Chase Ultimate Rewards Transfer Partners 2026

Chase Ultimate Rewards remains one of the cleanest transferable-points ecosystems in travel, but the details matter more now than they used to. The headline promise is still powerful: 1:1 transfers into airline and hotel partners. The trap is that travellers often operate from an outdated mental list, an outdated loyalty map, or an outdated idea of what each partner is actually good for.

That is why a current guide matters. In April 2026, Chase public card pages describe a 13-partner travel roster: 10 airlines and 3 hotel programmes. Emirates is not on that current list. Hyatt remains the hotel standout for many readers, but Marriott's "Stay for 5, Pay for 4" and IHG's broad footprint can still matter situationally. And the smartest Chase strategy is usually less about chasing a mythical best partner and more about preserving optionality until the exact booking is in front of you.

Updated April 26, 2026: Partner roster and transfer framing were checked against current Chase public card pages. If Chase changes the roster later, the current public Chase page should override this article.

The short answer

• Chase currently lists 13 transfer partners on eligible cards: 10 airlines and 3 hotels.
• Best all-round airline partners for many readers: Air Canada Aeroplan, Flying Blue, United MileagePlus, and Virgin Atlantic Flying Club.
• Best hotel partner for many readers: World of Hyatt.
• Most important rule: search first and transfer second.

The current Chase transfer-partner roster

Current Chase public card pages show the following transfer partners at 1:1 value on eligible cards.

Airline partners

• Aer Lingus AerClub
• Air Canada Aeroplan
• British Airways Club
• Flying Blue
• Iberia Plus
• JetBlue TrueBlue
• Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
• Southwest Rapid Rewards
• United MileagePlus
• Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

Hotel partners

• IHG One Rewards
• Marriott Bonvoy
• World of Hyatt

That is the first important correction many readers need. Current Chase public materials do not support describing Ultimate Rewards as a live Emirates transfer currency in April 2026. Some older pages and older articles still muddy the picture, but the current public partner roster on Chase card pages is the list above.

What changed in the roster recently

The most important recent change to the Chase Ultimate Rewards roster did not add a partner. It removed one. As reported by The Points Guy and confirmed across the industry, Chase ended transfers to Emirates Skywards on October 16, 2025. The partnership had run since 2017, and Emirates' reluctance to keep transferring at 1:1, combined with persistent surcharge headaches on Emirates redemptions, appears to have been the deciding factor. Practical implication: any 2026 guide that still lists Emirates as a current Chase partner is out of date.

The rest of the roster has been stable through 2025 and the first half of 2026. There has been no announced addition to compensate for Emirates' exit. Speculation that Wyndham Rewards or Avianca LifeMiles might join has not been confirmed by Chase. The honest current count remains 10 airlines and 3 hotels.

A practical 2026 ranking of the Chase partners

Not every partner is equally valuable. Independent valuations, from The Points Guy's monthly tables to Frequent Miler's Reasonable Redemption Values, consistently produce a similar pecking order. Combining those with real award-space behaviour through early 2026, this is roughly how the 13 partners stack up.

Top tier, almost always worth the transfer

• World of Hyatt. Still the headline hotel partner even after the May 2026 chart change. The new five-level pricing pushes peak nights to 75,000 points, but Categories 1–4 at standard or low pricing still routinely produce 2.5–4 cents per point against the cash rate. No other hotel partner matches that ceiling on real bookings.
• Air Canada Aeroplan. The post-June 2026 chart is a step down from its 2024 form, but Aeroplan still publishes a fixed partner chart for Star Alliance, applies transparent surcharges, and tends to have the broadest partner award inventory of any Chase outlet.
• Virgin Atlantic Flying Club. The most over-performing programme in the Chase stable when its partner sweet spots align, particularly on Delta One transcontinental routes and ANA First Class. The catch is searching availability requires patience and phone-booking discipline.
• Air France-KLM Flying Blue. Underrated for everyday utility. Monthly Promo Rewards (25% off select routes), monthly Chase transfer bonuses, and broad SkyTeam access make it the best transferable-points hedge for European travellers.

