Chase Launched the Apple Ultimate Rewards Store This Morning

by Gary Leff

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Chase has launched their new Apple Ultimate Rewards Store today. Sapphire, Ink, and Freedom cardmembers can spend points for Apple products.

The Apple Ultimate Rewards store offers free 7 business day shipping in the 50 United States (no PO boxes or other destinations) and 14 day returns on defective, damaged in transit, or incorrect items only (and no returns on engraved items).

Right now they’ll give you one cent per point in value, they haven’t specified an end date but have flagged this as limited-time. This means a cardholder with only a Freedom card (and no Chase Sapphire Preferred Card or Ink Business Preferred℠ Credit Card to transfer their points to and increase their value) might consider it.

It seems like under normal circumstances no one should be doing this with their points. Anyone getting less than a penny apiece in value for Ultimate Rewards points shouldn’t be collecting the currency in my view.

Indeed Chase Sapphire Preferred Card and Ink Business Preferred℠ Credit Card cardholders get better value straight-up redeeming points for paid travel, and generally the best value transferring points to airline miles or Hyatt points.

  • Airlines: United, Southwest, JetBlue, British Airways, Air France KLM, Singapore Airlines, Iberia, Aer Lingus, Virgin Atlantic
  • Hotels: Hyatt, Marriott, IHG

If you do want to spend points for Apple products, log into your Ultimate Rewards account and be sure to complete the transaction while points are still worth a penny apiece towards these items. No doubt there are people with more points than opportunity to maximize them, and the holidays are coming.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  2. Not only a horrible value point-wise, but who touts 7 business day shipping these days? Apple usually delivers next day to two day for free, and offers a 14 day no questions asked return/exchange policy.

    Nothing attractive about this Ultimate Rewards program.

  3. Lots of people find value in credit card points for reasons other than travel. I have a friend who owns a medium size business and used Membership Rewards points to buy balloons for an office party. When I tried to explain how wasteful that was her response was, “But I have millions of those points.”

  4. I also find value in redemptions like this. I earn 3MM Ultimate Rewards points per year and its impossible to spend them all on travel.

  5. One strategy: Use “Shop through Chase” to purchase something through the Apple store (rebate is currently 2% back), and then redeeming the commensurate number of UR points at 1 cent per point to pay off the charge.

Comments are closed.