One of the issues with Chase Ultimate Rewards travel portal was that it didn’t clearly state what fares were basic economy/regular economy so it was difficult to determine if a fare included things like seat assignment and possibility of an upgrade for elites. This is especially annoying as booking through the travel portal makes your Chase Ultimate Rewards points worth 1.25¢ each when you hold the Chase Sapphire Preferred or 1.5¢ each when you hold the Chase Sapphire Reserve.
Chase has now fixed this issue and it will clearly show fares that are basic economy, “main cabin” and premium seats.
Hat tip to /r/churning
View Comments (3)
Nice to see this further improvement. (seem to recall I was the first to flag that this was possible -- months ago -- and all's well that they're making this even easier)
Next up, Chase Ultimate Rewards need to address the apparent scandalous practice of adding on hidden fees (sic) when you reserve a hotel room via CUR. (esp. when using CSR) I was livid last December when I discovered this..... would take a while to document, prove, but it's there, and yes, it's insidious. Bottom line, Chase is widely adding on fees far in excess of the value of taxes at reservation.... All well and good that we often get great discounts when using CUR points -- but not funny when you figure out that they're often chewing back more than half of it in fees.... (and then letting you the customer think that they're merely passing along hotel taxes & fees) Any fellow readers aware of what I'm referencing here? (You call Chase and lower level reps will deny it -- even when you spell out the #'s in black and white.)
Please provide the details.
How did you find out? I booked an SPG property using points, but the numbers didn't seem to be bad. I cross referenced with other offers on the net (including starwoodhotels.com and other travel portals), but found using my points would give me the best value.
I'm not saying you're wrong. Just genuinely curious. Thanks!