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The Chase Ultimate Rewards Program—the rewards program of cards including the Chase Sapphire Reserve, Chase Sapphire Preferred, Chase Freedom, and Chase Freedom Unlimited—is one of the more complicated, but also more powerful, credit card rewards programs. For all types of travelers, from business travelers to family travelers and Disney travelers, there is a lot to know about how to take advantage of this program.
Our site focuses primarily on Disney travel. There are plenty of good sites out there if you’re looking into other trips, but in the interest of catering to our audience, this post will occasionally detour to explain Disney-specific issues.
In this post, we’ll cover:
Overview of Points and Miles
How You Can Use Chase Ultimate Rewards Points
Earning Chase Ultimate Rewards Points
Cards in the Chase Ultimate Rewards Program
The Bottom Line
This is a long, complicated post, but I wanted to offer the bottom line to anyone who can understand it right off the bat. Disney hotels are no longer available for booking with Chase Ultimate Rewards points in the travel portal.
However, there are several hotels near Disney parks, including official partner hotels at Disney World that get serious perks, that can be booked in the portal. Moreover, you could always use points as a statement credit as your last option for booking a Disney hotel with points.
You can earn huge amounts of Chase Ultimate Rewards points with signup bonuses, so while you don’t have the old, best option (earn huge points, spend them at 1.5 cents per point for Disney hotels), there are good alternatives. Need more? Here we go…
A Quick Overview of Points and Miles
Nowadays, pretty much every credit card gives you some form of “point,” “mile,” or “cash back” for your purchases. A typical card will give you 1 point or 1 cent back for every dollar you spend. Some cards, like the Citi Double Cash, effectively give you 2 cents back for every dollar.
When most people think of using credit cards to earn points, they contrast two types of cards:
Cards that earn cash back, like the Citi Double Cash
Cards that earn airline miles or hotel points that you can then redeem for flights or hotel stays, like the United MileagePlus Explorer card
But the most powerful credit cards are actually a hybrid of these two. The best credit cards earn “flexible” or “transferrable” points. With those credit cards, you earn points that you can redeem in a variety of ways, usually including for cash back or by transferring them to partner airlines and hotels.
You can transfer your Chase Ultimate Rewards points to fly international business class for cheap!
These points are valuable because if you know where to transfer them, you can use them to get flights or hotel stays for a relatively small number of points. There are four major programs in this group: American Express Membership Rewards, Citi ThankYou, and the program we’re concerned with in this post, Chase Ultimate Rewards.
When you use cards to earn Chase Ultimate Rewards, you’ll have a range of options for how you use those points, including if you’re planning a Disney vacation. This post is focused on those two sides—earning and using points. And while the topic typically starts with credit cards…that’s not where we’re starting…
Using Chase Ultimate Rewards for Disney Travel
Yes—the natural order to write this post would be “here are the credit cards, here are how those credit cards earn you points, here are the ways to use those points.”
The problem is that you need to know whether the uses are valuable to you so you can decide how much time to spend learning about the points. I don’t want you to read for 20 minutes and then find out “Oh I actually can’t use these for anything I wanted.” So let’s start with how to use Chase Ultimate Rewards points…
Note: All of these redemption options are subject to change at any time, though they are historically quite stable. Nonetheless, if you settle on a particular use, you need to (1) confirm that is still and option and (2) understand it may not be an option by the time you earn the necessary pints.
Statement Credits (1 cent per point)
A statement credit is, essentially, cash back. Rather than sending you $10.51 in cash for 1051 points, Chase allows you to just credit your points to your credit card statement for 1 cent each. That’s usually the worst way to redeem the points, but it does give them a clear value.
This is important because the best way to earn points is through signup bonuses (discussed more below), and those bonuses can be huge (20,000 points is “small”). So even if you didn’t care about the rest of this post, signing up for just three straightforward Chase cards and earning the signup bonuses could earn you around 100,000 points worth a minimum of $1,000. It takes time and organization, but it’s real.
