Many people recently took advantage of the elevated 80K point offer on the Chase Sapphire Preferred card. This card is hands down my absolute favorite card for beginners to start with.
One of the primary reasons is that the points are so darn easy to use, and you have a TON of options when it comes to using them!
Chase points are considered one of the most valuable flexible points currencies out there and for a good reason.
Perhaps you’re trying to figure out if chase points are worth earning…or maybe you’re looking for the best way to use your stash chase points.
Well, I’ve put together a list of some of my favorite ways that you can use Chase Points to travel the world. Hopefully, this list inspires you to plan or book that next vacation and maybe even earn some MORE Chase points! (you can never have too many!)
Earn even more Chase points with this limited time offer :
fly to Europe USING FLYING BLUE PROMO REWARDS
Flying Blue is the rewards currency of Air France and KLM airlines. Flying Blue is also a 1:1 transfer partner with Chase which means that you can transfer your points from your Chase account over to flying blue and book some pretty incredible deals across the pond.
Flying Blue runs monthly “promo rewards” where they discount award flights from certain US cities to and from the UK. Often times you can find flights as cheap as 11K miles each way!
Here’s an example from New York’s JFK airport to Paris CDG for only 11,250K miles in economy:
At this rate, if you earned the 80k point SUB from the Sapphire Preferred, you could literally book 2 roundtrip flights between NYC and Paris for only 45K points and still have 35K points left over for hotels.
You can also get Business class flights for only 55K miles if you want to surprise your partner with a bit of a bougie experience! Here’s another example of Air France Business class, I mean who wouldn’t want to fly like this right?!
Especially when you know that this ticket typically costs $2,832 each way, redeeming 55K points for it means you are getting a 5.1 cents per point value from your points. WAY better than the 1.25 or 1.5 cents you would get in the Chase Travel Portal.
Air France Business Class on the Boeing 777-300ER JFK-CDG | Photo Courtesy of The Points Guy
HOW TO BOOK:
Head to Airfrance.com and select “book with miles”.
Search for your destination and dates.
Once you’ve found availability and are ready to book, transfer your points from Chase to your flying blue account. *Remember point transfers are irreversible. So don’t transfer until you’re ready to checkout!
Book flights to Hawaii
Image courtesy of Unsplash | Braden Jarvis
Hawaii is another dream destination for most people! If you’ve never been I have to tell you, Everyone should visit this paradise at least once in their life. Hawaii holds a special spot for me because that was where my wife and I took our very first-anniversary vacation together, and it was B-E-A-UTIFUL!
FLY USING SOUTHWEST AIRLINES
There are actually 2 easy ways to get to Hawaii using your points. The first one is on Southwest Airlines. Many people don’t know that Southwest actually started flying to the Hawaiian islands back in 2019! Obviously, the best rates are going to be from the west cost.
This route below between San Francisco’s SFO airport and Honolulu is only 10,205 points each way. And that INCLUDES 2 free checked bags per person so you can go crazy shopping while you’re there if you want. At that rate, a family of 4 could fly roundtrip to Hawaii and back all for just over 81K points.
Here’s another example on Southwest from LAX for just slightly more points, 11,451 points.
HOW TO BOOK ON SOUTHWEST:
Head to southwestairlines.com and choose the selection bubble that says “points” to view your search results with pricing in points.
Input your destination and dates and hit search.
Once you’ve found the flights you want and are ready to book, transfer your points from Chase to your Rapid Rewards account. *Remember point transfers are irreversible. So don’t transfer until you’re ready to checkout.
USING BRITISH AIRWAYS AVIOS
Now there is another lesser-known way that you can redeem points to get to Hawaii, and on the surface, it makes no sense.
You can actually redeem British Airways Avios miles for flights to Hawaii. Now you might be asking,
“British Airways flies to Hawaii?!”
Well not exactly; but their partners do! The beauty of airline alliances is that you can use them to your advantage when redeeming points.
While British Airways doesn’t actually fly to Hawaii, their partners Alaska Airlines, and American Airlines do. And thanks to them all being a part of one world alliance, you can book both of those partners right on the British Airways site.
