Terrible news! Chase has announced that starting 6/15, Ultimate Rewards (UR) points from the Chase Sapphire Preferred (CSP) and Chase Ink Preferred (CIP) will transfer to Hyatt at a reduced 4:3 ratio. Previously, the transfer ratio had always been 1:1.
If you hold the Chase Sapphire Reserve (CSR) or Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business, however, you will not be affected by this change. UR points on those two premium cards can still be transferred to Hyatt at a 1:1 ratio. Since UR points can be freely moved between cards under the same person, as long as you have a CSR at the time you need to transfer points, this negative change will not affect you.
The exact effective timeline is as follows: For CSP, for cards applied for after 6/15/2026, the new policy takes effect immediately. For cards applied for before that date, the old 1:1 transfer ratio will remain available until 10/1/2026, after which the new policy will apply. For CIP, the effective date is 10/1/2026 for both new and existing card members.
Hyatt is currently the most valuable transfer partner in the UR ecosystem. For many years, Hyatt has remained very friendly to loyalty members and has been quite restrained with point devaluations, unlike some of its competitors that have devalued their points into near play money. Presumably, it is precisely because Hyatt points are so valuable, and because Chase has been losing too much money on these transfers, that Chase has finally decided to break its long-standing tradition of keeping all transfer partners at a 1:1 ratio.
By comparison, Bilt points have suddenly become even more valuable, since Bilt also transfers to Hyatt at a 1:1 ratio and does not require you to hold an annual-fee card to do so.
How should we respond?
If you still want to play the UR points game and continue using Hyatt, one possible strategy is to rely on product changes. During the point-earning phase, you can simply use no-annual-fee cards such as the Freedom series, along with low-annual-fee cards such as the CSP. Then, when you have accumulated enough UR points and are ready to transfer a large batch to Hyatt, you can temporarily upgrade to the CSR, make the transfer at the 1:1 ratio, and then downgrade again shortly afterward to avoid paying the high annual fee for an extended period of time.
If you like this post, don’t forget to give it a 5 star rating!