Keep in mind that these credits can be used for any purchase. So if you have 100,000 points and book a stay at Disney’s Coronado Springs—or any other Disney hotel—for $1,000 on your card, you can use the statement credit to offset this. We don’t advocate using Ultimate Rewards points for statement credits, but it is an option.
Book Travel Through Chase (1.25 to 1.5 Cents Per Point)
If you have certain premium Chase credit cards (covered in more detail below), you’ll get more value booking travel through Chase with your points. Depending on what cards you hold, you’ll get either 1.25 cents or 1.5 cents per point using this method. The Chase travel portal is sort of like any other booking engine (think Expedia, Orbitz), but you’ll be able to use points (and your credit card, if you need to) for the booking.
Notably, Disney-operated hotels have disappeared from the Chase travel portal and can no longer be booked with Chase Ultimate Rewards Points. This means if you have to use your points to stay at a Disney hotel, then you’re going to use your points for 1 cent each for a statement credit, which isn’t great value.
Realistically, everyone visiting a Disney destination should be considering some non-Disney hotels. At Walt Disney World, the Disney Springs Resort Area Hotels and the Swan & Dolphin are always worth a look. If you’re a big spending, the Four Seasons Orlando is the gold standard. All of those hotels have the important perks of Extra Magic Hours and the 60-day FastPass+ window.
Note: I’m also seeing limited/no availability for the Swan & Dolphin recently, so it’s possible they’re being removed from the system, too.
If you’re on a budget, non-Disney hotels near Disney World are cheaper than Disney hotels, so you’ll probably need to weigh how much the perks of Disney hotels matter to you. (Also, the Best Western Lake Buena Vista is a budget option that gets the EMH and 60-day FastPass perks.)
And if you’re visiting Disneyland or any other Disney destination, you definitely need to open your search up to non-Disney hotels.
We have a post that goes through the booking process in more detail—How to Book Hotels at Disney World With Chase Ultimate Rewards Points.
Transfer Points to Travel Partners
Transferring points to Chase’s travel partners is the most strategic way to get huge value from your points. If you use your points to fly first or business class on international routes, you can even get around 10 cents per point. Readers looking to visit Orlando or Los Angeles might not find a ton of value in that, but if you’re making a visit to an international Disney destination, there’s a chance you’ll find huge value in your Chase Ultimate Rewards points.
Hotels are trickier. Usually transfers to hotel programs aren’t going to be great value. But on occasion there are rooms that allow you to get more than the 1.5 cents you’d get if you booked directly through Chase (as a Sapphire Reserve) holder.
Let’s just give a fake example…
Hotel A Costs $150 per night in the Chase travel portal but 7,000 points if you book through the hotels’ rewards program, which is a Chase partner
Then a Chase Sapphire Reserve cardholder could spend either 10,000 points to book the hotel through the Chase travel portal, or transfer 7,000 points to the hotel’s rewards program and book it with those points.
Earning Chase Ultimate Rewards Points
I’m going to introduce ways to earn Chase Ultimate Rewards points before I talk about the cards because clarifying things here makes it much quicker to explain the difference between the cards.
We’re going to cover three ways to earn Chase Ultimate Rewards points: signup bonuses, spending, and referral bonuses.
Earning Chase Ultimate Rewards Points from Signup Bonuses
The quickest way to amass Chase Ultimate Rewards points is through signup bonuses, particularly on the premium cards. A signup bonus is straightforward—you spend a certain amount in the card in a certain timeframe after opening the card, and you get rewarded with bonus points.
To earn points from signup bonuses, we don’t recommend you “manufacture” spending. Instead, take your ordinary spending and shift it to the new card for the timeframe. If you can’t hit the requirement for a signup bonus, it almost never makes sense for you to sign up for the card at that time.
Below are the current (February 7, 2020) bonuses on the seven cards (we’ll talk more about these cards next). It’s important to know that these bonuses frequently change (they even vary by what link you use) and you must confirm the specific bonus being offered at the time you apply.
