It’s quite the big news day, with Chase releasing details of a revamped Sapphire Reserve card and the launch of the Sapphire Reserve for Business card. Greg’s covered the former here, while Nick will be sharing more details about the new business card shortly.
For now though, we wanted to highlight some important news regarding redemptions for not only the Chase Sapphire Reserve card, but select other cards too. At the moment, Sapphire Reserve cardholders can redeem their Ultimate Rewards points for 1.5 cents per point of value for bookings through the Chase Travel℠ portal, while Sapphire Preferred, Ink Business Preferred and Ink Business Plus (no longer available for new applications) cardholders can redeem Ultimate Rewards for 1.25c.
That option will be going away in stages, replaced instead by a feature that Chase is calling Points Boost.
Launch of Points Boost
Let’s start with Points Boost, because understanding how this new feature will work will also help you understand how 1.5c and 1.25c redemptions will proceed for existing cardholders over the next couple of years.
Starting on Monday June 23, 2025, Sapphire Reserve, Sapphire Preferred, Ink Preferred and Ink Plus cardholders will gain access to Points Boost. These will be select flight and hotel options for which you can get better than 1c of value when redeeming your Ultimate Rewards.
The rates differ depending on which card you have:
- Sapphire Reserve & Sapphire Reserve for Business – Up to 2c
- Sapphire Preferred, Ink Preferred & Ink Plus – Up to 1.5c for select hotels and select flights on select airlines, and up to 1.75c on premium cabin flights with select airlines
Note the key inclusion of “up to.” Points Boost offers won’t always be as high as 2c or 1.5c/1.75c respectively, so it’ll be important to check the value that you’ll be getting for those kind of redemptions. The exception will be hotel bookings at The Edit properties which is Chase Travel’s version of Amex Fine Hotels + Resorts; those will always offer a guaranteed 2c redemption rate for Sapphire Reserve cardholders. It seems likely that premium cabin flights will be on the higher redemption end while economy flights will be on the lower end of the boosted redemptions.
When you see this feature on your account, there’ll be an option to toggle on ‘Points Boost’ to only display flights or hotels for which you can redeem your Ultimate Rewards at a higher rate.
It remains to be seen quite how useful and widespread Points Boost redemptions will be. Chase has advised that there’ll be tickets bookable in economy, premium economy, business class and first class. Some of the airlines that’ll be featured at its launch will include Southwest, United, Air Canada, Emirates, Singapore Airlines, Qantas and more, with those options potentially changing in the future.
For the most part that’s not a surprise seeing as most of those airlines are Ultimate Rewards transfer partners, although I am a little surprised to see Qantas mentioned seeing as they’re not currently a transfer partner – perhaps that’s on the horizon?
End of 1.5c & 1.25c redemptions
1.5c and 1.25c Chase Travel redemptions aren’t going away immediately for existing cardholders. In fact, you will, to a certain extent, still be able to redeem your points at those values – or at a higher value – for more than two years. It’s a little convoluted though, so here’s a quick explainer.
For existing cardholders and those who apply – or upgrade – before June 23, 2025, the points you earn through October 25, 2025 will still be redeemable at 1.5c for Sapphire Reserve cardholders and at 1.25c for Sapphire Preferred, Ink Preferred and Ink Plus cardholders through October 26, 2027.
If you have multiple Ultimate Rewards-earning cards, you might have those points spread across a variety of cards. Chase has a useful ‘Combine Points’ feature that lets you move those points from one card to another. They’ve confirmed that if you combine your points to your eligible card (most pertinently a Sapphire Reserve if you have one) by October 25, 2025, those points will also be redeemable at the historical 1.5c or 1.25c rate through October 26, 2027.
For points earned by October 25, 2025, you’ll automatically receive the best redemption rate, whether that’s at 1.5c or 1.25c through the historical redemption option or at a rate higher than 1.5c or 1.25c via Points Boost.
Quick Thoughts
Eww.
Eww again.
Slightly Longer Thoughts
To be honest, I’m a little dumbfounded. Chase has taken what was once a great all-in-one travel card that was potentially fantastic for even somewhat infrequent travelers and is turning it from a no-brainer to a brain-hurter.
One of the standout features of the Sapphire Reserve for your average cardholder was the ability to earn 3x on all travel and dining, then redeeming those points through Chase Travel for 1.5c, effectively getting 4.5c of value for every dollar spent in those bonused categories. Easy to earn and easy to redeem because it was easy to understand.
Granted, you can get better value than that by transferring to travel partners such as Hyatt. However, for your average person who doesn’t want the perceived stress or confusion of transferring to Hyatt, United, etc. – or who doesn’t even realize that transfers to participating loyalty programs are an option in the first place – it was a really simple redemption option that’s going to be taken away from them. In some cases – such as booking Southwest flights – it could make more sense to book via Chase Travel than transferring the points regardless.
