Chase Sapphire Preferred® Updates You Need to Know About
After weeks of rumors, Chase made it official this morning: the Chase Sapphire Preferred® is getting a pretty significant refresh starting June 15, 2026, and the $95 annual fee isn’t budging. I’ve recommended this card as a starter card for as long as I’ve been teaching families about points and miles, so the second the announcement dropped I had to dig into every line of the press release to figure out what it actually means for us.
The short version? Most of the news is genuinely exciting, especially for families who lean on built-in travel protections every time they leave town. There is one change that has the broader points-and-miles community grimacing a little (you’ll see what I mean in a minute), and I want to talk honestly about that too. So grab your coffee and let’s walk through everything that’s changing, what it means for your family, and whether I still think the Sapphire Preferred earns a spot in your wallet.
The short version
If you only have five minutes, here’s the snapshot:
Starting June 15, 2026, the Sapphire Preferred is adding 3x points on gas and EV charging, 3x points on vacation home rentals at places like Airbnb and Vrbo, a doubled $100 Chase Travel Hotel Credit each anniversary year, a $120 Global Entry / TSA PreCheck / NEXUS credit every four years, a complimentary one-year Apple TV subscription, and new emergency evacuation and transportation protections worth up to $100,000. The annual fee stays $95.
On the not-as-great side, the Ultimate Rewards transfer ratio to World of Hyatt is dropping from 1:1 to 4:3 for Sapphire Preferred cardholders (and Chase Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card holders), and the 10% Anniversary Bonus is being retired. Existing cardholders of both cards get some breathing room before those changes kick in (more on the timing in a minute). And in a piece of news that I think isn’t getting enough attention, the Chase Sapphire Reserve and Sapphire Reserve for Business are keeping their 1:1 transfer to Hyatt, which makes those two cards more valuable than they were yesterday.
Now let me walk you through each piece, because the family angle on some of these is bigger than the press release lets on.
What’s new and what I’m genuinely excited about
3x points on vacation home rentals
Starting June 15, the Sapphire Preferred will earn 3x points on vacation home rentals booked at Airbnb, Vrbo, Plum Guide, HomeAway, Homestay.com, and Vacasa.
For families who lean heavily on vacation rentals when they travel (you need the extra bedrooms, the kitchen, the washing machine), this is a meaningful upgrade. Up until now, those bookings only earned 1 point per dollar on the Sapphire Preferred. Tripling the earn rate on a category that’s often a four-figure line item on a family trip is real money working in the background.
A quick example: a $1,500 weeklong rental that would have earned 1,500 points before will now earn 4,500. Not a bad bump for changing absolutely nothing about how you book.
3x points on gas and EV charging
This one is straightforward and easy to love. If your family does any amount of road-tripping (and most of us do, even if it’s just the drive to grandma’s a few times a year), you are filling that tank a lot. Three points per dollar at the pump or at an EV charger, on top of the categories you’re already earning on dining and groceries, is just more money quietly working in the background.
A $100 Chase Travel Hotel Credit (doubled from $50)
The annual hotel credit is doubling from $50 to $100 each anniversary year, and you only need to book and prepay a hotel through Chase Travel to use it. There’s no minimum stay, no spending threshold, and no hoops.
Here’s the math I want you to sit with for a second: the annual fee is $95. The hotel credit is now $100. If you book one prepaid hotel stay through Chase Travel each anniversary year, the card has already paid for itself. That’s it. Everything else, the bonus categories, the protections, the Global Entry credit, is gravy.
For our family, this is basically free. We book at least one Chase Travel hotel a year already, so this is $100 we are going to use without changing a single thing about how we travel.
$120 Global Entry, TSA PreCheck, or NEXUS credit
This one used to be a Sapphire Reserve perk, and now it’s coming to the Preferred. Every four years, Chase will reimburse up to $120 toward the application fee for Global Entry, TSA PreCheck, or NEXUS when you pay with the card.
If you already have Global Entry, you can use this credit for your spouse, your parent, or one of your kids (kids 18 and older typically need their own membership, and many families do this when their teens start traveling on their own). For a family that flies a few times a year, this is genuinely useful, and it’s rare to find on a card with a sub-$100 annual fee.
My quick tip: go for Global Entry over plain TSA PreCheck. Global Entry includes PreCheck, plus the faster customs experience when you fly home from an international trip. With kids, that line at customs after a long flight is no joke.
Emergency evacuation and transportation coverage up to $100,000
The Sapphire Preferred already had one of the strongest travel protection packages of any card I know of in this price range. Now they’re adding emergency evacuation and transportation coverage of up to $100,000 if a covered traveler is injured or gets sick more than 100 miles from home and needs to be evacuated.
I genuinely hope none of us ever has to use this. But as a mom, knowing it is there if something goes wrong on a trip with our kids is the kind of quiet peace of mind I am very willing to keep in my wallet.
A complimentary one-year Apple TV subscription
This one is a fun bonus rather than a life-changer, but it’s a nice extra. Cardholders can activate a free year of Apple TV by linking their Apple ID through their Chase account by December 31, 2026. If you’re already paying for Apple TV, that’s about $120 back in your pocket over the year.
What’s changing that I want to be honest about
The Hyatt transfer ratio is dropping from 1:1 to 4:3
This is the part of the announcement that’s getting the most attention in the points-and-miles community, and I think it deserves an honest conversation.
Up until now, you could transfer your Ultimate Rewards points to World of Hyatt at a 1:1 ratio, meaning 1,000 Chase points became 1,000 Hyatt points. Hyatt has been a beloved transfer partner for a long time because their award nights can stretch points really far at gorgeous properties, and that 1:1 transfer felt like one of the best deals in the hobby.
