Chase Sapphire Preferred Just 'Refreshed' [2026] — Is it still worth it?

What Changes And When

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Significant changes are hitting the Chase Sapphire Preferred card starting June 15th. These changes may cost some new card holders as much as $700 in potential value in the first year of holding the card. For other people, the changes might mean they actually get more value in the first year of holding the card. As you can imagine, this means these changes are complex and will take some time to understand. Today I'm going to walk through everything step by step and end with strategy tips on how you can proceed to protect the value of your Chase Ultimate Rewards points. Welcome back to Points for Normal People. I'm Katie and I'm here because I know that travel costs add up, especially for a family. But I believe that travel isn't just for the rich. That's why on Points for Normal People, I share the tips and tricks that my family has been using for over a decade to help you use your everyday expenses and credit card welcome offers to supercharge your travel points so that you can pay for entire vacations every

Hyatt Transfers Move To 4 To 3

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year. I'm going to start with the negative changes in this Chase Sapphire Preferred refresh and then move on to the positive changes after that. The first and biggest negative change is the transfer ratio from ultimate rewards to Hyatt. If you apply for a Chase Sapphire Preferred on or after June 15th, 2026, your transfer ratio, if you want to transfer ultimate rewards points to Hyatt, will be four to three. That means if you transfer 100,000 ultimate rewards points, you'd only end up with 75,000 Hyatt points. If on June 15th, 2026, you already had a Chase Sapphire preferred, and so you're an existing cardholder, this change will go into effect on October 1st, 2026. So you have four more months of the one-to-one transfer ratio before it will switch over. The Chase press release about this really leans into the positive changes on the card and almost lists the negatives like this ratio change is just a small little footnote. It felt a little like smoke and mirrors when I read it, trying to distract from what will be a big change for a lot of people. On October 1st, 2026, this will also start to affect Chase Inc. business preferred cardholders as well. So on that date, everyone who holds an ink preferred will get switched to the 4 to 3 ratio for Hyatt transfers. So there is a little bit more lead time with the Ink Preferred card. Chase Sapphire Reserve and Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business Cardholders will not be affected. Reserve cardholders will continue to be able to transfer points to Hyatt at a 1 to 1 ratio. All of the different dates and rollout periods make this even more complex to wrap your head around. So let me run through it really quickly again. Cards that earn Chase Ultimate Rewards and have a $95 annual fee. That includes the Chase Sapphire Preferred and the Ink Preferred. By October 1st, everyone with these cards will have a reduced transfer ratio to Hyatt of 4 to 3. Sapphire Preferred cardholders will switch depending on when you apply for the card. If you held the card on June 14th, you will have the one to one ratio until October 1st. If you apply on June 15th or later, you will have the reduced four to three rate immediately. This news feels particularly tough to absorb because Hyatt has felt like it's slipping away from us. And for many years, it's been such an easy to understand solid use of Chase Ultimate Rewards. A lot of points content has focused on Hyatt and how straightforward it is, and how it's almost always a no-brainer with strong value. It just feels like a lot of that has been chipped away in the past year. It's become harder to get approved for Chase Inc cards if you're a sole proprietor. And that was one way people were able to keep earning points to transfer to Hyatt. It's become more limiting to earn a welcome offer on Sapphire products. And then on May 20th, Hyatt just revamped its award chart, and almost every hotel is already now more expensive, or we anticipate

Why The Hyatt Playbook Is Shifting

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it will be over the next year or so. So it's been a lot of bad news. But before we go on, I do want to note that while it's easy to focus on the bad news, since that is how our brains are wired, we've also seen some good news when it comes to Hyatt. The jury is still out for me on whether it's overall net negative or positive, and some of that will vary person to person. Probably overall it's still negative, but maybe not as bad as it feels. Because we've seen some record high welcome offers on some cards. The Chase Sapphire Reserve released an offer for 150,000 points. For years and years, in what people would probably call the good old days of points, the Sapphire Reserve had a 60,000 point welcome offer. So that's more than double what it used to be. This year we also had a short window of time where anyone could have some really great earning on Rakutin and then transfer those points to Built and then over to Hyatt. And a lot of you told me you earned 30,000 or 50,000 points during that period without opening a single credit card. Built also released new credit cards, and while they are all full brainers, they do provide more avenues to earn Hyatt points. We also have rumors of a new Hyatt card coming to the Chase card lineup. So I certainly think it's preemptive to say Hyatt is dead, but Chase is certainly cutting off value for customers who have settled into those $95 fee cards. It seems to me that Chase is trying to push people towards those high annual fee Sapphire Reserve products. And since my content focuses on helping normal people, I understand that a $795 fee feels really out of touch and really out of reach for the average person. Overall, it means that all of these Chase card decisions have become full brainers. Chase is no longer just a no-brainer program. To be clear, I still think it will provide strong value overall, but with a little or a lot more mental energy to get there. I'll get to all of that later in this episode. The other negative change on the card is the Sapphire Preferred will lose the 10% anniversary bonus. This will also go into effect on October 1st for existing cardholders. Previously, existing cardholders would get a bonus on their card member anniversary of 10% base points earned over the prior year. So if you spent $20,000, you would earn 2,000 bonus points. So that's going away as well. Now there

