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Chase Ultimate Rewards? points are some of the most versatile travel rewards currencies you can earn, and you can use them for a lot more than statement credits, gift cards, travel through Chase or point transfers to airlines and hotels. In fact, many people know you can redeem Chase points for airport transfers, cruise excursions, tours and other activities around the world.
These options are easy to find in your account by logging into Chase and heading to the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal. From there, you’ll select “Earn/Use,” “Travel,” then “Activities” before having the chance to browse options based on your destination and dates.
The term “activities” is really broad to begin with, so it’s no wonder some people don’t know what it’s about. When you start searching this category for available options, however, you’ll find all kinds of things to do and see as well as some travel “extras” like airport transfers that can make your trip less stressful and more organized.
You should also know that you can book cruise excursions, tours and more with Chase points with the card issuer’s cash-back credit cards as well as its travel credit cards. In other words, these booking options are available to you if you have cards like the Chase Freedom Unlimited? or the Chase Freedom Flex?. However, you’ll only get 1 cent per point in value when you book activities, airfare, hotels and other travel through Chase with one of the issuer’s cash-back credit cards.
Best Chase credit cards for airport transfers and tours
Ultimately, you’ll get a better deal booking tours and excursions with Chase Ultimate Rewards if you have a travel credit card from Chase. Options that offer better value for travel through the portal include the Chase Sapphire Preferred? Card,?Chase Sapphire Reserve? and Ink Business Preferred? Credit Card.
Where the Chase Sapphire Preferred? and Ink Business Preferred? from Chase give you 25% more value for your points when you redeem for travel through Chase, the Chase Sapphire Reserve? gives you 50% more value. This means you can get 1.25 cents per point toward activities with the two formerly mentioned cards and 1.5 cents per point in value for activities with the Chase Sapphire Reserve?.
Below you’ll find a chart with the major details of these cards, including their welcome offers, annual fees and earning rates.
| Welcome offer | 60,000 bonus points when you spend $4,000 on purchases within three months of account opening. |
60,000 bonus points when you spend $4,000 on purchases within three months of account opening. |
90,000 points when you spend $8,000 on purchases within three months of account opening. |
|---|---|---|---|
| Earning rate | 5 points per dollar on travel booked through Chase. |
10 points per dollar on hotels and car rentals booked through Chase (after using the $300 annual travel credit). |
3 points per dollar on up to $150,000 spent each year on travel, shipping, select online advertising and internet, cable and phone purchases (then 1X points). |
| Annual fee | $95 |
$550 |
$95 |
Booking airport transfers
Booking airport transfers through Chase may sound boring, but it’s super convenient anda big money saver. There’s something incredible about showing up in a foreign destination after a long day of travel and having someone waiting at the airport with a sign with your name on it.
That said, airport transfers aren’t always shown as a main feature in the Chase Ultimate Rewards travel portal. This means you’ll probably have to filter search results to find airport pickups and other ground transfers.
You can do this by selecting “Transfers & Ground Transport” from the filters on the left side of the page.
When you do, you’ll be shown a range of ground transport options that can include airport pickups, transfers to a cruise port or back to your hotel and more. You’ll also notice that some transfers are “shared,” meaning you’ll share your transfer vehicle with another party or potentially several. There are also private transfers to select from, and that’s my personal preference.
Depending on where you’re going and when, ground transfers can be really affordable with points. This is even truer when you have the Chase Sapphire Reserve? since you get 50% more value when booking travel through Chase.
In the example above, I searched for airport transfers in Prague, Czech Republic, this November. I found private transfers from Prague to the city’s airport starting at just 1,628 points with the Chase Sapphire Reserve?.
Cruise excursions
You can book cruise excursions through the Ultimate Rewards travel portal and save big over booking directly with the cruise line.
The Chase travel portal also offers a range of cruise excursions you can book with points, as well as other tours that could work well for the six to 10 hours you normally have to spend in a cruise port. However, we want to share ahuge warning here about booking your own excursions on cruises. By and large, cruise excursions booked through your cruise ship are safer for your trip. That’s because the cruise ship will actually wait for you if your excursion is delayed and you’re late getting back.
This is not the case for excursions you book on your own. In fact, the cruise ship won’t wait for you at all if your excursion is delayed and you’re not back at port in time for departure. This is why I’m careful when booking cruise excursions on my own. I typically book activities that would be easy for me to leave or ones that are somewhat close to the cruise port to begin with.
This is a good place to note that Chase lets you filter out “Tours by Duration” in the filtering options on the lefthand side of the page.
This is a great way to narrow your options to half-day tours or excursions you can book that let you relax and enjoy your time off the ship without being tied to another company’s schedule.
For example, you can book your own beach day with a chair and umbrella on the island of Barbados if your cruise vessel stops there. This lets you get out and enjoy a day of sun and fun, and you can still get a taxi and head back to the cruise port any time you want.
On the popular port island of Aruba, on the other hand, you can book a banana boat ride or a one-hour yoga session on the stunning shores of Palm Beach.
Any of these options would be easy to do during a cruise stop on the island, and they’re short enough to ensure you can get back to your ship with ease.
Water activities galore
While my family enjoys cruising, we also love land-based trips and beach vacations specifically. We have been to most of the major resort destinations in the Caribbean and Mexico, and I try to book all-inclusive resorts about half the time.
Either way, we love booking sunset cruises, snorkeling excursions and other water tours with Chase Ultimate Rewards points and have done it for years. The tours and activities tend to be affordable with points, and paying with rewards helps us keep our travel budget in check.
One example of a water activity you can book with points is a snorkeling tour and catamaran sail along the world-famous Grace Bay Beach in Providenciales, Turks and Caicos.
Or you could book a Turtle Beach power-snorkeling adventure with points in Antigua.
When you search the Ultimate Rewards travel portal for your destination and dates, you’ll find an endless number of options for all kinds of tours and activities at all kinds of price points.
City tours, pub crawls and cooking classes
You can also use Ultimate Rewards points to do some really incredible tours all over the world. For example, my own family has booked guided tours of the Vatican Museums in Vatican City, expert tours of the ancient Acropolis and Parthenon in Athens, Greece, and more.
I also really, really love booking foodie tours and pub crawls with Chase Ultimate Rewards points, and I have booked quite a few. For example, we did this Barcelona Tapas Crawl Tour in Barcelona, Spain, a few years ago (or a similar tour). It was a fun way to spend an evening trying local foods and cocktails. We also got to know several local people this way, all while meeting other travelers from around the world.
My family also spends a certain amount of time in Italy each year, and we have booked all kinds of food tours throughout the country. For example, we have booked winery tours throughout Tuscany, pasta- and gelato-making classes and pizza-making classes in a Tuscan villa.
The last time we were in Verona, Italy, we even booked a cooking class with a “cesarine” — a term used to describe certified Italian home cooks.
During this tour, a local gave us a tour of a food market in Verona before leading us to a local shop so we could buy fresh ingredients for our meal. From there, we learned how to make pasta and sauce completely by hand.
Our two children did most of the pasta-making, and my husband and I mostly drank wine. We booked this tour with points, but it’s still one of my favorite travel memories to date.
Bottom line
You will probably get a better value for Chase Ultimate Rewards points if you transfer them to airlines and hotels for premium travel redemptions. However, there’s nothing wrong with using points for other parts of your trip, including airport transfers, cruises and tours. In fact, this lesser-known option can help you work something into your itinerary that may turn out to be a whole lot of fun.
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