How to Use Chase Travel℠ to Book Flights with Points

What's better than booking an insanely cheap flight deal? Using credit card points to make it free. And there's no simpler – or more valuable – way to pull it off than booking through Chase Travel℠ with your Chase Ultimate Rewards points.

That's why we're big fans of both the *chase sapphire reserve* and the *chase sapphire preferred*. These two cards (among others) earn Chase's valuable Ultimate Rewards points and booking through Chase Travel is one of the easiest ways to put them to use for free travel. When you use them this way, each point is worth 1.25 cents or 1.5 cents (depending on which card you have).

But sometimes you can do even better: Chase recently began rolling out targeted “Points Offers” promotions where you can get as much as 2.25 cents per point in value when booking select flights and hotels through Chase.  

If you're just getting started, there's likely no better time to snag one of these cards. Chase just rolled out one of the biggest, limited-time offers we've ever seen on its popular Sapphire Preferred Card: bonus_miles_full

We'll walk you through exactly how to use your Chase points to book just about any flight deal you want – whether you find a gem through Google Flights or from a Thrifty Traveler Premium membership.
 

The Basics of Using Points Through Chase Travel

Before we get into the mechanics of redeeming Chase points through Chase Trave, let's back up a bit.

While it might be easy to equate each point to a penny, certain Chase cards get even greater value when redeeming through the portal:

• With the *chase sapphire preferred*, each point is worth 1.25 cents.
• With the *chase sapphire reserve*, each point is worth 1.5 cents.
• With the *chase ink preferred*, each point is worth 1.25 cents.

So you're getting a better deal on your points with the Chase Sapphire Reserve than the Preferred. Yet either card gets you more than the simple 1-cent-per-point you'll typically get when booking travel through a portal with other cards.

Chase also has a list of travel partners – hotel and airline programs to which you can transfer your points to book flights and hotels – which can often lead to even more outsized value for your points. But you can book with almost any airline through Chase Travel. Some budget airlines are not available, but you can, however, book Southwest fares through Chase Travel!

Let's make it real with an example.

We recently sent our Thrifty Traveler Premium members a flight deal alert to Orlando (MCO) for under $248, including a fare from Detroit (DTW) for just $209 roundtrip – flying nonstop on Delta, to boot! Here's a look at what's bookable directly via Delta.

But it gets even better (and cheaper) if you book the same flight using points through Chase instead. Just log in to your Chase account, navigate to Chase Travel, and search for this exact same fare … and book it with points instead!

From here, you can search for the exact same cheap fare you just found on Delta's site. Most (but not all) of the flight pricing you see through Google Flights or in your inbox with a Thrifty Traveler Premium membership should be bookable at the same rates – though you may occasionally see pricing mismatches.

With the Chase Sapphire Preferred card, you can book this $209 fare for just over 16,700 Ultimate Rewards points. The same is true for Chase Ink Preferred cardholders.

But the deal gets better with the Chase Sapphire Reserve: With each point worth 1.5 cents, you can book the exact same fare for under 14,000 Ultimate Rewards points.

You'll go through the exact same process with any cheap flight deal you find, using points to book instead. The cheaper the fare, the fewer points you'll need to book it and make it free. The Chase portal even walks you through the different kinds of fares and lets you pick between them, just in case you'd like to avoid booking a basic economy ticket.

And if you're able to get in on one of Chase's new “Points Offers” promotions, the deals get even sweeter. These offers aren't an across-the-board boost using your points to book absolutely any flight, hotel, rental car – they only work for specific redemptions. As of publication, there are two Points Offers we know of:

• There's one offer to get more value from your points when booking premium economy, business class, or first class tickets operated by Delta, United, or Qatar Airways available via Chase Travel through June 15 – for travel through the end of 2026.
• Another offer targets a handful of different luxury hotel brands, Hyatt all-inclusive resorts, and others – again when booking by June 15 for travel through the end of 2026.

These deals appear to be highly targeted. Few Chase cardholders may see them at all. 

Among the 10-plus members of the Thrifty Traveler team with a Sapphire card, just one of us found these Points Offers. Plus, the offers seem to vary from cardholder to cardholder:

• Chase Sapphire Reserve cardholders report getting 2.25 cents apiece from their points with these new offers
• Chase Sapphire Preferred cardholders are seeing offers for redeem points for as much as 2 cents apiece,
• But our Senior Editor Jackson Newman can only get 1.5 cents per point from his Sapphire Preferred Card on these select redemptions – still a notable boost, but a smaller one. 

But on the upper end, this is huge. If Chase continues with offers like these – and the bank says it will – a traveler who picks up the massive 100,000-point bonus (before it ends) on the Chase Sapphire Preferred could turn around and use those points to book as much as $2,000 in travel. 

