If you’re collecting miles & points through credit card spending, I always recommend doing what you can to accrue transferable points currencies.
That’s because these points are much more flexible than when you’re earning an individual airline or hotel points currency. You have the ability to transfer these points to all kinds of travel partners, and you’re safeguarded from a devaluation in a specific points currency.
With that in mind, in this post I wanted to address all the basics of transferring Chase Ultimate Rewards points. How many partners does Chase Ultimate Rewards have, how long does it take for points to transfer, who can you transfer points to, etc.
In this post:
How many airline and hotel partners does Chase Ultimate Rewards have?
As of now, Chase Ultimate Rewards has 14 airline and hotel transfer partners — that includes eleven airline partners and three hotel partners.
The 11 airline partners include the following:
- Aer Lingus AerClub
- Air Canada Aeroplan
- Air France-KLM Flying Blue
- British Airways Executive Club
- Emirates Skywards
- Iberia Plus
- JetBlue TrueBlue
- Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
- Southwest Rapid Rewards
- United MileagePlus
- Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
The three hotel partners include the following:
- IHG One Rewards
- Marriott Bonvoy
- World of Hyatt
Some might argue that Chase really only has 12 partners, since you can transfer points between Aer Lingus, British Airways, and Iberia pretty freely, assuming your accounts meet certain requirements.
How long does it take to transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points in June 2023?
Below is a chart with how long it typically takes to transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points:
Ultimate Rewards Transfer Partner | Transfer Ratio | Transfer Time |
|---|---|---|
Aer Lingus Aer Club | 1000 : 1000 | Instant |
Air Canada Aeroplan | 1000 : 1000 | Instant |
Air France KLM FlyingBlue | 1000 : 1000 | Instant |
British Airways Executive Club | 1000 : 1000 | Instant |
Emirates Skywards | 1000 : 1000 | Instant |
Iberia Plus | 1000 : 1000 | Instant |
JetBlue TrueBlue | 1000 : 1000 | Instant |
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer | 1000 : 1000 | ~ 1 to 7 days |
Southwest Rapid Rewards | 1000 : 1000 | Instant |
United MileagePlus | 1000 : 1000 | Instant |
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club | 1000 : 1000 | Instant |
IHG One Rewards | 1000 : 1000 | Instant |
Marriott Bonvoy | 1000 : 1000 | ~ 1 to 2 days |
World of Hyatt | 1000 : 1000 | Instant |
As you can see:
- Transfers to 12 partners are typically instant
- Transfers to Marriott Bonvoy and Singapore KrisFlyer are the only ones that aren’t instant; the KrisFlyer transfers are most inconsistent, and sometimes take less than a day, and sometimes take significantly longer
Are there fees associated with transferring Chase Ultimate Rewards points?
No, there are no fees associated with transferring Chase Ultimate Rewards points. This is one advantage of Chase Ultimate Rewards over Amex Membership Rewards, since Amex imposes small fees when you transfer points to US airline partners.
Can you transfer Chase points to someone else’s Chase account?
Chase lets you pool the points you earn on all cards in your name that accrue Ultimate Rewards points. On top of that, you can move your points to another Chase account of someone in your household. Do note that if you abuse this benefit, Chase may close your account.
Here are the terms associated with that:
You can move your points, but only to another Chase card with Ultimate Rewards belonging to you, or one member of your household. If we suspect that you’ve engaged in fraudulent activity related to your credit card account or Ultimate Rewards, or that you’ve misused Ultimate Rewards in any way (for example by buying or selling points, moving or transferring points with or to an ineligible third party or account, or repeatedly opening or otherwise maintaining credit card accounts for the sole purpose of generating rewards) we may temporarily prohibit you from earning points or using points you’ve already earned. If we believe you’ve engaged in any of these acts, we’ll close your credit card account and you’ll lose all your points.
Can you transfer Chase points to someone else’s airline or hotel accounts?
