Chase Sapphire Ultimate Rewards(UR)

[nwsteve]

Others may have discovered this already, but I just tripped over it today.
We usually transfer UR points to the either Marriott or IHG to be used for free hotel nights. Get 1:1 value.
On a lark, I checked out how many UR points it would take to book through the UR site--about half! Marriott wanted 50K point/night but only needed 22k to book if booked through the UR site!
Does anyone have any hotel booking experience booking through the UR site?
I am wandering if the hotel book you in a closet if you use UR points. I did not check IHG or other chains--is Marriott discount true for other chains?

 

[Lsbcal]

When I used points to book we got good rooms at a few hotels. I don’t think there is a general answer to your question though.

 

[JDARNELL]

I use ur points all the time. I find that it’s always better than going through the hotel sites with the exception of transferring to Hyatt and using them with ihg point breaks. You can really leverage the value of ur points to almost 3 cents each with planning.

 

[CaliKid]

Another way of looking at this is by googling the value of the points. You will find Marriott are worth under a penny and something like southwest are worth 1.5. It thus tells me that using UR, at a one for one ratio, is not good when transferring to Marriott.

 

[Amethyst]

When I book a hotel through UR, I always check Travelocity/Expedia and the hotel's own web site to compare prices. The UR bonus seems legit.

They don't quote you the full price (taxes & fees) till you are ready to check out, which is just like the other booking sites.

Others may have discovered this already, but I just tripped over it today.
We usually transfer UR points to the either Marriott or IHG to be used for free hotel nights. Get 1:1 value.
On a lark, I checked out how many UR points it would take to book through the UR site--about half! Marriott wanted 50K point/night but only needed 22k to book if booked through the UR site!
Does anyone have any hotel booking experience booking through the UR site?
I am wandering if the hotel book you in a closet if you use UR points. I did not check IHG or other chains--is Marriott discount true for other chains?

 

[Red Badger]

Thanks for the hack, nwsteve.
I just burned through 120K Marriott points for 5 nights in DC, so that tank is near empty. I have about 160K with CSR. Nice to know that they might stretch a little farther using UR.

 

[SecondCor521]

I will note that a similar effect can happen with airline fares through the Chase travel portal. Although I think if you buy the ticket that way you do not earn FF miles on that flight. Tradeoffs.

OP, I think you get a regular room, although the hotel staff will know that it is a comp'ed room and so your chance of an upgrade may be less if that is important to you as they are more likely to upgrade folks who paid with cold hard cash. You could still try if you have elite status with that chain, never hurts to ask.

 

[calmloki]

When I purchased rooms in a Sedona adjacent IHG (uncommonly weird and ugly place to my eyes) through the UR site IHG refused to credit those stays on some promotion they were running. "Purchased through a second party site" was the reason given. OTOH, seems like I recall Alaska crediting miles flown when we bought tickets for an Alaska flight though the UR site. Kind of a mixed bag, but the UR price, using points like pennies, has been about 2/3 that of a cash purchase. Nice!

 

[fosterscik]

I will note that a similar effect can happen with airline fares through the Chase travel portal. Although I think if you buy the ticket that way you do not earn FF miles on that flight. Tradeoffs.

FYI: I booked United airline tickets via the chase portal about two months ago. I added my FF number via united's Iphone app and was credited with frequent flyer miles.

 

[EvrClrx311]

FYI: I booked United airline tickets via the chase portal about two months ago. I added my FF number via united's Iphone app and was credited with frequent flyer miles.

I've heard this can fall both ways. My guess is that it boils down to the class of the fare that Chase purchases on your behalf. This is something you don't have any control over and is dictated by how and when the ticket is purchased. That is, if a flight is really cheap (lots of seats are open) and you use rewards through Chase to get a ticket... Chase may end up getting one of these REALLY cheap seats and United won't allow it to count towards FF miles. On that note, it would seem that using the rewards to book flights that are in demand is the better way to go... but again, it's anyone's guess what the actual ticket is that Chase buys for you through the program. Never hurts to add your number and it seems it works out more than half the time, from what I've seen.

On a side note, this has been one of my biggest frustrations with United... although it's a reward so I can't complain too much. I accumulated a lot of reward miles over the years (I'm close to 900,000 with United) and every time I go to use them I'm faced with this decision to compare savings from using points while also factoring in the lack of FF qualifying miles if I do. I typically end up just buying the tickets myself because I'm barely hitting Silver every year, and I enjoy maintaining that minimum status. I guess at some point I'll just let that go and use all the rewards to fly for free for a few years the frustration being that they don't allow reward miles to count towards status for next year. Although I completely understand the business model against doing so...

 

[capjak]

When using marriott reward points I usually try to do travel packages and if you do it during certain times that UA has bonuses for transfer you get extra UA miles:

Flight and Hotel Packages | Marriott Hotel Packages