We are huge fans of the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and the highly valuable and flexible Chase Ultimate Rewards points you earn from this credit card. We’d go so far as to say this is the single most valuable travel rewards credit card you can open and it is an absolute can’t-miss card for anyone serious about travel.
In this post we’ll show you how you can easily earn the points for up to 16 free nights at Hyatt Hotels around the world (or if luxury is your thing, how you can use the same points for two nights at some of the most amazing hotels in the world).
But first, let’s talk about the signup bonus and card details: Chase recently increased the signup bonus offer on this card to the most generous that we’ve ever seen.
Bonus Details:
Earn a 80,000 Ultimate Rewards bonus when you spend $4,000 on the card in the first three months from account opening. There is a $95 annual fee.
If you fulfilled the bonus requirements, the total Ultimate Rewards earned would be at least:
- 80,000 for signup bonus
- 4,000 for $4,000 minimum spend (this could be higher as the card offers 2x points on travel and dining at restaurants)
- Minimum total = 84,000 Ultimate Rewards points
Keep in mind that this $4,000 is your regular spending ($1,334 per month which isn’t too difficult for most families) and you’ll be paying the card off on time and in full every month so it will cost you $0 in interest.
For the ease of this example, let’s assume you met the spending requirement and you have at least 80,000 total Chase Ultimate Rewards points.
Redemption Options for 80,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards Points:
- Get Cash Back: You can always redeem your Ultimate Rewards points at a cash value of 1 cent per point, so your 80,000 points = $800 cash back.
- Travel Booked through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal: Chase allows you to book travel directly through their booking portal. The value is 1.25 cents per point, so your 80,000 points = $1,000 of travel.
- Transfer your points to one of Chase’s airline & hotel partners. These transfer partners include:
- Aer Lingus AerClub
- British Airways Avios
- Emirates Skywards
- Flying Blue AIR FRANCE KLM
- Iberia Plus
- JetBlue TrueBlue
- Singapore Airlines Krisflyer
- Southwest Rapid Rewards
- United MileagePlus
- Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
- IHG Rewards Club
- Marriott Bonvoy
- World of Hyatt
So at the very “worst” you’d literally get a check for $800, which isn’t too shabby considering all you did was open one credit card and put your normal spending on it for a few months.
If you choose to transfer these points to the travel partners (Option #3), we think you can get well over $1,200 in free travel from your Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card points and one of the best ways is to transfer these points to Hyatt for free hotel nights:
Learn more about this card on the card review pageUp to 16 Free Hyatt Hotel Nights from 80,000 Ultimate Rewards Points
Here is Hyatt’s award chart for free nights:
Your 80,000 points would earn you:
- 16 free nights at a Category 1 hotel
- 10 free nights at a Category 2 hotel
- 6 free nights at a Category 3 hotel
- 5 free nights at a Category 4 hotel
- 4 free nights at a Category 5 hotel
- 3 free nights at a Category 6 hotel
- 2 free nights at a Category 7 hotel
It’s easy to focus on some of our favorite luxury properties like the:
Category 5: Andaz Peninsula Papagayo Resort in Costa Rica:
Category 6: Hyatt Regency Maui Resort and Spa:
Category 6: Andaz 5th Avenue in New York City:
Category 7: Park Hyatt Paris-Vendôme:
16 Free Category 1 Hotel Nights:
But for this article we want to focus on more of a “real-world” example. We live in Richmond, VA and our family is from Long Island, NY. We have all the grandchildren in the family, so they visit us a lot. We don’t have a huge house, so it’s really helpful to have a nice hotel nearby. That’s where the Hyatt Place Richmond Innsbrook comes in!
This is a lovely hotel just down the road from us and at only 5,000 Hyatt points, it’s an absolute steal. I searched a random night in March and the least expensive room was $148 per night!
The 16 free nights we earn from one 80,000 Ultimate Rewards points would potentially be worth $2,368 at this rate of $148 per night!
And when we say free we really mean free. You walk out of there paying $0.
(There are a few Hyatt hotels where you pay a “resort fee” each night with your rewards points, but this is the exception, not the rule. We paid $0 at the luxury Andaz 5th Avenue in NYC for example.)
How to Transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards Points to Hyatt
To get started, the first thing you need to do is log into your Chase credit card account at Chase.com. You’ll see a screen that looks like this:
Click on “Go to Ultimate Rewards” and you’ll arrive at the main Chase UR portal. Hover over “Use Points” and you’ll see your travel redemption options (plus gift card redemption choices):
The most potentially valuable way to redeem your Chase UR points for travel is to transfer the points to one of Chase’s 13 travel transfer partners, including Hyatt. Once you transfer them, these points become points/miles in the rewards program of that partner. So if Laura sent her 50,184 UR points to Hyatt, they are now Hyatt points sitting in her rewards account there and are no longer Chase UR points (you cannot transfer them back).
To transfer, you click ‘Transfer to Travel Partners’ and then find the partner you want to transfer to and click “transfer points.” If you haven’t previously sent points to that partner, you just have to enter some basic info:
Laura wants to send her points to Hyatt:
We already setup a link to my Hyatt account (you can transfer Chase UR to your account or the account of an authorized user on your card) so she would just click Hyatt Gold Passport in the above picture. Then select the number of points:
Enter the number of points and click ‘Continue’ and then you’ll get a final confirmation screen:
Click ‘Confirm & Submit’ and the points will show up nearly instantly in the Hyatt rewards account (just refresh the Hyatt account and it should show up within one minute).
This entire process should take just a few minutes and you can book your hotel rooms or flights at the respective partner websites.
How to Book Hyatt Hotel Nights with Points
It is incredibly easy to book Hyatt Hotel nights with award points and I want to walk you through it with a short video:
Summary
So there you have it, up to 16 free Hyatt hotel nights from your 80,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points.
Our favorite redemption is via Hyatt Hotels, where we find great value in 5,000 points per night Category 1 free nights, and we showed you exactly how to transfer your Ultimate Rewards points to Hyatt and how to book these hotels in just a few short minutes.
It really is as simple as transferring your points and booking your hotel and it’s amazing how valuable this can be!
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