Chase has announced big changes to the Sapphire PreferredĀ® Card, starting June 15th. Additionally (and quite disturbingly), transfers to Hyatt will drop to 4:3 unless you have a Sapphire ReserveĀ® card. If you put aside the Hyatt issue, the Sapphire Preferred card changes are great. Chase has kept the card’s low $95 annual fee intact and added excellent new benefits without flooding us with hard-to-use coupons. Again, putting aside the Hyatt issue, Chase’s Sapphire Preferred team deserves kudos for turning its back on the coupinification trend that has swept the industry. Maybe they heard us cry foul aboutĀ the Sapphire Reserve changes introduced a year ago?
It’s not easy to put aside the Hyatt issue, though. For many years, we’ve been telling people that the best use of Chase Ultimate Rewards points is to transfer them to Hyatt. But now, transfers to Hyatt for Sapphire Preferred cardholders will be at a low 4-to-3 ratio.Ā Given this, along with Hyatt’s recent chart devaluation, we can no longer recommend transferring Chase Sapphire Preferred pointsĀ to Hyatt.
But… let’s back up and look at the new Sapphire Preferred card with fresh eyes. Forget Hyatt… if you can. If you can’t… well, we’ll discuss those options in a bit…
The new Sapphire Preferred Card
Here’s the new Sapphire Preferred Card in a nutshell (new features are in bold):
- $95 Annual Fee
- No foreign transaction fees
- $100 Chase Travel Hotel Credit each membership year (previously $50 per year)
- Earn:
- 5X Chase Travel and Lyft (through 9/30/27)
- 3X Gas & EV Charging (new)
- 3X Vacation home rentals (new)
- 3X Dining
- 3X Online Grocery (works in-store too when grocery lets you pay in the store’s app)
- 3X Streaming
- 2X Travel
- 1X Elsewhere
- Excellent travel protections, including primary auto-rental CDW, and up to $100K Emergency Evacuation and Transportation coverage.
- Up to $120 Global Entry, TSA PreCheck, or NEXUS fee credit (every 4 years)
- Complimentary Apple TV subscription for one year
- Points Boost: Offers better than 1 cent per point value towards select hotels and flights booked through Chase Travel.
- DoorDash Benefits
- Points transfer 1-to-1 to: Avios, Air France KLM ā Flying Blue, JetBlue TrueBlue, Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer, Southwest Airlines Rapid RewardsĀ®, United MileagePlusĀ®, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, Air Canada AeroplanĀ®, IHGĀ® One Rewards, Wyndham Rewards, and Marriott Bonvoy™.
Downgrades from previous version:
- Points will transfer 4-to-3 to Hyatt
- No more 10% anniversary bonus
An excellent travel card
For those who don’t care about Hyatt, I’d argue that the new Sapphire Preferred card is one of the better $95 travel cards on the market. It already had very good travel protections, but now also includes emergency evacuation and transportation. I don’t think any other sub-$300 card on the market offers that feature. The card now also has very good bonus categories, including 2X on all travel and 3X on dining, gas, vacation rentals, streaming, and online grocery. Sure, Citi’s Strata Premier offers better 3X categories, but it doesn’t bonus general travel. Also, while Citi has some great, unique transfer partners, Chase has a better collection of US-based transfer partners, including United and Southwest. I’m not saying that Chase’s $95 travel card is better for everyone than Citi’s, but I’d argue that it is now a tight race.
What about Hyatt?
Those who had the Sapphire Preferred card before June 15, 2026, will be able to transfer to Hyatt at the old 1:1 ratio until October 1. Starting October 1 for those cardholders, and immediately for anyone who gets the card on or after June 15th, the new ratio will be 4-to-3. That’s a poor ratio, which will rarely deliver good value.
If you care about transfers to Hyatt, you have options:
- Household Sapphire Reserve: Make sure at least one person in the household has a Sapphire ReserveĀ® card. Chase lets you move Ultimate Rewards points to another household member for free, so you can continue earning points on your Sapphire Preferred card and then move them to the Sapphire Reserve account to transfer to Hyatt 1-to-1. Once the points are in a Hyatt account, they can be moved to another Hyatt member’s account for free.
- Strategically Upgrade: Another option is to keep earning points on your Sapphire Preferred account and then call to upgrade to the Sapphire Reserve when you find a great use for Hyatt points. That way you will still be able to transfer to Hyatt 1-to-1.
- Transfer all of your points 1-to-1 while you can: If you’ve been earning Chase Ultimate Rewards points primarily to transfer to Hyatt, it’s worth considering transferring all, or many, of your points before the transfer ratio drops.
