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Chase just launched a new Ultimate Rewards transfer bonus. Now through August 15, 2022, you can transfer Ultimate Rewards points to IHG One Rewards with a 50% bonus.
We are excited to see a new Chase transfer bonus. However, IHG is one of Chase's least valuable transfer partners. IHG points are worth far less per point than Ultimate Rewards points. Consequently, 1:1 Chase-to-IHG transfers are rarely a good idea.
Is a 50% bonus enough to tilt the scales? We don't think so. Let's show you why.
Transfer Bonus Offer Terms
- Transfer Ultimate Rewards points to IHG One Rewards and receive 50% bonus IHG points.
- Bonuses are available on point transfers made through 11:59 PM ET on August 15, 2022.
- The minimum transfer amount is 1,000 points (1,500 IHG points after 50% bonus).
- Point transfers to IHG typically take ~5 hours to process and are final/non-reversible.
- Allow up to two days for the bonus points to hit your account.
Why This is a Poor Value Proposition
Without a transfer bonus, Chase uses a 1:1 transfer ratio for all Ultimate Reward travel partners. But all points don't have the same value. While my baseline valuation for Chase Ultimate Rewards points is 1.7¢ per point, AwardWallet users have only been able to redeem IHG points for 0.73¢ per point in recent redemptions. Consequently, if you were to transfer Ultimate Rewards points to IHG, you'd effectively cut the value of your points by more than half. This makes transfers to IHG a poor value in most scenarios.
A 50% bonus doesn't do much to close the gap. Boosting IHG's 0.73¢ value by 50% still only translates into under 1.1¢ per point.
Better Options
While 1.7¢ and 0.73¢ per point are my baseline values for these currencies, you may value them differently. And that's okay. But that still doesn't necessarily make this a good deal.
Personal valuations aside, all Ultimate Rewards members can achieve 1.25–1.5¢ per point through the Chase Travel Portal. Additionally, Sapphire cardholders can get the same value by using Ultimate Rewards points to Pay Yourself Back. This means you're typically better off using your points in one of these ways instead of transferring to IHG.
Let's use a dummy booking at The Intercontinental Danang Sun Peninsula—one of our favorite IHG sweet spots—to demonstrate this point.
For an award stay in January 2023, the award price for a base room is 80,000 IHG points per night — a great points deal for this property. With the 50% transfer bonus, you'd need to transfer 54k Ultimate Rewards to receive the IHG points required.
Meanwhile, the cash price for the same booking is $563 all-in per night:
That nets a redemption rate of 0.7¢ per IHG point. That's in line with the value AwardWallet users have gotten in recent redemptions. However, by making a fourth-night free booking, eligible IHG cardholders can book a four-night stay for 240,000 IHG points. That boosts the redemption rate to almost 0.94¢ per IHG point.
If you have a Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, Ultimate Rewards points are worth 1.25¢ per point on bookings made through the Chase Ultimate Rewards travel portal. Thus, you could book the same room for only 45,866 points per night through the portal — or a total of 183,465 points for four nights:
If you hold the Chase Sapphire Reserve®, you'll get an even better deal. Cardholders receive 1.5¢ per point through the portal. That means you'll only need 38,222 Ultimate Rewards to book a cash stay through the Chase Travel Portal. That's a savings of 16k points per night compared to transferring to IHG with this 50% transfer bonus.
Bottom Line
Chase is offering a 50% transfer bonus when transferring Ultimate Rewards points to IHG One Rewards. But it's probably not worth considering too long. If you'd like to grow your balance of IHG points, you're better off applying for an IHG co-branded credit card.
There is a silver lining. While this transfer bonus isn't valuable, the fact that Chase continues to offer periodic transfer bonuses is a good sign. Hopefully, we'll see some better deals in the future.
What Ultimate Reward partner would you like to see a transfer bonus for next?
The comments on this page are not provided, reviewed, or otherwise approved by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
I agree I like to see that Chase is doing some bonus transfers. I think that if I was close to an award I might use this bonus. It would really depend on what it would cost to pay for the trip or redeeming Chase points or even redeeming Amex points in their travel portal.
I’m happy to have other people keep IHG and Ultimate Rewards solvent with these bad redemptions ?
I am happy that Chase is doing another bonus transfer. I am hoping to see more of these in the future but they are not known to do this, like Amex is. United would be way more enticing to me than IHG. If I had to top off my account maybe I would take advantage of this, otherwise nah. You’re right I’d rather get their card or buy points during a promo.
60% bonus is not bad as long as you are trying to top up to get to the redemption value.
yes, it’s would be better than have no bouns points when we are urgent to need some IHG points.
I am not agree with you , before IHG point not good value to use, but for now IHG point is very useful as we can use small than before point to redeem many good hotels.
At what maximum amount would you be willing to transfer in order to requalify for Spire and get the 25k bonus points?
Interesting question! Looking at just the math: around 25k UR points. After the 60% bonus, that would net you 40k IHG points. After adding in the 25k bonus, that’s 65k IHG points – which I’d value around $390 (0.6 cents each). I value UR at 1.5 cents at the bare minimum – as that’s what I can get from the Chase Travel Portal. 25k UR at 1.5 cents each is around $375 in value.
I agree that this is not a good deal at all. The only problem with the “pay yourself back” proposition is that you might not use the Sapphire card for those purchases. Groceries and Restaurants go on my Amex Gold card. So I don’t have any purchases for which to pay myself back on my Sapphire Reserve card. Now if they start allowing the Pay yourself back on travel…well then that would be a game changer.
As stated, this is not a good value proposition. Better to use your points elsewhere.
I would never transfer UR points to IHG, so completely agree with you.
Its an offer that doesn’t make sense.
The only IHG offer that always makes sense is the Ambassador membership.
Very timely deal. We are going to see more and more of these deals now that people realize we can travel safely. Its time to jump on this deal and get out there!
I was tempted when I saw the 60% bonus, but after seeing your math, I’m glad I waited to transfer. Here’s hoping Chase continues to offer these bonuses and that the next one is more enticing.
Great article. Short, to the point, and most importantly covers the ‘so what‘ question that should be asked after every announcement. Thank you. That means all the readers do not have to do a similar analysis, which makes us More productive and makes me want to continue to read this blog.
Would love to see a Hyatt transfer bonus. There is a lot of value in Hyatt stays.
Can’t imagine why anyone would consider bothering with this offer.