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The current Chase Sapphire Reserve bonus can take you a lot farther than you might think — even to the other side of the world.
Joseph Hostetler/Insider
The Chase Sapphire Reserve® currently has an increased offer of Chase Sapphire Reserve®.
By transferring Chase Ultimate Rewards® points to airline partners, you can fly just about anywhere on earth.
We don’t know how long this bonus will be around, but if it drops to its usual 50,000-point bonus, your possible destinations plummet.
Read Insider’s guide to the best Chase credit cards.
The Chase Sapphire Reserve® currently offers a big increased bonus. You’ll earn Chase Sapphire Reserve®.
This bonus is worth Chase Sapphire Reserve® in travel, on average, based on Insider’s points and miles valuations. That sounds like a lot — but you can also get tons more value from the bonus by transferring those points to Chase’s airline and hotel partners. In fact, with a bit of strategy, you can turn this bonus into a (nearly) free ticket to just about anywhere in the world.
Below is a basic overview for getting to whichever region is on your bucket list.
We’re focused here on the rewards and perks that come with each card. These cards won’t be worth it if you’re paying interest or late fees. When using a credit card, it’s important to pay your balance in full each month, make payments on time, and only spend what you can afford to pay.
Use the Chase Sapphire Reserve bonus to get (almost) anywhere
This post does not focus on the absolute best value for your Chase points. Instead, the goal is to effortlessly reach every continent on Earth — except for Antarctica, where the aviation industry stubbornly and inexplicably refuses to construct a large commercial airport. You’ll be astonished at the places you can go with very little work, all from earning one single welcome bonus offer.
All this to say, below are not all the options you have, but they’ll get you to where you want to go.
North America
You can transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points to United Airlines and Southwest, both of which cover nearly every nook and cranny of North America.
By transferring 80,000 Chase points to Southwest, you can expect an average value of $1,120 in free flights. Southwest famously offers super-cheap fares, so this should be more than enough to get you wherever you want to go more than once. Southwest serves Hawaii, Mexico, and Central America, too.
You can also transfer your points to Singapore Airlines for cheap flights to Hawaii on partner United Airlines. You’ll pay as little as 39,000 miles round-trip from anywhere in the Continental US.
Singapore Airlines
South America
You can transfer Chase points to United Airlines to visit most of South America.
For example, flights near the bottom of the continent to Santiago, Chile, cost 60,000 miles round-trip in coach. You can get to Brazil, Peru, Colombia, etc. for equal or fewer miles.
United Airlines
United miles can even take you to the Galapagos Islands for as little as 42,000 miles round-trip, though note that the taxes can be above $100 on this award flight.
Europe
There are plenty of ways to reach Europe for free, but United Airlines is again the path of least resistance. Round-trip coach flights to Europe generally cost 60,000 United miles, from Iceland to Malta to Turkey and everywhere in between.
You can save quite a few Chase points if you’re willing to pay a bit in taxes, however. One of our favorite tricks is to transfer points to Iberia. You can cross the Atlantic for around 17,000 points and $100 in taxes.
Iberia
The only real catch is that you must be flying from either Chicago, Boston, or New York (JFK) to Madrid. But once you’re in Europe, you can hop around on low-cost airlines for as little as $20 one-way — so you can very inexpensively reach whichever destination you want to visit.
Asia
Asia is enormous. The best plan of attack depends on the specific region you want to visit.
If you’re off to India, transfer to United Airlines and you’ll pay 85,000 miles round-trip in coach (just 1,000 points more than you’ll have after meeting the Chase Sapphire Reserve® minimum spending requirement). And you can reach hot spots in Southeast Asia for 80,000 United miles round-trip, such as Singapore and Phuket, Thailand.
If you’d like to go to Japan, you can transfer your points to Virgin Atlantic to fly round-trip in coach for as little as 55,000 miles.
You can even fly coach to Israel for just 50,000 points round-trip by transferring to Flying Blue via Air France or KLM — and quirkily, sometimes less, as you can see.
Air France
Australia/Oceania
United Airlines prices its flights just out of reach for the Chase Sapphire Reserve® current bonus. You’ll pay 88,000 United miles round-trip in coach.
However, those on the West Coast can transfer Chase points to British Airways to reach Australia for as little as 77,500 points by using Hawaii as a stopover. Here’s what you do.
First book a flight from the West Coast to Honolulu — this will cost 26,000 points round-trip.
British Airways
Then book a round-trip from Honolulu to Sydney for 51,500 points which occurs inside the previous round-trip. This ticket can incur some annoying fuel surcharges — but for a ticket that otherwise costs $1,500+, it can be swallowed. Plus, you can stay in Hawaii as long as you want. It can be two vacations in one!
British Airways
You can also reach French Polynesia for 51,000 miles round-trip in coach by transferring points to Flying Blue, the airline partner of KLM and Air France. This is one of the cheapest ways to reach Tahiti — the gateway to Bora Bora.
And you can fly round-trip in coach from Los Angeles to the South Pacific on Air New Zealand by transferring 60,000 points to Virgin Atlantic — though admittedly these seats aren’t the easiest to find.
Africa
Africa contains many different regions and prices, but you can reach every extremity one way or another.
You can book a round-trip coach flight to Algeria and Morocco by transferring just 50,000 Chase points to Flying Blue. Or you can fly all the way to South Africa for 80,000 United miles round-trip.
United Airlines
You can even book a round-trip coach flight to Seychelles (in the middle of the Indian Ocean) for 84,000 United miles. Again, you’ll have at least this many Chase points after meeting minimum spending requirements.
Bottom line
The 84,000 Chase points you’ll have after opening the Chase Sapphire Reserve® and meeting its minimum spending requirement is basically a blank airline ticket to nearly anywhere on earth’s surface.
There are always taxes and fees associated with award flights (some steeper than others), so don’t expect to pay absolutely zero dollars. But you could very well save thousands of dollars on airfare with this bonus while paying hardly anything.