One of budget travelers’ favorite features on both the *chase sapphire preferred* and the *chase sapphire reserve* is getting cut as Chase revamps its top-tier travel card.
For years, Sapphire cardholders have gotten extra value when redeeming their points through the Chase Travel℠ portal on virtually any travel purchase: 1.25 cents apiece with the Preferred and 1.5 cents each from the Reserve. It was both valuable and simple: The cheaper the flight, hotel, rental car, or cruise, the fewer points you’d need to book it.
But Chase is officially sunsetting that perk, replacing it by expanding new “Points Boost” redemptions on select premium cabin flights and hotels Chase began testing out earlier this year. While that will give cardholders even more value when using their points through the portal – up to 1.75 cents per point for Sapphire Preferred and 2 cents apiece for Reserve cardholders – it’ll be far more limited in scope.
That swap won’t happen right away. The 1.25- to 1.5-cent redemptions on all Chase Travel bookings will disappear come late October 2027. Until then, Sapphire cardholders can only redeem the points they’ve already banked (by Oct. 26 of this year) through the portal at that flat rate for all travel purchases.
After that, Chase points will be worth a flat 1 cent apiece for all cardholders in the travel portal – unless there’s a Points Boost offer.
Of course, there’s a potential upside for some Chase cardholders with this change. Find a flight or hotel that’s eligible for one of these Points Boost redemptions, and your Ultimate Rewards points will go even further. In a demo, Chase executives pointed to a three night stay at the Four Seasons Milan that would normally cost more than $4,000 bookable for just over 200,000 Chase points.
But there’s the rub: Those redemptions will be much fewer and further between than the across-the-board bonus cardholders have been benefitting from for years. These Points Boost promotions are targeted:
- Hotels will include all of the properties in Chase’s The Edit portfolio – the bank’s take on Amex’s Fine Hotels and Resorts program – plus some others
- Only select premium cabin flights are eligible for Points Boost. Chase declined to say how many airlines they’re partnering with at launch, but said “thousands of flights” would be eligible at launch and that the list of eligible flights would continually rotate.
For budget travelers focused on taking a cheap flight and making it free, there’s only downside here. Only premium economy, business, and first class will be eligible for these elevated offers – at least at launch.
“Reflecting what the cardmembers told us which is that they would like to use their points to upgrade their flights, it’s primarily targeted to premium classes,” Sam Palmer, the general manager of Chase Sapphire, said when asked last week.
So for now, I can still book this $337 economy flight from Newark (EWR) to Brussels (BRU) for just under 27,000 Chase points from my Preferred Card – or just 22,400 points and change with the Reserve.
Come late October, though, I’ll only be to book at that steep discount with points I’d earned beforehand. And in another two years, it’ll disappear altogether: The same flight would cost me 33,700 points, regardless of which card I’ve got.
Sure, you can get more value out of your Chase points by leaning towards those new Points Boost promotions – let alone by sending them to Chase transfer partners. But for travelers who prize the simplicity of redeeming Chase points for flights, hotels, or rental cars, this’ll be a tough loss to swallow.
Bottom Line
A mainstay of redeeming Chase points is on its way out the door.
In tandem with the bank’s overhaul of the Chase Sapphire Reserve, Chase will eventually sunset the 1.25- and 1.5-cent redemptions for Sapphire Preferred and Reserve cardholders, respectively, on all travel bookings through the bank’s travel portal. New “Points Boost” offers will expand in its place, but that won’t be enough to offset the loss for everyone – especially travelers focused on booking economy flights for the fewest amount of points as possible.
