People. Please. Do not use your Ultimate Rewards points on the travel search engine. Don’t let your loved ones waste their points. It can not be a good deal. (At best, it could be less of a bad deal, but I doubt that even). The only good way to use your points for flights is transferring to an airline (or hotel).
Understand that with Chase Ultimate Rewards Points you have the option to transfer to Airlines or use a search engine where they pretty much charge you 1 point per cent. Except here is the deal, the prices are jacked. It’s a rip off. A crime. A real shame.
I have proof you can’t ignore.
What inspired this? Well, I did already do a post on comparing prices of the UR travel booking engine to United but I want to put to death the idea that there is possibly a good use. There is none. The reason this comes up now is I just saw someone pushing the Chase Sapphire card for it’s $500 for travel. Grr…. And people listen! I have friends that booked flights and paid triple what they should have.
First, the possible arguments for the UR travel booking engine being a good deal:
Q: One might suggest that transferring to miles has blackout dates and you have to be flexible and what not.
A: This would be a good point if the search engine used Expedia… but it sucks. The options are very limited.
Q: Prices might be better for short haul flights.
A: You have Southwest and BA as transfer partners!
Q: It’s easier.
A: *Blinks* Then why don’t you just turn your points into cash? Also, have you used Southwest? Have you used United? If this is just a simple roundtrip you simply check the “Use points” or “Award Travel” button. That’s it.
Q: But won’t you earn points?
A: … just wait.
The bottom line is that you shouldn’t waste your points. Even if there isn’t a United ticket, the travel engine is a rip off. A complete rip off… most of the time.
“Then show me some examples!”
All right I will! All comparisons will be on the exact same day.
Roundtrip’s in in economy in October
How about Washington, DC to Istanbul, Turkey?
Using Ultimate Rewards Travel Booking Engine:
Price using United miles:
Lets try a search from Charlottesville, VA to Lima, Peru.
Using Ultimate Rewards Travel Booking Engine:
Price using United miles:
And Little Rock to Bali, Indonesia.
Using Ultimate Rewards Travel Booking Engine: 
Price using United miles:
Lets try roundtrip domestic. New York to Seattle.
Using Ultimate Rewards Travel Booking Engine:
Price using United miles:
Price using Southwest Points:
So this is the closest example yet. You could earn about 5,000 United Miles when paying 37,500 UR points. So it’s kind of like pay 32,500 UR points (not really). When it would be 25,000 United miles or less than 20,000 Southwest Points. You’re paying at least 50% more to book on Ultimate Rewards’ site instead of transferring first.
And this is a route where using British Airways Avios isn’t quite as awesome. If it’s a short direct flight you could pay 9,000 Avios roundtrip. Unbeatable.
Business Class? Real bad idea!
This is barely worth mentioning. But here’s the same Washington to Istanbul route in business on Ultimate Rewards’ search engine:
And the same dates with United Miles:
Well that’s a savings of 230,000 miles by transferring to United. Don’t worry, you’d earn a whopping 10,000 miles back. *blinks* Still a 220% increase in price on an already expensive ticket.
Little Rock to Bali in Business Class:
Well I pulled up the flight roundtrip on United.com and got this price:
I went to find the same ticket on Chase Ultimate Rewards:
Unavailable! Aren’t they just taking revenue tickets and multiplying the price by 100! I mean, you may notice on many of the searches, only a few airlines are available. Okay, besides, the economy ticket is significantly more than a business ticket with United miles. And for the record, when I changed the dates, here is what was found on Ultimate Rewards.
Hmm… nearing 1,000,000 points. That. Uh. Is something…
Now, I’m sure you’ll find times where United has nothing available and Ultimate Rewards does. But two things:
1) At what price? You’re going to pay 1,000% more for what reason? Why not pay cash at that point. Or why not use another program that you have? Or change your dates? Or…
2) Transfer to another program! You have 3 alliances covered with Ultimate Rewards points with United, British Airways and Korean. That’s like 60 airlines or something covered. I’m sure you’ll find a flight at a better price.
Jacking up the price
Finally, and as I said in the Best Use Of Ultimate Rewards Points, their prices are sometimes made up. I don’t know where they get their goofy prices, but they aren’t always accurate, or close. In other words, when you compare the price that they will multiply by 100 to get to the price in points, it’s simply inflated. They say a ticket’s ordinary price is $1,000 or so, but if you’d look yourself you’d find it for much cheaper even simply by searching Kayak. So you would be better off cashing out and booking with the cash. Not that I recommend travelers do that, but the point is that it’s just a bad idea.
Here is an example I showed earlier from my small Charlottesville Airport to London:
I’m telling you that this is the exact same flight but one has doubled the price. This is a more extreme example but still, I think the point has been made.
If love someone who has Ultimate Rewards points, send them this post. Offer to help them transfer to United. Show them the award search button on United and encourage them to check both prices.
Friends don’t let friends waste Ultimate Rewards points on the travel portal and gift cards.
If you’re new to this, read that post on the Best Use Of Ultimate Rewards Points as it very simply explains how to transfer to partners and the different uses.
(If you’ve used UR Points this way, I don’t judge. I did goofy things getting into this game and you learn as you go. Don’t regret any free travel you’ve done. Just do more next time. :-p)
Did anyone have any idea that the portal is so bad? I mean how do they have such poor availability? Can’t they just buy flights from Kayak?
You used examples on one extreme, but there are some cases in which booking through this portal is better. I wrote about it recently here: http://travel-summary.com/sometimes-its-better-to-not-transfer-your-ultimate-rewards-points/
I agree with TS — find what your goals are and redeem from there for the lowest price. I know people who are more than happy with coach flights and would rather save points for nicers hotels. For example, tickets to India in coach can often cost $1000 yet they cost 80,000 United miles + taxes. Those 80,000 UR will buy that ticket + earn miles and it’s a better option to redeem at 1.25cpp for a cash ticket.
People who are low on cash but high on points through churning or bonuses might opt to use their points as cash. That doesn’t mean it’s a bad idea. If you can spend the cash and have another trip coming up, then saving the UR points for a mileage redemption might be a better option, but it doesn’t make it the only option.
Today I booked Qatar airways roundtrip ticket from India to Washington DC. I am buying with cash only. Qatar website showed price of $1700-$1800. Amex MR was showing lower price but when tried to book, had no availability. I tried Kayak, Orbitz, Travelocity and other online ticket agents. None had good availability or price.
However to my surprise, Chase UR had the same ticket for $1400. This turned out to be a very good deal. They have a current offer of 2% cash back and I guess I earn 2 points/$ on my freedom card.
Using points on UR is of course a very bad option. But when you are buying with cash, sometimes you may get a good deal. I saved atleast $200-$300 because I searched and booked in Chase UR portal.
@ Travel Summary – You are right that sometimes UR has a better deal than United at least. But imo, that still doesn’t make it a good use of UR points. Plus, a $156 ticket from MIA to SJC is super rare.
But I’ma do a post on why I still would rather pay cash.
@ Kamal – Wow, it definitely seems that people are finding deals on here. I shoulda checked before I booked my last ticket.
But thanks for the tip, I’ll check next time.
Thank You rewards travel is the same. Check the simple spur cities like Upstate NY to NYC, Ohio cities to NYC. Thank You charges at least 50% more. You are better off converting to Travel gift cards.
I disagree on TY pts. I think you still have to double check but most times the fair is almost right on. And the bonus w Premiere is 33% (soon to be 25%) so it more than makes up for any small diff in price
Very helpful and interesting cautions, Drew, thank you. I keep reading TisF — and I’m learning, much.
Always good to hear from you Scott.
Thanks all for the input. Sounds like the prices can go both ways. But… Here’s my part 2:
http://travelisfree.com/2013/08/14/why-i-spend-500-on-a-471-mile-flight/
🙂
I agree using the Chase UR site is typically bad for mileage redemptions, but I’ve occassionally found the airfare listed here to be less than the price I was finding on other travel sites (even cheaper than the airline itself). In my last instance, I found it was cheaper to buy my Greek intra-island flights on Chase UR since the fare was cheaper and it was charged without any additional fees. I saved ~$40 per ticket on Aegean and Olympic domestic flights.
While Chase UR is typically a bad deal, it never hurts to put the math to the equation to check out your options. The results can surprise you sometimes.
That’s funny as I just paid too much on an Olympic flight. Maybe I should have checked.
But as I say in part two, even if it’s a good deal, I’d rather pay cash on that great deal and keep my points for times when there are no good deals.
I think you are missing the biggest benefit to using UR for booking. You earn elite qualifying miles (EQM), where you don’t when you transfer. I just went to Sydney and had three options, transfer points and fly for free, buy my coach ticket for $1800, or book through UR and pay nothing and earn 20k eqm miles. I used UR and just locked in my 1K and saved $1800 in the process.
I was having trouble with the UR website and stumbled on your site!
