00:00:00:01 - 00:00:05:06 Chris You might think you've been using your chase points the right way, but you could be leaving a lot of value on the table. 00:00:05:08 - 00:00:12:03 Katie That's why today we're breaking down the five biggest mistakes people make with Chase ultimate Rewards points and exactly how to fix them. 00:00:12:05 - 00:00:20:02 Chris And before we get to that, my Alaska Airlines account was hacked. I'll tell you what happened and what you should do right now to make sure it hasn't happened to you. 00:00:20:04 - 00:00:33:20 Katie Plus, I took a weekend trip to Montreal and I'll share why you should add this city to your travel wish list. It's all coming up right now. 00:00:33:22 - 00:00:37:02 Chris Hey, I'm Chris. Welcome to the Upgraded Points podcast. 00:00:37:04 - 00:00:55:22 Katie And I'm Katie and today we are talking about Chris's hacked Alaska Airlines account. My weekend in Montreal and the five biggest mistakes you might be making with your chase points. Before we jump into all of that, don't forget to share this episode with a travel loving friend and be sure to go on and leave us some positive feedback. 00:00:55:22 - 00:01:04:00 Katie We would always appreciate that. Let's jump in to Chris's hacked Alaska account. I'm dying to hear what happened. 00:01:04:02 - 00:01:27:02 Chris Yeah, that was a bummer. This happened, over the weekend, and this is an issue that's been happening a lot with Alaska Airlines and the Amazon Rewards account. I received an email around 9:00 at night saying your password has been changed from Alaska Airlines. And I was sitting at my computer and I did not change my password. And yeah, the red flag started going up. 00:01:27:04 - 00:01:51:03 Chris So I immediately tried to log into my account and it said my email was not recognized. And so from that moment, I knew that something was up. Like I said, this is a problem that a lot of people have been having. I had read plenty of other websites and Reddit has all this well documented. So I gave a call to the Admiral Rewards, customer service, and they were incredible. 00:01:51:03 - 00:02:10:10 Chris It took me about five minutes on the phone. I explained to the to the to the agent that I couldn't log in, so she verified, my ID with a bunch. My identification with a bunch of, questions, and then, yeah. Then she said, yeah, your email had been changed recently. She didn't tell me what the email was or anything like that. 00:02:10:12 - 00:02:32:08 Chris But then she sent set me back up with my email and, you know, for a new password and everything. But what everyone should be doing now is to set up multi-factor, authorizations. And this was something that Alaska hadn't, rolled out until very recently. So maybe your account didn't have it. It probably has it now. 00:02:32:10 - 00:02:54:23 Chris So go and set that up. Make sure you have a strong password and keep an eye on your emails, because that's how I flag this first. By the time I got, I got back on my account so quickly that no one had, you know, used any of my my points yet, which is great. That's great. But a lot of people, yeah, a lot of people don't realize until they go to make a redemption and realize that their points are gone. 00:02:54:23 - 00:03:14:22 Chris And then, you know, if you're chasing a really, you know, hard to find award seed or something dealing with having to get your account back, that could be, you know, the difference between actually getting that that, you know, that award booked or not. So overall, it was it was a bummer, but it was easily resolved. You know, the Alaska customer service was incredible. 00:03:15:00 - 00:03:20:01 Chris I was, you know, back in my account for 5 or 10 minutes, but, yeah, some of the, some of the thing about. 00:03:20:03 - 00:03:32:06 Katie That's great that none of your points were gone. And even though it was a, you know, a pain in the butt, it was quickly resolved. I had that happen. I've had it happen a couple times, once with a city account. And you could imagine how fun that was to call it. 00:03:32:06 - 00:03:33:02 Chris Oh, no. 00:03:33:04 - 00:03:51:00 Katie And once with a Delta account where someone actually booked an award ticket using my miles. And to their credit, Delta gave me back all the miles. So, it was it was really stressful. But, you know, thankfully those things, you know, will turn out good a lot of the time. So. 00:03:51:02 - 00:03:59:03 Chris Yeah, the airlines do they they know that, you know, they can tell when it's not authorized. Yeah. But tell me about, your trip to Montreal. 