New Earn Rates And Key Perks

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are some positives in this refresh. And if you're a person who rarely transfers to Hyatt, the changes should be net positive for you. So first we have some changes to earning rates. All existing earning rates will remain the same, and then a few more categories will be added. These changes all happen on June 15th for everyone, existing and new cardholders. So after June 15th, 2026, you will earn three points per dollar on gas and EV charging. Now there are very few cards with good earning on gas and EV charging. So if this is a big expense for you, this might really earn you some extra points. For me personally, this hasn't been one that I've looked at and won't make a huge difference for us because we have an EV and a plug-in hybrid van and we mostly charge at home. But I know for some people this has some good potential. The main comparable cards for good earning on gas would be the City Strata Premiere, which gets 3X, and the Wyndham Rewards Earner Business Card, which actually gets 8x on gas. But then of course those Wyndham points are much more restrictive than a chase point would be. You'll also on the preferred now earn 3x when you pay for vacation homes through a platform like Airbnb or VRBO. Now General Travel already earns 2X, so this is just 1X more for that very specific vacation home category. So I don't think that's going to amount to much of an increase for everyone, but it's something. There are also some new trip protections being added as well. One of them is emergency evacuation insurance. Now, this is something I think everyone should have while traveling, especially to another country. So I think this is important coverage, but unfortunately, I honestly don't think the coverage they are giving is adequate, as it's going to cap at $100,000. That sounds like a lot, but it's not necessarily going to cover what you need. The trip also needs to be between five and 60 days to qualify. So shorter trips don't even qualify. I personally make sure we always have a minimum of $500,000 in emergency evacuation coverage for any international trips that we take. I prefer $1 million of coverage because, as we all know, medical expenses can just be absolutely crazy. And emergency evacuation in particular is very expensive if you end up needing it. Now again, this coverage is better than nothing, but I'd still strongly recommend that you get supplemental insurance for this. We personally usually pay for an annual travel insurance plan with Alliance for our family that costs about $400 a year, I believe, but that covers our trips for the whole year. I've never actually had to make a claim, so I can't actually speak to the customer service experience, but the coverage level it gives is something that I've been happy with. Another new perk on the Sapphire Preferred will be a $120 credit once every four years for trusted traveler programs like TSA Precheck, Global Entry, or Nexus. Now I've long felt that this benefit was odd to be missing from this card, so I'm glad to see it's getting added. Remember that if you have kids under 18, you can apply for Global Entry for yourself and then add them to your application for free. Another new change is the $50 hotel credit you get every card member year will now become a $100 hotel credit. Other than that amount, the terms won't change. It won't have any minimum night restrictions, so you can still just book a one-night stay with it. But it still does have to be booked via Chase Travel, and you do have to pay at least $100 in cash to trigger that credit. The rest could be paid with points. Now, Chase Travel of late is somewhat notorious for having jacked up prices, but it seems like they might be trying to get better at their pricing. We've seen the Chase Sapphire Reserve cards have been rolling out a price match guarantee, which makes me think that they're trying to have more competitive pricing. And a hundred dollar credit now can cover almost a full night at many hotels and may make this credit a lot more usable to different people. Especially if you're on a road trip and you just need a one night in the middle of nowhere on your way to your next destination. And then one more new credit will be one year of Apple TV. This one has to be activated by December 31st, 2026. A Chase rep confirmed to me that if you pay for Apple One, which bundles Apple TV into it, that once you activate this benefit, you will receive a discount on your Apple I subscription. It's unclear exactly what the discount will be or how this will stack with the benefit if you also have a Sapphire Reserve, but theoretically there will be some value there.

