM, BHM, and SFO with one of them being the “destination”.
I have a little under 200k SPG points, and almost zero Citi points. Some UR points. I have some United points but that’s a moot point because they don’t allow that many stopovers, which is critical for this trip. How can I maximize my transfers to Asia Miles?
Also, which OneWorld partner do you suggest I use to book this trip in a way that would minimize miles spent and fuel surcharges?
Many thanks in advance!
Good morning, I’ve never booked a Cathay Pacific flight but I have some suggestions. You best bet would be to call Cathay Pacific and ask if the routing you want is legal. Then ask how many miles would be required per person. Then ask if they can hold the award for you while you transfer points into Asia Miles. I believe SPG transfers to Asia Miles. Move 20k SPG into 25k Asia Miles. Therefore you should have 250k Asia Miles if necessary.
Each One World alliance airline may have their own rules when booking Cathay Pacific flights. Each may allow a certain number of stops and charge a different number of miles per person. I would talk to American Airlines and Alaska Airlines and see what is possible. Good luck!
Thanks so very much for this informative reply, Grant. I will take your advice and work the phone lines.
It will be a bit of work to get all the answers you need but it will be worth it.
As always, the extra work always is worth it. Thanks for your encouragement, Grant.