00:03:59:08 - 00:04:19:16 Katie Yeah, it was super fun. So I was covering the inaugural flight from Columbus to Montreal, which, if you live in Columbus, is a big deal for anyone else. It probably isn't. But for anyone in central Ohio, that was a big deal. It's only our third international flight from the entire airport. We can get to Cancun seasonally in Toronto otherwise. 00:04:19:18 - 00:04:45:15 Katie So this was a really exciting development for the Columbus airport. So I was there for the celebration, and, the Columbus airport and Air Canada did a really nice job. They had some you know, executives from both sides talking, and they had, Montreal like Canadian and Columbus themed treats. It was great. So there are cookies and maple flavored buckeyes, which is like the perfect flavor combination of those two places. 00:04:45:15 - 00:05:03:08 Katie Also, it was a fun atmosphere. The flight itself was super quick and easy. Nothing really to note there. But it's just a really great opportunity for Central Ohio. And also not even if you don't want to go to Montreal. It gives you access to all of air Canada's destinations from Montreal, and they have a huge route network. 00:05:03:08 - 00:05:26:05 Katie So overall, awesome news for Columbus. Fliers. But I spent the weekend in Montreal, which was really fun. I stayed at the W Montreal and great location. It's not directly in Old Town, but it was maybe a five minute walk. It was sort of more, I think more in their business district, but super easy to get to the old Town area. 00:05:26:07 - 00:05:49:17 Katie And it's actually located right on top of a subway station, which was super convenient. You could take the elevator from your, you know, your floor directly down into the subway area. So really awesome. Yeah. Super convenient. Great. If the weather is terrible. But just for convenience. It was wonderful. The hotel itself was very funky, hip, modern. 00:05:49:17 - 00:06:21:00 Katie I really like the decor. The room itself was so comfortable. The bed was spectacular. I slept so well, so it just made me love that room. Although I will say it did have a slightly awkward bathroom situation. And it reminded me a little bit of the Andaz Amsterdam. A different set, but still a slightly awkward. So like the shower and the tub and the sinks and everything were all open and there was a curtain, so they weren't in their own room. 00:06:21:00 - 00:06:36:03 Katie There was a curtain like for us. I was just there with my husband. I'm like, no big deal. And you could close the curtain and have privacy. But there's just something like, if you were there with a friend or, you know, if I had a teenage son that I was traveling with, it might be a little weird just to have a curtain. 00:06:36:05 - 00:06:38:07 Katie But, like, for families. 00:06:38:09 - 00:06:38:13 Chris Yeah. 00:06:38:13 - 00:06:58:06 Katie These it was big and like. Yeah, I mean, it's not not perfect, but it looked nice. It worked for us. I wouldn't I would absolutely stay there again. I wouldn't that wouldn't bother me. But, the bed was great. So. And then the last thing I want to say about the hotel is someone had recommended a coffee shop because I'm always after a good coffee shop. 00:06:58:06 - 00:07:19:15 Katie And right around the corner from the coffee shop is this place called the Crew Collective and Cafe, and it's actually a co-working space with a, coffee shop kind of integrated. And it's inside the I think it's the Royal Bank of Canada. So the building is gorgeous. You walk in, you would never realize this was a coffee shop if you didn't know you were going. 00:07:19:17 - 00:07:37:19 Katie And you walk in and it's just like the most ornate ceiling, absolutely beautiful space. The coffee was good, the pastry was excellent. So if you're in the area, hop in there, I loved it, I just popped in like the morning before our flight and it was great. And I will have a full review coming soon to the website. 00:07:37:21 - 00:07:58:12 Katie Otherwise, I really enjoyed Montreal. It's a great destination if you want that sort of European feel without going to Europe. So it's great for a quick weekend trip and you get that sort of vibe, like you could easily look around, close your eyes and you think you're in Europe and not Canada. French is the language there it is. 00:07:58:12 - 00:08:17:20 Katie What you're going to hear the most of the time, which I love, because it forces me to practice my French a little bit. But like everyone speaks English too. So it's, it's easy if you don't speak French. There's, you know, the old town area with galleries, restaurants and coffee shops and all that stuff. There's the big observation wheel if you want some really nice views. 