Two Successful Chase Ultimate Rewards Airline “Awards”: GRU-CDG & CDG-KUL In Paid Business

While airlines are doing their best to devalue their miles and points to the point that they have absolutely no value (why do people still keep swiping cobranded cards?), there is often a better way to use credit card points.

All card issues tend to allow you to use your points for paid hotels, airline bookings, and car rentals through their travel portals. These usually value your credit card points at 1 to 1.5 cents each, and I just did that.

Ticket 1: Royal Air Maroc | Sao Paulo – Casablanca – Paris

Royal Air Maroc has a flight between Casablanca and Sao Paulo, which connects with or without a stopover to its European network.

This wasn’t “cheap,” but I needed a one-way to Europe from Brazil, and this also allowed me to earn 180 BA TPs and some Avios.

Ticket 2: Royal Jordanian | Paris – Amman – Bangkok – Kuala Lumpur + back

Royal Jordanian has reasonable fares from Europe to Asia. The good thing about this Paris – Amman leg is that it earns 140 BA TPs, while the longer LHR-AMM would only earn 80 TPs (BA penalizes partner TP earnings on routes they also operate).

The price is right, and this also earns 640 TPs, and I have not been back to Kuala Lumpur for a few years.

Previous Chase UR Redemptions

NZ PPT-AKL Premium Economy

Last year, I needed to get from Papeete to Auckland, and the reasonable option was the Premium Economy option on Air New Zealand.

QF SYD-MEL-DPS Business

Conclusion

Redemptions of bank credit card points, like the ones above, are a complete nightmare for airlines, especially in North America, that heavily rely on revenue coming from cobranded cards while, at the same time, providing very little in return for program members.

There is value in airline miles, but I like to use these flexible points for revenue tickets, as they also earn elite miles/tier points + award miles.

The two tickets above earn quite a few Avios + 820 Tier Points with BA, which will help me on my quest to earn the lifetime Gold (or to get very close to it) before the Executive Cub program is decimated on March 31^st.

A friend commented that I should have converted these Chase URs to Hyatt, but even Hyatt’s program is devalued, so this only makes sense if you believe in the “fantasy” rates that many of their hotels charge.

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