My Top 3 Points Redemptions Using Chase Ultimate Rewards

And a new credit card offer you don’t want to miss

The social feeds and inboxes were flooded yesterday with the points world celebrating what was thought to be a never-to-be-seen-again bonus points offer of 100,000 bonus miles on the Chase Sapphire Preferred card. If you aren’t already a Chase Sapphire cardholder, there’s never been a better time to consider it (the typical bonus is 60K for reference).

Chase Ultimate Rewards are my favorite points currency. They are extremely easy to use and valuable, especially for finding excellent points redemptions for air.

In honor of this occasion in the points world, I thought I’d highlight my top three points redemptions we’ve had using Chase Ultimate Rewards points to give you an idea of what’s possible.

A disclaimer: All of these redemptions were made possible by transferring my points directly to travel partners. I would never, ever recommend using your points directly in the credit card portal. It is truly like throwing your points in the trash.

1) ANA RT First Class to Tokyo + Hyatt Hotel Redemptions in Tokyo and Kyoto

A few years ago, we checked off a Cherry Blossom visit to Japan from our bucket list and funded the entire trip exclusively with points, our biggest-ever points redemption to date.

Sakura season in Tokyo

The details: 2 round-trip first-class tickets on ANA from Houston to Tokyo, 4 nights at the Hyatt Regency Kyoto, 3 nights at the Park Hyatt Tokyo.

Total points spent: ~450K points (yes, we saved up for this one!) and also took advantage of a bonus offer on a Hyatt card to get to our total points needed for the hotel redemptions

Total estimated cash value: ~$50K

Points strategy: Air

ANA First Class

• In order to book ANA first-class flights, we transferred Chase Ultimate Rewards points to Virgin Atlantic. Here is a great article on that process.

• At the time, points tickets were only 70K one way (140K RT) to book first-class tickets. These tickets often sell for between $8-10K USD one way (!), making it an incredible redemption and also an extremely special flight experience.

Points strategy: Hotel

Hyatt Properties in Tokyo and Kyoto

• Hyatt is a known sweet spot for points redemptions by transferring Chase points.

• We spent 20K points per night at the Hyatt Regency Kyoto. At the time, rates were over $800 USD per night (before taxes and fees).

• We spent 30K points per night at the Park Hyatt Tokyo (the hotel from Lost in Translation). At the time, rates were over $1,200 USD per night (before taxes and fees).

2) Air France Business Class from Dallas to Paris

This redemption took stalking of points availability for several months, but the results were incredible. This redemption is for a trip we are taking this fall.