How to Book Flights Through Chase Travel℠

Chase is one of the most popular credit card issuers in the United States, with popular travel-focused credit card offerings such as the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and the Chase Sapphire Reserve®. These cards (and many others issued by Chase) earn Chase Ultimate Rewards points for eligible spending. And these points can be redeemed in a variety of ways, including cash back, dining purchases through the Chase Dining program, gift cards, purchases through Amazon or PayPal, statement credits for past purchases with the Pay Yourself Back feature and more.

One of the ways to redeem Chase points is to purchase flights through the Chase Travel℠ portal. This portal allows Chase cardmembers to redeem points for flights at favorable rates and also earn points for purchasing flights with cash.

In this article, we’re going to look at everything you need to know about booking flights through the Chase Travel℠ portal, including how it works, some of the benefits and some of its disadvantages.

What Is the Chase Travel℠ Portal?

The Chase Travel℠ portal is an online travel booking portal that’s only available to certain Chase cardholders. Through this portal, Chase members can earn Chase points for making eligible travel purchases, including hotels, flights, activities, rental cars, cruises and tours. Chase members can also redeem Chase points that they have in their account for all of the same types of travel purchases.

For the sake of this article, we’ll only be focusing on booking flights through the Chase Travel℠ portal. However, booking other types of travel through this portal can also be a good option.

Who Can Access the Chase Travel℠ Portal?

In order to access the Chase Travel℠ portal, you’ll need to have a Chase credit card that earns Chase Ultimate Rewards points. This includes Chase cashback cards (which earn cash back in the form of Chase Ultimate Rewards points, which can be redeemed for cash back, statement credits, purchases through certain online retailers, Chase Travel℠ purchases and more).

Here are a some examples of Chase credit cards that include access to the Chase Travel℠ portal:

Chase co-branded cards, such as the Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Signature Card or the Southwest Rapid Rewards® Plus Credit Card don’t offer access to the Chase Travel℠ portal.

How Much Are Chase Ultimate Rewards Points Worth Through the Chase Travel℠ Portal?

The amount of value you’ll get by redeeming Chase points for flights through the Chase Travel℠ portal depends on which Chase card you have in your wallet.

If you have the Chase Sapphire Reserve ($550 annual fee), your points will be worth 1.5 cents apiece when redeemed for travel through the Chase Travel℠ portal. For example, if you wanted to purchase a flight that cost $1,000 through Chase Travel℠, and you had the Sapphire Reserve, you’d need to redeem 66,667 points.

If you have the Chase Sapphire Preferred or the Ink Business Preferred, your points will be worth 1.25 cents apiece when redeemed for travel through the Chase Travel℠ portal. For instance, if you wanted to purchase a flight that cost $1,000 through Chase Travel℠, and you had the Sapphire Preferred or Ink Business Preferred, you’d need to redeem 80,000 points.

With any other Chase card, your points will be worth 1 cent apiece when redeemed for travel through the Chase Travel℠ portal. So, if you wanted to purchase a $1,000 flight through Chase Travel℠ and you didn’t have either the Sapphire Preferred, Ink Business Preferred or Sapphire Reserve, you’d need to redeem 100,000 points.

So, Chase points are potentially worth more than any other credit card points when used to book flights through its native travel portal. By comparison, Amex points, Capital One miles and Citi points are all worth 1 cent apiece when redeemed through their respective travel portals. Bilt points are worth 1.25 cents apiece when redeemed through the Bilt Rewards Travel portal.

It’s also worth mentioning that if you have multiple Chase credit cards, you can transfer points between accounts before redeeming them. So, for example, if you had the Chase Freedom Flex and the Chase Sapphire Preferred, you can transfer any points earned from the Freedom Flex to your Sapphire Preferred account, and those points will be worth 1.25 cents when redeemed through the Chase Travel℠ portal.

How to Book Flights Through the Chase Travel℠ Portal

In order to book flights through the Chase Travel℠ portal, either with cash or with points, you’ll need to go to chase.com and click on the “Travel” tab. Then, you’ll need to sign in with your Chase account credentials.

Once you’ve signed in, you’ll need to select “Flights” as the type of travel you’d like to search for. Then, you can enter the type of trip you want to take (one-way, round-trip or multi-city), your preferred cabin class (economy, premium economy, business or first), the number of travelers, your travel dates and your departure and arrival airports.

Once you search, you’ll be presented with a list of flights that match your search query as well as their prices in cash. If you click on the “See fare details” button for each flight, you can see the baggage allowance, refundability and changeability of fare class.

