Tag: Chase Sapphire Preferred

Impact of the Chase Sapphire Preferred Refresh on Travel Rewards

Posted on by David Cox

On June 10th, 2026, Chase announced changes to the Chase Sapphire Preferred card that will go into effect on June 15th. Some of these changes were positive, improving earning rates on the card and increasing the value of the annual hotel credit. Unfortunately, one negative change could affect how people view Chase Ultimate Rewards and ultimately Chase Bank as a whole.

Chase Ultimate Rewards was the Standard

Chase has a special place in the hearts and minds of travel hackers. Starting in 2009, Chase launched the Chase Sapphire Preferred card, which introduced Ultimate Rewards points and allowed the transfer of those points to airline and hotel partners. Chase became a favorite because the earning rates on Chase Cards were lucrative and the transfer partners were great.

Before Chase Ultimate Rewards, Amex had Membership Rewards points. Later, Citibank introduced its own transferable points program, Citi Thank You Points, and Capital One created Venture Miles. Competition in the travel rewards space was fierce, but Chase kept one major advantage: 1-to-1 transfers to the most valuable hotel point program, World of Hyatt. It was such a strong partnership that people often referred to their Chase points as Hyatt points.

World of Hyatt Devalues and Transfer Ratio Changes

Earlier this year, Hyatt announced changes to its award chart that went from a 3-tier system to a 5-tier system. Essentially, each hotel now has 5 different prices they can charge in points for a stay, depending on the date. It allows the hotel more flexibility for what they can charge, in points, for award nights. On the surface, that seems reasonable, but the fear was that this would reduce the value of points because hotels would begin increasing the number of points required to book an award night.

These changes haven’t been in effect very long, but in the short amount of time it has been in effect, The Points Guy has dropped the value of Hyatt points from 1.7 cents per point to 1.55 cents per point, based on data collected from Gondola. It’s likely, in my opinion, that the value will continue to drop for a few more months before it levels off. How low it goes is really up to Hyatt at this point.

To complicate the issue with Hyatt’s devaluation, Chase has decided, with the new Sapphire Preferred changes, to change the transfer ratio from 1-to-1 to 4-to-3. What this means is that if you transferred 100,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards before the changes, you would end up with 100,000 Hyatt points. After the change, 100,000 Ultimate Reward points become 75,000 Hyatt points.

With the value of the points going down, what would have been $1,700 of Hyatt points (100,000 Hyatt points @ 1.7 cents per point) now is only $1,162.50 in Hyatt points (75,000 Hyatt points @ 1.55 cents per point). That’s basically like getting 1.16 cents per point on your Chase Ultimate Rewards points, which is barely better than just booking directly with the Chase Travel portal. If the value of Hyatt points falls further, there would be no reason to transfer at all.

Earning Rates Increase

One of the bright spots with the changes is that the earning rates in a couple of categories increased. The earnings at gas and EV charging stations rose from 1X to 3X. That can be significant if you spend a lot in those categories.

Another change is that you will now earn 3X on vacation rentals like VRBO and Airbnb. I really like this, because we prefer to stay in vacation rentals when we travel, and they can be a significant expense. Earning 3X would be a nice boost to our point totals.

Hotel Credit Increase

The Chase Sapphire Preferred Card had a $50 per year credit when booking a hotel through the Chase Travel Portal. Starting on June 15th, that credit will be $100. We’ve actually never used this credit, mainly because it was so small that we never considered using it. A $100 credit makes it something I might actually use, especially considering that you can combine the $100 credit with Ultimate Reward points at checkout. That means that a $200 hotel stay could be only 10,000 Ultimate Reward points after the credit, perhaps less if a points boost is attached.

Other Changes

Travel protections now include Emergency Evacuation and Transportation coverage. In addition, a $120, once every 4-year Global Entry, TSA PreCheck, or NEXUS credit has been added. A promotional complimentary 1-year Apple TV credit has been added as well. On the negative side, the 10% Anniversary Bonus benefit is being discontinued, which, frankly, never generated many points anyway.

Bottom Line

For me, this actually looks like a significant improvement. I think I might actually switch my gas charges to this card, as well as my Airbnb charges. I was using the Wyndham Business Earner card for 8X on gas, but I’m just not seeing tremendous uses for Wyndham points, so I think I’d rather earn Ultimate Reward points.

The change in the hotel credit from $50 to $100 means that I might actually use it. We’ve held at least one Sapphire Preferred card for years, and we’ve never actually used the credit. Knowing that I can use the credit for a short stay, especially if it’s a one-night hotel stay on a positioning flight or on a road trip, makes this extremely worthwhile.

Where this hurts is for people who racked up a ton of Chase Ultimate Reward points, transferred all of them to Hyatt, and redeemed those points for high-end hotels and all-inclusive resorts. This almost forces those people to pay the $795 annual fee for the Chase Sapphire Reserve, because that card maintains a 1-to-1 transfer ratio to Hyatt. Unfortunately, even that doesn’t guarantee that Hyatt points won’t continue to devalue.

In the end, I think a lot of people will look at this and think that maybe they’re better off focusing on other hotel programs. If you were someone who put significant spending on Chase cards to earn points to transfer to Hyatt, you might give up on Chase altogether, after all, it’s not clear what the value of Hyatt points will be in 6 months to a year.