In its place will be something far more confusing, especially for existing cardholders who are used to its current setup. For example, my mother-in-law has had a Sapphire Reserve card since it came out in 2016. She’s not a points and miles aficionado, but it’s always been easy for her to understand and get good value from it. Now if I want to explain it to her, the conversation might go something like this:
You’ll now earn 4x points on flights and hotels booked directly with airlines and hotels but only 1x on all other travel rather than 3x on all travel like you always did in the past and you can redeem the points you’ve earned in the past as well as the points you’ll earn in the next few months for 1.5c but only through late October 2027 or you might be able to redeem the points at a better rate if a Points Boost option is available in the meantime but points earned from October 26, 2025 onwards can’t be redeemed at that 1.5c rate unless there’s a Points Boost option available for better value but if there isn’t then you’ll be redeeming your points at 1c of value if you want to book your travel via Chase Travel and you’ll now have the privilege of paying for all of this with a $795 annual fee rather than $550.
That’s hardly an elevator pitch for the Sapphire Reserve.
I do appreciate that Chase is ensuring that cardholders will automatically get the best redemption rate for the next couple of years for points earned by October 25, 2025 without having to jump through any hoops. If a Points Boost option is better value, you’ll get that. If a 1.5c or 1.25c redemption is better value, that’s the redemption that’ll be applied.
There’s no denying it though – this is a major bummer for your average Sapphire Reserve cardholder who isn’t interested in transferring their Ultimate Rewards to travel partners like Hyatt, United, Southwest, etc.
I’ve focused more on the impact for Sapphire Reserve cardholders above seeing as 1.5c Chase Travel redemptions were solid redemption options for almost 10 years. They weren’t spectacular redemptions, but it was a high value floor that other transferable currencies haven’t replicated on such an easy-to-redeem basis, plus it was always easy to understand.
These changes are slightly less of an issue for most Sapphire Preferred, Ink Preferred and Ink Plus cardholders as I imagine that there are fewer people redeeming their Ultimate Rewards for only 1.25c via Chase Travel, but perhaps I’m mistaken on that.
Either way, it’s a disappointing development going forward that’ll probably have a not-insignificant number of cardholders reevaluating whether to renew their card(s) or cancel them.
Question
Will this (eventual) ending of 1.5c and 1.25c redemptions affect whether you keep or cancel your card(s)? Are you optimistic about the value you might be able to get via the new Points Boost feature? Let us know in the comments below.
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I have booked flights using the 1.25 boost on my CSP. Otherwise, the only benefit for me is the car rental insurance. I’d have to weigh the fee vs how often I rent and how much the premium is to purchase the insurance.
It’s too bad. I’m definitely reevaluating.
Call me “not a fan.” Anytime redeeming gets more complicated I question whether or not to keep (or acquire) the card. I’ll probably upgrade from my CSP to squeeze out a year of all the new credits and benefits (and +1.5c redemptions), but I don’t see this as a long-term keeper for me.
This is a bummer for me. Like some other folks on here, I redeemed my UR points for international hotels that don’t have transferable points, mainly for all-inclusives I take my family to. I was just pitched the idea of buying into one of those hotel loyalty programs too (not a timeshare, but a points system like Disney does). I turned it down because as much as I frequented that hotel, I felt like my 1.5X redemption was a better value. Wishing I would have taken the plunge if I had known, it wasn’t a bad deal. My only hope is that I’ll still be able to go to those properties using the Points Boost, otherwise this card will be done for me.
On another note, these coupons are getting out of hand. If they’re going to expand the coupons, I would prefer if they lowered the annual fee and let users pick a few of them vs having to pay for everything like a buffet. I wouldn’t be surprised if cell phone companies start doing this too as I already see them offering streaming services in bundle packages.
I didn’t use the 1.25cpp redemption often with the CSP but it was nice in that you could stack it with the $50 annual hotel credit (pay for $50 of the hotel stay in cash with the credit and cover the remainder with points at 1.25cpp). Losing it will eventually be a slight devaluation to the CSP’s hotel credit.
PYB for travel purchases with the Aeroplan card is looking more and more interesting. It’s niche enough that I hope Chase doesn’t touch it since you have to transfer during a bonus to maximize it, and it’s already capped at redeeming 200K Aeroplan points a year.
tried to book 2 hotels with the points boost deal last week and both were sold out every time I tried to book. I called Chase Travel and they told me the hotels were sold out for my dates even though they showed up for the next week as a points boost option. Hopefully I just had bad luck and this won’t be common.
This is simply misdirection – Chase (and bloggers) don’t want you to understand what’s really going on: Now there will be “dynamic pricing” when you go to redeem your Chase Ultimate Rewards points. Prices will instantly go up across the board – a massive, historic devaluation of the Chase UR program – but they don’t want you to focus on that, they want you to focus on the chance, the hope, the dream that even though you won’t get not 1.5X everywhere, but now you MIGHT 2X once in a while – when they feel like discounting something.
