Reading Time: 3 minThere’s a new way to stretch your Chase points further — if you know where to look. Chase’s Points Boost feature can increase the value of your Sapphire points on select flights and hotels, even as the older blanket bonus disappears.
While no one can argue Chase's Points Boost is as good as getting 25% to 50% more value for all travel bookings with points, there are still ways to get the most out of this feature. Consider these tips to get more bang for your buck with your Chase Ultimate Rewards points and Points Boost.
One big downside of Points Boost is that it doesn't apply to all travel booked through Chase like the previous 25% to 50% bonus program. Instead, it applies to select flights and hotels only, as determined by Chase.
While flights — especially airfare booked with certain airlines or in a premium cabin — seem to have more Points Boost options overall, I have personally found good deals on economy flights and some very random hotels.
For example, my family recently spent a night in the Wisconsin Dells en route to somewhere else. With Points Boost, I found the Staybridge Suites Wisconsin Dells - Lake Delton by IHG for just 8,595 points per night (plus a $16 resort fee) vs. paying the $166 nightly rate.
While not fancy by any means, this redemption got us the overnight stay we needed and just under 1.75 cents per point in value.
As a side note, booking this same hotel with IHG One Rewards would cost 22,000 points per night.
In this case, using the Chase portal and Points Boost is a much better deal than transferring points to IHG One Rewards first.
When you search for travel through the Chase portal, you can filter for Points Boost options at the top of the search page. You will also notice these options have a small rocket ship behind the rewards amount required.
Toggle the switch for "Points Boost only" bookings and you can see what's available for your rewards. At this point, you can compare available options to traditional bookings that may only get you 1 cent per point in value.
The tricky part here is understanding that Points Boost can help you get more value for each point you redeem, but that doesn't mean these enhanced bookings cost fewer points overall. That's because Chase only offers this option with select airlines depending on the itinerary, and many Points Boost redemptions are only for seats in a premium cabin.
If a flight on another airline is significantly cheaper, it's possible you could fork over fewer points for an itinerary that works for you — even if you're only getting 1 cent per point in value.
To get the most bang for your buck, you need to figure out valuations for potential bookings. You can do this by taking the booking cost through Chase and dividing it by the number of points required. With the United Airlines flight shown above, for example, you're getting a rewards value of 1.5 cents per point.
$530 / 35,331 points = 0.0150009
You can use this same valuation formula for hotels, and to compare costs for booking through a travel portal vs. transferring points to Chase airline and hotel partners.
Ideally, you'll redeem your points for travel you actually want and get more than 1 cent per point in value. Between Chase Points Boost and Chase transfer partners, you can often get 2 cents per point or better in the end.
