Reader Question – What Hotel Chain Should I Transfer 60k Chase Ultimate Rewards Points to?

Reader Question – What Hotel Chain Should I Transfer my 60k Chase Ultimate Rewards Points to?

Chase Ultimate Rewards (CUR) points are one of the most valuable point currencies in the travel rewards game. Earned through the Chase Sapphire Preferred, the Chase Ink Plus,the Chase Freedom, & Chase Freedom Unlimited – the value is driven by their redemption flexibility. They provide you with the ability to A – book travel through the Chase Ultimate Rewards Portal at the advantageous 20% off travel redemption AND/OR B – to transfer to any one of eleven Chase Travel Partners at a 1:1 ratio! 

*Note: Chase Freedom and Chase Freedom Unlimited cardholders can only transfer their Chase Ultimate Rewards to travel partners IF they ALSO have either a Chase Sapphire Preferred Card or Chase Ink Plus card.

The best hotel transfer partner for your 60,000 CUR points will very much depend on your individual travel goals and your current point balances. But, we can answer a different question…

What Chase Ultimate Rewards Hotel Transfer Partner [generally] provides the best value for award redemptions?

To answer that question, let’s take a look at the potential hotel travel partners and cite specific redemption examples!

First things first though, here are the Chase Ultimate Rewards Hotel Transfer Partners:

Remember, Chase Ultimate Rewards will transfer to these Hotel Transfer partners at a 1:1 ratio – meaning a transfer of 1,000 CUR points will result 1,000 points in Marriott, IHG or Hyatt rewards programs. Also, once the points are transferred out of Chase, they cannot be transferred back in, so make sure you do your research prior to making a transfer!

Since Marriott owns Ritz Carlton, that leaves you with 3 distinct Chase Hotel Transfer Partners.

So, which provides the best value for award redemptions?

Well, just take a look at the award redemption prices for each of the programs and see for yourself…

IHG –

IHG does not have a published free night chart with categories , but currently the most expensive free night 60,000 points. If you are curious as to a specific hotel and the amount of points to redeem, search your dates at IHG.com

 

Marriott –

 

Hyatt –

You should notice right away the obvious fact that the Hyatt Award chart provides for much lower point redemption opportunities – especially at the highest hotel category! AKA – More bang for your points!

Real Life Example:

Let’s take it a step further and view award prices for some specific high category luxury hotels (Intercontinental Times Square, Ritz Carlton Central Park and The Park Hyatt) in New York City to see how the value compares – Remember 1 CUR point = 1 point in the IHG, Marriott, or Hyatt reward programs.

Let’s go back to the initial reader question and imagine that we have 60k CURs to transfer and see what kind of value we can achieve…

I searched a weekend in February 2017 and here is what I found:

IHG – The Intercontinental New York Times Square

Ugh. Transferring 60,000 CURs to IHG Rewards could get you one award night redemption, but that is really not a great value, considering the cash price per night is just over $200. If you make this transfer and book this redemption your 60k points would provide you a value of just $210 – NO BUENO!

If you are set on the Intercontinental Times Square, try booking through the Chase Ultimate Rewards Portal for a much better value:

Marriott – The Ritz Carlton Central Park – Tier 5 Ritz Carlton

140,000 points per stay means 70,000 points per night! Our 60,000 CURs that we transferred to Marriott would not even provide us with a single award night! Looks like we will be paying the $600+ per night in cash… OUCH!

Another option if you are set on the Ritz NYC Central Park would be to book a Points + Cash rate or possibly book through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal…

Hyatt – The Park Hyatt NYC – Category 7 Hyatt

WOW! Now that is a good redemption value! 30,000 points per night is a great redemption rate for this hotel that would otherwise cost $700+ per night! Transfer the 60,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards to Hyatt Gold Passport and redeem for a 2-night stay.

As a comparison, here is the price you would pay in Chase Ultimate Rewards if you went through the Chase Ultimate Rewards Portal:

The point transfer to Hyatt is the obvious winner over the redemption through the Chase Portal!

Remember!

The best hotel transfer partner for your 60k CUR points will very much depend on your individual travel goals (where do you want to go?!) or your current point balances! Analyze the cost in points and then make a decision – and always make sure to check out the Chase Ultimate Rewards Portal prior to transferring.

In this example, transferring 60,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards to Hyatt Gold Passport and redeeming for a 2-night stay at the Park Hyatt New York would provide you with over $1,400 in value!

While IHG and Marriott did not come close to that, there are other instances where transfers to those programs could make more sense, like:

• If you perform a similar analysis to the above and your result leads you to a different answer – DO YOUR RESEARCH!
• If you plan to stay at lower level hotel categories where the point difference is less drastic between the 3 Hotel Brands (Hyatt, Marriott, IHG)
• If you already have a strong IHG or Marriott point balance and need to top off your account for a specific award redemption
• If you planned on taking advantage of a 5^th Night free promotion with Marriott
• If you wanted to take advantage of the Marriott Travel Packages to earn the Southwest Companion Pass

Final Thought

The best hotel transfer partner for your CURs will very much depend on your individual travel goals and your current point balances! Know your travel goals and work to achieve them. Sometimes we can get caught up in maximizing value and lose sight of our travel goal, so don’t let this happen to you!

Hyatt has a great award chart and normally provides a better transfer value for Chase Ultimate Rewards, but that rule should not be strictly followed.

Chase Ultimate Rewards are valuable. Do your research before redeeming. Use them through the portal or transfer them to travel partners and make free travel happen for you and your family!

Happy Travels!

DW