Tag Archives: Chase Ultimate Rewards Points

a red arrow pointing to the right

Should I Convert my Chase Freedom to a Chase Sapphire Reserve Credit Card?

Good morning everyone, I hope your week is going well.  I am struggling to make a decision regarding the Chase Sapphire Reserve Credit Card.  I really want the credit card and sign up bonus, but due to the Chase 5/24 rule, I am not getting any new Chase credit cards anytime soon.  I also have a few Chase business cards that I don’t use much.  Should I convert my Chase Freedom Credit Card to a Chase Sapphire Reserve Credit Card?  Here are the facts in my situation:

  • I am way over the Chase 5/24 rule, so I am not getting a new Chase credit card anytime soon
  • I am not a Chase Private Client and have not been pre-approved for the Chase Sapphire Reserve or Chase Ink Preferred
  • I currently have a Chase Freedom, Chase Ink Cash, and Chase Ink Plus
  • I do not have a Chase Sapphire Preferred or Chase Freedom Unlimited
  • I do not max out my Chase Ink Cash or Chase Ink Plus 5x categories
  • I do not max out my Chase Freedom 5% rotating cash back categories
  • My Chase Ink Plus annual fee is due in March 2017
  • You can only convert a Chase Freedom, Chase Freedom Unlimited, Chase Sapphire, or Chase Sapphire Preferred to a Chase Sapphire Reserve.
  • You need to have a credit line of at least $10,000 to be approved for the conversion (my Chase Freedom has a $25,000 credit line).

Continue reading

a logo of a company

How to Transfer/Combine Hyatt Gold Passport Points to Another Account

Good morning everyone, greetings from Orange County, home of the Frequent Traveler University this weekend.  A few days ago, a friend of mine needed 12,000 Hyatt Gold Passport Points to book an award, so I transferred some points from my account to his account.  In this post, I will show you the process for combining or transferring points.  You can only transfer or receive points once every 30 days.  The process is old school and involves printing out the following form (Hyatt form, my mirror), filling in your account info, your transfer partner’s account info, how many points you want to transfer, getting 2 signatures, and then emailing goldpassport@hyatt.com (just print out the form, take a picture of the completed form, and send it to the email address).

hyatt-combine-points-form

Continue reading

a blue credit card with white text

3 Ways to Calculate Progress Toward Chase Freedom Q3 Restaurant Spend

Good morning everyone, I hope your week is off to a great start.  If you are anything like me, you eat out a lot.  Luckily, the Chase Freedom Credit Card is rewarding my love of eating out this quarter by offering 5% cash back on all restaurant purchases.  Unfortunately, some restaurants, fast food places, and online orders (using ApplePay in-app) do not code as restaurants.  So how do you know how much you have spent on restaurants in Q3?  In this post, I will show you 3 different ways.  Use the way the works best for you.

The first approach is the old school way.  Log into your Chase online account, go to your Chase Freedom Credit Card account and click the Search Transactions link.

Chase Freedom Account

Continue reading

a logo with blue dots

Using Points.com to Exchange JetBlue TrueBlue Miles into Amtrak Guest Reward Points

Good morning everyone.  In today’s super long/boring post, I will show you how to use Points.com to exchange miles/points from one loyalty program into another loyalty program.  Before I go on, let me explain that Points.com is somewhat similar to Award Wallet because you can add loyalty programs to your account and track their balances.  You may be familiar with Points.com if you have ever looked into buying airline miles or hotel points, since Points.com is the broker for most loyalty programs.  I am not going to talk about buying miles/points today.  Instead, I am going to talk about exchanging miles/points from one loyalty program into another loyalty program.  First things first, you need a free Points.com account and you will need to add your loaylty programs.  Here are a few of my accounts that are currently tracked by Points.com.

Continue reading

a blue credit card with white text

Chase Freedom 10% Cash Back for Hotel & Rental Car Bookings (Actually a Good Deal!)

Good morning everyone, happy Sunday!  First off, I wanted to thank everyone who showed up at my OC Travel Hackers meetup yesterday afternoon, it was great to see so many familiar faces and meet some new travel hackers in the area.  I will be back in Orange County in late August, so I will plan another meetup then.

If you have a Chase Freedom Credit Card (maybe the Chase Freedom Unlimited Credit Card is included too, I’m not sure), you might have received the below email from Chase about a hotel and rental car offer where you can earn 10% cash back on all hotel and rental car bookings made in July.  This offer might be targeted, so if you did not receive this email, I am not sure if you will earn the bonus.  Normally I would ignore this email since I can find great rental car deals on my own, but in this case, Chase actually had the best rental car prices I could find.

Chase Freedom Hotel Car Rental 10 Percent Email

Continue reading