Now, Chase UR points = Skypesos. Better bring them by the truckload.
Are you implying all travel prices will go up through the Chase portal? If points return to 1cpp value, the cost in points will be tied to the cash price through the portal. The points price can’t increase from 1cpp unless the cash price of all bookings goes up (which would just make their portal uncompetitive and no one would use it).
All “prices” ARE going up through the Chase portal – can’t you see that? Your points have always been worth $1.5. Now they’re worth $1. There’s the massive devaluation. Never mind the “prices” – those have ALWAYS been dynamic. Now the value of your points has gone down – they’re only worth 2/3 of what they were before. Except when Chase decides they want to throw you a bone, then maybe they’ll be worth 2X. How likely do you think it’s going to work out that way? Go look at the “price” of flights and hotel stays once programs start dynamic pricing. Now Chase has both dynamic pricing AND your “money” (points) also have dynamic VALUE. All the noise that you have seen from bloggers, all the nonsense about coupons, etc has just been intended to misdirect your attention, so you don’t notice that your UR points have just lost 1/3 of their value. “An exciting enhancement!”
PS: Chase’s travel portal has ALWAYS been uncompetitive and nobody in their right mind would ever use it to pay for travel with real money (you can always get better prices by booking directly) – unless you have points you want to spend. If you’re spending real money, not points, only a fool would use Chase’s portal. That’s nothing new.
This is a weird one for me. In all honesty I never use this perk but I always like the fact that I could if I really had to. I’m flexible with my travels so I usually go where I can find available awards.
Will this cause me to cancel my CSP? Probably not (if I had the CSR I would definitely downgrade). TBH the only strong selling point of Chase anymore is their family of cards and ability to maximize earnings (arguably Hyatt but without SLH their footprint is too small for me).
Do we know yet what the requirements are to receive the $500 annual statement credit for The Edit? Is there a minimum spend and/or minimum number of night stay?
Two night minimum for a booking but no minimum spend as of now.
2 night minimum, no minimum spend
Thank you.
In addition to having a two night minimum, you get $250 from January-June and another $250 from July-December
Thank you!
This stinks for me. Me and my family of 5 mostly used our UR points for domestic economy tickets booked through Chase travel. We could get round trip tickets for the whole family often for under 100,000 points. With the increased cost and decreased value, we may just decide to downgrade to the Preferred.
I’ve had the card since 2016 and I’ve kept it for the 1.5 redemption and the ability to use the card to get more value from small hotels located overseas. But $795 is too much for me to justify keeping the card and I’m not interested in the new “coupons” enough to stay the course. In that I already have a Sapphire Preferred, I’ll just transfer the points to an airline and cancel the card before the fee comes due. Too bad as overall I liked its benefits very much. These changes just feel greedy.
No one on any blogs are talking about cruises via Chase Travel. My guess is as 1.5 dies that will also die for booking cruises at 1.5 cents?
Looks like it will die for all travel bookings unfortunately.
Yeah we are reaching out to Chase about cruises. It sure looks like they have mega nerfed any value for UR points for Frequent Floaters!
That is a huge bummer, and interesting how they sandwiched it in-between the news of the CSR and CSR Biz cards. I know a lot of travel blogs were anti-Travel Portal bookings, but a great use of it was for booking hotels onsite at Universal Studios Orlando (A.K.A. Harry Potter World). There are no chain hotels onsite there. Plus the top 3 hotels include Express Pass, so this was a great way of covering onsite hotel and Express Pass with Chase points.
The only reason I keep the CSR over the CSP is the 1.5c redemption. I’ve found it extremely useful for booking smaller hotels in out of the way places over seas, and booking economy flights when my schedule is restricted and there is no decent award availability. It will be interesting to see how the points boost works for the non-chain hotels, I’m assuming none of them, or at least not the good ones, want to offer chase a discount, so they can get a points boost. And I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that the flights that don’t have decent rewards availability (ie low demand) aren’t going to be offered a discount so chase can points boost those either.
Lately I’m finding myself more and more happy to have gotten a USB AR before they cut it off, hoping they just leave it be for a while so chase and amex can fight amongst themselves on the way to obsolescence.
My annual fee isnt’ due until March so I’ll have time to see how this plays out. I’ll easily get the Lyft credit and I subscribe to Apple One which includes all the services but TV and Music are what we use most. I could probably cover it with coupons but I opened an Ink Business Preferred account last year just in case I need to cancel this.
3* travel and 1.5c redemption are the only reasons I keep reserve over preferred. often use in local overseas hotels and many activities. now I have over 1.2 millions points to spend 🙁