Chase Sapphire Reserve - 50,000 Ultimate Rewards Points for spending $4000 in 3 Months
Chase Sapphire Preferred - 60,000 Ultimate Rewards Points for spending $4000 in 3 Months
Chase Freedom Unlimited - $200 bonus (in the form of 20,000 Ultimate Rewards Points) for spending $500 in 3 months
Chase Freedom - $200 bonus (in the form of 20,000 Ultimate Rewards Points) for spending $500 in 3 months
Chase Ink Business Preferred - 80,000 Ultimate Rewards Points for spending $5000 in 3 months
Chase Ink Business Cash - $500 bonus (in the form of 50,000 Ultimate Rewards Points) for spending $3000 in 3 months
Chase Ink Business Unlimited - $500 bonus (in the form of 50,000 Ultimate Rewards Points) for spending $3000 in 3 months
Due to Chase's restrictions on how many cards you can get (important link), you wouldn't be able to get all of these in a short amount of time. But if you were able to get the top five, you'd earn 290,000 Ultimate Rewards points from signup bonuses alone. With a partner, the two of you could earn 580,000 points, worth $8,700!
Note though that Chase now prohibits you from getting more than one bonus from a Sapphire card in 24 months, so you'll need to space out at least those two cards. More realistically, let’s say you and a partner each got the Freedom, Freedom Unlimited, and Sapphire Preferred. Then you’d combine for 200,000 points worth $2500—not bad for just the two $95 annual fees.
Earning Chase Ultimate Rewards Points from Spending
This is the way most people think of earning points. We mentioned this above, but most of us are familiar with the basic formula. If my card gives 1% cash back, I get $1 back for every $100 I spend and then I use that for a statement credit.
And as you’ve now figured out, with the Chase Ultimate Rewards card you’ll earn points—instead of dollars and cents—for every dollar you spend. But what’s important is how many points you earn for spending.
Most of the cards we’ll talk about have “bonus categories.” These are categories of spending that earn more than 1 point per dollar spent. So, for example, if you charge your restaurant bill to you Chase Sapphire Preferred, you’ll get 2X points for every dollar spent.
The key to maximizing your return on spending is to use these bonus categories. This requires some amount of organization, because you want to put each purchase on the card with the best bonus for that category. For example, I always put groceries on my American Express Gold Card (that’s not a Chase card, but it’s fine for this example), because it earns 4X points on groceries, but I don’t put anything else on that card because I have other cards for other purchases.
Earning Chase Ultimate Rewards Points from Referral Bonuses
Referral bonuses aren’t a part of everyone’s strategy, but they can be valuable. If Chase is operating a referral program, you can get a personalized link to send to other people looking to sign up for the card. If those people use your link, you’ll get some amount of bonus points.
It’s worth noting that (1) Chase typically sets a cap on how many points you can get via referral bonuses and (2) Chase typically reports these bonuses to the IRS as income, so you’ll need to report them and pay taxes on them.
Cards in the Chase Ultimate Rewards Program
There are seven primary credit cards involved in the Chase Ultimate Rewards program. We’re going to break these into four “basic” cards and three “premium” cards.
The four basic cards are:
Chase Freedom (no annual fee)
Chase Freedom Unlimited (no annual fee)
Chase Ink Business Cash (no annual fee)
Chase Ink Business Unlimited (no annual fee)
Let’s quickly cover these cards before we move onto the premium cards. These cards are often advertised as providing “cash back.” This is because even though the earn Chase Ultimate Rewards points, you need one of the premium cards to do almost anything with those points other than redeem them for a statement credit of 1 point each.
However, as we mentioned above, if you have one of the premium cards then you have other redemption options—the Chase travel portal and transfers to Chase partners. Ideally you’ll have one of those cards so you’re getting more than 1 cent per point.
Chase Freedom
The Chase Freedom earns 5X points on a changing set of categories that often include things like gas stations, grocery stores, and department stores (and 1X points on everything else). The categories change every quarter (three months) and you can earn 5X points on up to $1,500 in purchases each quarter (so 7,500 points or $75 cash back). Because the card has no annual fee, it’s often a good one to have just for those rotating categories.
