Chase Sapphire Preferred^® Card Airline Partners: Who They Are and How to Book with Points

If you travel frequently or even plan to travel sometime in the future, a travel rewards credit card can deliver a lot of value, especially if you aren’t loyal to a specific airline. Many travel rewards credit cards that are not affiliated with an airline enable you to earn points/miles from your purchases, then either trade in, cash in, or use those points to book travel.

Some also give you the option to transfer those points to different frequent flyer programs, though often at a reduced value. The Chase Sapphire Preferred^® Card is one of the best cards available for bringing points to a preferred frequent flyer program so they can be used for airfare, upgrades, and other perks offered by the carrier. What’s even better is that your points transfer at full value.

Here is a closer look at which airlines Chase partners with for reward point transfers and how you can take advantage of this perk.

Who are the Chase Sapphire Preferred airline transfer partners?

Chase has partnerships with 11 airlines that enable customers to transfer Ultimate Rewards points to the carriers’ frequent flyer programs. These Chase transfer partners are:

• Aer Lingus AerClub
• Air Canada Aeroplan
• British Airways Executive Club
• Emirates Skywards
• Flying Blue Air France KLM
• Iberia Plus
• JetBlue TrueBlue
• Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
• Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards
• United MileagePlus
• Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

This transfer option gives you a lot of value because your points are moved from Chase to each of these programs on a 1:1 ratio. That means that 1 Chase Ultimate Rewards point = 1 frequent flyer point/mile. Points have to be transferred in 1,000-point increments. For example, if you had 12,000 Ultimate Rewards points, you could only transfer 1,000, 2,000, 3,000, etc., points to your United MileagePlus account. You wouldn’t be able to transfer 1,500 or 3,200 points.

Generally, your points will transfer instantly to your frequent flyer account, but in some cases, it can take up to seven business days for the transaction to be completed. Chase also recommends making sure that the name on your Ultimate Rewards program account matches the name on your frequent flyer account exactly. If it doesn’t, there may be delays in transferring your points or the transaction may not go through at all.

The value of booking with Chase Sapphire Preferred airline partners

Cardholders can use the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal to transfer their points to one of 11 airline partners to pay for tickets, upgrades, and other perks offered by frequent flyer programs. This is a good option if you want to earn miles or status with a partner airline.

The value you get from transferring your Ultimate Rewards points to a partner airline varies depending on the redemption option you choose. Most partners offer a value of 1.2 to 1.6 cents per point, but if you use your points to book a premium ticket on an international flight, you may be able to get outsized value.

For example, you could transfer your Ultimate Rewards points to Singapore Airlines’ KrisFlyer program. Travelers have reported booking Business Class award flights on Singapore Airlines from the West Coast to Singapore for less than 100,000 KrisFlyer miles. If you were to book a similar ticket with cash, it would cost you an average of $5,110. In this case, your points would be valued at over 5.1 cents each.

How to transfer your points to Chase Sapphire Preferred airline partners

Before you transfer points, find the flight you’d like to redeem your points for on the partner airline’s website. Point transfers are one-way. Once you transfer your points from Chase, you can’t get move them back. So, it’s important to know how many points you’ll need and how you’ll use them before you start the transfer process.

Once you have this information, sign into the Ultimate Rewards portal. After you log in, click on the three bars to open the left-hand menu, then on the arrow next to the “Transfer to Travel Partners” option.

On the next screen, choose the partner airline program you want to transfer points to. Click on the small arrows to expand the details for each carrier and review the details for using and transferring points. When you’re ready to move forward, click on “Transfer Points.”

On the next screen, provide the requested information and continue to follow the instructions until the transaction is complete. At the very least, you’ll need your frequent flyer program membership information.

How to book through the Ultimate Rewards portal

If you prefer the convenience of a one-stop-shop, the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal makes it simple to book all kinds of travel. It’s a good place to start researching flight times and prices, and it’s easy to pay for your flights in the portal using Ultimate Rewards points, a credit card, or a combination of both.

With certain Chase credit cards, like the Chase Freedom Flex℠, points are only valued at one cent each. However, with the Chase Sapphire Preferred, you get added value. When you book through the Ultimate Rewards portal using your Sapphire Preferred card, your points will be worth $0.0125 each, which can add up to significant savings.

You can book flights with all of the partner airlines through the portal, except for Southwest Airlines, which wants customers to buy tickets directly through them. However, if you call the Chase Travel Center at 866-951-6592, book your tickets on Southwest, and pay for them using Ultimate Rewards Points, you’ll still get the $0.0125 per point rate.

To book a flight through the Ultimate Rewards portal, go to https://ultimaterewardspoints.chase.com/ and use your Chase online account username and password to sign in. Click on the three bars to open the left-hand menu, then click on the arrow next to the “Travel” option. This will open a sub-menu with specific options. Choose “Flights.”

On the next screen, you can either click on “Flights” in the top menu or start entering travel dates and destinations into the form.

Review the results to find the flight options that work best for you. You can sort the results by airline if you’re specifically looking for partner carriers, or other criteria, such as price, departure times, etc.

Select your outgoing and return flights, double-check the dates and times, and then follow the prompts and enter all required information. If you have a frequent flyer account number for one or more of the carriers you’ll be flying with, you can enter that information and get credit for the purchase.

When you reach the payment option, you will see how many points you have and how much the cost of the flight is in terms of dollars and points. You can choose to pay with points, a credit card, or both.

After making your payment selection, confirm all of the information is correct and complete your booking.

Alternatives to the Chase Sapphire Preferred

If you’re looking for an alternative to the Chase Sapphire Preferred card, here’s how it stacks up to other popular Chase cards.

Card	Annual fee	Reward rate
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card	$95	5X points on travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards®; 3X points on dining, select streaming services, and eligible online grocery purchases; 2X points on all other travel purchases, and 1X points per $1 on all other eligible purchases
Chase Sapphire Reserve®	$550	5X points on flights and 10X points on hotels and car rentals when you purchase travel through Chase Ultimate Rewards® immediately after the first $300 is spent on travel purchases annually; 3X points on other travel and dining & 1X points per dollar on all other purchases
Chase Freedom Flex℠	$0	5% cash back on rotating quarterly categories (on up to $1,500 spent) and travel purchased through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal; 3% cash back on drugstore purchases and dining at restaurants (including takeout and eligible delivery service); and 1% cash back on all other purchases
Chase Freedom Unlimited®	$0	5% cash back on Chase travel purchased through Ultimate Rewards®, 3% cash back on drugstore purchases and dining at restaurants, including takeout and eligible delivery service and unlimited 1.5% cash back on all other purchases

FAQs about Chase Ultimate Rewards

Bottom line

All-in-all, you have a lot of travel options to choose from when you use Chase Ultimate Rewards with your Sapphire Preferred card. You can use your points either through Chase’s travel portal or transfer those points over to your favorite frequent flyer program to get the benefits only offered by the airline carrier.

Which is the best move? Only you can answer that question. One thing is for sure: check out all of your options before committing your points to one option or another.