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 March 2024?
Below is a chart with how long it typically takes to transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points:
Ultimate Rewards Transfer Partner | Transfer Ratio | Transfer Time |
|---|---|---|
1000 : 1000 | Instant | |
1000 : 1000 | Instant | |
1000 : 1000 | Instant | |
1000 : 1000 | Instant | |
1000 : 1000 | Instant | |
1000 : 1000 | Instant | |
1000 : 1000 | Instant | |
1000 : 1000 | ~ 1 to 7 days | |
1000 : 1000 | Instant | |
1000 : 1000 | Instant | |
1000 : 1000 | Instant | |
1000 : 1000 | Instant | |
1000 : 1000 | ~ 1 to 2 days | |
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.
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. |
Emirates Skyrewards is not instant either. Currently waiting about 12 hours and counting.
Time to hire an editor. The chart says Bonvoy transfers are instant, then you go on to say all points transfer instantly except Bonvoy and Kris Flyer.
Just transferred major miles for tickets. Chase rep confidently said transfer to United would be 5-10min. Several hours later United rep confirmed it would take 7-10 days. Hope tickets don't sell out!!!! So anxious now! BTW, dont buy tickets to Asia on United in November, heard it's awful!! :)
Just wanted to echo the fact that Chase transfers to United are often not instant. My last one took just under 24 hours and by then my seats were long gone.
It simply isn't true that points transfers to Air Canada and United are instant. Sometimes they are, and sometimes there are inexplicable delays of up to a week. This should be correctly indicated. It's a well documented issue.
Not sure why, but I haven’t had an instant transfer for some time now. 3ish days to United, 2ish to Air Canada, and 3ish to Flying Blue.
I transferred Chase points to Singapore Airlines last week. The transfer took 69 hours.
On the Chase Website, I was permitted to transfer points to either my own Krisflyer account, or that of my wife, who is an authorized user of the card.
The online feature didn't work, but I was able to transfer the points via a quick phone call to Chase. They warned me that the transfer could take up to seven days...
I transferred Chase points to Singapore Airlines last week. The transfer took 69 hours.
On the Chase Website, I was permitted to transfer points to either my own Krisflyer account, or that of my wife, who is an authorized user of the card.
The online feature didn't work, but I was able to transfer the points via a quick phone call to Chase. They warned me that the transfer could take up to seven days to complete, but that most transfers happen "within a day."
It took three days.
Bonvoy 2 point transfers of <15k points were instant. 1 of ~100k points was 3 days. Hyatt 3 transfers of ~50k took 3-5 days.
My experience is that transferring points is a crap shoot as inventory can disappear in the 3-5 days it takes for points to show up.
I can confirm United has not been consistently instant for a while now. I've had three transfers take anywhere from 3-7 days in the last six months. I now try to give myself plenty of extra time; thankfully, United still allows you to hold fares for 3 or 7 days, so that's made the difference.
I had serious issues transferring Chase points, to all of things, United Miles in late October. I tried to transfer 200K pts to United and it stalled for a week before the transfer was canceled. A week later I transferred smaller quantities (10K, 90K, 90K) 2 which of which went through immediately and one that took about 35 hours to complete.
Chase told me that transfers will complete usually in a day but could...
I had serious issues transferring Chase points, to all of things, United Miles in late October. I tried to transfer 200K pts to United and it stalled for a week before the transfer was canceled. A week later I transferred smaller quantities (10K, 90K, 90K) 2 which of which went through immediately and one that took about 35 hours to complete.
Chase told me that transfers will complete usually in a day but could take up to 7 days.
Has anyone one experienced similar issues with Chase UR points?
Ben, please fix the Aeroplan line - it is no longer instant, just as Wayne wrote! I had 2 transfers, one took over 48 hours, another over 24 hours. Anything large enough for a good redemption takes at least a day to transfer. I am talking about an existing account, with a prior history of both transfers and redemptions, as well as direct earning using an Aeroplan credit card.
Hyatt and Southwest transfers have been instant. Singapore Airlines took about 2 days, though it felt like an eternity while hoping the saver award space didn't go away.
Yes, the wait and the disappearing award space make UR points much less useful. Someone I know finally got fed up with Chase - they are transferring about 500k UR points to Aeroplan while there is still 20% bonus available, to be used as statement credit at 1.25c per point, then closing all their Chase cards.
Transfers from Chase to Air Canada are usually instantaneous, but often there can be a delay of 24 hours or more — usually at the worst, most inconvenient time. It’s not clear why, but it probably has something to do with fraud prevention measures. It often happens with new AC accounts, or with sequences of smaller transfers meant to add up to a particular number. Can you address this? It seems impossible to predict, but...
Transfers from Chase to Air Canada are usually instantaneous, but often there can be a delay of 24 hours or more — usually at the worst, most inconvenient time. It’s not clear why, but it probably has something to do with fraud prevention measures. It often happens with new AC accounts, or with sequences of smaller transfers meant to add up to a particular number. Can you address this? It seems impossible to predict, but it would be good to know how to avoid such situations to reduce stress.
I've done 2 SQ transfers in the last two weeks and both took about 12 hours!