Chase quietly rolled out a new, limited-time promotion on some of its most popular travel cards that could lead to a windfall of points when booking United Airlines flights.
Through the end of the year, travelers with a *chase sapphire preferred* or *chase sapphire reserve* – and even no-annual fee cards like the *freedom unlimited* or the Chase Freedom Flex℠ – can earn an additional 10x points at select merchants when using Paze. And that's on top of the points your card normally earns, making it possible to earn up to 15x with the right merchant.
You can check to see if your card qualifies by logging into your Chase account and then clicking on the “Benefits & travel” tab at the top, and then selecting “Benefits” from the dropdown list. You should see it listed under “Boost your points.” Thanks to Upgraded Points for first spotting and highlighting this news.
For those unfamiliar, Paze is the banks (Chase, Wells Fargo, Capital One, Citi, and others) answer to mobile wallets like Apple Pay and Android Wallet. The current list of eligible merchants is quite limited, but there are a couple of standouts – including United Airlines, Dunkin', Sephora, Shop Rite, and more.
Here's what you need to know:
- Paze is a digital wallet offered by Chase that makes online checkout fast and easy.
- You can earn an additional 10x points on up to $1,500 in purchases per month (for a total of 15,000 additional points monthly) when you select Paze at checkout and use your eligible Chase card.
- For added security, Paze doesn’t share your actual card number with merchants.
- Shop online at participating brands to earn a bonus.
Again, the current list of eligible merchants is pretty limited – making United Airlines the real standout here, especially for travelers – but Paze promises more businesses will be added, so this promotion could prove to be more useful in the months ahead.
Keep reading for more info on how this deal works and everything else you need to know to make the most of it!
Why This is Big News for Travelers
The *chase sapphire reserve* is already one of the most rewarding cards on the market for booking flights, and this new benefit makes it even better. The card earns 4x Ultimate Rewards points on flights (and hotels) booked direct. With the added 10x points by purchasing United flights through Paze, you're looking at a whopping 14x points on every United purchase through the end of the year.
Book a $1,000 flight – not hard these days, given the rising cost of airfare – and you'll earn 14,000 Ultimate Rewards for your purchase. You can turn around and use those points to book $140 worth of flights, hotels, rental cars, or whatever through Chase Travel℠. Better yet, you can transfer them to Chase's slew of airline and hotel partners – including United Airlines – for potentially even more value.
Oh … and there's this: Chase is currently offering a best-ever points bonus on its flagship Sapphire Reserve. With the current offer, you can bonus_miles_full That's up from the 125,000 points you could previously earn for the same spending requirement, making now the perfect time to add this card to your wallet if flying United is in your future.
Meanwhile, travelers with the cheaper *chase sapphire preferred* earn 2x points on wide-ranging travel purchases. That means if you use Paze to book United flights with the Sapphire Preferred, you'd earn 12x points with this benefit.
Chase's no-annual-fee Freedom cards won't lead to quite the same influx of points as either of the Sapphire Cards, but the added 10x points would still make them great options for booking United flights for the remainder of the year.
How to Use Paze With United
If you've got one of these Chase cards in your wallet – or are thinking about adding one to take advantage of this deal – you'll want to be careful when booking United flights to make sure you get the bonus.
First things first, you'll need to link your eligible Chase card to Paze. You can do this by logging into your Chase account on the mobile app and selecting “Manage account” right underneath the picture of your card. Under “Card setup & maintenance,” you'll see the option to “Add card to digital wallets.”
Select Paze from the list of eligible options, choose the card you want to link, agree to the terms, and voila – you're all set!
If you're using the desktop version of Chase's site, you'll find this by clicking on the “More” tab under your account summary. You'll then need to navigate to “Account services” and “Manage digital wallets.”
It's a bit buried on desktop, so keep digging if it's not immediately obvious how to do this.
When you go to purchase your United flight, it's a mostly familiar process until you get to one of the final checkout screens. Under “Payment method,” you'll see a whole bunch of options – but instead of entering your credit card number like you normally would, choose Paze and then click “Sign in to Paze.”
This will open a new window where you'll enter the phone number or email address associated with your Chase account, and you can select the eligible card you want to use. You'll have to enter the three-digit security code on the back of your card for verification, but that should bring you back to the United checkout page, where you can complete your booking.
Bottom Line
Chase just quietly rolled out a new benefit for Sapphire and Freedom cardholders, allowing them to earn an additional 10x points at select merchants through the end of the year with Paze.
While the current list of eligible merchants is quite limited, it includes a few standouts, such as United Airlines, Sephora, Dunkin', and more. This news will be most useful for travelers booking United flights – with a card like the Chase Sapphire Reserve in your wallet, you could earn a whopping 14x Ultimate Rewards points for your purchase!