00:08:17:22 - 00:08:42:01 Katie We went up to Mount Mount Royal Park, which I think is kind of their central big park, but there's a huge hill that you can kind of there's, you know, walking tracks and biking paths and everything, some really nice views up on the top. And then the other really cool thing that I really liked was called the biodome, and it's sort of an enclosed museum with different ecosystems. 00:08:42:03 - 00:08:49:19 Katie So you get to see all of the different plants and animals and all these cool ecosystems. That's where that video of the capybara was. And I fell. 00:08:49:20 - 00:08:52:04 Chris Asleep. So I was thinking, that's great. 00:08:52:04 - 00:09:06:07 Katie Yeah. And that was actually a little bit out of like the downtown area, but it was super quick on the subway. So we actually took, you know, directly from the hotel right there. And that was a fun thing. And I would love to go back with my daughter. I think she'd really enjoy it. But like my husband and I loved it. 00:09:06:07 - 00:09:21:11 Katie So, it was just a great city. I really enjoyed it. And, really nice weekend trip, especially from anywhere on like the East Coast and Northeast. It's it was an hour and a half flight from Columbus, so it's just a super quick, easy, we can get away. 00:09:21:12 - 00:09:35:14 Chris I love it. Yeah, I know when we, when we're in Vermont visiting family that has been a just an option for airports lately. So we've been cutting through there, spending a day, half day, in the city before going up or down between Vermont. So, yeah, that's really nice. 00:09:35:16 - 00:09:37:07 Katie Have you done the biodome? 00:09:37:09 - 00:09:41:13 Chris I have not, I've seen it. Oh. You sure? Every time we're there, it's like we're on the way to the airport. 00:09:41:13 - 00:09:48:18 Katie Yeah, yeah. It was, it was really cool. I think it was worth, you know, I mean, we spent maybe two hours there. It's not an all day thing, but we really enjoyed it. 00:09:48:20 - 00:10:03:04 Chris That's awesome. All right, well, let's, take a break. And when we come back, we're going to be talking about Chase ultimate Rewards and how people may not be using them to the best of their advantage. 00:10:03:06 - 00:10:13:11 Chris Yeah. Hey, real quick, before we jump back in, if you're listening to this podcast, you're exactly the kind of person we built our free newsletter for. 00:10:13:13 - 00:10:23:14 Katie We break down the best credit card offers, transfer bonuses, award alerts, and travel news that actually matters. No fluff, no spam. Just the stuff we text a friend if something big dropped. 00:10:23:16 - 00:10:28:13 Chris A lot of the deals, we talk about on the show don't last long. The newsletter is where we fly those fast. 00:10:28:15 - 00:10:37:07 Katie It's totally free, and you can sign up at upgraded points.com/newsletter. 00:10:37:09 - 00:11:01:01 Katie Yeah. Okay. Welcome back. Let's talk about Chase points. So Ultimate Rewards is one of the most powerful currencies out there. It's one of our favorites. But it's also one of the easiest to misuse. So in today's episode we are covering the five biggest mistakes people make with their chase points. And we'll give you some better alternatives so you can get more value from your points. 00:11:01:01 - 00:11:06:23 Katie So let's go right into it. Chris, what is one of the big mistakes that people make with their chase points? 00:11:07:01 - 00:11:28:14 Chris So one of the biggest mistakes is booking through the Chase travel portal instead of transferring to a partner. This is not always a bad idea, but you will be getting a fixed value and use your points to book through the Chase portal. And while technically that is easier than transferring points, you could be leaving a lot of value on the table. 00:11:28:16 - 00:11:49:12 Chris The value of points in Chase travel, will depend on the card. You have the Chase Sapphire Reserve card. It can be worth up to $0.02 per points. That's actually pretty good. The Chase, Sapphire Preferred and Ink Business Preferred. You can get up to 1.7 $0.05 per point, and then the freedom Flex and Unlimited, the ink Business unlimited and cash get $0.01 per point. 