Chase Ultimate Rewards churning question

[SimpleCycle]

I opened a Chase Sapphire Reserve in January 2017 and a Chase Sapphire Preferred in July 2017.  I'd like to close the CSR before I am hit with the annual fee, but I am wondering what the best strategy is re: points.  I can transfer them to the Sapphire Preferred but will have the same problem in July when I want to close that account.

I spend the majority of my points booking flights on Southwest.  However, my wife is going to have a companion pass this year and next, so it seems like we'll be booking reservations on her account with her points (she has about 135k from flights and two sign up bonuses) for the next two years.  I also have trouble figuring out what our annual points usage is on Southwest, and if she'll need more points to book our travel and I should figure out a way to transfer them to her.

Thoughts on what my options are?  I could get a Chase Freedom and transfer everything to that.  I don't think I'm at 5/24 right now.

[secondcor521]

Three options come to mind:

1.  I'd consider downgrading to the regular no-fee Chase Sapphire card.  I'm pretty sure you get to keep your points, but I think they also count for travel at only a 1 CPP rate.

2.  Or you could just cash out your points before you cancel the card.  With the CSR they're worth 1 CPP.

3.  You could also transfer them to several mileage programs - not sure if Southwest is one of them; it might be.  They can frequently be worth more than 1 CPP as miles.  They can also help you get to an award level -- say you need 35K miles to go somewhere on an airline but only have 30K miles on the airline program.  Transfer 5K of Chase UR points.

Those would be my thoughts.  Not an expert on redemptions, though.

[NextTime]

1. You can transfer points between spouses. So have your wife get the Preferred if possible and transfer the points there.
2. Downgrade to just the Sapphire if you don't plan on using your points anytime soon.

I actually made the decision to pay the fee for the Preferred since we are planning three trips this year.