Opinion: Chase Ultimate Rewards (Part 2 - Latest Chase Travel Information email)

"""
...

As always, we follow the policies of our partners, which means a credit, refund or change is at the discretion of the airline, hotel, cruise line or other travel provider.

...

We understand your feeling of urgency, but we can serve you better when you wait to call us if:

• You are not starting your trip within three days

• You trip isn’t covered by a specific flexible change policy offered through the partner

To change or cancel a hotel reservation, please go online to MyTrips https://travel.chase.com/trips?eapid=0509-70501 and click on your itinerary.

We are also working with our travel partner Expedia to launch other self-service cancellation options soon. We are addressing individual cases and will work with customers who can’t reach us right now.

...

"""

Just read this email today from Chase. As I mentioned in the previous post, Chase did not honor this policy as I provided the email from Alaska Airlines. The Alaska Airlines email was sent 4 days prior to my call. I was not starting my trip within three days, and I was not changing the ticket. Email clearly says cancel fee waived. There were a few additional criteria. My ticket met all the criteria with Alaska Airlines eventually honoring the ticket themselves by giving me a credit.

I had even called into Chase support, yet all I get is the email for generic user. What about those who already called? I suppose it is too much to ask for an apology.

Opinion: Chase Ultimate Rewards Refused to Refund Alaska Airlines Ticket where Alaska Airlines Honored Refund

In short, I have a lower view of Chase rewards which happens to coincide with me wanting to cancel my Chase Reserve Card; and a better view with Alaska Airlines which happens to coincide with me wanting to move away from United.

My situation is that I am flying cross-country. Due to family circumstances, I did not want to put them at risk with the Corona virus even if it is a rather small chance so I decided to cancel my trip with Alaska Airlines.

Alaska Airlines had launched their Peace of Mind policy which waived change and cancel fees. Because I booked through Chase Ultimate Rewards, I called them. When I reached some guy with a moderate Indian accent. After I explained my situation, he goes to "research" his options then puts me on hold several times. Eventually, he says that my ticket is a 'savers' ticket so cannot be considered for fee waivers. I explained to him that Alaska Airlines has the policy which he responds that I need to go through the airline even though the Alaska Airline site specifically says to go through the agency that I purchased the ticket from. He then repeats that my ticket will be charged a cancellation fee.

A bit off-topic, I can barely hear the guy and he barely hears me. When he speaks, there are random background noise. I am not sure why there is such a low quality with support this time. I usually have rather high quality sound and service from Chase or their credit card services. To add, why did he need to research on how to cancel my ticket? And also on one of the final holds, I just got this annoying beeping sound as if I was disconnected instead of the hold music I had before. I was unwilling to hang up at this point, and he did eventually return to give me nothing useful.

So then I called Alaska Airlines which I had to wait a long while. Eventually, I got through and spoke with Becka. Becka was wonderful, professional, and explained that I should go through Chase. I then explained that Chase refused and that I speak with Alaska Airlines. She understood and went to ask what she could help me with. I was on hold for a few minutes. She came back and told me that she explained my situation and confirmed there was "difficulties" with Chase so she needed to reach out to see if she could assist with exception for me. She came back on and said that she could help by giving me credit with Alaska Airlines which I was perfectly fine with (although, I would have preferred refund as the policy stated). Since I was most likely going to fly with Alaska in the future, this was not a major problem.

So, I do not understand why Chase cannot honor the policy the airline was willing to waive. From what Alaska said, they could have reached out to Alaska for a waiver code. I tried to call back to Chase but I was told that the wait was 3-5 minutes and eventually waited 20 minutes before giving up.

Life: Visa CC Changed due to Target Hack

It is just life that I have to go through this credit card change hassle just because I went to Target once to buy a box of envelopes. So many stores like nearby supermarkets, bookstores, and whatnot, I choose the one that gets hacked.

The hacking event happened a while back and I did get a warning from the Chase site that my new card will be sent (which I have not received). I watched my account and no suspicious activities.

Then suddenly a couple days ago, my card suddenly was declined. This is very odd because I was just using it the previous day. After logging on, I found that they already changed my card number. Well, I'm glad that I no longer had any automatic charges that went to my old card but what a pain that would have been to change at a random time.

Review: Chase Mortgage experience (poor)

Because this was my first time going through the mortgage process, I had decided to try a few lenders to compare different rates. This turned out to be such a huge hassle. I thought I could just get the rates that I wanted. To get those rates, I had to submit so many different forms.

There are some costs to go through the mortgage process. I was told that I didn't have to make a decision until it was closer to the closing date. But I was charged an application fee, $400+.

Eventually, I had decided to go with another lender more than a month prior to the closing. So, I asked if I could have the application fee refunded. I figured since they never got around to doing the appraisal for my place because it was still being built, I could recover some of that cost. I never received a response back.

Even thought I had notified the loan officer, the processor still contacted me on how the progress of the building was... so that was another awkward moment.

So sad to say that even though I have been a long time Chase customer since they acquired Bank One, this experience was quite disappointing. I even shared what I would have liked to see to help with my decision, but feel that it was completely ignored.

On a side note, I had also tried Wells Fargo. The loan officer there kept asking for the same information multiple times. The first time, I visited a branch and I provided my name, address, and other basic information. Then, he put me on the phone which I had to provide the same information. Then we scheduled a physical meeting. Before that, he had his processor call me and requested the same basic information. Then I met the officer, and he asked for my basic information again! At this point, I just easily eliminated them as an option.

Now, I kind of wish that I had tried TD Bank. I have found that their desk personnel are much more helpful and seem to be extra helpful with problems. Maybe it is different between branches, but sometimes that it is all it takes. She even mentioned that my credit score could be lowered due to multiple inquiries which I have confirmed because Chase had requested for my credit score twice.

I'll have another post after everything is completed on my recommendation on what to prepare for on a mortgage. I really took the hard way of doing things, but I want to wait till it is all over before I post so that I can evaluate the entire process.