Editor’s note: As of September 2014, you can earn 40,000 miles with the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, as Johnny’s written before.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is my number one travel credit card because it awards two miles per dollar spent on anything related to travel and dining (that means everything from taxis to hotels to airlines to restaurants). Given the flexibility that comes with transferring Chase Ultimate Rewards to partners like United, British Airways, Singapore Airlines, Marriott, and Hyatt—among others—I feel like I’m not tied to one specific brand.
You can buy flights outright
Plus, you can use Ultimate Rewards to purchase flights outright through the Chase website. For example, a ticket that costs $200 would cost 16,000 points. When you buy tickets that way (instead of transferring points to the airline’s own loyalty program), you’re eligible to earn more frequent flyer miles with the airline. Essentially, you are buying a “revenue” ticket, and this also helps to avoid any blackout dates or capacity restrictions that airlines often put on reward tickets.
Top partners
But, one of the most valuable transfer partners that comes with Ultimate Rewards is British Airways Avios. Flights of a distance less than 650 miles cost 4,500 points in their program. This means a flight from Charlotte to New York, for example, costs 4,500 points! That’s insanely low. No other airline offers such a bargain, and your Ultimate Rewards points transfer 1 for 1 to Avios.
Hyatt is another amazing redemption option as you can get some of their top hotels for just 30,000 points (or as few as 5,000 points at some hotels). The value there is just outstanding!
Chase Ultimate Rewards shopping mall
Another great way to rack up Ultimate Rewards is by shopping through the Chase Ultimate Rewards shopping mall on the website. Hundreds of stores like Gap, Target, Banana Republic, Drugstore.com, and Shoes.com are listed with offers ranging from 1 to as many as 10 (sometimes more) points per dollar spent. When people go directly to these websites, rather than through a mileage or points earning portal, they’re giving up on free miles!!
More benefits
Other benefits include car rental collision insurance protection, trip cancelation insurance for weather or sickness reasons, trip delay and lost luggage reimbursement, and purchase protection. The last one is a great feature that protects you against damage or theft (up to $500 per claim and $50,000 per account). I used it to get a new iPhone after mine was stolen two months into having it.
With airlines devaluing their award charts, often without notice, I prefer to keep my loyalty points in a program that gives me greater flexibility. Not keeping all my eggs in one basket! And with Delta and United going to a spend-based mileage program next year, racking up their miles will be much harder. All of my attention is shifting to earning miles and points with credit card programs, and the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is pretty tough to beat.
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