For the couple people who read my blog regularly, I apologize for the month-long hiatus as I was unable to type with both hands due to shoulder surgery.
This past weekend a WenneTravel reader sent in a request for help booking a flight to London from New York City. She had close to 100,000 Chase points from her Chase Ink credit card (thanks in no small part to a 50,000-point signup bonus), and was looking to use those to finance her trip.
Booking airfare vs. transferring points to airlines
Chase's Ultimate Rewards points are valuable but also complicated because they can be used in two ways. The first way, which is the easy way, is to simply purchase airfare, hotel rooms, or rental cars on Chase's website. Each point is worth 1.2 cents, so a $500 airfare would cost 41,600 Ultimate Rewards points.
The second way is to actually change your Ultimate Rewards points into airline miles or hotel points. Let's say you look on United's website and you see a flight costs 25,000 miles. You can send 25,000 Ultimate Rewards points to United and buy that flight. The same can be done with: British Airways, Southwest, Marriott, Hyatt, Virgin Atlantic, Amtrak, and more.
Airline miles options
3 airlines that partner with Chase provide nonstop service between NYC and London: United, British Airways, and Virgin Atlantic. I made a fake booking on each one to determine the mileage price and taxes/fees:
United - 60,000 miles + $200
Virgin Atlantic - 35,000 miles + $450
British Airways - 40,000 miles + $700
Why the ridiculous taxes/fees? Every airport charges airlines to land planes there. Heathrow's charge is on the very high end. Their fee is based on how far the plane has traveled to get there, meaning that flights over the Atlantic are expensive. Airlines pass that charge on to customers, so generally if you are traveling anywhere but London you should avoid going through Heathrow.
Fare options
As I mentioned before, you can also just buy airfare directly through Chase's website with your points. The best fare:
Delta - $880 = 70,000 Ultimate Rewards points
Which option is the right choice?
Immediately we can cross off British Airways. Compared to Virgin Atlantic, they are more expensive in both miles and dollars. The other thing we can do is cross off United, because for just 10,000 more points we can save $200 by flying Delta. So the choices really come down to personal preference between spending more points or spending more money.
Personally, I feel that Ultimate Rewards points can get far better value than they're getting on this route. Virgin Atlantic costs 35,000 miles + $450, so we can calculate the points' value by doing the following math:
$880 (cheapest fare) - $450 (VA taxes/fees) = $430
$430/35,000 miles = 1.2 cents per mile
1.2 cents per mile is actually the minimum value you should get out of your Chase points, because that is their value when used directly on airfare. When I transfer 9,000 points to British Airways to fly between DC and Chicago, I'm saving myself a $250+ airfare, which works out to nearly 3 cents per mile of value. Similary, taking Amtrak anywhere along the Northeast corridor between DC and Boston costs 8,000 Chase points roundtrip when transferred to Amtrak. These trains easily cost $200 roundtrip themselves, giving you 2.5 cents per mile of value, more than twice what you're getting on this route.
So my recommendation is to transfer 35,000 Chase points to Virgin Atlantic ticket and pay the $450. Save those points for another day!