“But Matt…why wouldn’t I just book them directly on American or Alaska Airlines sites?”
I’m so glad you asked. Because all 3 of these airlines charge a different amount of points for the same flight. And who’s the cheapest? You guessed it: British Airways.
Let me illustrate:
Here is a flight from LAX to HNL (Honolulu) on Alaska Airlines website for 17.5K miles.
If I run the same search on British Airways website, I get these results:
As you can see, the 3rd option is the exact same Alaska Airlines flight I found on Alaska’s website. If I click the economy option I get this screen that tells me it is only 13K miles to book that flight here on British Airways.
The exact same flight on the exact same physical plane costs only 13K miles when booked on British Airways.
You could also book either of the first two American Airlines flights for the same price of 13K miles whereas on American’s own website, those same flights are 20K points all month long.
Southwest Airlines and British Airways are both 1:1 transfer partners with Chase. This means that as long as you have either of the Sapphire cards (or the ink business preferred card), you can transfer your Chase points directly to British Airways and book flights to Hawaii for as little as 13K Chase points!
HOW TO BOOK ON BRITISH AIRWAYS:
Head to britishairways.com and at the top of the webpage under “book” choose “Book a flight with Avios”.
If you don’t already have a British Airways account, you will need to create one and then log in.
Once you’re logged in, you can input your departure and destination cities, dates and choose your preferred class of ticket and then click “get flights”.
Once you’ve found and chosen the flights you want and you are ready to book, transfer your points from Chase to your British Airways Avios account and complete the booking. *Remember that point transfers are irreversible. So don’t transfer until you’re ready to checkout.
Stay at the Grand Hyatt Kauai
Image Courtesy of World of Hyatt Website
Speaking of Hawaii, one of the best properties (in my opinion) you can stay at with points is the Grand Hyatt Kauai. This stunning property is located on the Island of Kauai on the southern shore and it’s beautiful. It’s a Category 7 property which means that you can book off-peak nights for 25K points. After running a quick search using Hyatt’s points calendar, I got these results for December of 2023:
Now this calendar only shows the price of the night IF it were available, you still have to check if it’s available to book. You can find out if specific dates are available by highlighting them as shown above and then clicking the “check availability” button at the bottom. If they’re available, you’ll see an option like this to choose your room:
If not you’ll get a message saying something like “Unfortunately, this hotel is not accepting World of Hyatt points or award bookings during these dates.”
While your 80K points would only get you 3 nights at this property, there are plenty of ways to earn additional Chase URs like opening a new card from our top cards list, or even better; referring your spouse to a card you already have such as the Sapphire Preferred. Then they would get the sign-up bonus AND you would get a referral bonus. Viola! 3 more nights at the Grand Hyatt Kauai for a total of 6 nights (or 7 nights if you happen to catch the elevated 80K offer next time around!)
HOW TO BOOK :
Head to hyatt.com and at the top, type in the search bar “Grand Hyatt Kauai”. Put in the dates you’d like to search and be sure to check the box next to “use points” and click “find hotels”.
If you don’t see any dates available with points once you’ve clicked find hotels, you may have to adjust your dates until you find availability.
Once you’ve found available dates that work for you and you are ready to book, you will need to sign into your World of Hyatt account (or create one if you haven’t yet).
Once you’re ready to check out, go ahead and transfer your points from Chase to your World of Hyatt account and complete the booking. *Remember that point transfers are irreversible. So don’t transfer until you’re ready to checkout.
Stay at a HYATT all-inclusive property
While we’re talking about hotels, Hyatt has multiple all-inclusive properties in popular destinations such as Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and Jamaica! I actually have an entire post dedicated to Hyatt All-inclusive properties.
But here are just a few quick ideas and their cost to book using points!
Hyatt Ziva Cancun | Family Friendly - 35K points per night
Hyatt Zilara Cancun | Adults Only - 35K points per night
Secrets Papayago Costa Rica | Adults Only - 25K points per night
Secrets Playa Mujeres MX | Adults Only - 25K points per night
In order to book these, just head to Hyatt’s website and search for your dates. If you’re having trouble finding these prices, use the “points calendar” to find the best dates!
