On Sunday, CNBC reported that Chase will be partnering with Expedia to run the Chase travel portal. Because of this, the Ultimate Rewards travel portal will now have access to more than double the airline and hotel inventory as before. There will soon be 272,000 hotels and 250 airlines you can book through the Chase travel portal.
It is no secret that we are huge fans of the Chase Ultimate Rewards program. Ultimate Rewards points can be earned from credit cards like the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card and the Chase Sapphire Reserve among a few others.
Travel Portal Improvements
As a part of this update, Chase has revamped the travel portal website and mobile app in an effort to make choosing flight and seat options easier. According to the story, users will see a more detailed breakdown of fees, such as basic economy fares, though their old interface already did this well.
The new interface was added to Chase Freedom cards on Sunday (8/12/18) and it will be added to the premium cards like the Sapphire Reserve and the Sapphire Preferred in the coming weeks. The catch with this is that there isn't much value to redeem through the portal with a Freedom card as your points will only be worth one cent each when you do so.
Our Analysis
I will have to wait and see what I think of the new interface once it rolls out for Sapphire cardholders. I thought Chase already had the best portal of all the transferable points currencies, however, having this now backed by Expedia which will ultimately provide more inventory sounds like a positive for me.
Not only can you send your points straight to more than a dozen different airlines and hotels that are Chase transfer partners, you can use them to book travel directly with Chase. Depending on which Chase credit card you hold, they can be worth from 1.25 cents to 1.5 cents each. Because of this, one of the ways to use them is to book the flight deals you find right here at Thrifty Traveler with points, which we think provides excellent value.
Bottom Line
Chase continuing to invest in the backbone that powers their Ultimate Rewards travel portal is an exciting development for cardholders. In the long run, I think this is only going to make the best credit card travel portal even better. Stay tuned for more information as this rolls out to Sapphire cardholders in the coming weeks.