00:11:49:12 - 00:11:54:19 Chris So you know, if you were to transfer those out, you may be able to get way more than that. 00:11:54:21 - 00:12:15:20 Katie Absolutely. And then the second mistake we want to talk about, you actually need to just forget everything Chris said, because the second mistake is using the wrong card when you are booking through Chase travel. So while most of the time it is a mistake to book through Chase travel, occasionally it does make sense. And when you do, you want to make sure you're using the right card. 00:12:15:22 - 00:12:36:22 Katie So like Chris said, different cards have different values in Chase travel, and if you have more than one, you want to make sure you are going through the correct one. So for example, you have a Freedom Flex and a Sapphire Preferred. You want to make sure you are going through your Sapphire Preferred to make any bookings, because that's going to give you access to that higher value. 00:12:37:02 - 00:13:09:01 Katie And these are those values that Chris mentioned. So in this example, the Sapphire Preferred will get you up to 1.7 $0.05 per point where if you booked through the flex, your your ceiling is $0.01 per point. And that's a big difference. The cool thing is that Chase makes it really easy to pull your points across your cards, as well as a member of your household, so you can make sure you're taking advantage of the best redemption value so members of the same household can combine their Ultimate Rewards points. 00:13:09:03 - 00:13:29:02 Katie You're only allowed to combine your points, though, with one other person, and they must share the same address. And you can also combine the Ultimate Rewards points on your own chase card. So if it's just you and you have that Sapphire Preferred and the flex, you can transfer all the points you earn on your flex, which remember are advertised as cash back. 00:13:29:06 - 00:13:47:17 Katie But in your account they're going to show as Ultimate Rewards points. You can take those those points from the flex and easily move them to your Sapphire Preferred. So then you can access the transfer partners. Or on those few specific occasions, you can get the best value when you are booking through the Chase travel portal. 00:13:47:18 - 00:14:07:08 Chris That is a nice little hack that a lot of people don't even realize. They think they have a cash back card and they think those, you know, those points are just for cash back, but now you can actually stretch those that value even further. I'll move on to mistake number three, which is redeeming for low value redemptions. 00:14:07:10 - 00:14:28:18 Chris So redeeming your points for something like cashback or gift cards is a big mistake. If you were to take cash back, you'd be getting $0.01 per point. If you were to pay yourself back, which is an option, you'd be getting $0.01 per point. And then there's some bonus categories that can go to 25 to 50% and then gift cards $0.01 per point. 00:14:28:18 - 00:14:53:08 Chris Occasionally you can get ten, 15% discounts. But this is generally the worst way to use your Chase points. Additionally, paying with your points at checkout at Amazon and PayPal that will give you 0.8 cents per point in value. So you're essentially just throwing, you know, 20% of your points value away because you can redeem them at cashback at $0.01 per point if you if you needed to. 00:14:53:08 - 00:14:57:21 Chris But yeah, just steer clear of those those points at checkouts. 00:14:57:23 - 00:15:15:00 Katie Yeah. There is no reason anyone should be paying with points at Amazon or PayPal. That is terrible value. Even if you just want cash back. That is terrible value. Don't do it. There's never, never a reason. Well. 00:15:15:02 - 00:15:20:09 Chris Sometimes I guess, you know, and maybe those Amex ones are special special occasions, but. 00:15:20:11 - 00:15:26:13 Katie That's Amex points. We're talking chase points here. I've never seen that with Chase of you. I mean, if that would be true then. 00:15:26:15 - 00:15:30:09 Chris Yeah I've seen Discover and Citi like that. It's crazy. 00:15:30:10 - 00:15:30:15 Katie That I. 00:15:30:15 - 00:15:32:06 Chris Chase. Yeah. 00:15:32:08 - 00:15:59:08 Katie So as of right now you're paying with points at Amazon and PayPal with Chase is a terrible idea. Okay. The next mistake is transferring points without a specific reward in mind. So let's say you hear about a transfer bonus and you assume that that's the best time to transfer your points. And in most cases, you'd be wrong. It's risky to transfer your points without a specific plan in mind, even with the transfer bonus. 