HOW TO BOOK :
Head to hyatt.com and at the top, type in the search bar the property you would like to visit. Put in the dates you’d like to search and be sure to check the box next to “use points” and then click “find hotels”.
If you don’t see any dates available with points once you’ve clicked find hotels, you may have to adjust your dates until you find availability.
Once you’ve found available dates that work for you and you are ready to book, you will need to sign into your World of Hyatt account (or create one if you haven’t yet).
Once you’re ready to check out, go ahead and transfer your points from Chase to your World of Hyatt account and complete the booking. *Remember that point transfers are irreversible. So don’t transfer until you’re ready to checkout.
FLY EMIRATES FIRST-CLASS
One of the most incredible flying experiences I’ve personally had to date was flying with my wife in Emirates first class from New York (EWR) to Athens (ATH).
Whether it’s the Dom-Perignon poured for you when you sit down, the caviar, the lavish amenity kit, or just the pure amount of space and comfort the suite provides, Emirates is guaranteed to have something that floats your boat!
When we flew this in 2021, the route was bookable for only 85K points per person. Unfortunately, since then Emirates has raised their rates and now the cheapest you’ll be able to book this first-class suite for is 104K points. While this is more than the 80K points in the title I’m here to tell you this is worth saving for!
Emirates Airlines is based in Dubai, however, it has 2 fifth-freedom routes. A “fifth-freedom” route basically means that it’s a route operated between two foreign countries, neither of which is in the home country of the airline. In this case, Emirates (whose home country is the UAE) operates flights from the US that don’t pass through the UAE.
Emirates has 2 of these routes from the US:
New York to Athens, Greece (EWR>ATH)
New York to Milan, Italy (JFK>MXP)
I recommend one of these routes as they are the least expensive ways to experience this incredible product. If you can’t quite swing the first-class suite, the Emirates business-class product is worth noting as well. You can book a business class ticket on one of these routes for 85K points and award space in business class is admittedly MUCH easier to find than first-class suites.
HOW TO BOOK ON EMIRATES:
Head to emirates.com and log in to your Skywards miles account or create one if you don’t have one already.
Once you’re logged in, under the “search flights” tab, be sure and check the box that says “classic skywards”. Then you can input your destination, choose your dates and class of service, then search for your flights. I recommend checking the flexible dates checkbox as well if you are having trouble finding award space.
Once you’ve found the availability and selected the flights you want and you are ready to book, transfer your points from Chase to your Emirates Skywards account and complete the booking. *Remember that point transfers are irreversible. So don’t transfer until you’re ready to checkout.
Fly Singapore first-class suites
Image Courtesy of Singapore Airlines
Arguably one of the most stunning first-class products in existence is the Singapore Airlines First Class Suites on their A380s. These suites are currently available on limited routes to/from Singapore. One of the most popular routes for people looking to experience first-class suites on Singapore Airlines with points is the JFK-FRA-SIN route.
Now to take advantage of this route you would need 243K Krisflyer miles (a lot, I know). However, you could also experience the suites just flying from New York (JFK) to Frankfurt (FRA) for as little as 97K miles.
One drawback is that it can be difficult to find open availability from Singapore airlines on this route, most times you can get on the wailist for a specific date and hope for the best! Many people have also reported having luck getting moved off of the waitlist by calling Singapore Airlines close to departure and requesting them to open up more award space. Obviously this is not a full-proof plan but seems to be a successful option for some!
HOW TO BOOK ON SINGAPORE AIRLINES:
Head to signaporeair.com and choose the “redeem flights” option above the search box. If you don’t already have a Singapore Air KrisFlyer account, you’ll need to create one first.
Once you’re logged in, you can input your departure and destination cities, your dates and choose your preferred class of ticket and then click search.
Once you’ve found availability, selected the flights you want and you are ready to book, transfer your points from Chase to your Singapore Krisflyer account and complete the booking. *Remember that point transfers are irreversible. So don’t transfer until you’re ready to checkout.
ANA “the room” to tokyo
Image courtesy of The Points Guy | Zach Griff
While we’re on the subject of obsessively bougie airplane seats, I couldn’t continue without mentioning the business class product from a little-known airline called All Nippon Airways, or ANA. “The Room” is their business class product and is an incredibly spacious business class suite available between New York’s JFK airport & Tokyo (HND/NRT) as well as a few other routes in & out of Tokyo.
