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Let’s say you got a Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card card a while back, scored 75,000 points or so from your welcome bonus, and have since raised your total to over 100,000. Now that you’re sitting on six figures worth of Chase Ultimate Rewards® , you start weighing your options.
Redeem for cash back? Well, you’d get $1,000—but you could get even more value if you saved them for travel. Hold onto them for work-related trips? Sure, that might be the responsible thing to do.
But honestly, what you really need is a vacation. Maybe somewhere with breathtaking fall scenery, a sun-kissed beach, or even just a nice, walkable city where they serve hot cheese fondue.
Well, we’re here to tell you that such a trip is quite doable on your budget. So let’s explore three dream trips you can take with 100,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points.
1) Hike beneath a fall canopy in Asheville, NC
If you’ve read our guide on the best redemption options for Chase Ultimate Rewards, you’ll know that one of the best ways to squeeze maximum value from your Chase points is to transfer them to World of Hyatt.
Simply put, World of Hyatt points often carry much more weight than vanilla Chase points. For instance, a stunning property that might cost you 42,000 points per night to book via Chase Travel℠ may only cost you 27,000 per night when booking directly with World of Hyatt, so a 1:1 transfer of Chase points to the World of Hyatt program is an easy choice.
Case in point (heh), we found rooms at the Blind Tiger Asheville—a charming 14-room lodge—starting at just 27,000 World of Hyatt points. So with 100,000 to spend, you and your partner could easily spend a long weekend nestled amidst the Blue Ridge Mountains, sipping complimentary espresso before you lace up your boots and immerse yourself in a canopy of falling leaves.
Once you’ve soaked in a scenic overlook on the nearby Appalachian Trail, you can always cash in some of your remaining 19,000 points to pay for a nice dinner downtown. Or, heck, use your Sapphire card to earn 3X points on the check. Either way, don’t miss out on Asheville’s flourishing culinary scene.
Finally, after a hike, a visit to the iconic Biltmore Estate and a casual stroll downtown, you’ll probably be ready to get off your feet. So it’s back to the Blind Tiger where you’ll don your soft, waffle bathrobe and cozy up by your private fireplace.
Not a bad way to spend a few points, eh?
2) Get a tan on Playa Del Coco, Costa Rica
The term “international flight” probably conjures up thoughts of $1,000+ airfares, sitting nine hours in the same seat and debating whether to fight jet lag with a Red Bull, Starbucks, or both.
But a flight to Costa Rica doesn’t have to involve any of those things.
In fact, the jaunt from Atlanta to Guanacaste is under four hours long, and we found flights on Delta for as little as 28,000 points round trip (plus fees).
Now, we know what you’re thinking: Delta isn’t a transfer partner of Chase. And that’s true—Delta is shacked up with Amex at the moment.
However, you can still book Delta flights with Chase Ultimate Rewards using two possible methods. The more straightforward way is to simply book using the Chase Travel portal, where your points are worth 1.25 cents each with the Chase Sapphire Preferred card and 1.5 cents each with the Chase Sapphire Reserve®.
That’s not a bad option, but the sneaky—and typically far more lucrative—option is to transfer your points to Virgin Atlantic. Then, you can redeem your freshly-minted Virgin Atlantic points with one of the airline’s SkyTeam partners.
And by golly, look who’s chilling in the second row:
If you and your partner can score a round-trip flight for under 60,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards Points, you’ll have 40,000 left to book a hotel. Thankfully, 40,000 points (worth ~$500 in travel using your Sapphire account) can actually take you pretty far in Costa Rica.
For example, Booking.com showed a litany of options under $100 per night in this safe, tourist-friendly area when I was doing my research, so you shouldn’t have to go too far out of pocket to enjoy a four-night adventure.
The cherry on top is that your Chase Sapphire Preferred charges no foreign transaction fee, and of course, earns a strong 3x points on dining as mentioned above. So in a way, you’re actually getting paid to sample the entire menu at Le Coq down the street. That’s how we’d rationalize it.
3) Fly business class to Zurich, proceed to eat cheese and chocolate
If you’re looking for a redemption option that’ll make you feel like king (or queen) of the castle, why not fly business class to one of the most lavish, exquisite and historic places on earth?
Zurich, the largest city in Switzerland, is known for its crystalline waterways, gothic architecture and high degree of walkability—even compared to other European cities. In fact, there’s even a part of “Old Town” that’s entirely car-free, where you can admire the colorful frescoes of Fraumünster Church and what may well be the most beautiful police station in the world, Giacometti Hall.
If you’re more of a culinary tourist than a visual one, you should also know that Zurich is a renowned mecca for both its chocolate and its cheese fondue.
But before we start salivating, let’s circle back to the task at hand. Can you really get to Zurich via business class for under 100,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points?
Well, as you may recall, Air France-KLM’s Flying Blue is a Chase transfer partner. And business class flights from JFK to Zurich really do start at 50,000 points/miles.
But wait, there’s more—at the time of this writing, Chase was offering a 25% transfer bonus for points moved over to Air France-KLM, meaning your 100,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points would be worth an eye-watering 125,000 Flying Blue Miles. Keeping an eye out for transfer bonuses like this one can help you squeeze maximum value from your points.
So, instead of flying business class solo, you could also transfer as few as 64,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points to get 80,000 Air France-KLM Miles in this example. That’s enough for two round-trip economy tickets, so you can take someone truly special to you to fondue town.
The takeaway
From hiking in Asheville to indulging your inner hedonist with melted cheese in Zurich, this trio of redemption options should hopefully illustrate just how far your Chase Ultimate Rewards can take you. Needless to say, if you can save up 150,000 or even 200,000 points, the options can feel virtually endless.
To help you get there, check out our piece on how to combine Chase cards for maximum rewards. For example, did you know that if you also hold a Chase Freedom Unlimited® or a Chase Freedom Flex℠, you can combine rewards earned on that card with your Sapphire Preferred? That lets you unlock 1:1 transfers to partners or Chase Travel redemptions for 1.25 cents per point.
In other words, seeing 100,000 or even 200,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points in your account isn’t as far away as you might think!
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