My Disastrous Flight Booking Experience: 74,000 Chase Points Down the Drain!

Q: Recently, I attempted to utilize my Chase points to secure a flight on Aeromexico. After verifying the availability of an award flight with their partner airline, Virgin Atlantic, I transferred 37,000 Chase points two times to Virgin Atlantic to finalize the purchase.

However, when I clicked “purchase,” an error notification appeared, preventing me from completing the reservation.

I contacted Virgin Atlantic, who informed me that Aeromexico had not made the flight available to them, and there was no option for them to secure the booking, despite it being promoted on various platforms, including their website.

I attempted to have my points refunded, but Chase now informs me that it cannot revert the points back to my account. Could you assist me?

A: Chase is both correct and incorrect. Indeed, the points typically only go in one direction. However, there are instances where such regulations should be reconsidered.

For those unfamiliar, here’s a brief overview of how these transfers function: You accumulate points by making purchases with your credit card. Subsequently, you transfer those points to the airline’s loyalty program. As I’ve highlighted earlier, once you initiate those transfers, there’s no reversing them.

Transfers of Chase points are nearly always irreversible, but the actual guidelines can be somewhat perplexing. You need to consult the Chase terms and conditions as well as the policies of your airline and partner airline to understand your rights. Upon reviewing the communications among you, Chase, and Virgin Atlantic, it seems that both had regulations that caused the points to only travel one way, and it looks like both your credit card provider and the airline adhered to their terms.

It’s genuinely challenging to interpret your exchanges with Chase and Virgin Atlantic. You clearly articulated that an error occurred, most likely due to the third party, Aeromexico. However, neither entity would assist you in rectifying the issue — you had utilized 74,000 Virgin Atlantic points yet received nothing in return.