Just wait until you hear how much you can book this crazy suite for!
In order to use your Chase points to book this, you’re going to have to jump through a few hoops. But if you do it correctly you can book this seat to or from Tokyo for as little as 45K points!
The secret? Booking with Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points. Again why wouldn’t you book with ANA directly? Because Virgin Atlantic actually has the cheapest price for ANA business class tickets! Below you’ll see the award chard published by Virgin Atlantic for partner flights on ANA. These numbers are for roundtrip tickets. While previously you could not book one-way award tickets on ANA, but thankfully that is now allowed and the cost is 1/2 of a roundtrip price.
Image courtesy of Virgin Atlanta Flying Club
As you can see the cost of a business class ticket (which is what “The Room” is) from Japan to western USA is 90K miles, which would mean 45K miles for a one-way ticket! The only catch is that you can’t search for OR book the ANA business class ticket on Virgin Atlantic’s website. so Here’s what you do instead:
HOW TO BOOK:
Head to either United.com or Aircanada.com to search for availability on ANA. When searching for tickets make sure that you see “Operated by All Nippon Airways” displayed underneath the flight.
Once you find an available ANA business class ticket on either United or Aeroplan you’re going to have to get on the phone and call Virgin Atlantic at 800-365-9500 to book the award ticket.
Tell the representative that you would like to book a partner-operated flight and give them the specific flight number that you found on United’s or Air Canada’s website. (you do not need to mention that this is where you found it to the representative as they likely won’t be aware.) Simply ask them to confirm that there is award availability from ANA on that flight number.
Once you’re on the phone with the representative and have confirmed the availability and the cost in miles with them, you’ll want to transfer your points from your Chase account to your Virgin Flying Club account and complete the booking. And lucky for you, Chase points transfer instantly to Virgin Atlantic. Just make sure you have already signed up for a free flying club account at Virgin Airlines.
Be sure and ask the representative to provide you with the “ANA record locator” before you hang up so that you can pull up your reservation on ANA’s website and choose your seat & meal preferences etc.
*Remember that point transfers are irreversible. So don’t transfer until you’re ready to checkout.
United Polaris to Europe
Image courtesy of United Airlines
Another stunning business class product you can redeem your points for is United’s POLARIS class product. These operate on several routes between the US and Europe and it is relatively easy to find availability. Unfortunately, United recently devalued their points massively, and while you used to be able to book a saver level award seat (The term “saver level award” is just points-talk for “on-sale” when it comes to seats that are bookable with points.) for only 60K United MileagePlus Miles, those now cost 80K points each way.
While not as cheap as they once were, they are still a decent redemption and not too difficult to find!
Simply head to United.com and input your dates and cities. I find it helpful to use the calendar to see which days have saver level award space available.
Look for the green-colored dates and that’s where you’ll find your cheapest flights. Once you find a day that has saver level space, you can choose it and then scroll down to see the flight times and confirm the price. You’ll know you’ve found it when you see the fare listed as “United Polaris business (I)”. and of course the cost will be 80K miles. That is saver-level award space.
Then all you have to do is transfer your points directly from Chase and complete your checkout right there on United’s website. Easy-Peasy!
HOW TO BOOK UNITED POLARIS:
Head to united.com and check the “Book with Miles” checkbox before searching for your flights. You can search for flights without having a United MileagePlus account setup but you will need to create one before completing your checkout.
Input your desired destination, dates, # of seats and select “business” for the fare class to see Polaris seats. Then click “Find Flights”.
Once you’ve found (hopefully saver level!) availability, and you are ready to book, transfer your points from Chase to your United MileagePlus account and complete the booking. *Remember that point transfers are irreversible. So don’t transfer until you’re ready to checkout.
Virgin Airlines Upper Class
Image courtesy of Virgin Atlantic
Another premium flight experience that is worth checking out is Virgin Atlantic’s own Upper-class Product. virgin is another 1:1 Chase transfer partner so booking these should not be difficult at all.
