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If you’re a Chase Ultimate Rewards cardholder, things are about to get frustrating for you. According to Doctor of Credit, Chase has eliminated the ability to combine points with household members who are not authorized users. Further, you can only designate a single authorized user for airline/hotel point transfers. Here’s what we know so far:
In this post
You can’t combine Chase Ultimate Rewards points with household members
Previously, it was possible to combine Ultimate Rewards points with a member of your household or an authorized user. Now, that option is limited to authorized users only.
This is unfortunate if you like to combine points with family members to accrue rewards quickly. Many people don’t like paying credit card annual fees and instead designate their spouses as authorized users.
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You can only combine and transfer points with one authorized user
It’s still possible to add your spouse as an authorized user to share points. But you can’t elect a second household member to combine points with. Unless they’re an authorized user. Even then, you can’t transfer points from your Ultimate Rewards account to their frequent flyer or hotel loyalty program account. That’s a real bummer.
If you try to transfer Ultimate Rewards to a newly added authorized user’s frequent flyer or hotel loyalty account, you will get the following message:
Please note,you may only transfer points to yourself, or one additional household member who is listed as an authorized user on your card account. By selecting this authorized user, you are designating this person as the only authorized user on your account eligible to receie point transfers.
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You can’t add new household members online
In the comment section of the DOC article, a reader claimed he was able to add a household member (not an authorized user) to his Chase account via phone. It’s worth calling Chase to give this a try. If it works, it will only allow you to transfer points between your Ultimate Rewards account and theirs.
You will not be able to transfer Ultimate Rewards from your account into their airline or hotel loyalty account. That is, unless you also make this person an authorized user and designate them as your one and only person to transfer points to.
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You can’t transfer Ultimate Rewards to an authorized user’s frequent flyer or hotel loyalty account online
If you’re trying to transfer points to an existing authorized user’s airline or hotel loyalty account, you’ll encounter a message stating:
“Special handling required. We are unable to process this transfer online. Please call the number on the back of your card for assistance.”
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Can you elect a new authorized user to transfer points to?
According to DOC, you can add a household member to your Ultimate Rewards account who is not an authorized user. You just have to call customer service. Assuming this is true, you can still only transfer points from one Ultimate Rewards account to another.
The language is very clear: You cannot transfer Ultimate Rewards to more than one person’s airline or hotel loyalty account.
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The verdict
This is bad news. If you rely on point transfers to save up enough for a reward, then Chase’s new policy will make that more difficult. If you have multiple authorized users on your Chase account, you’ll now only get to transfer points to one person’s loyalty account. This is a minor inconvenience, especially if you still have the option to share points with more than one authorized user.
Featured photo by Christina Morillo from Pexels