Middle tier, strong for the right traveller

• United MileagePlus. Excellent for domestic redemptions and same-day-confirmable upgrades, weaker on international long-haul where dynamic pricing has eroded the ceiling.
• Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer. Still the only sensible way to access Singapore Suites or Singapore First on own-metal, but the November 2025 chart changes raised most rates by 10%–18%.
• British Airways Club / Iberia Plus / Aer Lingus AerClub. The Avios family is best used for short-haul partner redemptions; surcharges on transatlantic British Airways metal frequently destroy the math.
• Southwest Rapid Rewards. A genuine flat-cents-per-point currency where transfers can make sense when Southwest fares are high and a Companion Pass is in play.

Bottom tier, usually situational at best

• JetBlue TrueBlue. Earnings are roughly fixed at 1.3 cents per point on JetBlue cash fares, which is usually worse than what Chase Travel itself delivers via Points Boost.
• Marriott Bonvoy. Too large a chain to ignore, but the 1:1 ratio rarely outperforms Hyatt, and Marriott's dynamic pricing has eroded the old reliable redemption math.
• IHG One Rewards. Useful only when a specific cash rate is unusually high and a points rate is unusually low. Not a default.

Transfer bonuses: who actually offers them, and how often

Chase runs targeted transfer bonuses substantially less often than American Express. When bonuses do appear, three partners account for most of the action: Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, Air France-KLM Flying Blue, and occasionally JetBlue TrueBlue. Doctor of Credit's transfer-bonus tracker and AwardWallet's news desk are the cleanest places to track them.

The 2024–2026 pattern has been recurring 25–30% bonuses to Virgin (typically Q1 and Q3), Flying Blue bonuses tied to Promo Rewards months, and the occasional Marriott or IHG bonus that almost never moves the needle once the underlying point value is accounted for. The right discipline is not to wait for a bonus, saver award space tends to be the binding constraint, not transfer ratio, but to act on one when an existing booking plan can be funded more cheaply because of it.

What makes Ultimate Rewards so strong

The power of Chase points is not that every partner is brilliant. It is that the points stay flexible until you decide which partner is best for a specific trip.

That matters more in 2026 because pricing is more dynamic across the industry, partner access can change, and no serious traveller should assume that a transfer partner praised in an old guide is still the best answer today. Flexible points let you postpone commitment until the booking opportunity is real.

The airline partners that deserve most attention

Air Canada Aeroplan

Aeroplan remains one of the most strategically useful Chase partners because it opens a broad Star Alliance world with a modern, practical programme structure. For readers who want optionality across a large partner network, Aeroplan is usually one of the first places to look.

Flying Blue

Flying Blue remains one of the most compelling SkyTeam-facing Chase partners because it combines Air France-KLM network relevance with ongoing Promo Rewards and real utility for Europe- and transatlantic-heavy travellers. It is not a fixed-chart museum piece, but it is still highly useful. Independent valuations from The Points Guy's Chase transfer-partner guide consistently call out Flying Blue as one of the most flexible airline outlets.

United MileagePlus

United MileagePlus matters because it is simple to understand for many U.S.-based travellers and because it gives Chase users a direct bridge into Star Alliance. It is not always the cheapest award currency, but it is frequently one of the most practical, and NerdWallet's Chase transfer-partner overview reflects that pragmatism.

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club remains interesting because it gives Chase users access to a programme that can still matter for transatlantic and selected partner opportunities. It is not a universal answer, but it is absolutely not a fringe partner either, and ongoing transfer-bonus tracking from Doctor of Credit's transfer-bonus tracker often features Virgin Atlantic.

KrisFlyer

Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer remains important because some Singapore Airlines award space, including the Suites and First Class inventory, is most naturally accessed through its own programme. For Asia-bound premium travellers, that alone keeps it relevant.

The hotel side: one standout, two situational tools

World of Hyatt

World of Hyatt is still the hotel transfer partner many serious Chase users value most. It is often the clearest reason to preserve Ultimate Rewards flexibility instead of cashing out or speculatively moving points elsewhere. Current Hyatt strategy is about finding stays where the points rate materially outperforms the cash rate, not about outdated myths like a Hyatt fifth-night-free benefit. Hyatt does not work that way.

Marriott Bonvoy

Marriott Bonvoy can be useful, especially because of the programme's global footprint and the "Stay for 5, Pay for 4" mechanic on standard award bookings. But for many readers, Marriott is a situational transfer rather than a default one. The network is huge; the value per point is often less elegant than Hyatt.

