The Offer
- Earn a total of 10% Cash Back on up to $2,500 in combined hotel and car rental purchases made through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal
This offer is available to all Freedom or Freedom Unlimited cardholders. It’s not 10% extra, only 8.5% or 9% extra, on top of the standard 1% or 1.5% cash back earnings on all purchases.
The Fine Print
- Offer valid for bookings made from March 1 to March 31, 2017
- Offer valid when using your Freedom or Freedom Unlimited card and booking through Ultimate Rewards portal
- Bonus cash back will post to your account within a week of the transaction posting, and will appear on your monthly credit card billing statement and be available for use within 1-2 billing cycles
Our Verdict
Note the terms indicate that you must pay with your Freedom or Freedom Unlimited card. You have to book during March, but you can book out into the future.
You will be losing out on the portal rewards by booking through Ultimate Rewards instead of an OTA. You could use your CSR, for example, and get 3x on travel when booking through a different OTA. Looking at it that way, it’s just 7x bonus. And you also might be losing out on hotel loyalty points, so keep that in mind.
Still 7x bonus UR is pretty good, and assuming the prices are comparable it could make sense in a lot of cases.
I had a car rental reservation through UR Portal that was posted on account on 3/15. It has been marked as 1%. From T&C, looks like bonus should hit the account within a week; but I see no such activity.
Any suggestions on how I can track the bonus points, and/or when to expect them.
I have Freedom card.
Potentially dumb question: if my Freedom is linked with my UR account, and my cashback otherwise posts as points, would that also apply in this case? Promo says “cash back” but unsure if that’s all encompassing if a UR account is involved.
If so, 10x points would be highly enticing to book some pending travel expense sooner vs later…
You always earn points with the Freedom cards, they just sya cash back because that’s all they can be used for if you don’t have a premium card. So it’s actually 10x points.
DP: Just got this offer on my Chase Ink Business card as well.
Interesting, any way you can forward me the email ([email protected]) or is there a public offer page?
Email forwarded. There’s a link to the web version of the email too, but it might be unique to me, so I didn’t know if I should post it here.
Got it, thanks!
is airbnb part of chase UR portal?
no.
With so many Citi non 24 cards, theres no time to swipe the freedom 🙈
You’re also losing out on Primary CDW Coverage (in the 130 or so countries that it gives primary coverage for).
By it – I mean CSR/CSP
This is why I always use my CSP/CSR when renting cars.