Starting at a different time depending on when you applied for the card (more on that in the timeline below), Sapphire Preferred cardholders will transfer Ultimate Rewards to Hyatt at a 4:3 ratio. In practical terms, 1,000 Chase points will become 750 Hyatt points. For a 40,000-point Hyatt night, you’ll now need 53,333 Chase points instead of 40,000.
I’ll be honest: this is a real loss, and I’m not going to pretend otherwise. If you’ve been building Ultimate Rewards with Hyatt transfers as your main strategy, this change is going to sting.
A few things to put it in perspective, though.
Hyatt transfers are one of the first sweet spots I teach families about, and they really are amazing. But Hyatt is not the end-all be-all of Ultimate Rewards. Our very first family trip to Costa Rica was booked entirely through the Chase Travel portal, and we got incredible value out of those points without ever transferring a single one. The portal is a beginner-friendly, no-fuss way to put your points to work, and it stays exactly the same after this change.
If Hyatt transfers ARE central to how you redeem, the 1:1 ratio is still alive and well on the Chase Sapphire Reserve and the Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business. We’ll talk about what that means in just a minute, because I think those two cards just got a lot more interesting.
The Sapphire Reserve and Reserve for Business just got more valuable
Here’s the part of the news that I think is being a little underplayed in the early coverage: the Chase Sapphire Reserve and the Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business are keeping their 1:1 transfer ratio to World of Hyatt.
That is a really big deal.
For years, Ultimate Rewards has been one of the most loved points currencies in the hobby specifically BECAUSE you could transfer them to Hyatt at 1:1, no matter which Chase card (with an annual fee) earned them. With that benefit narrowing to just the Reserve cards, the value gap between the Preferred and the Reserve just got noticeably wider.
If you’re someone whose travel style really does revolve around Hyatt redemptions (those dreamy Park Hyatt nights, the all-inclusive resorts on points, the family rooms at Hyatt House properties for week-long stays), the Reserve cards just held onto something that nobody else in the lineup gets to keep. That alone makes them worth a second look if you’ve been on the fence.
A few things to know if you’re considering it:
The Sapphire Reserve has a much higher annual fee than the Preferred, so the math is different and you have to actually USE the premium perks for it to pay for itself.
Chase has updated their card eligibility rules recently, and having the Sapphire Preferred doesn’t automatically disqualify you from getting the Sapphire Reserve. That used to be a hard “no” and now it’s much more nuanced. (You’ll want to read the current eligibility rules carefully before applying.)
I’m not saying everyone should run out and product change or apply for a Reserve card today. But if Hyatt has been the heart of your strategy, this is the moment to take a fresh look at whether the Reserve makes sense for your family. I’ll be writing more about that in the next few weeks, so stay tuned.
The 10% Anniversary Bonus is being retired
The 10% Anniversary Bonus, which gave cardholders a 10% points bonus on their spending each anniversary year, is going away.
Honestly? This one sounded better than it actually was. The 10% bonus worked out to about 0.1 points per dollar of spending, which means even if you put $50,000 a year on the card, you were only earning about 5,000 extra points from this perk. That’s not nothing, but it’s also not the showstopper it sometimes sounded like in card comparisons.
I won’t miss this one as much as I expected to when I first read the news.
The timing (this part matters)
Here’s where things get a little nuanced, so stay with me:
If you already have the Sapphire Preferred (you applied before June 15, 2026), you’ll see all the new benefits on June 15, 2026, and your existing setup will continue otherwise. Your 1:1 Hyatt transfer ratio sticks around until October 1, 2026, at which point it drops to 4:3. Your 10% Anniversary Bonus will keep applying to eligible purchases through October 1, 2026, with any earned bonus paid out by January 2027.
If you apply for a new Sapphire Preferred on or after June 15, 2026, all of the new benefits start immediately, and so does the new 4:3 Hyatt transfer ratio and the end of the 10% Anniversary Bonus. No grace period.
If you have the Chase Ink Business Preferred, your 1:1 Hyatt transfer ratio continues until October 1, 2026 as well, and drops to 4:3 after that. This applies to both existing and new Ink Business Preferred cardholders.
If you’re an existing cardholder of either card, this gives you a meaningful window to plan around the Hyatt change. If you have Ultimate Rewards points you’ve been saving for a Hyatt stay, you have until the end of September to transfer them at the current 1:1 ratio. I’d start mapping out what you might want to use those points for sooner rather than later.
My honest take: is the Sapphire Preferred still a great starter card?
Yes. With a few asterisks I want to walk you through.
For the family I work with most often, the parent who is just getting started in points and miles, wants something with a manageable annual fee, and wants real benefits without a complicated game to play, the Sapphire Preferred just got better. The doubled hotel credit alone effectively pays for the card. The new 3x categories add up. The Global Entry credit and the new evacuation coverage make this feel like a much more grown-up travel card than its price tag suggests.
For the more advanced points enthusiast whose strategy has revolved around Hyatt transfers, this card got weaker, and I won’t pretend otherwise. The Sapphire Reserve and the Reserve for Business are the cards to look at if Hyatt transfers are central to how you redeem.
But for a family looking for one well-rounded card that earns well on the things you actually buy, protects you when you travel, and pays for itself before you even open your tax software, the Sapphire Preferred is still one of the best starter cards out there. I would still recommend it to my own sister.
If you’re considering applying, the changes go into effect June 15, 2026. If you already have the card, hang onto it and start planning your Hyatt transfers before October 1.
More on our families free travels!
Family vacations were a near impossibility for us not that long ago. But about 5 years ago we discovered credit card points and miles and now traveling several times a year is the norm for us! If you want to learn more about how our family travels for next to nothing, I would love for you to check out my Quick Start Guide to Traveling with Points and Miles. It is a hobby that has forever changed our lives and given us the opportunity to see the world!
