Update 10/25/18: This should now be live on the majority of Chase cards, including the Chase Sapphire Reserve (50% bonus) and Chase Ink Preferred/Sapphire Preferred (25% bonus). So far it seems to be mixed reactions, some are seeing a lot more hotel options. Others are saying the car rental rates are significantly worse. Disney hotels are still not showing up. Share your thoughts on the change in the comments below. Hat tip to blueeyes_austin
Chase Ultimate Rewards points can be redeemed for travel via their online booking portal at a rate of $.01 per point on the Freedom cards, $.0125 per point on the Sapphire Preferred, and $.015 per point on the Sapphire Reserve.
CNBC reports that Chase is now shifting over the backing of their online booking portal to Expedia Group, which owns sites including Travelocity, Orbitz, and Hotwire.com. Previously, the Chase portal was run through a partnership with a company called Connexions Loyalty.
Chase Freedom cards have already switched over to the new provider today, August 12th, with other cards phasing in over the next few months. The change is being touted as an “upgrade” with double the the travel inventory available.
No one really cares about the travel portal on the Freedom card since you can easily redeem for $.01 per point as cash. It’s the premium Sapphire cards which get 1.25 cents or 1.5 cents per point where some people take advantage of the online booking portal. Hopefully, the change lands up being positive, as suggested.
I second
boomX opinion below. Not sure if many have tried to use this portal in recent times.
I had UA miles as well as points. Tried to use up the miles for award booking for an international trip and United would not show the partner flights I wanted. Tried several options and just would not give me good flights.
So went to book through Chase using the UR and wow, what a huge negative change this site is now. I had used it more than a year back previously and at that time prices were either same or better than other travel sites like Expedia/Orbitz/Priceline. Now the prices have become MUCH MUCH WORSE than the regular sites. The exact same flight is $500 cheaper on the airline website as well expedia/priceline as compared to the Chase travel website. I called and was told rudely that Yes, because you can use points, Chase is charging you more. Wow! So CSR 1.5x point values are no longer what they show you….they are greatly devalued!
Also previously you could creatively make your own forward and return flights…now you are presented per-selected options which you cannot change….that is no more mix and match….another big big negative.
Once I use up my points, I am closing CSR…Chase is not even worth a product change now.
Hey
William Charles 
Chuck
Chase UR portal for CSR prices the flights with inflated prices compared to what is seen on Expedia itself.
I know this has been discussed in other comments or posts but here is my experience.
Flights I searched for cost on Chase UR $54.87 more than what I saw on Expedia $1164.63. That translates to points costing only 43% more instead of 50% – devalued!
BofA TravelCenter uses Orbitz (which is Expedia) and is exactly the same as you see on Expedia.
Just another datapoint. Tried booking at Iberostar Punta Cana on Expedia website, and I see all kinds of availability. Tried booking on the Chase site, and it says it is sold out. The verbiage is as follows: Rooms are unavailable for your trip dates on Chase Travel. Try new dates to check availability.
I’m wondering if I call Chase if they will see availability. I’m very confused.
Called Chase. They said that they have a certain amount of reservations or stock of reservations from Expedia. I’m really not seeing any benefits from this switch when searching the new site. It has me rethinking my CSR to be honest.
PDX-WLG on 2/25/19 one-way on Expedia’s site is $798. THE SAME EXACT BOOKING on Chase’s CSR Expedia Driven site is $864.52??? Why!?
Old system:
Chase -> Connexions -> Hotel booking (usually Expedia)
New System:
Chase -> Expedia
Doubtful this results in any direct advantage for customers, just more profit for Chase. Long-term though, if it allows them more flexibility to be able to continue to offer the 1.5X on CSR redemptions, without having to cut benefits & raise fees elsewhere, that’s a good thing.
The UI does appear to be vastly improved however, which is nice, and I’m glad to see the addition of vacation rentals.
I actually used the “Activities” option quite a bit to book tours, tickets, etc, so I’m curious to see how that’s affected. I typically use miles & points to book flights & hotels directly, so there’s a lot of value to me in being able to redeem UR’s at 1.5X in order to have something to do while I’m there. Kind of an unsung UR benefit, if you ask me.
Previously it was backed by Viator, so I’ll be curious to see how Expedia handles it.
+1 — Good post Andy. I’d always thought my hotel reservations via CSR portal went through Expedia anyway; you suggest the change is removing a middle-man.
I’ll be watching to see if the CSR bookings now remove hidden, unspecified booking fees that very much have been in the process…. (unevenly to be sure — sometimes obvious.) I’d call up CSR reps and they’d claim that these were the normal “taxes and fees” charged by the hotel — but when I had the time to check, that claim just wasn’t the case — and at times flagrantly so. I tried to draw this scandal to the attention of various bloggers, but as most of them depend on Chase partnerships, couldn’t find any takers courageous enough to dare check the suspicion out…. Will be checking to see if the problem remains.
I’m curious too if we can now make same day reservations. (the former system required day-before reservations, with midnight always calculated by EST — regardless of your location…. VERY frustrating with last minute travel.)
Still not able to view lie cost airlines like frontier or spirit on the new portal
So are Chase travel reservations no longer eligible for loyalty program benefits because Expedia is considered an online travel site? Wasn’t one of the advantages of using UR points or cash through the Chase site was that loyalty program benefits still applied?
For what it’s worth, I found this to be YMMV for hotels and rental cars under the previous system, too.
This is big! I always find price on the old portal higher then expedia, so the 1.25x and 1.5x don’t really matter to me. With this change im thinking about laying low till im 4/24 for a reserve card. But can I stop?!?
Or you can always upgrade an existing card to a Reserve at any time. That wouldn’t preclude you from getting the bonus on the Reserve in the future (would just have to downgrade/close first)
There’s definitely something strange going on with car rentals – for a 1-day rental I’ve been researching in Long Beach, CA I’m now only seeing 55 cars available and just 2 agencies – Enterprise & Hertz. Previously there were much cheaper options available and the usual assortment of companies. A direct search through Expedia provides 255 cars with 6 agencies so for some reason the Chase portal is restricting certain agencies… I really hope its just a temporary glitch!
Tried an Alamo rental today. What a mess!! I put the confirm # in with Alamo on their website and tried to check-in, it said money is due at the counter and at the very end errored out when I tried to Skip The Counter. After much contact with alamo Twitter they were unable to assure me the reservation was paid for because their system said “it still shows a balance due at the counter”. They also said STC is not available because it was a pre-paid voucher of some sort. How that matches with balance due at the counter who the heck knows? Error messages were plentiful on my end and the Alamo rep’s end.
I cancelled the Alamo res & made one with National via the CSR portal. More expensive but at least I can see the last 4 of the billing account listed on the res is not mine & their Twitter team says I’ll be able to skip the counter and do everything we need to do at the exit despite the instructions saying go to the National counter. I can’t add it to my National account until I get to the exit booth but that’s the same as before.
I’ve found this to be extremely YMMV for both Alamo and National depending on location. I’ve gotten widely different answers from CSRs when calling the corporate line about attaching my loyalty number, and I’ve had both breezes and huge hassles occur when trying to skip the counter and (for National) choose a car from the Executive Aisle.