Chase Ultimate Rewards® Guide: Transferable points with cash redemption options

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February 13, 2025: Chase Ultimate Rewards® is a transferable points rewards program that offers travel rewards, cash back rewards, and point transfers to partners. Cards earning Ultimate Rewards® include no-annual-fee cards like the Chase Freedom Flex℠ and Chase Freedom Unlimited®, the premium travel credit cards like the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and Chase Sapphire Reserve®, and small business cards like the Ink Business Cash® Credit Card, Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card and Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card.

Here’s what you need to know about Chase Ultimate Rewards®.

Chase Ultimate Rewards® at a Glance

Chase Ultimate Rewards® is the transferable reward points program of Chase. The program offers many easy ways to earn points through credit card welcome bonuses, spending, and shopping through its portal and its cards offer benefits that can sometimes be even more valuable that the rewards you earn. The program also features an excellent suite of transfer partners and travel redemption options that make it easy to get value from your points.

Credit cards that earn Chase Ultimate Rewards®

Chase currently offers a total of seven credit cards that earn Ultimate Rewards. Many of these cards are “marketed” as cash-back cards, meaning you’ll see references to the cards rewards as x% cash back, but rest assured, all of these cards earn Ultimate Rewards® behind the scenes.

Here are the personal credit cards that earn Ultimate Rewards:

• Chase Freedom Flex®. A card offering 5% rewards in bonus categories that change quarterly.
• Chase Freedom Unlimited®. Chase’s personal 1.5% everywhere card, but it includes a few bonus categories.
• Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card. The lower-tier premium travel card offering more points on travel and great travel insurance protections.
• Chase Sapphire Reserve®. The high-tier premium travel card offering airport lounge access, maximum travel rewards and best-in-class travel insurance protections.

Chase has three small business cards, branded as Chase Ink cards, that earn Ultimate Rewards.

• Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card. A small business card offering unlimited 1.5% cash back rewards.
• Ink Business Cash® Credit Card. A small business card offering bonus rewards in business-relevant categories.
• Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card. Chase’s only premium Ultimate Rewards® small business credit card. Offers similar travel insurance benefits to the Sapphire Preferred, plus 3x points on the first $150,000 of travel expenses each year.

Finally, there are two credit cards that are not available to new cardmembers, but are still maintained for existing cardmembers and may be an option if you want to product change a credit card, in some cases.

• Chase Freedom. The original Chase Freedom card. Similar to the Chase Freedom Flex®, but issued as a Visa Signature card. To our knowledge, this card is not available to new cardmembers or for product changes.
• Chase Sapphire. Chase used to offer a no-annual-fee Sapphire-branded card. This card may be available as a downgrade option from the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and Chase Sapphire Reserve®

Earning Chase Ultimate Rewards®

There are four ways to earn Chase Ultimate Rewards® points. More details on each of these is below.

• Credit card sign-up bonuses. Most Chase credit cards offer a bonus for new cardmembers who get the card and meet a minimum spending requirement, usually within 3-6 months.
• Using credit cards that earn Ultimate Rewards for spending. All of the Chase Ultimate Rewards® credit cards award points for spending put on the card. You’ll earn the most points if you hold multiple cards and align your spending with the card’s bonus categories.
• Chase Ultimate Rewards Shopping. Chase offers points when you click through its shopping portal and make purchases from select merchants.
• Refer-A-Friend. Many Chase cards offer you the option to refer a friend. If your friend gets a Chase credit card through your link, you’ll earn a bonus.

Earning Chase Ultimate Rewards® from credit card welcome bonuses

If you want to earn Ultimate Rewards®, by far the fastest way to amass a mountain of points is through credit card welcome bonuses. You’ll need to get a new card and use the card for spending, usually a few thousand dollars within a few months, to earn a bonus.