You can transfer your Chase Ultimate Rewards points to a loyalty program belonging to you, or one additional household member who is also listed as an authorized user on your card. Once you transfer points to an authorized user, that person will be the only authorized user eligible to receive points transfers.
What cards earn Chase Ultimate Rewards points?
Some of the best cards for earning Chase Ultimate Rewards points include the following:
- The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (review) offers 3x points on dining, online groceries, and select streaming services, and 2x points on travel; the card has a $95 annual fee
- The Chase Sapphire Reserve® (review) offers 3x points on dining and travel, plus a $300 annual travel credit; the card has a $550 annual fee
- The Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card (review) offers 3x points on the first $150,000 spent in combined purchases annually on travel, shipping purchases, internet, cable, and phone services, and advertising purchases made with social media sites and search engines; the card has a $95 annual fee
On top of that, the following four no annual fee cards earn points that can be converted into Chase Ultimate Rewards points at a 1:1 ratio in conjunction with one of the above cards:
- The Chase Freedom FlexSM (review) offers 5x points in rotating quarterly categories, on up to $1,500 of spending per quarter, plus 3x points on dining and drugstores; the card has no annual fee
- The Chase Freedom Unlimited® (review) offers 1.5x points on everyday spending, plus 3x points on dining and drugstores; the card has no annual fee
- The Ink Business Cash® Credit Card (review) offers 5x points on the first $25,000 spent in combined purchases each anniversary year on cellular phone, landline, internet and cable TV services, plus 2x points on the first $25,000 spend in combined purchases each anniversary year on gas stations and restaurants; the card has no annual fee
- The Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card (review) offers 1.5x points on everyday spending; the card has no annual fee
Note that you can earn the welcome bonus on each of the above cards, with the exception of the Sapphire Preferred and Sapphire Reserve, where you can only earn the bonus on either card if you don’t have either card, and haven’t earned the welcome bonus on either card in the past 48 months.
You can pool all those points toward one Ultimate Rewards account. However, the biggest restriction in getting approved for the above cards is Chase’s 5/24 rule, where Chase typically won’t approve you for one of those cards if you’ve opened five or more new card accounts in the past 24 months.
Should you transfer Chase points to travel partners?
In general, the best use of Chase Ultimate Rewards points is to convert them into airline miles or hotel points. Specifically, my favorite transfer partners are Air Canada Aeroplan, Air France-KLM Flying Blue, British Airways Executive Club, Emirates Skywards, Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer, and particularly World of Hyatt. However, you only want to do this once you’ve figured out the award you want to book, have verified availability, and are sure you understand how that program works.
If you’re someone who prefers to redeem your points as cash back toward travel, be sure you at least maximize the value. You get different value out of the points depending on the most premium card you have (these values are when redeeming through the Chase Travel Portal):
- If you have the Chase Sapphire Reserve®, you can redeem each point for 1.5 cents toward a travel redemption
- Otherwise, if you have the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card or Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card, you can redeem each point for 1.25 cents toward a travel redemption
Personally, I value Chase Ultimate Rewards points at 1.7 cents each, so this isn’t how I’d choose to redeem them. That being said, if you can get 1.5 cents of value per point, that’s potentially a great deal if you have the right card combo.
For example, if you have the Chase Freedom Unlimited® in conjunction with the Chase Sapphire Reserve®, you’d be looking at a return of 2.25% toward travel on everyday, non-bonused spending (since the Freedom Unlimited offers 1.5x points on all purchases).
Bottom line
Chase Ultimate Rewards is one of the all-around most valuable points currencies out there. Chase Ultimate Rewards has some great transfer partners, and some might find it worthwhile to redeem the points for 1.5 cents each toward purchases.
On top of that, the points are pretty easy to rack up thanks to all the great cards that accrue Ultimate Rewards points.