- Switch to Bilt: Bilt continues to offer 1-to-1 transfers to Hyatt (and many other valuable programs). If you don’t want to pay more than $95, consider getting the Bilt Obsidian Card. Otherwise, many will do well with the Bilt Palladium Card.
- Switch your spending to a World of Hyatt card: Another way to earn Hyatt points is with a Hyatt credit card. Hyatt cards don’t have very compelling earn rates, but they do help you earn Hyatt Milestones and elite status faster. If you value those things highly, a Hyatt credit card can be very rewarding. See this post for details: Hyatt Milestone Spending. Whatās my X?
My take
I have the Sapphire Reserve card, and I plan to keep it. While it’s not a no-brainer keeper card for most frequent travelers, like the Amex Platinum Card, the Sapphire Reserve card’s features and coupons are worth more to me than its $795 annual fee. As long as that’s true, I’ll keep renewing. So, as long as I have the Sapphire Reserve card, I’ll be able to transfer to Hyatt 1-to-1, as needed. AndĀ even though I’ve beenĀ earning tons of Bilt points, I’d rather spend them on huge transfer bonuses and use my Chase points for transfers to Hyatt. The latest Chase changes won’t affect my personal credit card situation.
That said, as a blogger and podcaster, the Sapphire Preferred card refresh and the introduction of a reduced transfer ratio to Hyatt will greatly affect my recommendations. The Sapphire Preferred card is better than ever in many ways, but not for those who prioritize hotel awards. Discussions about the best uses of Chase Ultimate Rewards points will need to be much more nuanced than the old “transfer to Hyatt.” Discussions about the merits of the Sapphire Reserve card will also need more nuance. Until now, the $95-per-year Sapphire Preferred and Ink Business PreferredĀ® cards were great alternatives to the $795-per-year Sapphire Reserve. They still are, but not if you care about Hyatt. Now, those interested in Hyatt should look to Bilt for credible alternatives to the Sapphire Reserve card.
What about you?
If you don’t care much about Hyatt transfers, are you excited about the Sapphire Preferred card’s enhancements? If you have it, do you plan to keep it? If you don’t have it, are you thinking of getting it?
What if you do care about Hyatt transfers?Ā I’m interested in hearing from current Sapphire Preferred and Ink Business Preferred cardholders. Do you think you’ll transfer all or most of your points before October? Are you considering the Sapphire Reserve? Are you ready to abandon ship?
Please comment below.
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I’ll be keeping my CSP. Never had a CSR and prolly never will, I hate the coupons and wouldn’t use most of them. Will use it for United and Southwest as we fly domestically short haul a fair bit.
I have Bilt obsidian as I do well with the dining and the rent, kind of wish I had gotten the palladium now, though.
90% of my UR points went to Hyatt. That’s over. I have like 15 Chase cards but at this point I only spend on the two Hyatt and the Ink Cash for the 5x at office supply.
I’m still in wait and see mode on Hyatt longer term. Already Globalist to Feb 2028 so have some time.
All in all this is a major freaking bummer though. Hyatt seems to be determined to crush their value proposition. I don’t see the long game here…
Objectively good update to the CSP, but that are useless to me personally so the Hyatt news dominates in my mind. I don’t even use Hyatt that much compared to most in this community, but it still just feels like Chase continues to erode its value prop both compared to itself and competitors.
I PC’ed my CSR to a Freedom card a few years ago, and now have CSP and CIBP (and a couple of CICs). Generally use most of my URs for Hyatt, and am well on my way to requalifying for Globalist, so will continue for this year. But my Chase points (along with some cash stays and the WoH cc) are how I get there.
For now I plan to transfer many/most of my URs before 10/1, and then take another look at Bilt cards. But later this year I’ll reconsider whether it is worth it to go for Glob status next year. As much as I love Hyatts (especially outside the US), it is no longer the obvious choice.
A suggestion for a post: comparison of 4:3 point transfer vs Chase Travel booking via points for the same Hyatt hotel night across the categories.
Adding vacation rentals as a 3x category on the CSP rather than the CSR is a bit of a head-scratcher if you consider the question “what card should I get if I book a lot of Airbnbs?”
Before last year’s CSR changes, I would have said “get the CSR, it earns 3x whereas the CSP only earns 2x.”