How The Math Loses Value

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Okay, so that's all of these different changes in the refresh. Here's what I mean about some people might be losing up to $700 in value. One example would be a place that people really love to use their Chase points is to transfer them to Hyatt and then stay at the Hyatt Regency Maui. This is a really popular destination for families, especially. A lot of nights at the Hyatt Regency Maui are still pricing at 25,000 points per night. So I'm gonna use the example of 100,000 points with Chase just because it's a little bit easier to do the new ratio. So if you had a welcome offer that was 100,000 points previously, you would be able to then book four nights at the Hyatt Regency Maui with that welcome offer. Now the ratio will be four to three. So your 100,000 points will only get you 75,000 Hyatt points. So now you're only getting three nights instead of four. And that hotel is often $700 or more per night. So you see that just that ratio change with Hyatt has basically lost you a night at that hotel. Now that's potential value, right? There's a lot of other ways that you can do these examples. So another example of a hotel that I that I like that thing is a popular hotel is the Hyatt Regency. Chicago is one. Of course, I'm in the Chicago area, so I have to always promote our local spots. That that hotel is a great location and it's still a pretty good price. It's it usually prices for 15,000 points per night. It also usually goes for about $300 per night. So you can see that if you had 100,000 chase points, but now you only get 75,000 high at points, you're almost missing two nights because you have 25,000 less. It's not two full nights that you're missing out on, but almost. So again, that's you're missing at least, you know, $400 or more of value in difference from what it was, you know, two months ago versus if you transfer those points after this ratio changes. There are lots of different examples and ways that you could look at this, but those were just two that that I wanted to look at to show sort of average pricing. And now I want to go more into my thoughts

Best Next Steps By Card Type

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and strategic advice. First of all, if you're a current Sapphire Preferred cardholder, you have until October 1st for this change, so you don't need to rush into any decisions. You really only need to have one Sapphire Preferred in your family to be covered through October 1st. Let's say I was new to points and I had already gotten a Sapphire Preferred, but my husband didn't have one yet. If he opens a Sapphire Preferred after June 15th, he has that lower four to three ratio for Hyatt transfers. But he could still move his points over to me and I could transfer to my Hyatt account at a one-to-one ratio through October 1st. Now that's only helpful through October 1st, and then you'd still have to make some strategic decisions. If you're a current Sapphire Reserve cardholder, the changes here really don't affect you. If you were planning to try out a Sapphire Reserve just for a year, it might mean this is one more factor that weighs towards you keeping it longer. Of course, this is what I think that Chase is hoping. If you're a newcomer and you don't currently hold a Sapphire Preferred and you're just learning, this is where it becomes more of a full brainer decision. In my three-year plan, I suggest starting with a Sapphire Preferred. And frankly, even with these changes, that advice won't change. It's still a very strong card for beginners. If you've never had a card with an annual fee before, I think the value is even stronger now that you get that TSA pre-check credit. And if you can use that $100 hotel credit, it makes it easy to justify that $95 annual fee. But certainly the value specific to how far these points will go towards Hyatt's days is reduced. Now there's a whole bunch of people who never transfer their points to Hyatt, and so this won't affect them at all. That might be you. There are a lot of airline transfer partners with Chase. Some people like to redeem ultimate rewards just for cash back, or to find instances where they can use points boost in Chase travel. If that's you, you don't have to sweat it with these changes. But if you're planning and hoping to redeem for a big Hyatt redemption, you might want to do some calculations to figure out the best way for you to proceed. Now we will have calculators on my site to help you do this more easily. But there's still a bit of time before this will really affect you. At the soonest, if someone applied for this card on June 15th and had that lower 4 to 3 rate, it doesn't really affect you until you get your welcome offer, which even if you do all of your spending right away, it's still going to take about a month for you to get those points. And then if you're already a cardholder, you have until October 1st. So either way, you have some time to make a plan. So here are some options you could consider moving forward if you have a card with the lower 4-3 rate, but want to make a bigger transfer to Hyatt. One option is to consider either applying for a Sapphire Reserve or upgrading to a Sapphire Reserve. Now you can't upgrade a card till you've had it for a year. But if you have an older Freedom card, you would be able to upgrade that, even if you just got a Sapphire Preferred. Then you could move any points you have from a Sapphire Preferred over to the Sapphire Reserve and from there transfer to Hyatt at that one-to-one ratio. Again, you can do this across your whole household as well. So if you have a partner and just one of you upgrades or applies for a reserve, you'll be able to transfer at that one-to-one ratio. If you're upgrading or applying to a reserve and feeling a little cautious about that annual fee, remember that there are certain times of year where you do get more value than others as far as benefits. That's because multiple benefits are tied to the calendar year. So for instance, if you get a reserve in June, you have access to the stub hub and dining benefits immediately. You'd have to use them by June 30th. And those are each for up to $150. Then on July 1st, they will reset again, and you'd have $150 for each of those through the end of the year. Then on January 1st, they'd reset again. So you actually have three rounds of those credits in the first year of paying $795. The same is true for edit credits, though those are harder to use than the Stub Hub and Dining credits. These reset on January 1st each year. So the reserve is a card I personally find very valuable, but it's also really easy for me to use the credits because I live near Chicago. You might find it a lot harder. And it is kind of a big pain because of all the credits and all the tracking. But I do have a full guide to activating all the benefits on this card to make it easier for you if you decide to apply for it or upgrade it, because I want to make sure that you do get all of your benefits if you decide to get the card. Generally, applying to it would be preferable since you'd also be able to earn a welcome offer when you do that. This year, Chase also changed the eligibility rules for the Sapphire Family, so keep this in mind as well. You are now allowed to open a Sapphire Preferred and receive a welcome offer on it, even if you already have a reserve, and then vice versa. That means that if you're new and you've opened a Sapphire Preferred recently, you can also open a Sapphire Reserve. But unfortunately, they are being very strict about only receiving offers on each of these cards

Pivot Plans Beyond Hyatt

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once ever. So even people who got a reserve bonus 10 years ago and if they try to apply again, they are receiving a pop-up that says they aren't eligible. Now, this could change over time. We do see eligibility rules tighten and loosen all the time, but that's where it stands now. That means that your specific history with Chase will need to inform how you proceed. If you had a reserve a long time ago, you'd only be looking at upgrading to the card. Now, up until October 1st, you could also choose to apply for an ink preferred and move the points to the ink preferred and then over to Hyatt, as those one-to-one ratios will remain until then. You could also at some point choose to go for the Chase Sapphire Reserve for business if you haven't gotten that offer yet. That one usually has a much larger spend though. But that card would give you the one-to-one Hyatt transfers. Or you might choose to alternate years where you upgrade to a reserve. Maybe you accrue points for a while and then transfer big balances of Hyatt points after you've saved up for a year or two. Again, I think that what feels hard is that these decisions have all become more of full brainer decisions. And maybe that's okay in some aspects. I do expect this will deter some people from starting points or getting into points because it might feel like it's just one more thing and now that's too much work. But that also means if you're a person willing to use a little more brain power, you might have a little less competition. I do believe there's always a deal to be had if you put in some work. Beyond those strategy options, I want to remind you of a few more possibilities. Now I love Hyatt. Our family became pretty invested in the simplicity of the chase to Hyatt transfers, and we really have gone all in on it starting in 2022. But before 2022, we had a lot of really great hotel stays that weren't Hyatt. Hyatt isn't everything, and some of our very favorite stays to this day are still at non-Hyatt properties. Since then, I've also seen select Hyatt hotels become more and more popular, probably through social media. This in turn makes a lot of them keep increasing in price due to supply and demand. I'm hoping these changes mean we see more people showing alternatives to Hyatt and showing more and more options, instead of a continued over-emphasis on the same few hotels. Both inside and outside of Hyatt, there's a lot of great hotels that no one's talking about. Two Hyatt stays we have coming up I'm really excited about in the next year are one at Niagara Falls, in a room where the standard room is a two-room suite with three queen beds. And I'm excited for another one at a hotel that's in a volcano crater in Panama. I've seen very little, if anything, about either hotel, but I'm excited for both. So again, I think that there's a lot of great sweet spots out there, Hyatt or non-hyatt. Again, Hyatt is easy to understand and redeem, but for many people, this has been drying up anyway as a one-and-done strategy. If that's you, remember that well, I understand it can feel hard to pivot, I think you can do it. And there's a lot of potential ways to pivot. There's lots of different points programs, there's lots of hotel programs. Pairing a Chase Sapphire Preferred with an Aeroplan credit card to use Pay Yourself Back is still a really strong option for ultimate rewards in 2026. Even more so when you can take advantage of an Aeroplan transfer bonus. I'm really hoping that this gets renewed in 2027 as well. I will link my article on that in the show notes so that you can read it if you're still catching up on what that is. Remember that nothing is a crisis in points. We can always find a strategy and ways to pivot to continue to get value for travel. The

Calm Approach And Weekly Updates

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specific hotels or the specific flights that we redeem might change over time, but I really believe there will always be value and unique and interesting experiences out there that you can redeem your points for. I don't have any specific action steps for this episode today, because I don't think that anybody needs to take action right away on this. I think it's okay to let it sit and percolate in your brain for a little bit before you take action. But I will continue to provide resources and information about these changes. If you're not on our email list, again, that is the one thing that I really suggest that you get on because we send out an email once a week with curated points news, and that's the best way to stay informed about changes in miles and points and offer changes as well. Thanks so much for spending time with me today, and I look forward to seeing you next time where we will continue to unlock these secrets of travel points together.