This is general guidance, not financial advice. Points values and card terms change, so confirm the current details with Chase and your specific card before you book.
More than 23,000 travelers have used Plotline to map over 1.6 million places from 460,000-plus social media posts.
Chase Travel is one of the most searched travel tools in the country, and for good reason: it is where a lot of people turn points into actual flights and hotels. But it is easy to assume the portal plans your trip. It does not. It books your trip. Those are different jobs, and knowing the line between them saves you from landing somewhere with great reservations and no idea what to do.
What each tool handles
| Job | Chase Travel | Plotline |
|---|---|---|
| Book flights and hotels with points | Yes, core product | No |
| Redeem points at boosted value | Yes, depends on your card | No |
| Rent cars and book activities | Yes | No |
| Save places from TikTok and Instagram | No | Yes, auto-extracted |
| Map your saved spots | No | Yes |
| Filter by city, vibe, and category | No | Yes, 9 auto categories |
| Build a day-by-day plan | No | Yes |
| Cost | Points or cash for travel | Free |
Using Chase Travel to book with points
Chase Travel is the redemption portal for Chase Ultimate Rewards. You log in, search flights or hotels much like any booking site, and pay with points instead of cash. The appeal is that certain Chase cards boost the value of points booked through the portal above their cash-back rate, which can make the same reservation cheaper in points than paying out of pocket. The exact boost and the transfer-partner alternatives depend on which card you hold, and those terms change, so check your current card benefits before you assume a rate. For a lot of travelers, the portal is the simplest way to make a trip mostly free.
What the portal gives you at the end is a set of confirmations: a flight, a hotel, maybe a car. That is the booking half of the trip, done well.
What the portal leaves out
Here is the gap. A confirmed hotel in Tokyo tells you where you sleep. It says nothing about the ramen shop a creator you follow swore by, the neighborhood worth a morning, or how to group your must-sees so you are not crossing the city four times a day. Chase Travel is not built to answer any of that, because it is a booking engine, not a guide. The moment your points are spent, the planning problem is still sitting there untouched.
Planning the days after you book
This is where the second tool comes in. Plotline is an iOS app that turns the travel content you already save into a plan. Share a TikTok or an Instagram Reel into the app and it reads the post, pulls out every place mentioned, and pins each onto a map sorted into categories like eat, explore, and stay, keeping the tip that made you save it. Once your Chase Travel booking sets the destination and dates, Plotline fills in the part the portal skipped: what you actually do there, mapped and filterable and ready to become a day plan.
To be clear about the split, Plotline does not book travel, does not touch your points, and does not handle payments or confirmations. It is the plan for the days, not the reservation. That is exactly why it pairs cleanly with a booking portal: one spends the points, the other spends the afternoons. For how the pins become a schedule, see turning saves into a day plan.
Which you need, and when
You need Chase Travel when the goal is to book a trip with points at the best value, and depending on your card it may be the cheapest way to fly and stay. You need Plotline when the flights and hotel are set and the real question becomes what to do with the days. Most points travelers use both: Chase Travel to get there for less, Plotline to make the trip worth the miles.
The bottom line
Chase Travel books the trip with your points; it does not plan it. Redeem your points in the portal, then map what you actually want to do in a tool built for the days on the ground. Confirm your current card terms with Chase before booking, and keep the planning where your saved places already live. Plotline is free and iOS only.
FAQ
What is Chase Travel used for?
Chase Travel is the booking portal for Chase Ultimate Rewards, where you redeem points for flights, hotels, cars, and activities, often at a higher value than cash back depending on your card. It is a booking tool, so it handles reservations, not what you do on the trip.
Does Plotline book travel or use my points?
No. Plotline does not book flights or hotels, does not touch your points, and does not handle payments. It plans the on-the-ground days by mapping the places you saved from social media. Book with Chase Travel, then plan the days in Plotline.
Are Chase points worth more through the travel portal?
For some Chase cards, points redeemed through the travel portal are worth more than their cash-back rate, and transfer partners can be worth even more. The exact value depends on your card and changes over time, so confirm the current terms with Chase before booking.
How do I plan what to do after booking with Chase Travel?
Once your destination and dates are set, share the travel posts you saved into Plotline. It extracts every place, maps them by category, and lets you filter by city and mood, so the booking portal handles the reservation and Plotline handles the days.