Tag Archives: Chase Ultimate Rewards Points

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Award Wallet Feature I Wish Existed: Keep Checking for Account Balance Changes

Good afternoon everyone.  I dreamed this up a few days ago and thought it was worth sharing to see if anyone else would find this feature useful.  If you guys like this idea, I will share it with my friends Howie and Alexi at Award Wallet (sign up for your free Award Wallet account here).  Here is an example use case:  I needed to book a Singapore Airlines (SQ) award ticket for travel on United Airlines (UA).  I needed 35,000 SQ miles, but only had 744 SQ miles in my account.  Luckily, I have plenty of transferable point currencies, so I decided to transfer 25,000 Citi Thank You Points and 10,000 American Express Membership Reward Points to my Singapore Airlines account.  As I wrote in July 2015, transfer times from Chase UR, Citi TYP, AMEX MR, and SPG to SQ are not instant – most take ~24 hours to complete.

With that said, I made the transfers from Citi Thank You Points and American Express Membership Reward Points and then occasionally checked Award Wallet to see if the SQ miles posted.  Insert cheesy infomercial “THERE HAS GOT TO BE A BETTER WAY!”  Here is what the process currently looks like:

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Purchase IHG Points Before November 3 to Earn a 100% Bonus

IHG is at it again! These kinds of double your points purchased, or 100% more points, are the best possible deals. I’m a new Chase IHG Rewards Club Credit Card holder, so these kinds of sales definitely get my attention. A 100% bonus on at least 5,000 points purchased… yes, thank you! You’ll recall that I got matched to the better Chase IHG Rewards Club Credit Card offer when I sent Chase a Secure Message (SM), and then got some great ideas from you all about which IHG properties to use my points at. I’m done meeting my minimum spending on that credit card. Between those points and flash sales on IHG points like this one, I’m all set to make next year an IHG one!

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Keep, Cancel or Convert? Chase Sapphire Reserve ($450 Annual Fee) & JPMorgan Chase Ritz Carlton ($450 Annual Fee)

Good morning everyone, I have a dilemma on my hands.  The $450 annual fee is posting in the next 2 months on my JPMorgan Chase Ritz Carlton Credit Card and I need to decide if I should keep both my Chase Sapphire Reserve Credit Card and JPMorgan Chase Ritz Carlton Credit Card.  Both credit cards have $450 annual fees and I don’t *need* both credit cards, but what should I do?  As a reminder, I recently converted my Chase Freedom into a Chase Sapphire Reserve, but I have had my JPMorgan Chase Ritz Carlton Credit Card for almost 3 years (I applied for this credit card when the sign up bonus was 140,000 Marriott Points).  I will walk through all the perks for both credit cards and see if I have a clear answer by the end of this post.

Contender 1: Chase Sapphire Reserve Credit Card

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Find the Perfect Routing for your Next Award Flight

Do you have all the time in the world to keep track of all the airlines, the alliances, which airlines are adding flights and routes, and which routes are being canceled? I certainly don’t. I was reminded of this a few weeks ago when United announced its new non-stops to Europe for Summer 2018. Sure, these are seasonal routes, but still, for those of us who work hard accumulating miles and points, this is exactly the kind of knowledge we need to book those award tickets, and book them early. Knowing when award charts open, and seasonal route award seats are bookable, is just not something I’m good about keeping track of. In addition to United’s new Summer routes, United also started daily service between LAX and Singapore and between New York and Buenos Aires. See what I mean? That’s a lot of news to follow. And that’s just United.

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Redeem Chase Ultimate Rewards Points for 1.5 Cents Per Point with Chase Sapphire Reserve Credit Card

Good morning everyone, I hope you all had a great weekend.  I am very late to the Chase Sapphire Reserve Credit Card party, but I finally have that credit card after I Converted my Chase Freedom to a Chase Sapphire Reserve.  I’ve been sitting on a bunch of Chase Ultimate Rewards Points and finally had my first opportunity to book a trip using my Chase Ultimate Rewards Points.  To redeem your Chase Ultimate Rewards Points for 1.5 cents per point (CPP), log into your Chase online account and click the Go to Ultimate Rewards box.

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