Travel Rewards Advice Needed

[FrugalFun]

Hello Everyone,

I was hoping you could provide some advice regarding how best to use travel rewards to fly my family (5 people) from the Bay Area to Israel. I currently have 115,00 Chase Ultimate Reward points and will have 215,000 within 2 months... planning on taking the trip at the end of December.

What is the best way to use the points I have (will have) ... are there any affiliate airlines that I could transfer points to through the Chase UR portal to maximize their value?

Are their any other cards I should consider opening given how I hope to use the points?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance for taking the time to read this and craft a response.

[Catbert]

Try looking here:
http://www.awardhacker.com/

It will tell you how many miles (minimum) each airline will charge you and which of the non-specific currencies (UR, MR, SPG) transfer to them.  What it doesn't tell you is availability of flights.  But it can help you focus in on one or two airlines that offer reward flights for the least points and are transfer partners of UR.  Then you'd need to go to the airline websites to see actual flights. 

Not sure which UR card you have.  If you are below 5/24 you could get another version that earns UR.  Or using award hacker determine if there are other points which can also be transferred to your airline of choice.

[FrugalFun]

Thank you! That was very helpful.

[Catbert]

I thought others might chime in with good advice, but I guess not. 

Another place to look would be in the flyertalk.com/forums.  They are to travel (including points travel) what MMM is to ER.  A huge audience of very knowledgeable people.  Here's a section specifically about UR partners.  Read the Wiki:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/chase-ultimate-rewards/1822133-ultimate-rewards-airline-hotel-transfer-partners-rules-timeline-etc-2017-a.

[FrugalFun]

Thank you for your reply. I couldn't get the link you shared to open in my browser...but I checked out the website and it looks like a phenomenal resource. I would love to see the specific link you shared....if you could resend it that would be great. Thanks again for your help!

[bacchi]

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/chase-ultimate-rewards/1822133-ultimate-rewards-airline-hotel-transfer-partners-rules-timeline-etc-2017-a.html

It was missing the ".html."

[FrugalFun]

Thank you  : )