Once you’ve selected the flight that you want to book, you’ll be redirected to a page where you’ll have the option to upgrade your flight to a higher fare class. If you want to stick with the fare class that you originally selected, you can simply click the “Next” button.

On the next page, you’ll be asked whether you want to use your Chase Ultimate Rewards points to pay for your flight. You can use points to pay for the entire cost of your flight or only a portion of your flight. There is no minimum or maximum to the number of points that you apply to the price of your flight.

Once again, the value of a Chase Ultimate Rewards point when redeemed for a flight through Chase Travel℠ depends on which Chase credit cards you have. If you have the Sapphire Reserve, 1.5 cents will be subtracted from the price of your flight for each point you apply. If you have the Sapphire Preferred or Ink Business, 1.25 cents will be subtracted from the flight price for each point applied. And, if you have any other Chase credit card, 1 cent will be deducted for each point applied.

Of course, you can also choose to pay for your flight entirely with cash.

As you can see, on this page, you’ll have the option of adding a hotel stay, transportation or an activity to your itinerary.

Once you continue to the next page, you’ll be asked to enter your payment information as well as your business address. Then, you’ll be redirected to another page where you can enter the information (name, birthday, gender, passport number, frequent flyer number, TSA PreCheck and more) for any travelers on the itinerary as well as your contact details.

Once all that is filled in, you can complete your booking. Shortly after, you should receive a confirmation email at the email address that you entered in the “Contact information” section.

Booking With Cash

If you want to book a flight entirely with cash, click the bubble that says “Keep my points and pay [cost of flight]” when prompted to apply points to the cost of your flight. Alternatively, you can also just write in “0” as the number of points that you want to apply to your flight.

For every dollar that you spend on airfare through the Chase Travel℠ portal using a Chase credit card, you’ll earn Chase Ultimate Rewards points. And most Chase credit cards offer elevated spending bonuses for flight purchases made through Chase Travel℠. For instance, the Sapphire Preferred and Sapphire Reserve cards earn 5X points on flights purchased through Chase Travel℠.

You can also earn frequent flyer miles on flights purchased through the Chase Travel℠ portal in addition to the Chase points you’ll earn for that flight purchase. To do so, enter your account number for your preferred frequent flyer program either under the “Traveler information” section when booking through Chase Travel℠ or when checking in for your flight through the airline’s website.

All canceling and refund policies are up to the discretion of the airline that you’re flying with. If a refund is permitted, it may take up to five business days to process.

Booking With Points

If you have enough points to cover the cost of your flight, the Chase Travel℠ portal will automatically apply those points to the price of your flight in the “Use your rewards” section. If you don’t have enough points to cover the entire cost, the Chase Travel℠ portal will automatically apply whatever points you do have to the price of your flight in this section. Of course, you can always customize how many points you want to be applied to your flight.

Once you book a flight using points, those points will be immediately deducted from your Chase account.

You can earn frequent flyer miles on Chase Travel℠ flight bookings made either entirely with points or partially with points by entering your frequent flyer account number in the “Traveler information” section when making your booking or when checking in for your flight on the airline’s website.

Refund and cancellation policies depend on the airline you’re flying with. Refunds may take up to five business days to process if approved.

Advantages to Booking Flights Through Chase Travel℠

The Chase Travel℠ portal has a lot of great features that make it a solid way to use Chase Ultimate Rewards points. Let’s look at a couple advantages of booking flights through the Chase Travel℠ portal.

Redeem Points for Almost Any Available Flight

One of the best things about booking flights through Chase Travel℠ is that you can redeem Chase points for nearly any available flight. If you can book the flight with cash through the Chase Travel℠ portal, you can also book it with points.

By comparison, when booking flights through frequent flyer programs (such as American Airlines AAdvantage or United MileagePlus, for example), most of the time, not every flight is going to be bookable with miles. And, for flights that are bookable with miles, not every seat on that flight is going to be available for award seating.

With the Chase Travel℠ portal, nearly any seat that’s available to book with cash is also available to book with points, meaning much more award availability and much less time spent searching for award flights.

Points Can Be Worth Up to 1.5 Cents Apiece

With Chase points from flights through the Chase Travel℠ portal, you can get up to 1.5 cents per point in value (if you have the Chase Sapphire Reserve card). This is better value than you’ll get for almost any other redemption method available with Chase Ultimate Rewards. When redeeming points for cash back, dining, gift cards, Amazon and PayPal purchases or Pay Yourself Back, Chase points are worth a maximum of 1 cent per point (regardless of which Chase credit card you have).

