October 14, 2024
Chase Ultimate Rewards® as an Endgame
Pam
One strategy for earning points and miles that I’ve long thought about is earning Chase Ultimate Rewards® as an endgame. In other words, I think that concentrating on earning Ultimate Rewards® makes a lot of sense. They are by far my favorite points and I am constantly trying to earn more of them. I primarily use them to transfer to Hyatt hotels, but also use them for United and Southwest® flights. Additionally, they transfer to other partners, including:
- Aer Lingus
- Air Canada Aeroplan
- British Airways
- Flying Blue (KLM/Air France)
- Hyatt
- Iberia
- IHG
- JetBlue
- Marriott Bonvoy
- Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
- Southwest®
- United
- Virgin Atlantic
- Wyndham Rewards®
So, how would this strategy work? I will explain it assuming there is a Player Two involved.
Step One
Player One applies for the card_name and meets the spending requirements in order to earn 75k points. The annual fee is $95. They then refer Player Two, who does the same, and whose approval earns Player One 15,000 points as a referral bonus. Player Two earns an additional 75K Ultimate Rewards®.
Together, Player One and Player Two now have earned at least 165,000 Ultimate Rewards®.
Learn How to Apply
bonus_miles_full
You may also be able to apply for a different card in the same card family and earn even more Ultimate Rewards® later on. (But for now, we won’t count these points in the running total.)
Learn How to Apply
bonus_miles_full
Step Two
Player One gets the Chase Freedom Flex℠ Card, which has a standard welcome offer of 20,000 cash-back points after spending $500 in 3 months. There is no annual fee on this card.
All information about the Chase Freedom Flex℠ Card has been collected independently by Points Talk Squad. The Chase Freedom Flex℠ Card is no longer available through Points Talk Squad.
Because Player One has a premium card already (Step One), as well, the cash-back points earned from the Chase Freedom Flex℠ Card can be moved to the account associated with the premium card, and those points will be transformed into Ultimate Rewards® instead of just cash-back points. With Ultimate Rewards®, points can be transferred to the airline and hotel programs listed above.
Then Player One refers Player Two for the same card and receives a referral bonus of 5,000 Ultimate Rewards®. Player Two completes the $500 minimum spending requirement and earns 20,000 more points.
They now have a total of 45,000 points from this step.
(As a side note, this card earns five points per dollar on rotating quarterly categories, making it a great card to keep in your wallet.)
Step Three
Learn How to Apply
bonus_miles_full
Player Two refers Player One to the card_name with the Freedom Flex℠ (because you can refer between the two types of Freedom cards) and receives 5,000 Ultimate Rewards®.
Player One completes the $500 spend (with no annual fee) and earns 20,000 Ultimate Rewards® via the introductory welcome offer.
Then Player One refers Player Two to the same card, receives 5,000 referral points, completes the $500 spend, and earns another 20,000 Ultimate Rewards®.
They now have 50,000 Ultimate Rewards® from this step.
Total Ultimate Rewards® = 260,000 with $190 in annual fees and $12,000 spent toward meeting the minimum spends.
Player One and Player Two are both at 3/24 and can now think about more Chase cards or consider other cards that interest them.
Earn More Ultimate Rewards® With Business Cards
Let’s carry this idea of further making Chase Ultimate Rewards® an endgame and talk about business cards. Remember, it is easier than you think to get business cards. So many small businesses can qualify! The best thing about getting a business card is that it doesn’t count toward your 5/24 status.
The following cards are business cards, so if you have a business (even a small one), you should consider these card options. (Learn more about qualifying for business cards here.)
Step Four
Player One gets the card_name or card_name and can earn 75,000 points (which again can be transformed into Ultimate Rewards®) if they make $6,000 in purchases within three months of account opening.
Here are some ideas for meeting that higher minimum spend.
Player One then refers Player Two to the card and receives 20,000 in referral points. Player Two completes their minimum spend and now has 75,000 points.
This step has earned Player One and Player Two an additional 170,000 Ultimate Rewards®.
Learn How to Apply
bonus_miles_full
Learn How to Apply
bonus_miles_full
In this step, they have earned another 170,000 Ultimate Rewards®. At this point, Player One and Player Two would have a grand total of 170,000 in Ultimate Rewards® from business cards and 260,000 from personal cards.
Step Five
This is the last step. To complete this step, you might need to make a large expenditure or have many large expenditures coming up, such as paying taxes.
Player One and Player Two both apply for the card_name. This card offers a standard welcome bonus of 100K Ultimate Rewards after spending $8,000 in the first 3 months, plus a $95 annual fee.
(Chase used to offer referral bonuses for individual business cards, but referral bonuses are now limited to only new Chase business card customers, so at this point, our Player One and Player Two don’t need to worry about referring each other anymore, because they’ve already gotten a business card and aren’t new business-card customers anymore.)
Player One and Player Two both meet the spending requirements within the deadline and will each earn 100,000 Ultimate Rewards®.
The total earned in this step is 200,000 Ultimate Rewards®.
Learn How to Apply
bonus_miles_full
Total Earnings
The strategy of earning Ultimate Rewards® as an endgame leaves you with 630,000 Ultimate Rewards through step 5.
The best part is that you are still at 3/24 with Chase, even after opening two more cards each, because the business cards don’t count against your 5/24 status.
Earning and using Chase Ultimate Rewards® is an easy way to get to Hawaii.
Bottom Line
This isn’t how I started my points-and-miles journey. Looking back, I can see how important Chase Ultimate Rewards® have been to my travels. If I were to do it all over again, choosing Chase Ultimate Rewards® as an endgame would be a strategy I would have considered. What are your thoughts about this strategy?
Related Posts
7 Reasons Why I Love Chase Ultimate Rewards®
How We Would Use 120K Chase Ultimate Rewards®
Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business℠
Podcast 90. Epic Trips You Can Plan with JUST 120K Ultimate Rewards®
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities. American Express is a Travel Mom Squad advertiser, but we always show the best public offer even when we don’t earn a commission. Terms Apply.
Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser’s responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
Leave a Reply
Advertiser Disclosure: Points Talk Squad has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. Points Talk Squad and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers when a customer clicks on a link, when an application is approved, or when an account is opened. This compensation may impact how or where products appear on this site. Points Talk Squad has not reviewed all available credit card offers on this site.
Editorial Note: Opinions expressed here are author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.
WOWW! so much to wrap my head around, I love this step by step plan!!
I’m glad that it helps you!
Question: it sounds like you can combine the Chase points from different cards. How do you combine points for P1 and P2? Can you also somehow combine chase and Amex or chase and cap one?
For those of us with high income and high expenses, we can do this in the first year (I did!). What about next year?
You’ll have to move on to other currencies until you can apply again – Remember, that you can get more than one of the Ink Business cards using a SSN (sole proprietor) and EIN.
This is almost exactly how I’ve done it so far! In 2 years we’ve gotten almost 1 million points by leveraging higher bonuses and larger referral bonuses when they were offered.
This is exactly the strategy that my husband and I did. We then actually each did a second round of the ink cards. First round we did with our social, second round we did with EINs.
Am I reading correctly that I can get 2 inks for the same business – one with my social and one with EIN? And my husband could do the same? So that’s 4 inks for one business? If I don’t remember what I used the first time I applied- social or EIN, is there a way to find out?
What if we started our Chase game with Inks? So basically we started at step 4. When is a good time to go back and get the sapphire?
Yes, you can but they have gotten stricter with approvals. My card with SSN has my name, with EIN it has my business name – hope that helps.