Chase Freedom Unlimited
The Chase Freedom Unlimited earns 1.5X points on every purchase. Basically, having this card allows you to take all your purchase that don’t fall into bonus categories on the other cards and earn 1.5X instead of 1X back by putting them on this card. It also has no annual fee.
Chase Ink Business Cash
The Chase Ink Business Cash is a no annual fee business credit card that earns:
5X points on the first $25,000 spent in combined purchases at office supply stores and on internet, cable and phone services each year
2X points on the first $25,000 spent in combined purchases at gas stations and restaurants each year
1X points back on everything else
While those categories are niche, the 2X on dining is notable if you have a business that spends a lot as restaurants.
Chase Ink Business Unlimited
As you might guess, the Chase Ink Business Unlimited is a no annual fee business credit card that earns 1.5X points on all purchase. It’s the business counterpart of the Chase Freedom Unlimited.
Now, onto the big ones. The three premium Chase Ultimate Rewards cards are:
Chase Sapphire Preferred ($95 Annual Fee)
Chase Ink Business Preferred ($95 Annual Fee)
Chase Sapphire Reserve ($550 Annual Fee)
As we discussed above, these cards are powerful not just for their own sake but because they make the Chase Ultimate Rewards points you earn with the other (basic) cards more valuable. They do this in two ways…
First, once you have a premium card, you can transfer your Ultimate Rewards Points to partner hotels and airlines. This is where the real value of the points is found, though not everyone is going to see maximum value (e.g. we redeem points for international flights that cost $10,000+, but if you only fly short, domestic flights you won’t see that value).
Second, the premium cards allow you to use your points to book travel at more than 1 cent per point. In particular:
Chase Sapphire Preferred and Ink Business Preferred cardholders get 1.25 cents per point when booking travel through the Chase Travel Portal
Chase Sapphire Reserve cardholders get 1.5 cents per point when booking travel through the Chase Travel Portal
That might seem paltry—.25 to 0.5 cents? But when you’re dealing with large amounts of points, it adds up. With a signup bonus (discussed earlier, you might quickly earn 80,000 points. Those 80,000 points are worth:
$800 if you don’t have a premium card
$1000 if you have one of the “Preferred” cards
$1200 if you have the Chase Sapphire Reserve
Let’s compare these three cards…
Chase Sapphire Preferred
The Chase Sapphire Preferred is sort of the golden child of travel hacking. It earns 2X points on travel and dining, and 1X points on everything else. As we noted above, the big advantage to having the Chase Sapphire Preferred is that it increases the value of your Chase Ultimate Rewards points by 25% and it allows your points to be transferred to partner airlines/hotels.
The $95 annual fee is more than nothing, but the card is largely considered to be worth it. If you had the standard signup bonuses from the Freedom and Freedom Unlimited (20,000 points each), getting the Sapphire Preferred would increase your 40,000 points in value from $400 to $500 (when redeemed for travel), covering the first year’s annual fee.
Chase Ink Business Preferred
The Chase Ink Business Preferred is the premium business card in the Ultimate Rewards portfolio with a $95 annual fee. Like the Sapphire Preferred, it unlocks the extra 0.25 cents per points and transfer capabilities for your points.
The Chase Ink Business Preferred earns:
3X points on the first $150,000 spent in combined purchases on travel, shipping purchases, Internet, cable and phone services, and on advertising purchases made with social media sites and search engines
1X points on everything else
As a business card, the Ink Business Preferred won’t make sense for everyone, but I bolded “travel” because if you travel a lot for your business (like I do), it pays to know that you can get 3X points back on the Ink Business Preferred for the same $95 annual fee you’d pay to get 2X back on the Sapphire Preferred.