For people who love Hyatt, they might choose, instead, to get a Bilt card. Bilt still transfers its points 1-to-1 to Hyatt. Depending on which card they get and what categories they spend their money in, people might be better off earning points in Bilt and transferring to Hyatt.

All in all, while the changes to the Chase Sapphire Preferred will work better for me, I think it’s a significant risk that Chase is taking. The transfer partnership with Hyatt was a major selling point for Chase, and now, it just looks rather ordinary. For those people who loved the Hyatt program and its relationship with Chase, this is a huge disappointment and is likely to change the spending behavior of those Chase customers.

Points Check January 2023

Posted on by David Cox

Because I had been denied for the Chase Sapphire Preferred card, Jenn decided to apply for it. I told her that I had been denied twice and that she shouldn’t get her hopes up. She filled out the application, hit enter, waited about 30 seconds and then began to taunt me because not only was she approved instantly, but they gave her a pretty big credit limit. Chase Sapphire Preferred, why do you hate me?! She still needles me about it, waving that card in front of me. I should probably divorce her.

Anyway, the Chase Sapphire Preferred has a $95 annual fee. It offers 5x points on travel purchased through the Ultimate Rewards program, as well as a $50 hotel credit when booked through the Ultimate Rewards program. The card also earns 3x points on dining, streaming services and online groceries, 1x on everything else. She also will receive a 60,000 point bonus when she spends $4,000 within 3 months. What makes this card valuable, though, is the fact that it can be used to transfer points to 3 hotel programs and 11 airline miles programs. Also, it makes some other Chase cards in your wallet more useful, because, for example, if you had a Chase Freedom Flex, you can take advantage of the 5x points on certain categories and then transfer those points through the Sapphire and into those other programs.

I moved on to cash back cards, I know, boring. I applied for the Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards card. It earns 3x on a category of your choice, 2x on grocery stores and warehouse stores and 1x on everything else. It offers a $200 bonus after spending $1,000 in 3 months. I don’t think I will use this card too much after earning the bonus, but it doesn’t have an annual fee, so there’s no reason to get rid of it.

Anyway, on to the point check!

I spent a little over $1,000 on my Citi Premier card and earned almost 2,900 Citi points. I also spent almost $600 on my United Explorer card and earned around 1,200 points. We spent almost $200 on Jenn’s Marriott Bonvoy on a hotel/park & ride near O’hare Airport with what I assume was a concrete mattress. That stay earned us almost 1,000 Marriott Bonvoy points and a massive backache. Jenn spent $2,600 on her Chase Sapphire card and earned almost 4,600 Ultimate Reward points. She also finished off the necessary spending on her Ink Unlimited card with $1,300 and earned 2,000 points plus the 90,000 point bonus.

That left us with 23,300 Citi points, 40,400 United miles, 50,000 Marriott Bonvoy points, 1,400 Chase points, and 107,100 Ultimate Reward points.

According to valuations assigned to those points by The Points Guy, found at https://thepointsguy.com/guide/monthly-valuations/, these points and miles are worth around $3,400. At this point, we’ve developed a solid strategy and have stacked up quite a bonuses that should be hitting in the next few months. I expect this valuation to balloon over the next few months.

Points Check December 2022

Posted on by David Cox

Shortly after Jenn signed up for the Chase Ink Unlimited card, they changed their sign up bonus. It had been $750 back after spending $7,500 within 3 months. The new offer was $900 after spending $6,000 in the first 3 months. The first reaction I had was “You gotta be kidding me! We missed it by a couple weeks!” Then I heard from a number of bloggers and podcasts that Chase was basically letting everyone level up their bonus if they just asked. So we just sent them an email asking for them to give us the new deal. The response was that if we met the original requirement, $7,500 spending in 3 months, then they would up the bonus to $900. It wasn’t as good as the $6,000 spend requirement, but I’ll take it. Chase, in my opinion, was very generous in giving their customers something that they had no obligation to do. It was a very classy move, in my opinion.

Why does Chase Sapphire Preferred hate me?

We had been talking about trying to bulk up our cash so that we could lessen cost of our spending in Europe. Our strategy was that since I was already at 4/24 and I would only be allowed one more Chase card anyway, that I would get one more Chase card and then start getting cash back cards. So I applied for the Chase card that I wanted more than any Chase card – The Chase Sapphire Preferred. I was denied. It was actually the second time I was denied for that card. The first time, they sent me an invitation with an elevated signup bonus and then proceeded to deny me. Chase Sapphire Preferred, you are a tease. It’s the only card I’ve been denied for, and I’ve been denied twice. My suspicion about why I’ve been denied twice is that I hadn’t waited long enough between new credit cards, but, it’s hard to know.

Anyway, on to the point check!

I spent $200 on my Citi Premier card and received around 300 Citi points. I was still getting 10x on gas on my United Explorer card so I was using that more. I spent $700 on that card and received 3,400 miles. Jenn was using just her Ink Unlimited card and spent $4,200 and received around 6,300 points.

We finished the month with 20,500 Citi points, 36,000 United miles, 49,000 Marriott Bonvoy points, 1,400 Hyatt points and 10,600 Ultimate Reward points.