Here are the current welcome bonuses available on Chase Ultimate Rewards® credit cards:

Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card Annual fee: annual_fees	Sign-up bonus: bonus_miles_full Learn how to apply. Earns Ultimate Rewards and enables both redemptions for 25% more value through Chase Travel℠ and transfers to partners.
Ink Business Cash® Credit Card Annual fee: annual_fees	Sign-up bonus: bonus_miles_full Learn how to apply. Bonus is marketed as cash back, but the card earns Ultimate Rewards® points behind the scenes.
Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card Annual fee: annual_fees	Sign-up bonus: bonus_miles_full Learn how to apply. Bonus is marketed as cash back, but the card earns Ultimate Rewards® points behind the scenes.
Chase Sapphire Reserve® Annual fee: annual_fees	Sign-up bonus: bonus_miles_full Learn how to apply. Offers the most generous value of any Chase card when redeeming points for travel through Chase Travel℠ (50% more value) and enables transfers to travel partners.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card Annual fee: annual_fees	Sign-up bonus: bonus_miles_full Learn how to apply. The bonus above is the best bonus online, but you can frequently find a better offer in-branch. We cover the in-branch offers in our dedicated article on the Chase Sapphire Preferred® sign-up bonus offers. Earns Ultimate Rewards and enables both redemptions for 25% more value through Chase Travel℠ and transfers to partners.
Chase Freedom Unlimited® Annual fee: annual_fees	Sign-up bonus: bonus_miles_full Learn how to apply. The offer above is not the only offer available online. There are other offers available on this card and you should absolutely read our article on the best Freedom Unlimited bonuses before applying to make sure you get the right offer for you. The Freedom Unlimited is marketed as a cash back card, but the card earns Ultimate Rewards® points behind the scenes.
Chase Freedom Flex® Annual fee: $0	Sign-up bonus: Earn a $200 bonus after you spend $500 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. Learn how to apply. The Freedom Unlimited is marketed as a cash back card, but the card earns Ultimate Rewards® points behind the scenes.

We have more about these bonuses in our dedicated article on the best Chase Ultimate Rewards® bonus offers.

Earning Chase Ultimate Rewards® from credit card spending

One of the best ways to earn Chase Ultimate Rewards® points is to carry a few Chase cards that earn points in categories where you spend the most. Here’s an overview of which cards earn the most Chase Ultimate Rewards® for spending in various bonus categories.

Best card in category	Cards that earn more than 1.5x in category
Advertising purchases made with select social media sites and search engines
3x: Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card. Annual limit applies.1	–
Chase Travel℠
10x on hotels and car rentals, 5x on flights: Chase Sapphire Reserve®2	5%: Chase Freedom Flex® 5%: Chase Freedom Unlimited® 5x: Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card3
Dining at restaurants, including eligible delivery services, takeout, and dining out.
3x on general dining, and 10x on Chase Dining: Chase Sapphire Reserve®	3%: Chase Freedom Flex® 3%: Chase Freedom Unlimited® 3x: Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card 2%: Ink Business Cash® Credit Card. Includes restaurants only. Annual limit applies.5
Drugstores
3%: Chase Freedom Flex® 3%: Chase Freedom Unlimited®	–
Gas stations
2%: Ink Business Cash® Credit Card. Annual limit applies.5	–
Groceries (online) excluding Target, Walmart, and wholesale clubs.
3x: Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card	–
Internet, cable, and phone services
5%: Ink Business Cash® Credit Card. Annual limit applies.5	3x: Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card. Annual limit applies.1
Quarterly bonus categories
5%: Chase Freedom Flex®. Quarterly limit applies.4	–
Office supply stores
5%: Ink Business Cash® Credit Card. Annual limit applies.5	–
Shipping purchases
3x: Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card. Annual limit applies.1	–
Streaming select streaming services.
3x: Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card	–
Travel including airlines, hotels, motels, car rental agencies, cruise lines, and more.
3x: Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card. Annual limit applies.1	2x: Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card2

On general purchases, you’ll earn the most points with the Chase Freedom Unlimited® and Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card. Both cards earn unlimited 1.5% on general purchases.