And, when compared to the value of most other credit card points when redeemed for flights through their respective travel portal, the value of Chase is excellent if you have the Sapphire Reserve, Sapphire Preferred or Ink Business Preferred. Amex points, Capital One miles and Citi points are all worth 1 cent apiece when redeemed this way, and Bilt points are worth 1.25 cents apiece when redeemed this way.

Drawbacks to Booking Flights Through Chase Travel℠

While there’s a lot to love about booking flights through Chase Travel℠, there are also some disadvantages of this redemption method to be aware of.

Certain Airlines Not Marketed on Chase Travel℠

While you can purchase flights from almost every major airline through the Chase Travel℠ portal, there are some airlines that are not marketed through the portal. Most airlines that are not marketed through the Chase Travel℠ portal are small, regional, low-cost airlines (such as Allegiant Air).

So, before you book flights through Chase Travel℠, it may be worth checking to see if there’s a cheaper flight available from one of these small, regional airlines by searching on Google Flights, Kayak or some other third-party booking engine.

Potentially Better Value Per Point Through Transfer Partners

While it’s possible to get up to 1.5 cents per point by redeeming Chase points for flights through the Chase Travel℠ portal (if you have the Sapphire Reserve card), it’s possible to get even more value per point by transferring Chase points to partner frequent flyer programs and redeeming for flights through these programs.

By using these transfer partners (all of which offer a 1:1 transfer ratio), you can potentially find flight redemptions that offer considerably more than 1.5 cent per point in value.

For example, one of the transfer partners that consistently offers high value is Air Canada Aeroplan. Through this program, you can often find excellent value on flights between the mainland U.S. and Hawaii.

We found a round-trip economy class flight between Los Angeles (LAX) and Maui (OGG) on United Airlines for just 12,500 points plus 61 Canadian dollars (about $45) in taxes and fees.

When we searched for the exact same flight with cash through the United Airlines website, it cost $420.

Thus, by booking this flight with points instead of cash, you’d be getting a value of 3 cents per point, which is great for an economy-class award. You can typically find even better value by redeeming for business-class or first-class awards (which are also usually harder to find).

So, as you can see from the example above, you can get much more value by transferring your Chase points to certain partner frequent flyer programs than by redeeming them through the Chase Travel℠ portal.

However, you should note that redeeming Chase points through transfer partners usually takes more time and requires more know-how than redeeming through the Chase Travel℠ portal (considering that you need to know which transfer partners offer the best value and which types of flights within each partner program offer the best value).

No Price Match Guarantee

Unlike some other travel portals of its kind, the Chase Travel℠ portal doesn’t offer a price match guarantee. That means that there’s no guarantee that the flight prices displayed through Chase Travel℠ are the cheapest available rates. And, in many cases, users have testified that the prices available through Chase Travel℠ were considerably higher than the prices available elsewhere.

So, before you complete your next flight booking through the Chase Travel℠ portal, you ought to search for that flight through other booking engines or directly from the airline to make sure that the same flight isn’t available for much cheaper elsewhere.

In deciding where to book your flight, however, you still want to consider that you’ll earn elevated spending bonuses when booking flights with a Chase credit card through the Chase Travel℠ portal. For instance, let’s say that you found a flight for 3% cheaper through Expedia than you did through the Chase Travel℠ portal. However, if you book your flight through Chase Travel℠, you’ll earn 5% cash back on your Chase Freedom Unlimited card. In this case, it may be a better idea to book through Chase Travel℠.

The Bottom Line

The Chase Travel℠ portal is a great way for Chase cardholders to redeem Chase Ultimate Rewards points conveniently for flights. You can also earn elevated spending bonuses by using Chase credit cards to pay for cash flights through this portal.

When it comes to the amount of value you’ll get per point when redeeming for flights through the Chase Travel℠ portal, it depends on the specific Chase credit cards that you have in your wallet. If you have the Sapphire Reserve card, your Chase points will be worth 1.5 cents apiece when redeemed for flights (or any other form of travel) through the Chase Travel℠ portal. With either the Sapphire Preferred or the Ink Business Preferred, points are worth 1.25 cents apiece through Chase Travel℠. And with all other Chase cards, points are worth 1 cent apiece through Chase Travel℠.

You should note, though, that you can transfer Chase points between card accounts. So, for instance, if you earn 10,000 points with the Chase Freedom Flex card, you can transfer those points to a Chase Sapphire Reserve account and then they’ll be worth 1.5 cents apiece (making them worth $150 instead of $100).

However, if you really want to maximize the value of your Chase points, the best way to do so is by transferring them to partner loyalty programs and redeeming them for flights or hotel stays directly through those programs, though this method does require a bit more time and expertise than using the Chase Travel℠ portal.