Why do all of your point use examples show 100 to $1? Doesn’t everyone with a chase account get 80 to $1? Though not as good as the 60 to $1 (70 to $1), a direct purchase of Southwest (via agent) gets points on SW and double on chase.
I think most people that read your (or similar) pieces check around for the best DEAL on their personal travel in ALL instances.
You have taken a hard stand with very strong ADVICE and seem to have not done your research, or
Thanks for taking the time to comment Rick.
Sorry for not giving 100% accurate data, especially when giving such a strong stance.
However, my opinion is not swayed. It’s not a good value for me. When I’ve gotten 25 cents per miles with United, why do 1 cent? or 1.25?
I’m a man of extremes.
Drew
Bingo. With the CSP you’re getting 1.25 cents/UR, with the CSR you’re getting 1.5 cents/UR. Showing a 1.0 c/UR ratio is either uninformed or misleading. Sure, you can maybe get a cash-inflated value of 25 cpm once flying some absurd round-the-world itinerary in first class, but for those of us who use miles to make the travel we already take free, consistently beating 1.5 cpm, or even 1.25 cpm on domestic round-trip travel is hard to do. Your article would have greatly benefited from not taking the extreme position and instead advancing the more moderate thesis that you should check various options when booking travel.
http://www.theflightdeal.com/2013/11/18/united-732-chicago-mumbai-india-roundtrip-including-taxes/
So spend like 58000 ur points and get 17k united miles… back!
idk what coach is to india but i bet its greater then 38k! even adding 9k Avios for me to fly to ORD from Knoxville its a deal.
Also I think most people who are flexible/patient enough can wait till one of these deals pops up! India every week from an east coast city could be done fairly easily(with a 650 mile avios award)
But yes for someone not doing the math religiously it would be easy to get screwed!
So that’s actually a pretty good deal. Although I think my major point would be that paying cash and getting 17k is better than being out 58,000 UR points. Because to me 58,000 UR points could get me a crazy ticket. Like the time I got a $10,000 ticket from 40,000 miles with the Pacific hopper.
But on the other hand, I know people who have millions of miles. So why not pay for it with points?
Is this still the case in 2014 or have they revamped their UR travel program?? I have researched PHL to MUC 6/21 to 7/6 and UR seems to have the best deal. I’ve checked both BA and United.
Ultimate Rewards usually has garbage prices. I just checked on business class from Chicago to Orlando and UR was over twice what United was charging. Plus, I find the UR travel website clunky. I was surprised to find a great deal on a car rental in LA last month on UR, though, so I guess you never know.
I don’t usually consider the UR travel portal, but I recently found a great deal. I was flying Harare –> Johannesburg –> Cape Town –> Harare and flights were coming up around $620 RT or 40,000 United miles + $130 . I checked the portal and there was the exact same flight for $571. I was able to book for just over 45,000 miles and earned 2500 United miles in the process. So for 2,500 more miles, I saved $130 (5.2 cents/mile). Now, I wouldn’t always recommend this site, but there might be a deal or two to be found, chiefly among those of us who just want to save $$ and don’t mind flying coach.
This card totally sucks. I should have looked into it more. Saw the bonus for travel, got excited, and got the card. I wanted to use it for flights from Dallas to Detroit. Come to find out, they only partner with Southwest and United who DO NOT have non-stop flights to those locations. DAM-IT! I thought they would be partnered with most U.S. airlines. I will be cancelling the card immediately without even making a single purchase. Lesson learned. Investigate the rewards more thoroughly.
Hi Norm… it is obviously a little late, but you could redeem on AA by using Avios to fly on American or on DL by transferring to Korean miles.
This all changed completely when the Sapphire reserve came out and points were worth 1.5 when booked with Chase. United domestically almost never makes sense to book as an award ticket now as the ticket would have to be over $375 to make an award booking make sense. Update your site. The Chase portal has real value now.
Definitely need an update to this article. I’ve booked all my trips through chase in the last 2-3 years, and essentially when a deal or great discount on airfare is offered regularly, it’s only about $10 more through Chase’s portal for the actual value of the ticket, BEFORE point deductions are considered. That’s a huge discount.
Example: Flight NYC – Hong Kong deal at $336 RT via United is offered normally through google flights. In Chase UR it’s $346, but in points it’s only $230 point value equivalent so only 23,000 points with Chase Reserve card = GREAT DEAL. Even with a 1.25 point value on lesser cards, it’s still a great discount and smart to leverage for already discounted airfare or deals out there.