¹ The Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card earns 3x in its bonus categories on the first $150,000 spent in combined purchases each account anniversary year, then 1x.
² Chase Sapphire Reserve® earns bonus points on Chase Travel℠ after the first $300 is spent on travel purchases annually. 10x points on hotels excludes The Edit℠.
³ The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card’s 5x bonus on Chase Travel℠ purchases excludes hotel purchases that qualify for the $50 annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit.
⁴ With the Chase Freedom Flex®, you earn 5% on up to $1,500 on combined purchases in bonus categories each quarter you activate.
⁵ The Ink Business Cash® Credit Card earns 2% cash back on the first $25,000 spent in combined purchases at gas stations and restaurants each account anniversary year and 5% cash back on the first $25,000 spent in combined purchases at office supply stores and on internet, cable and phone services each account anniversary year.

Earning with Ultimate Rewards® Shopping

If you’re familiar with shopping portals like Rakuten and TopCashBack, Ultimate Rewards® Shopping will feel very familiar. All you need to do to earn extra points is click through and shop online like you would anyway. If your purchase qualifies and tracks, you’ll earn extra Ultimate Rewards® points.

To access Ultimate Rewards® shopping, go to https://ultimaterewardsearn.chase.com/.

You’ll be prompted to log into your Chase online account and select the card you want to use with the shopping portal. Sometimes Chase pays different rates of Ultimate Rewards points, depending on which card you select. We recommend going to cashbackmonitor.com and checking rates before going to the Ultimate Rewards shopping portal if you want to earn the most points possible.

Note that you do not have to use the same card, or even a Chase card to actually make the purchase—you’ll earn Ultimate Rewards simply from clicking through and making your purchase.

If you have a shopping browser extension like Capital One Shopping or Honey installed, we recommend uninstalling that extension if you want to use Ultimate Rewards Shopping. Those browser extensions are known to hijack shopping sessions—and if they do, the company offering the browser extension will get paid a commission for your purchase and you won’t earn any Ultimate Rewards from click through Chase’s portal.

Earning with Chase Refer-A-Friend

If you have a friend or family member that you think would be a good fit for a Chase credit card, you can often earn points for referring your friend to Chase.

All you need to refer them is your last name, ZIP code, and last four digits of your cardmember and your friend’s permission to send them a link if sending it via text message. You can generate referrals through the Chase Refer-A-Friend website or after logging in to Chase.com or the Chase mobile app.

We have an article on how to use the Chase Refer-A-Friend program if you want to dig into the details.

Redeeming Chase Ultimate Rewards®

Chase Ultimate Rewards® can be redeemed for a variety of cash back and travel rewards. But not every reward option is a good value. Cash back redemptions, available on every card, represent a value floor on Ultimate Rewards® redemptions. Here’s our quick take on the available reward redemption options:

The best value Ultimate Rewards® redemptions

Two redemption options stand above all others when it comes to redeeming Ultimate Rewards: Travel booked through Chase Travel℠ and point transfers to airline and hotel transfer partners.

You’ll need a premium Ultimate Rewards® card (one with an annual fee) to access point transfers. And you’ll want one if redeeming points through Chase Travel, since all of the premium cards give you more value for your Ultimate Rewards points when you redeem them for travel through Chase Travel. This means you’ll need to hold one of these cards to access the best redemption options:

• Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card. Enables point transfers to partners and gives you 25% more value when you redeem through Chase Travel℠.
• Chase Sapphire Reserve®. Enables point transfers to partners and gives you 50% more value when you redeem through Chase Travel℠.
• Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card. Enables point transfers to partners and gives you 25% more value when you redeem through Chase Travel℠.

Outside of those redemption options, you’ll want to redeem your points for cash back. Most other redemption options aren’t worth considering. Even Chase’s gift card promotions aren’t a great deal—they’ll give you “more value” for your points on gift cards that you can often buy at a discount.

