✋ 5 best ways to use UR points

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Estimated read time: 4 minutes and 47 seconds

Good morning and welcome back to another Monday edition of Daily Drop.

I’d like to apologize in advance to your boss… because after reading today’s newsletter, there’s a decent chance you’ll spend the rest of today pricing out trips instead of pretending to work. 😉

Let’s get into it:

• ✋ 5 best ways to use UR points

• 🏝️ The Bahamas trip you’ve been dreaming about

✋ 5 best ways to use UR points

As you all know by now, the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (our entire team’s favorite card) currently has a limited-time welcome offer of 100,000 bonus points after spending $5,000 in the first 3 months from account opening.

The reason we’re so hyped about that is that Ultimate Rewards (aka UR) points are more valuable than other points… so when it’s this easy to acquire 100,000 of them, you should be paying attention.

But many of you might be wondering what to even do once you have those 100,000 points in your account.

So today, let’s talk about my five favorite ways to use UR points.

1. World of Hyatt (yes, still)

In my opinion, Hyatt is still the most valuable way to use UR points. But before I tell you why, it’s worth noting the different transfer ratios:

• The lower-fee card (the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card) has a ratio of 4:3

• The premium card (the Chase Sapphire Reserve®) has a ratio of 1:1

For most of you, that means a less-than-ideal transfer ratio. And yet, I’d still recommend Hyatt as an option.

For example, take a look at the lower end of their award chart:

Even though prices have gone up, you can see that there are plenty of price points that would be worth booking – even with a 4:3 transfer ratio.

I’m staying at a Hyatt hotel right now in Ningbo, China, which cost me just 3,000 points per night (despite being a brand-new 5-star hotel).

Since I have the Reserve, I only needed to transfer 3,000 points to book it…

…but…

If I needed to transfer 4,000 points from the Preferred, I honestly still would. 🤷🏼‍♂️

As you can see, the 100,000 points from the Preferred’s all-time high welcome offer can get you VERY far with Hyatt.

2. Avios

UR points transfer to a bunch of different Avios programs like British Airways, Aer Lingus, and Iberia.

Because of this, you have a variety of ways to use those points for outsize value.

You could book a nonstop flight from the U.S. to Dublin, Ireland (DUB), for just 13,000 Aer Lingus Avios, for example.

That even includes non-coastal cities like Nashville and Cleveland, sometimes with enough seats for the whole family:

That’s almost FOUR round-trips to Europe that you can book with just one welcome offer of UR points.

But I think there’s an even better Avios deal out there, and that’s transferring UR points to Iberia.

Iberia charges as few as 40,500 Avios to fly BUSINESS class from the U.S. to Spain, even in lie-flat seats:

That means the offer of 100,000 UR points could book you ROUND-TRIP flights to Europe in business class.

Then you’d still have enough UR points left over for a hotel, especially if you book through the bank’s portal.

Use them in the portal

While this isn’t the sexiest option, using UR points in Chase Travel℠ (the travel portal) could be solid.

The default redemption rate if you hold the Preferred is one cent per point, but can be as high as 1.5 cents per point (or even 1.75 cents when booking premium economy flights) when using Points Boost.

It’s not the highest value you can get, but it’s also not the lowest.

Plus, you can book cheaper airlines and hotels that generally aren’t available to book from transferring points to other programs, so you have more options and flexibility.

This is a great option if you want to book cheap independent hotels and get a lot of bang for your points buck.

4. Virgin Atlantic

We talk about Virgin pretty often… and for good reason.

Virgin has the lowest award rates between the U.S. and Europe, with flights starting at just 6,000 miles in economy, 10,500 miles in premium economy, or 29,000 miles in business class:

Plus, right now there is a 30% transfer bonus from UR points to Virgin (though we often see similar bonuses as high as 40% later in the year).

That means you’re really paying:

• 4,600 points in economy

• 8,000 points in premium economy

• 22,000 points in business

… to fly to freaking EUROPE.

With the welcome offer in question, you are paying less than $100 for a card that can get you two round-trip flights to Europe in lie-flat seats…

If that doesn’t sell you, I don’t know what will.

5. KLM/Air France Flying Blue

Flying Blue, the points program for the two aforementioned airlines, is an excellent transfer partner of UR points.

The big draw to this program is the monthly Promo Rewards they offer, which are discounted award flights from the U.S. to Europe.

It’s more expensive than programs like Virgin Atlantic, but it also covers a LOT more U.S. cities, including way out on the West Coast.

Flying Blue is also a program that sees semi-regular transfer bonuses, which could shave this price down even more.

If Europe doesn’t interest you, Flying Blue miles are also great for flying domestically on Delta, with great availability on many routes for as few as just 5,000 miles in economy or 15,000 miles in business:

As you can see, there are plenty of ways to put 100,000 UR points to use to book the trip of a lifetime (or multiple trips of a lifetime).

So make sure you hop on this current all-time-high offer NOW before it disappears and you have to live with crippling regret. 💀

That’s all for today, my friends. I’m curious…

Looking forward to seeing what y’all like.

See you tomorrow! 😘

29.8683° N, 121.5440° E

With contributions by Sam Anthony and Alison Carrico.

Opinions expressed here are author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.