(Update) Chase Sapphire Reserve ‘Points Boost’: Removes 1.5% Travel Redemption, Adds Boost Feature For 2% On Select Travel
Update 1/13/26: People are now seeing the ‘courtesy adjustment’ to bump up their redemptions to 2 cents for bookings made through 12/22/26 (see update below).
Update 12/18/25: Chase announced that they’ll be honoring a 2¢ value for all The Edit properties booked through 12/22/25.This includes prior bookings done at the lower value, as well as future bookings through the 22nd.Customers will see the adjustment in the Ultimate Rewards balance.
Update 12/15/25: Not all ‘The Edit’ properties are giving 2¢ in value via ‘Points Boost’ any longer.Some discussion on how it’s decided what properties participate and those that don’t here.
It’s now either 2¢ or 1.66¢.
Update 10/25/25: Those who did a transfer on 10/25/25 will not see the 1.5 cents redemption immediately.Per official Chase media team on Reddit: “if you tried to combine points from other accounts today, it can take up to one billing cycle for them to be moved into the eligible points bucket.If you need the points sooner, please call us (use the number on the back of your card) and we’ll take care of it for you.”
Update 10/22/25: Reminder to transfer all your points over to the Sapphire Reserve card to lock in for two years the 1.5% redemption option.You’ll also have the 2% redemption option via Points Boost as well.
If you don’t have Sapphire Reserve, you might want to transfer points to Sapphire Preferred or INK Preferred.Keep in mind, you’ll ideally want the points transferred onto on a card which you plan on keeping for the next couple of years.
Follow-up Post: Using Chase Sapphire Reserve $250 ‘The Edit’ Credit & $300 Travel Credit & Points Boost
Update 6/24/25: A few things we’ve discussed below have been verified by Chase media team (ht to Dansdeals):
You have one bucket of 100k points which have the 1.5 redemption ability and another 100k which don’t.You transfer 100k points to Hyatt.You won’t have any points with the 1.5 redemption ability anymore since the earlier points get used up first.)
Update 6/23/25: This is now live.It seems that the 2¢ is only for certain airlines and classes.
Seems to be restricted to United, LATAM, Emirates, Air Canada, Eva (share any others in the comments).Hat tip to TDD
Original Post:
Chase is touting a new ‘Points Boost’ feature which will allow Sapphire Reserve cardholders to redeem Ultimate Rewards points through the Chase Travel Portal at a redemption rate of up to 2% (2 cents per point).
More notably, to me, is that the bank is also sunsetting the fixed 1.5% redemption rate that Sapphire Reserve cardholders enjoyed on all travel booked through the Chase Travel Portal.Starting late October 2025, you’ll be able to: 1) redeem for cash at 1%, 2) transfer to travel partners, or 3) book travel through the Chase Travel Portal at a redemption rate of somewhere between 1-2%.(PYB is discussed below.) There will no longer be a reliable 1.5% cashout method with the Sapphire Reserve card.
Similarly, Chase Sapphire Preferred will have its 1.25% fixed redemption rate removed.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred, INK Preferred, and INK Plus cards will get a Points Boost redemption option with the value of up to 1.5% on select hotels and flights, and up to 1.75% on select premium cabin flights.
These changes will go into effect for both the Sapphire Reserve and the Sapphire Preferred on the following timeline:
They will immediately have just the 1-2% Points Boost redemption option.
One point which people are asking about is how this will work for points transferred and for product changes.My guess is that someone who product changes to the Sapphire Reserve before June 23, 2025 will get their entire points balance locked in through 2027 with the 1.5 redemption option.Likewise, someone who has an existing Sapphire Reserve card and they receive a points transfer from a household member by October 25, 2025, my guess is that they’ll keep the 1.5% redemption option through 2027 as it will be bucketed along with points earned.These are just guesses.
The other question I wonder about: what about the Pay Yourself Back feature? Chase basically already stripped away the 1.5% redemption via Pay Yourself Back a while ago.
But they did leave us with some good options at 1.25%.Hopefully that feature will remain, and we’ll at least have a fairly reliable 1.25% cashout method as a floor on Ultimate Rewards points value.
Publisher: Source link