Transfers to airline and hotel transfer partners

By far, point transfers to travel partners offer the best opportunity to get outsized value out of your Ultimate Rewards® points. This redemption option is available only to cardholders of one of Chase’s premium Ultimate Rewards® credit cards: Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, Chase Sapphire Reserve®, or Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card.

To take advantage of an airline or hotel transfer partner, you’ll want to consolidate your points by moving them to your premium Ultimate Rewards® credit card first.

For example, if you earned points with a Chase Freedom Unlimited® card and wanted to transfer them to Hyatt you wouldn’t be able to transfer them directly. But you could move the points from your Freedom Unlimited to your Chase Sapphire Preferred card and then transfer them to Hyatt.

See the section on transfer partners below for more on Chase’s transfer partners and which ones are worth transferring to.

Cash back redemptions

Chase gives you a few options for redeeming your Ultimate Rewards® for cash back. You can redeem your points for a statement credit to your credit card or receive your cash back rewards as a direct deposit into most U.S. checking and savings accounts.

When you redeem for a direct deposit into a checking or savings account, you can select one of the accounts you use to pay your credit card or enter your routing and account number for another U.S. banking account.

Ultimate Rewards® points redeemed for cash back will get you 1 cent per point of value. Cash back redemptions are available on all Ultimate Rewards® credit cards.

Pay Yourself Back®

With Pay Yourself Back®, you can redeem your points for statement credits to offset recent purchases on your eligible Ultimate Rewards® card. You’ll get 1 cent per point when you redeem your rewards against most purchases, but Chase occasionally offers additional point value in select categories, though those categories are likely to appeal only to a limited audience. In most cases, you can get better value redeeming your points for travel if you hold a premium Ultimate Rewards® credit card.

When it was launched, Chase Pay Yourself Back® was a great way to get additional cash value for your points. At one point, you could redeem points for 1.5 cents per point toward grocery store purchases with the Chase Sapphire Reserve® card. The best options are long-gone and most of the remaining options offer only as much value as redeeming your points for travel through Chase Travel.

Ultimate Rewards® gift card redemptions

Redeeming Chase Ultimate Rewards® for gift cards typically isn’t a great use of points.

Chase Ultimate Rewards® are normally worth only 1 cent each toward gift cards, but when a gift card is on sale, you can sometimes get a gift card for 10% off.

But even if you purchase gift cards that Chase is featuring for 10% off, you’re not likely to get good value from this redemption. Chase runs its 10% off sales on gift cards that you can often find even larger discounts on elsewhere.

If you want to redeem your rewards for a gift card, the best plan may be to simply redeem your points for cash, and hunt around for a discounted gift card online.

Transfer partners: The key to getting great value from Ultimate Rewards

	Aer Lingus Aer Club	1,000 points = Aer Club points
	Air France KLM Flying Blue	1,000 points = 1,000 miles
	Air Canda Aeroplan	1,000 points = 1,000 Aeroplan® points
	British Airways Executive Club	1,000 points = 1,000 Avios
	Emirates Skywards	1,000 points = 1,000 miles
	Iberia Plus	1,000 points = 1,000 Avios
	JetBlue True Blue	1,000 points = 1,000 True Blue points
	Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer®	1,000 points = 1,000 miles
	Southwest Rapid Rewards	1,000 points = 1,000 Rapid Rewards points
	United MileagePlus	1,000 points = 1,000 miles
	Virgin Atlantic Flying Club	1,000 points = 1,000 Virgin points
	IHG One Rewards	1,000 points = 1,000 IHG One Rewards points
	Marriott Bonvoy®	1,000 points = 1,000 Marriott Bonvoy point
	World of Hyatt	1,000 points = 1,000 World of Hyatt points

Our favorite Chase transfer partners

Which transfer partners are most valuable to you will depend on how you plan to use your points for travel. Here are the Chase transfer partners that we’ve found most useful:

