Question
I just tried to cancel my Chase Travel Rewards card which I found very difficult to cash in on and was handed a line about the newer version Flexible Rewards and even newer(2 week old) Chase Freedom Plan. It sounded too good to be true(no annual fee, no blackouts, can be linked to my Continental One Pass). Anyone have experience with either version?
Answer
I don't specifically have much experience with the Chase Freedom Card, but I do have experience with Chase Rewards Plus, which is basically (from my understanding) and iteration of Chase Rewards Plus (which is no longer offered) that earns 3 pts/$ on gas/grocery/drugstores instead of 5 pts/$.
The rewards offered by Chase Rewards plus are fairly good in my opion, although you only get 0.5 Onepass miles/point, which doesn't sound that great until you consider that that means you'd be earning approx. 1.5 Onepass miles/point on gas/grocery/drugstore purchases.
The cash back offerings on Chase Freedom are very good too. . .you get $250 for redeeming 20,000 points--especially 1.25% back on everything and 3.75% cash back on the categories mentioned above.
Answer
I don't specifically have much experience with the Chase Freedom Card, but I do have experience with Chase Rewards Plus, which is basically (from my understanding) and iteration of Chase Rewards Plus (which is no longer offered) that earns 3 pts/$ on gas/grocery/drugstores instead of 5 pts/$.
The rewards offered by Chase Rewards plus are fairly good in my opion, although you only get 0.5 Onepass miles/point, which doesn't sound that great until you consider that that means you'd be earning approx. 1.5 Onepass miles/point on gas/grocery/drugstore purchases.
The cash back offerings on Chase Freedom are very good too. . .you get $250 for redeeming 20,000 points--especially 1.25% back on everything and 3.75% cash back on the categories mentioned above.
Have you had experience redeeming those Chase Rewards (CR), in particular for airline miles (CO or UA), awards (CO), or discount certificates (CO)? I have accrued a number of CR points and there do seem to be some very good redemption possibilities, but I'm not clear about the details. For example:
- convert to UA miles, but how, by mailing UA a certificate that you get from Chase?;
- how does one go about getting a free coach ticket anywhere in continental 48, and with which airline(s), and subject to saver-type availability?;
- no 2:1 CR:CO miles if one goes directly to CO award ticket rather than deposit miles into CO FFP?;
etc.