Once is fluke, twice is a coincidence and three times is a trend. That’s the thought that went through my head when I received my third message from Chase in 3 weeks, each time asking me to transfer my excess Ultimate Rewards points to one of their partners.
Coincidentally, it all appears to have started the moment my Ultimate Rewards balance topped 200,000 points for the first time in late February. That is when I received an email telling me I can pay with points when checking out with Amazon.
Burn Ultimate Rewards Points
I kept this email in my inbox because at first I thought that this was an incredible deal. Then I realized that I forgot to carry a decimal and instead of $0.10 in value per point it was really only worth $0.01 per point, hardly anything to write home about. In fact, with Ultimate Rewards points worth at least 1.5 cents a piece when redeemed at most travel partners, and as high as 5 cents apiece when booked at high end Park Hyatt properties, this is about the worst way to use Ultimate Rewards points.
Almost exactly a week later, I received another desperate plea request from Chase to transfer my points. This time they told me to jump the pond and transfer to British Airways.
Once again, they asked me to transfer my points at a 1:1 ratio, which is actually a better deal than the Amazon transfer if you are smart with your airline mileage redemptions. But since I don’t have any travel on British airways or partners planned, I have decided to keep my balance hoarded saved up for a rainy day.
Today Chase got more aggressive and suggested that I transfer my points for a gift card. Marriot, Amazon, Starbucks, take my pick. I can transfer my points for a value of 1 cent per point.
Once again, I’m not biting and I’m not going to spend my Ultimate Rewards points for anything less than 2 cents per mile. I’m sticking to my guns.
Why is Chase Sending These Emails?
As a marketer who is a partner in an Internet Marketing company that sent 220 Million emails last year on behalf of our clients, I am pretty sure I know why I started receiving these emails recently: Chase wants to get these points off their books as soon as possible!
Think about it from Chase’s perspective for a minute. They know my points balance is over 200k points and that creates a liability for them to have that many points going unspent. They want to get me to spend them as soon as possible, so they create an email campaign to try and entice me to spend away. They also want me to spend the points on the lowest possible redemption, items that are only valued at 1 cent per point.
So they create a “triggered” email campaign with the following criteria:
If a user has a Ultimate Rewards point balance > 200,000 points
Send them a weekly offer starting with the lowest value redemption of our points
Hit #1: Offer to transfer to Amazon for 100 points = $1. Everyone uses Amazon and this may feel like free money to them
Hit #2: Offer to transfer to British Airways 1:1 point ratio. Since we have so many British Airways miles purchased for our co-branded credit card, we can give these away and reduce liability in two ways.
Hit #3: Seasonal Offer. Offer something at a 1:1 point ratio at a store they use every day like Starbucks or iTunes.
Hit #4: Hotel Offer. Let’s try and dump some hotel points now. We have a lot of Marriot points lying around, so let’s go with those. (speculating)
I can’t wait to see what is next. If my theory is right, it will likely be an offer to transfer points to one of their hotel partners. Since Hyatt points are so valuable, I think it will likely be Marriott points or possibly Priority Club.
If this is like any of the triggered email campaigns that I see clients running, the value of the offer will only increase with my inactivity. That means I will start seeing higher value offers the longer I keep my balance.
Will I be Right?
Only time will tell. Hopefully I get an email next week with a hotel offer!
Have you been targeted like this by Chase? Any deals