00:15:59:08 - 00:16:20:10 Katie And I know it can be hard to to see that bonus and and, you know, ignore it. So like right now there's a 20% transfer bonus from Chase to Air France KLM flying blue. Flying blue that goes through May 27th. So just a couple more days. If you're listening to this on the day that it publishes. So let's say you take advantage of that without a specific flight to book. 00:16:20:10 - 00:16:42:20 Katie Now you're just stuck with flying blue miles. And yes, well, those are great. Sometimes that takes away the flexibility of having transferable points in the first place. Those points cannot be transferred back to Chase. They are stuck now within flying blue in this example, and those points could be devalued at any point. They could change their award chart. 00:16:42:20 - 00:17:00:20 Katie All kinds of things can happen. So really they're they're probably handful circumstances when it makes sense to transfer speculatively. But those are very few and far between. As a general rule, only transfer if you have a specific way to use those points in the immediate future. 00:17:00:22 - 00:17:10:19 Chris Well said, well said. That's something that some I think a lot of us struggle with. They see these big flashy transfer bonuses. You got to take advantage. But yeah, you're right. I mean. 00:17:10:20 - 00:17:15:15 Katie I've been tempted. It's easy to be tempted, but you have to be strong. 00:17:15:17 - 00:17:35:19 Chris These strong. All right. Here's another one. Let's talk about hoarding points because this could be a negative as well. And we all want a big balance. But points can be devalued at any time. For example, we just saw a Hyatt move to an expanded award chart with much higher prices. Hotels used to top out at 45,000 points a night. 00:17:35:19 - 00:17:58:09 Chris They could be costing up to 75,000 points per night. So I am and a lot of us are in the earn and burn philosophy. We're all for, you know, saving for that big redemption. But you should either have a plan in mind or pay attention to award prices so you can make a move if something changes. Will always flag these big devaluations on the podcast and then I newsletter as well. 00:17:58:11 - 00:18:18:09 Katie Yeah, the newsletter I think is a great, great thing. Subscribe to that for free and get those just delivered into your inbox. Because any time any big devaluation happens, we will absolutely cover it on upgraded points. Okay, let's move on. We actually have a question and, I've been holding on to this one for a little bit, trying to find a good episode for it. 00:18:18:11 - 00:18:42:01 Katie So it, it was perfect for this episode about Chase. And this is from Ann, and we got this via email an and says, I have a Chase Sapphire Reserve. But I'm unimpressed with the new benefits and I don't like the higher annual fee. If I close the card to open a Sapphire Preferred, am I eligible for the new welcome bonus, or should I just downgrade the reserve to the Sapphire Preferred? 00:18:42:03 - 00:19:05:13 Chris So you are eligible for a welcome bonus on the Sapphire Preferred? If you've never earned a welcome bonus on that card before, if you're under the 524 rule. In that case, I would downgrade the Sapphire Reserve card to something like a new annual fee Freedom Flex or Freedom Unlimited card, and then just straight out apply for the Sapphire Preferred. 00:19:05:15 - 00:19:19:11 Chris Just make sure that you have at least one of these cards open to keep your points alive. So, you know, don't go and cancel your reserve. And then apply for the preferred. Just make sure that you have somewhere for those points to be waiting for. 00:19:19:13 - 00:19:43:02 Katie Yeah, definitely. And they did recently, change the rule. Used to be able to get those bonuses a couple times every. What was it, Chris? 48 months, I think. And they recently changed that. So now it's more of a lifetime rule situation, kind of similar to Amex. So but yeah, if you're eligible, definitely just downgrade that card and then get that Sapphire Preferred because you want to get that bonus. 00:19:43:04 - 00:19:54:15 Katie Okay. Well thanks for the so much for the question. And we really appreciate it. If you have questions or comments that you want to send in to us, you can reach us at podcasts at upgraded points.com. That will do it for this week. We will see you next week.