If you hold a Chase Ultimate Rewards credit card and you're not clicking through Chase's Shop and Earn portal before online checkouts, you're likely leaving free travel value behind. The portal awards bonus Ultimate Rewards points at more than 1,000 participating online retailers, and those points stack on top of whatever your card already earns — so a single purchase effectively pays you twice.
The mechanics are simple but order-sensitive. Rather than heading straight to a retailer's site, you sign in to your Ultimate Rewards account (the direct route is ultimaterewardsearn.chase.com, or you can go via the Chase app), find the merchant in Shop and Earn, and click through. Chase then tracks the purchase and pays the advertised bonus, which ranges from about 1 to 15 points per dollar depending on the store and product category. On a $100 order at a retailer offering 5 bonus points per dollar, that's 500 extra points before your card's own earnings even enter the picture. Offers can also be combined with Chase Offers for a further boost, and participating stores rotate frequently.
A few traps catch people out. The portal relies on browser cookies, so you need to complete the purchase in the same browser session you started from the portal — close the tab, wander off, or come back later, and tracking may fail. Gift cards generally don't earn bonuses, purchases made with certain specialized coupon codes can be excluded (promo codes shown on the merchant's own site are usually fine), and cancelled or refunded orders forfeit the points. Bonus points typically show as pending within a few days but can take up to 60 days — or two billing cycles — to fully post. If they never arrive, contact Chase with the merchant name, purchase date, order total and a confirmation email.
Eligibility is limited to cards in the Ultimate Rewards family; cobranded Chase airline and hotel cards don't qualify. Don't confuse Shop and Earn with The Shops at Chase, which is a separate curated marketplace where cardholders can buy goods with their card or points. It's also worth running rates through an aggregator like Cashback Monitor before you buy — other portals occasionally beat Chase's offer, depending on how you value Ultimate Rewards.
Why should a traveller bother? Because consistent use through the year — with a seasonal push around the holidays — can add up to thousands of points annually, which translates directly into award flights and hotel redemptions you'd otherwise pay for. It's not a new card or a new habit-buster expense; it's the same shopping, one extra click, better returns. Anyone already carrying a Sapphire, Freedom or other Ultimate Rewards-earning card should make the portal a default step before checkout, and check whether multiple eligible cards show different rates for the same store before committing. Reported by The Points Guy.