IHG One Rewards

IHG One Rewards is usually about footprint and convenience rather than romance. If a specific booking is expensive in cash and workable in points, a transfer can make sense. As a standing policy, it is rarely the first place experienced Chase users move their points.

Pay Yourself Back, Points Boost, and why transfers still win

Two non-transfer redemption options live alongside the transfer roster. Both are worth understanding, and both are usually worse than a well-chosen transfer.

Pay Yourself Back lets eligible cardholders erase recent purchases at a fixed cents-per-point rate. The programme has been steadily devalued: most of the original categories (cable, internet, phone, shipping) have been removed, and the remaining categories cap at 1.25–1.5 cents per point on the Sapphire Reserve, with eligibility narrowed largely to charitable contributions and a rotating slate. Even at the top of the range, that is a hard ceiling on what Ultimate Rewards can produce as cash.

Points Boost, launched alongside the refreshed Chase Sapphire Reserve in June 2025 (alongside the $795 annual fee), allows Sapphire Reserve cardholders to redeem at up to 2 cents per point on select "top booked" airlines and hotels through Chase Travel. The catch is the "select", most flights and hotels still redeem at 1 cent per point. The 2-cent rate applies to a curated subset of inventory, not the whole portal.

Now compare both to a real transfer. A Hyatt Category 4 standard award at 15,000 points against a $400 cash rate produces 2.67 cents per point. A Virgin Atlantic redemption on ANA First Class can clear 4–5 cents per point even on the post-2022 chart. A well-timed Aeroplan business-class transatlantic at 70,000 miles against a $3,000 paid fare is roughly 4.3 cents per point. The transfer wins almost every time when the goal is travel, and the gap is wide enough that the right default is "transfer unless you cannot." Pay Yourself Back is for liquidity. Points Boost is for convenience. Transfers are for value.

How to decide when to transfer

Transfer when the booking is live

The correct default is not "which partner is best?" It is "which partner is best for the itinerary I can actually book today?" If the space is open and the price is sensible, transfer. If not, keep the points where they are.

Respect irreversibility

Ultimate Rewards transfers are valuable because they are flexible before you use them. After you transfer, they are no longer flexible. That is why speculative transfers are such a common mistake, a point made repeatedly in the US CFPB's consumer guidance on credit-card rewards.

Let your geography decide the shortlist

• North America-heavy traveller: United, Southwest, Hyatt.
• Europe-heavy traveller: Flying Blue, Avios-family programmes, Hyatt or Marriott depending on stay patterns.
• Asia-focused traveller: KrisFlyer, Flying Blue, Aeroplan depending on the route.
• Generalist who wants flexibility: Aeroplan, Flying Blue, Hyatt.

The mistakes weaker Ultimate Rewards strategies make

1. Using an outdated partner list. If a guide still tells you Chase transfers to Emirates as part of the current standard public roster, it is not current.
2. Transferring because of excitement rather than a booking. Flexible points are more valuable than stranded partner balances.
3. Ignoring the hotel side. Hyatt in particular remains one of the best reasons to value Chase points highly.
4. Assuming every airline partner is equally strong. Some are broad strategic tools; others are niche or geography-specific.
5. Confusing Marriott benefits across programmes. Marriott's "Stay for 5, Pay for 4" is Marriott-specific. Do not import random hotel-benefit rules into other partners.

Who should care most about Ultimate Rewards?

• Travellers who want one flexible currency instead of committing early to a single airline or hotel chain.
• Hyatt-aware travellers who value strong hotel transfer optionality.
• Star Alliance and SkyTeam planners who want workable paths into Aeroplan, United, and Flying Blue.
• Readers who prefer practical booking power over collecting obscure programmes.

Bottom line

Chase Ultimate Rewards remains one of the strongest points ecosystems in 2026 because it is still anchored by a useful 13-partner roster, a clean 1:1 transfer proposition on eligible cards, and a balance between airline reach and one genuinely excellent hotel transfer option in Hyatt.

The skill is not memorising the partner list. The skill is using the flexibility correctly: keep points flexible until you have a live use case, ignore stale partner lists, and build a short personal roster of programmes that fit where you actually travel.