4 ways to turn the 150,000-point Chase Sapphire Reserve bonus into $3,000+ in travel

The Chase Sapphire Reserve® (see rates and fees) is making waves with an all-time high, limited-time welcome bonus worth 150,000 points after you spend $6,000 on purchases in the first three months from account opening. Including the points you’ll earn from the minimum spending requirement, you’ll have at least 156,000 points.

This bonus is worth $1,500 in statement credits, but you can redeem it for much more value thanks to Chase’s 14 transfer partners. In fact, it’s not unreasonable to book $3,000+ in travel with 156,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards® points. Here are four ways you can make that happen.

Depending on the airline, the route and the time of year, a round-trip business-class flight from the U.S. to almost any other continent will easily cost over $3,000. What you pay in points and taxes for a business-class award varies greatly depending on the airline program you book with, but Chase has several partners that offer good deals.

You can book round-trip business-class flights for under 150,000 Chase points to places such as:

• Spain on Iberia for 81,000 points (off-peak), booked through Iberia Club
• Europe on Star Alliance airlines starting at 120,000 to 150,000 points round-trip (for routes up to 6,000 miles each way), booked through Air Canada Aeroplan
• Europe on Air France-KLM or Delta starting at 120,000 points round-trip, booked through Flying Blue
• Japan on All Nippon Airways (ANA) for 105,000 to 120,000 points round-trip, booked through Virgin Atlantic

Keep in mind that the biggest hurdle when booking this type of flight is availability, especially for popular routes during peak season. You may need to book far in advance to secure the seats you want.

World of Hyatt’s new award chart goes into effect on May 20, 2026, so by the time you earn the Sapphire Reserve’s welcome bonus, you’ll be paying those prices. The award chart for standard hotels still features eight categories, but each category will have five different prices instead of three.

A Category 1 hotel will cost 3,000 to 9,000 Hyatt points. At the middle price of 6,000 points a night, you could book 26 nights at Category 1 Hyatt hotels.

Factoring in taxes and fees, it’s not uncommon to pay $115+ per night at many Category 1 Hyatt hotels, which is $3,000 across 26 nights. It’s not unrealistic to unlock far more value. When you book Hyatt stays with points, you don’t pay taxes or resort fees, and the booking is fully refundable.

The Hyatt Regency Rochester is a Category 1 hotel, and I found an average refundable room rate of $250 over a 26-night stay this September (including taxes and fees). I realize Rochester, New York, may not be the dream destination you’re hoping to unlock when you sign up for a premium credit card, but you get the idea.

There are lots of ways to use Chase points to book domestic flights, and not all of them will yield $3,000 or more in value. However, it is possible to turn 156,000 Chase points into $3,000 in domestic travel.

It’s harder to pin down the exact flights that can provide this value because many airline programs have dynamic award prices. But there are a number of programs that allow you to book round-trip domestic flights for 30,000 points or less, depending on the route and other factors.

Air Canada has a distance-based partner award chart, and you can use the program to book United Airlines flights with starting prices for flights within the lower 48 states ranging from 6,000 to 12,500 points each way (and increasing from there). At the time of writing, I found nonstop flights from Washington D.C. to Seattle on United Airlines for 30,000 points.

Flying Blue can be an excellent option for booking domestic Delta flights. At the time of writing, I found plenty of flights between Atlanta and Chicago for 8,000 miles each way and flights from Minneapolis to Salt Lake City for 12,500 miles each way. So, you have lots of different ways to extract five round-trip flights or more from your Sapphire Reserve bonus.

The Points Boost program replaced the old Sapphire Reserve Chase Travel℠ bonus, which let you book travel for 1.5 cents per point. Now, Reserve cardholders can get up to 2 cents per point on select hotels and flights booked through Chase Travel. That makes this bonus worth up to $3,000 in travel or $3,120 once you add in the additional rewards you’ll earn from meeting the $6,000 minimum spending requirement.

That said, “up to” is a key phrase with this feature, and finding a Points Boost booking that offers the full 2 cents per point can be a challenge. However, Chase has offered 2.5 cents per point for Chase Travel bookings at 11 hotels in locations featured on its top 26 trips to take in 2026 list. Fingers crossed, we’ll see more promotions like this in the future.

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