The best routes to fly in my opinion are between London and either New Yorks JFK or LAX. This is because Virgin has recently seriously upgraded its upper-class product, however, the upgraded product is only currently available on these specific routes.
One note about Virgin award bookings in and out of London is that they tend to have higher taxes and fees than what many are used to. So keep in mind that while points may be low, the fees are somewhat steep.
A non-Chase related note: If you want to avoid the high fees, you can sometimes find one-way award availability on Delta’s website to book Virgin Upper Class with Skymiles and only pay $5.60 in out-of-pocket fees. However you cannot transfer your Chase points to Delta Airlines.
HOW TO BOOK:
Find availability on Virgin’s website using their award search tool. Be sure and select "Show price in points” and select “Upper Class” in the fare type dropdown.
If you’ve checked “show flexible dates” you’ll get a result something like this:
2. Once you’ve found dates, you can select the day and then view the various flight options for that day. As partner award bookings are also available on this page you’ll want to make sure the one you select says “Operated by Virgin Atlantic”. Here you will get to see the entire price in points + the associated fees. I know. $876. Don’t say I didn’t warn you! However considering the cash cost of this ticket is $2,931, I’d say you’re still getting a deal!
3. Once you’ve selected your flight, go ahead and transfer your points directly from chase and boom! You’re headed to London in style!
Experience Qatar Qsuites
Finally, let’s look at one more bougie flight option for your Chase points!
While there are admittedly better ways to book the coveted Qatar Airways Qsuite than using Chase UR points, (namely with AAdvantage Miles & Qatar Airways Privilege Club Miles), thankfully as of March 2022 Qatar Airways has transitioned from using their own miles currency “Qmiles”, and now use Avios which is the same currency as British Airways. This is how we’re going to use our Chase points to book Qsuites!
While using Avios to book transatlantic flights in Qsuites can be very expensive (123K avios + $1K in fees!) One way you can still experience these flight is to book a leg from London (LHR) to DOHA (DOH) airport. In order to find availability put in your desired cities and hit search.
If there are partner flights available you’ll see them specified like this where you can clearly see it is operated by Qatar Airways and there is Business Class Available.
Once you find availability you can select business class and see the price. For this off-peak flight from LHR to DOH you can see the cost is only 43K Avios + $378 in fees!
This could be a great way to experience Qsuites for a fraction of the cost of flying them transatlantic. However, if you’re sitting on a large stash of points you don’t mind using, Qatar operates their Qsuites on routes from several US cities including BOS, JFK, ATL, IAD, DFW, and more!
*A note about flying Qsuites: Qatar Airways is notorious for switching around aircraft at the last minute. And unfortunately, not all of their aircraft have Qsuites in business class. For a more detailed article about how to make sure your aircraft has Qsuites check out this article from One Mile at a Time.
HOW TO BOOK QSUITES ON BRITISH AIRWAYS:
Head to britishairways.com and at the top of the webpage under “book” choose “Book a flight with Avios”.
If you don’t already have a British Airways account, you will need to create one and then log in.
Once you’re logged in, you can input your departure and destination cities, and dates and choose “business” in order to search for Qsuites. Be sure you see “Qatar Airways” in order to make sure it’s on Qatar and not British Airways.
Once you’ve found and chosen the flights you want and are ready to book, transfer your points from Chase to your British Airways Avios account and complete the booking. *Remember that point transfers are irreversible. So don’t transfer until you’re ready to checkout.
BOTTOM LINE
As you can see 80K Chase can do a whole lot, and often times you can earn that by opening one single card. The true value of Chase points comes from the ability to transfer to all of their transfer partners.
Even if you’re not sure what you’re going to book yet, I would encourage you to practice! Pretend you're taking a trip and try to find award space for each one of the ideas above. That way when it’s time to do the real thing and book it, you’ll be a pro!
I hope these Ideas were inspiring and hopefully encourages you to stock up on Chase points or start using the points you’ve been sitting on!
HOW TO EARN CHASE POINTS
There are a number of fantastic options from Chase to earn Ultimate rewards points. Whether you’re brand new to chase points or looking to replenish or add to your stock here are some of my favorite UR earning cards: