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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Does the$100K Emergency Evacuation and Transportation Coverage require that part of the trip be paid on the CSP? Or is it like the Amex Plat, where it almost operates as an independent insurance policy and requires no spend on the card? I’ve always kept at least one Plat just to have this coverage. But if I can get that coverage for only $95, I will rethink my Plat options.
Iām pretty sure that it does require paying for your travel with the card.
Iām still so curious about the rumored new Hyatt card that Chase is supposedly releasing this year. I wonder if it will come with a way to ābonusā your points transfer from the CSP to Hyatt – similar to the way you get a 10% bonus when transferring to Air Canada.
CSP is now a sock drawer card. Every year get the $100 hotel credit, the cost of holding it is low. Occasionally using it for Chase offers. Will use it to collect 5X UR points from CFF and Ink cash, and use UR points to supplement airline miles.
You neglected to mention the removal of the 10% CSP bonus on spend.
Chase Ink Preferred cardholder who got in at the end of the Ink gravy train (I have all three).
This pretty much means I want to dump Chase for my pseudo-small business (four to five digit spend annually). Chase being capped at 1.5x base earn on Ink Unlimited vs. 2x for AMEX BBP and the successive nukes from orbit on Hyatt value of the last few months make long term earning in UR pretty unattractive. I also have a WF Autograph (3x travel no annual fee) and a Bilt Palladium (3x catchall) so already a $95 fee was questionable, this just clinches it.
I’ve used Hyatt a few times for mid-level redemptions. Nice to save the cash, but it’s not the end-all for me (and I definitely doubt I would spend 50K Hyatt points or more per night on a high-end property). While I don’t love portals/Points Boost and Marriott has devalued as well, I don’t have any doubt I’ll find at least one acceptable redemption for my current stache of UR and then I’ll see about how much spend I put on Chase cards after that (not counting Amazon Prime!).
I haven’t made up my mind for sure yet, but I’m leaning towards transferring all my points in September, and I’m going to strongly consider switching to Bilt Palladium.
Bilt Palladium is more likely to be my next move than adding CSR. The Bilt portal seems to be the most intriguing of the travel portals, because they seem to be the best at offering direct airline/hotel booking including loyalty eligible, and I think they’re the only ones still offering 1.25 cents in portal for everything.
If they lose Hyatt (or other) transfers, seems like the portal gives them a better floor than UR offers now.
To completely change the subject, because Hyatt isnāt a big deal to us, a question: are the hotel, gas and travel bonuses valid in the EU?
Which is where we live.
Doesn’t the $100 hotel credit completely offset the AF now?
Yes
In theory yes, but often the Chase Travel prices are grossly inflated. So I’d probably value that credit at more like $75-80 depending on how it’s used. Unfortunately Chase Travel limits price matching to the CSR.
You won’t get any hotel benefits/EQNs, which obviously is only relevant for chains.
There’s also a diminishing rate of return on these hotel credits if you have them on a bunch of cards.
Yup. As long as you don’t mind booking through the portal. I’ll use it for a low risk booking like a single night at an airport hotel.
Yet another reason why they need that price-match-feature on all accounts, not just a select few that were ‘targeted.’
The people who are going through the stages of grief today should consider why they are so depressed over $500. Why $500? Because the CSR AF is $795, and there is the easy to use $300 travel credit, so it nets to $500. That is all you need to pay to make the Hyatt transfer ratio change meaningless.
But why give Chase net $495 for that card when I can give Bilt $450 and get 3x everywhere for most/all of my spending?
You don’t understand my comment. I’m not telling you which card to get.
I’m just assigning a dollar value to the solution. Either
You shouldn’t be mourning this more than you would mourn the loss of 5 $100 bills to a pickpocket.
Affordability!
Give Chase $500 just to maintain the transfer ratio? Youād better move a lot of points to make that math work.
But if you have the Chase Ink Preferred card, you can still transfer to Hyatt at 1:1 ratio? Chase Ink Preferred has only $95 annual fee so as long as someone in the household has a Chase Ink Preferred then you can still transfer to Hyatt 1:1 rather than having the Chase Sapphire Reserve. Is my understanding correct?
Nvm just read that CIP will also impacted too.
I wanted to add that right now no one should be putting the majority of an AirBnb charge on the CSP unless it needs to be paid immediately and is more than $1,500. Rather than charging the majority of the charge on the CSP, it is far more rewarding to buy up to $1,500 worth of Airbnb gift cards from Newegg using Paze and get 10X points instead of 3X points. You can leave a small balance to be paid on the CSP to get the CSP travel coverage if you want, but its far more rewarding to pay for AirBnb with a gift card than to pay via CSP.
Some people don’t like buying GCs because they (1) aren’t great about or don’t want to tracking GC usage and/or (2) don’t want to be stuck with a GC balance if they trip gets canceled.
Plus think about what CSP travel coverage you are getting. If the protection is capped by the amount you paid, and you are only paying a peppercorn amount, you aren’t actually protected. That is how trip interruption and cancelation coverage works.
I’m pretty sure the CSP recently changed their Trip Cancellation protection to only reimburse the amount that was charged to the card. So while I commend the idea of stacking up the URs, this would come at the cost of Trip Cancellation coverage.
The CSP is unique for covering for lodging (including AirBnB), as almost every other card with Trip Cancellation only covers the common carrier portion, but not prepaid lodging expenses.
You are correct for trip cancellation. I had forgotten about that change. I typically book fully cancellable AirBnbs anyway where the cost of cancellation is minimal but definitely something worth keeping in mind for others.
For those following along – here’s FM’s discussion of that change. https://frequentmiler.com/chase-tanks-pay-partial-trip-cancellation-and-interruption-insurance/
Greg,
Even at 4:3, it can be a decent deal under some circumstances. I will be staying at the Hyatt Rochester during their Jazz festival, and the room is going for 6000 points. I think you would be hard pressed to find any hotel currency that would yield a free night for 8,000 points!
By the way, the room is going for $275 plus taxes.
Also remember that Hyatt will be unveiling its premium credit card I would assume by the end of the summer, and they want to drive spend to that card as well.
Finally, the Regular Hyatt card does bonus local travel spend at 2X and that is nothing to sneeze at, whether for commuting costs or parking or for those in urban environments – both.
Talk more about this – once we upgrade from CSP to CSR , move points to Hyatt and get all the credits/coupons redeemed , how soon we can downgrade back to CSP ? Say within 1 or 2 months ,can we downgrade , how much will be prorated fees ? is it even possible to quickly upgrade/downgrade ? long time implications with chase ? shutdown possibility ?
My thoughts exactly! If we can upgrade and then downgrade within 30 days and get all or a prorated amount of the annual fee back, this can be a good strategy.