Chase Sapphire Reserve
The Chase Sapphire Reserve is…complicated. Like…annoyingly complicated. It has an enormous $550 annual fee, which is partly offset by a $300 travel credit anyone planning a vacation this year will be able to use. So for a net of $250, which is $155 more than the other two premium cards, you get:
1.5 cents per point (up from 1.25 for “Preferred Cards”) when redeeming your points for travel expenses
3X on travel and dining (up from 2X on the Chase Sapphire Preferred)
10X (3X + 7X) on Lyft (through March 2022)
You’ll also get some popular premium credit card perks:
A Priority Pass Membership
$100 (every five years) credit toward TSA PreCheck or Global Entry
And Chase recently added these oddballs:
12 months of Lyft Pink
12 months of DoorDash DashPass
There are other perks, like travel and purchase coverage, but those are the big ones. When it had a $450 annual fee, it was an easy card to justify having because the $300 credit meant you were spending $55 more per year for the Reserve perks over the Preferred parks. With the recent fee increase to $550 and Chase’s inability to offer a compelling increase in benefits, I’m not in love with my Chase Sapphire Reserve anymore.
Keep in mind you can get Priority Pass, the $100 PreCheck credit, travel protection, and good earnings rates from other premium cards. I like my Citi Prestige because I still get good value out of the 4th Night Free benefit.
So, those seven cards are the cards to care about if you're looking to earn Ultimate Rewards points. Remember, Chase does have other cards, like the Chase Rewards Disney Visa card or the Southwest Rapid Rewards Card, that can be good for family travelers to know about, but those cards earn different points in different programs, and we're not talking about them today.
Examples of Using Chase Ultimate Rewards Points
Here are some quick examples of how you can use this program for good return.
Get 2.25% Back on Everyday Spending
The “standard” cash back amount these days is 2%, and you can easily find cards that will give you 2% back on all your spending.
While Chase doesn’t have a 2% cash back card, you can get similar outcomes if you have a Chase Freedom Unlimited (1.5X points on all purchases) and the Chase Sapphire Reserve (points worth 1.5 cents when redeemed for travel) or Preferred (points worth 1.25 cents when redeemed for travel).
For example, if I have both the Freedom Unlimited and Sapphire Preferred and I spend $10,000 on home remodeling stuff at Sears on my Freedom Unlimited, I’ll get 15,000 points. I can (easily) transfer those points ot my Sapphire Preferred account, where they are worth $187.50 in travel expenses if I book via the Chase travel portal.
If I have a Sapphire Reserve, the points will be worth $225 toward travel. That’s 1.875% or 2.25% back. Granted, this requires I spend those points on travel to get the maximum amount back, and without the Sapphire Reserve I’m still under 2%.
So I’d have to consider personally whether I’d rather use a different 2% cash back card for the purchase. I personally wouldn’t, I’d take the points because I might use them for international flights in the future.
Getting 7.5% Back With the Right Combination of Chase Cards
Take a breath and sit through some quick and easy math with us:
A quarter's bonus 5X category on the Chase Freedom is gas stations.
If we spent $1,000 at gas stations that quarter, we'd earn 5,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points.
As Chase Sapphire Reserve cardholders, we can transfer those 5,000 points to our Reserve card and when we log into the Chase travel portal, those points will be worth $75.
So by combining the 5X points on the Chase Freedom and the 1.5 cents per point on the Chase Sapphire Reserve, we're effectively getting 7.5% cash back (when redeemed for travel).
Getting 7 Cents Per Point On Singapore Airlines
Singapore Airlines is a transfer partner of Chase Ultimate Rewards. A few years back, we booked two one-way tickets in Singapore Airlines’ first class suites between Singapore and London. We used 182,750 points and paid $410 in taxes and fees. Had we just paid outright for the flight, it would have cost us $13,886. That means we got $13,476 of value from our 182,750 points, or just over 7 cents per point.
That’s a huge amount of value. To earn those 182,750 points spending in 5X categories on the Chase Freedom or Chase Ink Business Cash, we’d have to spend $36,550, but with a few signup bonuses it isn’t too tough to hit that number.
And if you could hit that spending on those 5X categories over a few years, you wind up getting a $13,476 flight out of it! That's a 37% value back!
Conclusions about Chase Ultimate Rewards and Disney Travel
Buried in this exhausting post was a simple lesson. If you’re open to staying “off-site” at Disney World, signup bonuses for Chase Ultimate Rewards points are still a great way to fund your stay.
If you’re not willing to stay off-site, signup bonuses would still be good for a substantial statement credit toward your trip (but that would be such a waste).