Yet Chase hasn't advertised this new feature … or even said a word to its cardholders, really. In fact, these offers are practically hidden: Targeted cardholders currently only see a mention of these new “Points Offers” if they search for an eligible trip in the travel portal, like a Delta Premium Select seat or flights in Qsuites business class.

Should You Redeem Your Points via Chase Travel?

Pros 

There are a handful of advantages to booking your flights through Chase Travel. The biggest one is simplicity.

There's no need to dive into the convoluted world of transfer partners, find award availability, or calculate and pay additional taxes and fees. Just find a cheap flight (or other travel), boot up Chase Travel, and book it with your points.

The cheaper the fare, the fewer points you'll need to make it free. It's that simple.

While you can potentially get far more bang for your buck by transferring Chase points to partners like Air Canada Aeroplan or British Airways, that requires extra legwork and knowhow. Booking through Chase Travel, you're done within just a few clicks.

One of the best parts of booking flights through Chase Travel is that you'll also earn airline miles and elite status credits when you actually take your flight. That's not the case with most airline award redemptions you'd book with the likes of American Airlines AAdvantage miles, United MileagePlus miles, or many other airline points program. And unlike those airline mileage redemptions, booking with Chase points means no additional out-of-pocket costs: It covers any taxes and fees you'd otherwise have to pay using miles!

Don't have enough Chase Ultimate Rewards points to complete your booking – or don't want to blow all your points? Don't worry, you can use any combination of points and cash that you would like. You can select the number of points you want to use, and the remaining balance will be billed to your credit card.

Because of how easy it is to book flights with Chase Ultimate Rewards points, two Chase cards crack our list of the best cards for booking flight deals with points.

Cons 

There are some potential pitfalls to using Chase Travel.

In good times and bad, it's almost always better to book directly with the airline – not an online travel agency (OTA). When you book with Chase points, you're essentially booking with an OTA.

Major airlines have made the process of changing or canceling flights easier (and free!) following the pandemic. Booking with an OTA like Chase means they're your middleman. You'll need to work with them to cancel your flight – and not the airline directly. 

Finally, there's no question that there are ways to squeeze much more value out of your Chase points by using Chase transfer partners. Especially if you're looking to fly something fancy like Lufthansa First Class, transferring points to partner airlines like Air Canada is the ticket: You can book a one-way ticket from Chicago-O'Hare (ORD) to Frankfurt (FRA) for 100,000 Chase points … instead of the 1 million points it'd probably cost you booking through Chase Travel. 

Still, this is a valuable option. And if you're not looking to dive deep into the weeds of maximizing airline programs, it doesn't get much easier than this.

Read more: The Best Ways to Redeem Chase Points

How to Earn Chase Points

In order to earn and use these Chase Ultimate Rewards points, you need to hold one of the right Chase credit card. 

There's no better place to start than the *chase sapphire preferred*: bonus_miles_full

Not bad for a card with an annual fee of only $95, right?

In addition to the welcome bonus, the card also earns 3x points per dollar spent on dining purchases and 2x points per dollar spent on all travel purchases and 1 point per dollar on all other eligible spending. You also get a $50 annual credit when booking hotels through Chase Travel.

Read more: 6 Reasons to Pick Up the Chase Sapphire Preferred vs Reserve

Learn more about the *csp*.

There's also the *chase sapphire reserve*, Chase's premium travel rewards credit card that comes with a ton of travel benefits. But that comes at a cost: It has a hefty annual fee of $550.

bonus_miles_full

In addition to the sign-up bonus, the card also earns 3x points per dollar on all travel and restaurant purchases and 1x point per dollar on all other spending. 

You'll also get Priority Pass Lounge access, an annual $300 travel credit, and many other premium benefits.

Read our full review of the Chase Sapphire Reserve!

Learn more about the *chase sapphire reserve*.

If you've already got a Sapphire card, there are some other Chase credit cards that can help bolster your Ultimate Rewards points balance.

While Chase Freedom cards typically earn cashback, holding one of these no annual fee cards in tandem with a Sapphire card makes them exponentially more valuable. That's because you can transfer the cashback these cards earn into your Chase Ultimate Rewards points balance.

But there are two Chase Freedom cards to choose from, and each version differs.

Read up on the differences between Chase Freedom Flex and Chase Freedom Unlimited to see which card is right for you.

Learn more about the *freedom unlimited*.

Learn more about the Chase Freedom Flex® (for full disclosure, this is our personal referral link).

Chase also has a number of business credit cards that also earn Ultimate Rewards points. If you are a small business owner, this is another great opportunity to bolster your Ultimate Rewards points balance. 

The best place to get started for most business owners is the *chase ink preferred*: bonus_miles_full

Learn more about the *chase ink preferred*.
 

Bottom Line

Leveraging Chase Ultimate Rewards points to book flight deals through Chase Travel is one of our favorite benefits of Chase credit cards.

It allows you to make a cheap flight even cheaper (or free). Not to mention it's one of the easiest ways to redeem points, period.