After the CSR changes, that became “get the CSP, it earns 2x whereas the CSR only earns 1x”
But now with this change it becomes “get the CSP, it earns 3x whereas the CSR only earns 1x”
In one year we’ve gone from the CSR earning 50% more than the CSP to the CSP earning 200% more than the CSR, it’s kind of hilarious.
(And yes, I’ve been happily earning 3x all along via the Ink Business Preferred)
3x seems quaint when 11-11.5x is now possible with the Paze promo.
Airbnb doesn’t take Paze so that’s not really relevant
It is very much relevant. Iāll let you figure it out on your own, or maybe someone else will educate you.
Ok fine I see what you mean. Still doesn’t change what I’d recommend to a friend who isn’t in the hobby though š
I think this is the go-to for families. 3x on gas and groceries. Citi is still better in the sense that they transfer to AA, which has much better domestic rates. But paired with an Ink Cash/Unlimited, this card getting 3x on two staples is a gem! I personally don’t care for hotels, as I am usually travelling to family or friends, so I just want the flights. Having access to Qatar Avios (via BA) gives me greater value than Alaska when flying long haul. Air France can book Delta short-haul for 6k. So knowing the good rewards chart is key.
You’d be better off with Bilt. You be getting at least 3x for all of your categories.
I have CSR now, anniversary in a few months . I was already planning to downgrade, now I’m sure of it. I’ll use the travel credit, transfer some points to Hyatt, not all, and downgrade to CSP.
I was already planning on not renewing globalist, and glad now I didn’t put any effort in this year. I just wish instead of this recent program massacre they would have just dumped GoH and transferable club access certs. That to me is the biggest problem at high demand hotels. Ink train is already dead, the endless points well has dried up. This is an overcorrection.
Should we expect to see about Ink Preferred refresh now? I’d assume they’d add the $100k emergency evac to that card as well.
My plan is to transfer a decent amount of UR points to Hyatt prior to the deadline for transfer 1:1.
I like the refresh for the multipliers I think they made it a great competitive card now.
Does the Bilt card make sense if you donāt have a mortgage and donāt pay rent? Please give me your opinion on someone who is in that situation. I very much value Hyatt points!
As an expat that can’t pay rent/mortgage with CC, I considered Bilt as an alternative, but I realized one key point why I’m not going to bother: Hyatt is only useful to me if it’s mostly points stays. I’m not going to hit 60 nights at Hyatt on mostly cash stays. Only cc SUBs got me enough points to consistently hit 60 nights, ongoing spend on Bilt won’t be enough, and the opportunity cost of putting so much organic spend to earn Hyatt points of course is going for less SUBs.
With the ink train dead and Chase generally tightening up across the board, along with all these Hyatt devals, Hyatt is effectively dead to me after February of next year.
Yes. Use the points accelerator in lieu of the housing points it’s a 3x catch all.
This is all part of the Chase-Hyatt master plan to introduce a premium hyatt card.
I suspect that Bilt will have a hard time holding onto Hyatt as a transfer partner.
But you can pair Strata Premier with a $0 DoubleCash for 2x on everything including general travel. Iāll take that points earning duo and ecosystem over CSP/FUn any day. The fact that this feels like Chase matching Citi is incredible to me.
And feels like this was expressly designed to make people think twice about downgrading from CSR exactly one year into CSR 2.0 launch.
I personally do not care about Hyatt – I believe there are hundreds of hotels that can fit the bill but only a few ways to arrive in comfort. But transparent to see what Chase is doing here. More shoes will undoubtedly keep dropping.
Iāll keep my CSR for now because I can use the coupons and get the AF back even if the coupons are a complete pain to use compared to Amex. Prize for me is CSR LGA TB lounge because itās a good lounge and guest access policy is amazing for families.
I have a niche situation in that I have a legacy sapphire reserve with 7 figures points that I keep separate so that I have a good sense as to how many qualify for the legacy 1.5 CPP on all paid travel through the portal. My wife has a sapphire preferred, and I have been transferring all of our non-Reserve points to her to make transfers to partners including Hyatt. This puts a mild inconvenience in the plan I set up.
I think Chase has decided to give value ( perks ) and at the same time remove outsized value ( Hyatt ). Normal people will be happy, maximizers ( like me ) will move on. Either way Chase wins.
Can I use 100$ HC again if I have already used 50$?
We need to wait until June 15 for the Terms & Conditions.
“No. We asked and were told that youāll get a total of $100 whether or not you have used the $50 credit. In other words, if you already used $50, youāll only get an additional $50.”
According to Nick from the comment section in another post.
No, they’ve already stated you’d get an additional $50, not $100. $ sign goes before the number, fyi.