Review of Chase Flexible Rewards Platinum Visa® Card

The Chase Flexible Rewards Platinum Visa® Card was last reviewed on 2nd January 2009

Summary - The Chase Flexible Rewards Platinum Visa® Card is a basic reward card from Chase. The Flexible Rewards program comes with the regular Chase Platinum Visa or Mastercard as well. Find out more about this card.

Reward Formula - The Chase Flexible Rewards Visa® Card is a general reward program credit card. You earn one point for every dollar you spend. You can earn up to 5,000 points in a month and up to 60,000 points in a year. You will earn 1,000 points after your first purchase. Points can be redeemed for travel (airline tickets, hotels or car rentals), merchandise, gift cards or cash rebate.

Flexible Rewards - The most attractive feature of the Chase Flexible Rewards Visa® Card is the flexibility of its reward program especially in the area of airline travel. As a brief background, there are two extreme versions of airline rewards in a reward program. Programs like American Express membership rewards allow you to transfer points to actual frequent flyer programs itself. Most other credit card reward program allow you to redeem points for airline tickets, but you loose the flexibility in the choice of airlines.

3 Ways to Redeem Airline Tickets

The Flexible Rewards is unique in that there a three ways to redeem points for airline tickets.

Fly any airline and any flight

The first method is the conventional method where you exchange points for a free ticket. Unlike other programs like Citi's ThankYou Redemption Network or Bank of America's Worldpoints Program, you can choose any airline and any flights. With the other programs, you tell the travel agent your preferred flight and they will see if the program has an agreement on the flight. So you may get the flight you want or you may have to take a longer flight with stopovers! But with the Chase Flexible Rewards program, you get the flights you want. However, unlike other programs, you have to abide by the restrictions, which is booking 21 days in advance and staying a Saturday night. Other programs allow you to use more points for to waive the restriction, but Chase is quite strict on this. The other thing you have to be aware of is that you can only redeem points for coach tickets. If you wish to redeem for business class tickets, then you should get the Chase Travel Plus Platinum Visa®, which has identical program as the Chase Flexible Rewards but lets you redeem for business class tickets. There is however an annual fee of $30.00.

Exchange Points for Continental Airline Flights

Alternatively, the flexible rewards allow you to redeem tickets in Continental Airlines, which require less points than the former method.

Exchange Points for UA, Continental OnePass Miles or BA Miles

Or you can choose to transfer points to United Airlines Mileage program, Continental OnePass Miles or British Airways miles. Hence, this card may offer a better alternative for Continental OnePass or United Mileage Plus members. (Note that this information cannot be found on the web unless you are a cardholder, which I am!)

Other Rewards - Aside from the travel rewards exchange option, the reward program compared to other cards is very poor. It has very little gift card and merchandise rewards. In fact, the rewards are downright pathetic.

Fee - There is no annual fee. The APR is either prime rate plus 5.99%, 9.99% or 14.99% depending on your credit profile. New cardholders get a 0% APR for purchases and balances for up to 12 months. You have to pay a balance transfer fee even during the introductory period. The Chase Flexible Rewards Platinum Visa® uses the average daily balance method (including new purchases) to calculate your monthly balance.

Verdict - I personally have this card and would say that the Chase Flexible Rewards Platinum Visa® Card is not the best reward card out there. If you are looking for an all round reward credit card, I would suggest getting the Capital One® No Hassle Miles(SM) Rewards because you can earn double miles once your monthly expenditure exceeds $1,000. You can use your miles for any travel items with any airline and use any travel agent. Capital One's reward program is also much better than the Flexible Rewards program. Lastly, there is no annual fee.

Positives