Consumer complaint received 2019-05-15
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.
State: MD
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Other features, terms, or problems
Sub-issue: Problem with rewards from credit card

Complaint:
Subject : Not able to redeem my travel rewards points for travel due to an internal Chase technical issue. 
1. During a road trip/business, in XX/XX/2019, I discovered that due to an internal Chase technical issue, I couldn't redeem my points for travel booked through Chase, either online or with the Chase travel desk. 
2. As I was on a road/business trip, I was relying on the ability of using my Chase rewards points. 
3. Daily, I spent hours on the phone being transferred from one supervisor to another, they also were not able to book travel for me using my points. I can not begin to tell you what a waste of time this was, as I lost valuable work-related time each day dealing with this situation. 
4. I suffered unreasonable, frustrating and costly situation that I experienced with my Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card, for over one month, until Chase finally fixed the problem. 
5. As a long-time and loyal Chase Sapphire Reserve card member, I pay a very high annual fee of {$450.00}. I agree to pay the {$450.00} annual fee because my points are worth 50 % more when I redeem them for travel. Chase Ultimate Rewards points earned are worth XXXX cents each when redeemed for travel booked through Chase and over the last several years, Ive accumulated more than XXXX points. 
6. The fact that Chase prevented me from redeeming my accumulated rewards points for travel without any reasonable reason or explanation, causing me to incur a significant financial loss, detrimental and high level of stress, as I was relying on the ability to book my travel using my valuable rewards points. 
7. I have been working with the travel department and the Payment and Escalation department, while I was told the technical team was trying to resolve this issue that Chase was having. 
8. At some point, a supervisor guided me to book my travel not through Chase, but directly with the hotels and airlines, and to pay for my travel with my credit card, while Chase is working to resolve the issue and promised me that Chase will compensate me for all my losses. 
9. Following, and in lieu of not being able to use my points, I booked my travel with my Chase card. I purchased one international round trip flight, one domestic round trip flight and several hotels. All charges show on my Chase credit card and cost thousands of dollars instead of using my reward points. 
10. An escalation report/file was submitted with a request for compensation in the amount of XXXX rewards points. The reward points cover the difference in hotels and airline tickets that I purchased without using my reward points. 
11. I contacted the Chase Executive Office department and the travel side in order to resolve this with a positive outcome and reimburse me for the above-mentioned reward points. 
12. Even though Chase admitted that due to a technical issue on their side, I was not able to redeem my points for travel for over a month, Chase did not compensate me.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation