The Best Chase Ultimate Rewards Transfer Partners Ranked

The Chase Ultimate Rewards program has had its fair share of hits in the past few years, with major transfer partners like United, Hyatt, Southwest, and British Airways devaluing their award charts. That being said, Ultimate Rewards points continue to be a valuable currency thanks to generous credit card sign-up bonuses like the current 50,000 points sign-up bonus from the Sapphire Preferred card and a solid (despite being somewhat devalued) lineup of 1:1 transfer partners. So how do these Ultimate Rewards partners stack up against each other and which one should you transfer your points to? Below is my ranking of the best Chase Ultimate Rewards transfer partners:

	Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card Add to Favorites	$0 intro first year $95 annual fee	Earn 50,000 bonus points when you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. That's $625 in travel when you redeem through Chase Ultimate Rewards® Read Review »
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	Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
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Sign Up Bonus $0 intro first year $95 annual fee Earn 50,000 bonus points when you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. That's $625 in travel when you redeem through Chase Ultimate Rewards® Annual Fee Already have this card? Maximize your rewards.
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1. United MileagePlus. United MileagePlus comes out on top because it’s part of the Star Alliance (i.e. you can travel virtually anywhere) and most awards are easily bookable online. Easy bookings are a huge time and money saver, which gives United a major advantage over other airline programs in the Ultimate Rewards lineup. The fact that United still allow stopovers/open-jaws on award tickets gives its value a boost, which is why I’ve ranked the program ahead of even hotel rewards programs.

	United MileagePlus® Explorer Card Add to Favorites	$95 annual fee	Special offer: 50,000 bonus miles after you spend $3,000 on purchases in the first 3 months your account is open Read Review »
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	United MileagePlus® Explorer Card
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Sign Up Bonus $95 annual fee Special offer: 50,000 bonus miles after you spend $3,000 on purchases in the first 3 months your account is open Annual Fee Already have this card? Maximize your rewards.
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2. Hyatt Gold Passport. Hyatt Gold Passport has seen a lot of negative award program changes, but it remains the best Ultimate Rewards hotel transfer partner. Not only is Hyatt’s award chart more reasonable than any others on this list, members can stretch their points further with equally reasonable Points + Cash awards. Factoring in generous elite benefits (and how easy Hyatt has made it in the past to achieve elite status), Hyatt is a definite leg up on other hotel rewards programs in the Ultimate Rewards line-up.

	The Hyatt Credit Card Add to Favorites	$0 intro first year $75 annual fee	2 free nights at any Hyatt property After spending $1,000 within the first 3 months Read Review »
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The information for the The Hyatt Credit Card has been collected independently by FTG. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

	The Hyatt Credit Card
Read Review Add to Favorites
Sign Up Bonus $0 intro first year $75 annual fee 2 free nights at any Hyatt property After spending $1,000 within the first 3 months Annual Fee Already have this card? Maximize your rewards.
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The information for the The Hyatt Credit Card has been collected independently by FTG. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

3. Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards. Southwest Rapid Rewards is great for many reasons – the fact that you can so easily stock up on Rapid Rewards points through Chase-branded credit cards (include Ultimate Rewards earning cards) is a nice bonus. What makes Southwest Rapid Rewards such a great transfer choice is that members who have the Companion Pass can use it to get a 2-for-1 deal on award tickets. None of the other airline partners in the Ultimate Rewards line-up have this feature. More importantly, Southwest prices their awards based on the cost of tickets which can make many short-haul flights cheaper than what most other frequent flyer programs would charge.

	Southwest Rapid Rewards® Plus Credit Card Add to Favorites	$69 annual fee	Earn 50,000 points after you spend $2,000 on purchases in the first 3 months your account is open. Read Review »
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	Southwest Rapid Rewards® Plus Credit Card
Apply Now Add to Favorites
Sign Up Bonus $69 annual fee Earn 50,000 points after you spend $2,000 on purchases in the first 3 months your account is open. Annual Fee Already have this card? Maximize your rewards.
Read the FTG Review »

4. Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer. Singapore KrisFlyer can be a great value for short-haul flights, but let’s face it—most of us are saving up for a coveted Singapore Suites award. Does it get better than your own private suite on an airplane (other than an apartment or residence)? First Class Suite awards are a great reason to transfer Ultimate Rewards points to the Singapore KrisFlyer program.

5. British Airways Executive Club. My Avios and I are not on good terms right now – I’ve got 25,000 sitting around post-devaluation and I’m not happy about it. The good news is that while British Airways has increased their cheapest short-haul award levels from 4,500 to 7,500 Avios each way, that’s still less than the 12,500 miles most region-based frequent flyer programs charge for an award. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather transfer 15,000 Ultimate rewards to Avios for a roundtrip flight than transfer that same amount to United and end up with enough for just a one-way flight. That’s still something to be grateful for, post-Avios devaluation.

6. IHG Rewards Club. I’m going to disagree with Howie on this one – IHG Rewards Club is not a bad Ultimate Rewards transfer partner. In fact, you can get tremendous value out of Ultimate Rewards by transferring them to IHG for a PointBreaks award (you knew I was going to say that, didn’t you?). IHG also offers heavily discounted redemption rates at select hotels, which can provide yet another reason for you to transfer some spare Ultimate Rewards to top off your IHG account for an award. Plus, IHG’s Hotels Anywhere awards can offer tremendous savings on non-IHG hotels.

7. Korean Air Skypass. Korean Air Skypass is ignored by most people, but it does offer a great value on certain award types. Most notably, a roundtrip flight to Hawaii will set you back just 25,000 Skypass miles roundtrip! That’s a 20,000 mile saving over United and 15,000 over Virgin Atlantic (though, really, who cares about Virgin Atlantic?). Hawaii (Maui and Kauai in particular) is a popular award redemption for most folks in this hobby and one that newbies scrimp and save for. With redemption levels this low, you can book two roundtrip flights to Hawaii with a single credit card sign-up bonus.

8. Marriott and Ritz-Carlton Rewards. They’re both terrible reward programs to transfer your points to. Other than a low-category Marriott award, I wouldn’t transfer my hard-earning Ultimate Rewards points to either of these unless there was a seriously generous transfer promotion. Don’t get me wrong, Marriott Rewards isn’t all that bad – it’s just that with their inflated award chart, it’s not worth transferring your Ultimate Rewards points to.

9. Virgin Atlantic Flying Club. The Virgin Atlantic Flying Club program isn’t entirely terrible. You can use your miles for a trip to Necker Island, which is unique and kind of a bargain at 1.2 million miles for two people. However, the program does impose fuel surcharges, which makes most award redemptions tough to justify. Other than a few sweet spots or a trip to the Caribbean, I’d avoid Virgin Atlantic as an Ultimate Rewards transfer partner.

How would you rank these Ultimate Rewards transfer partners?

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