• Air Canada Aeroplan offers flights on Star Alliance that are easy to book, with low additional charges. We haven’t personally booked anything through them, but we’ve spent plenty of time on the Air Canada website pricing stuff out and found plenty of great deals.
• Air France KLM Flying Blue is a great choice to get to Europe, especially when you can take advantage of its monthly promo awards. The program offers fixed pricing on select flights and we’ve found some great deals when fixed-price awards are available. We’ve also found the program useful for booking some awards on Delta within the U.S.
• Avios (British Airways, Aer Lingus, Iberia) may offer some deals for short-haul flights on OneWorld, but its’ been a few years since we’ve really been able to take advantage.
• Hyatt is the transfer partner we use the most—you can easily get 1.5 cents per point of value toward your Hyatt stays and there’s a lot of opportunity to get substantially more value. And this value exists across the luxury spectrum—we’ve gotten stellar deals with World of Hyatt points on budget airport hotels and luxury hotels alike.
• Virgin Atlantic Flying Club was the program we used to book a business class trip to New Zealand last year. We have never been able to successfully book the Delta One award space that everyone seems to hype up.

Card synergies: Cards that boost the value of your other cards and points

Within the Chase Ultimate Rewards® ecosystem, you’ll want to hold at least one premium credit card to access the best reward redemption options. The no-annual-fee cards don’t let you redeem your points for increased travel value or transfer them to partners directly. But you can transfer the points to your premium card and then redeem them.

The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card give you 1.25 cents of value on each of your points when you redeem them through Chase Travel. The Chase Sapphire Reserve® gives you 1.5 cents of value on each point when you redeem this way. All three cards let you transfer your points to travel partners.

Combining Ultimate Rewards points

Chase allows you to easily transfer your Ultimate Rewards® points among any of your own cards. Typically, you’ll transfer points from your no-annual-fee credit card to a premium card like the Chase Sapphire Reserve® in order to take advantage of point transfers to partners or travel redemptions with increased value.

You can also transfer your Ultimate Rewards® points to another card if you plan to close one of your cards. Your points will remain active as long as they are attached to a currently-open card.

We have a step by step guide on how to transfer your Ultimate Rewards® points to one of your other cards.

Sharing points with a household member

There are two ways to share points with a household member.

You can transfer your Ultimate Rewards® point to a partner program account owned by another person. For example, you could transfer your Ultimate Rewards® to another household member’s United MileagePlus account. To do this, the point recipient must be a member of your household and an authorized user on your Chase credit card account.

You can also transfer your points to another household member’s Ultimate Rewards® account. Before you can transfer points between household members, you’ll need to link your accounts. Unfortunately, the only way to do this os over the phone. You’ll need both parties’ account numbers during the phone call.

Point expiration and how to keep your points alive

Your Chase Ultimate Rewards® points do not expire as long as you keep your credit card open. However, as soon as your account is closed, any Ultimate Rewards® points held on that card are gone with no chance to redeem them.

If you want to cancel a card that has Ultimate Rewards® banked on it, the best solution is to transfer them to another Ultimate Rewards® credit card that you intend to keep open. You can transfer an unlimited number of Ultimate Rewards® points between your own accounts for free.

Bottom line: Chase Ultimate Rewards® is stellar program for travel redemptions

Compared to other bank rewards programs, Chase Ultimate Rewards® biggest strength is the number of easy ways to get value from your points. You can always cash out your points for 1 cent each, getting more value through Chase Travel redemptions is simple, and Chase has a set of transfer partners that are relatively easy to use.

Other banks may offer more opportunities to earn points or transfer partners with more opportunities to get insanely good value from your points. But those other programs don’t always have great cash back and easy travel redemption options—and while you can get plenty of value from some international airline partners, sometimes using these programs requires a PhD in miles and points. In contrast, Chase keeps things simple.

Advertiser disclosure: Cards and Points has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Cards and Points and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers. Some or all of the card offers that appear on this site are from advertisers. Compensation may affect how and where card products appear on the site. The site does not include all card companies or all available offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities. Terms apply to all credit card benefits.