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There’s nothing quite like booking an international trip for FREE. Unless you’re winning some sort of giveaway that miraculously wasn’t a scam, the best way to fly for free (or for way cheaper) is by using credit card points for travel!
Getting on the credit card train can seem scary and confusing. Hopefully this post can help explain how credit card rewards work and how you can use your credit card points for travel!
I personally have the Chase Sapphire Reserve so most of this post is centered around how you could apply this with a Chase credit card.
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Table of Contents
Best Travel Credit Card Rewards
If you don’t yet have a travel credit card and you want a good one to start out with, my recommendation would be the Chase Sapphire Preferred. Although I don’t have this card myself, if I was going to start over with my credit card journey this would 100% be my first choice.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred benefits, in my opinion, are definitely worth the $95 dollar annual fee. Additionally, (at the time of writing this) the signing bonus is 80,000 points which The Points Guy values at $1,600 in free travel!
The reason you need a travel rewards card is because these credit cards allow you to earn points. These points are then redeemable for travel!
How are Credit Card Points Valued
The general “rule” is to try and get at least one cent for every point, however aiming to get 1.5 cents is the goal. You could also think of this as 1 dollar for every 100 points, so if you have 60,000 points this should be worth a minimum of 600 dollars as the MINIMUM but aim to get $1.50 for every 100 points. Then 60,000 points is worth 900 dollars.
You can figure out how much your points are worth by dividing the dollar value of your reward by the point value needed. For example, I booked a flight to Paris which was originally valued at $1,688 and I used 53,000 points. ($1,688 / 53,000) = 0.0318. So my points were worth about 3 cents each.
Three main ways to use credit card points to redeem a flight.
One: Statement credit.
A statement credit means you purchase your item like normal then the issuer credits that amount back into your account, cash back if you will. For Chase, this value is fixed and your points are worth 1 cent each.
My Paris flight: The flight I purchased was $1,688 so had I done a statement credit I would have needed 168,800 points.
Two: Book the flight through your credit card portal.
For Chase specifically this portal is called the Ultimate Rewards portal which is essentially a travel booking tool like booking.com or Priceline. The Ultimate rewards site is powered by Experian so it is quite similar.
Here, the value of your points depends on which Chase credit card you have. With the Chase Sapphire Preferred you get 1.25 cents per point and with the Chase Sapphire Reserve you get 1.5 cents per point.
The portal is great for putting in low effort. You know you are guaranteed a certain cent per point value (again depending on your credit card) and that value is more than the statement credit of 1 cent per point.
My Paris flight: The flight I purchased was $1,688 so had I booked through the Ultimate Rewards portal I would have needed 112,533 points.
Three: Transferring points to a travel partner.
All these credit card companies have “travel partners” where you can transfer your points. This is awesome because one airline may require 30,000 points for a flight, while another one only 20,000. You then get to browse all the available travel partners and see which airline has the best deal for you!
This typically gets you the biggest bang for your buck because the point value isn’t a fixed rate.
My Paris flight:: This is the option I went with. The flight I purchased was $1,688 and required 53,000 points. As discussed earlier this gives my points a value of about 3 cents each.
Although it seems like transfer partners are always going to be the best way to go; which option is better is fairly case by case.
Which Option is Best for Redeeming Points
With my Paris trip it so happened using a Chase Ultimate Rewards travel partner and transferring points was significantly better than the other two options, however that’s not always the case.
When booking through the portal (option two) the point value is dictated by the current price of whatever you’re booking. In contrast, when booking with transfer partners (option three) a lot of airlines (but not all) have standardized flight miles they use based on distance, not current price, called award charts.
For example, with American Airlines, the typical flight from North America to Europe is going to start at 22,500 then increase depending on if it’s peak season or not. Regardless of if the price is $800 dollars or $300 dollars, you would still need to use those 22,500 points.
Additionally, when booking with transfer partners you still have to pay for taxes and government fees, which can really add up depending on your flight. However booking through the Ultimate Rewards portal those fees are included in your redemption!
Let’s look at some examples.
In the first example: the flight is San Francisco to Lima. In the Chase portal the flight is redeemable for 32,938 while on United the same flight is worth 50,000 miles + $21.85. Making booking through the Chase portal the favorable option!
In the second example: the flight is Chicago to Paris. In the Chase portal the flight is redeemable for 47,327 points + $395 (this additional dollar amount is because my account only has 47,327 points available) while on Air France the same flight is worth 22,000 miles + $98. Making transferring your points to AirFrance and booking through them the favorable option.
Final Thoughts
Do you prefer booking your flights through transfer partners, through the Chase portal or through credit statements?
My preference is travel partners! Where are you traveling to next? Check out my travel budget from The Budget Empire!
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I just booked a flight to Barcelona from Minneapolis thru Paris for 55,000 points business class because of you!!! Easily transferred points from cap one venture to af from watching your video example.thank you!!!
Gloria that makes me so happy to hear!!! I hope you enjoy Barcelona!!
Hi Sofi. newbie here.
do you open a frequent flyer with air france then transfer your points from chase sapphire to air france?
thank you. Help much appreciated.
looking forward to travel to paris soon.
Hi! Yes! I open an account with every single airline I fly! They begin to add up even if you’re not transferring points to them! Have fun on your trip to Paris!!