If you have any data points on how long Chase Ultimate Rewards points transfers have taken you, please share them below, so that I can keep the chart as accurate as possible!
| Want to learn more about points transfer times? See our series about how long points transfers take with Amex Membership Rewards, Capital One, Chase Ultimate Rewards, and Citi ThankYou. |
I just requested a transfer to United, it's been an hour and still not done. Will report when I see it posts.
Three days (Sunday to Wed) for a Chase-to-Marriott transfer for me.
I transferred 20k points on the phone with chase 2/26/23 for a Southwest flight I wanted to book immediately. The points didn’t transfer instantaneously. I then transferred another 20k pts using the chase travel site. Those didn’t transfer either. I received an email an hour later saying the phone transfer had been cancelled. It’s now on day 9!! and the second transfer still hasn’t taken place.
Ditto here. 3 day transfer just cost me 19k points of the transfer as the redemption cost went up. Sadness.
I submitted a transfer from Chase to United on Sunday and it's now Wednesday afternoon and I'm STILL waiting for them to arrive. United was kind enough to do a 48-hr farelock for me until the miles arrived. That expired last night and now the flights I wanted are no longer available. Frustrating to say the least.
I am waiting on Ultimate Rewards points I just transferred to Southwest and am still waiting after an hour.
Yep. I've had two instances in the past two weeks where UR points take 24-48 hrs. to transfer between the same accounts that have transferred instantly for years. Frustrating because neither Chase nor Hyatt know why some transactions take longer. Already lost out on one redemption. Now crossing fingers I don't lose the second one. Fix this Chase and Hyatt.
Sadly Hyatt is no longer reliably instant. I’ve been transferring points from chase to Hyatt for over ten years now, but in the last two months, I’ve had two instances where it took >48 hours.
This is a big big devaluation imo. It’s not unheard of to lose Hyatt award space.
This needs to be fixed asap by chase and Hyatt imo.
You can get krisflyer instantly by using another bank program. Write about that!
Last month, I transferred points from Capital One to Krisflyer that took one day while Chase took seven solid days. It was too close for comfort as Krisflyer only held the booking for nine days. I emailed Chase that if points did not post in time and I lost the booking, I'd write a complaint to Jamie Dimon. I have the address in my notebook. He will not answer but his assistant will.
Transfers are sadly no longer reliably instant over the last few years. I've found that perhaps 3 out of 10 transfers wind up delaying around 24-48 hours recently - this has been the case with transfers to Flying Blue, Mileage Plus and Aeroplan.
Ironically, most of my transfers to Marriott Bonvoy (usually small amounts just to top off an account) have been instant despite the warnings that it could take 1-2 days!
I transferred to Flying Blue last week and it was instant, but I do agree with you. The problem is that it is instant from Chase or Alex's side, but on the FF program's side it will show the points in your activity but then will take 24-48 hours to process and actually post in your balance. Then the cards and blogs will say "instant" when in reality it's not the case. I've noticed certain...
I transferred to Flying Blue last week and it was instant, but I do agree with you. The problem is that it is instant from Chase or Alex's side, but on the FF program's side it will show the points in your activity but then will take 24-48 hours to process and actually post in your balance. Then the cards and blogs will say "instant" when in reality it's not the case. I've noticed certain FF program's are worse than others though - in particular for me are Lifemiles and Aeroplan.
Last year I transferred 90k miles to air France from chase and it was instant. Last night I transferred 150k from chase to AF (same accounts on both sides) and it's still not there. I wonder if the amount transferred matters.
What about bonus points when they run promos?
My transfer to Avios was instant with the points I transferred. But the 25% bonus was severely delayed and took over a week. Is it always like this with bonus points, or was I just unlucky?
Yes, large amounts can be held for a few days for auditing.
I recently (in November, 2022) transferred about 250k UR points to Aeroplan during their 30% transfer bonus. The transfer ended up taking several days to post in my Aeroplan account. I think over some threshold Chase/Air Canada hold transfers for review.