Chase quietly weakened the Sapphire Reserve “Points Boost” promise for The Edit hotels—some redemptions dropped from 2 cents per point to about 1 2/3. Now Chase says it will proactively honor 2 cents per point for any The Edit booking made through December 22, 2025, crediting cardmembers the difference after the fact.
A rewards credit card’s value proposition is part earning, part redemption, and part benefits. For Chase Sapphire Reserve, this summer’s refresh eliminated fixed 1.5 cents per point opportunities to redeem for travel and replaced it with “Points Boost” which is up to 2 cents per point when redeeming through Chase Travel with their airline and hotel partners.
From launch, Chase’s “The Edit” hotels were marketed as always being available to redeem at that 2 cent level. Quietly Chase changed this and no longer promises 2 cent Edit hotel redemptions.
- Some hotels are still available to redeem at 2 cents per point
- While others have fallen to 1 2/3 cents per point
This took a lot of cardmembers by surprise. And Chase has let me know they’re going to honor redemptions that have already been made at two cents, and any Edit hotel redemptions that are made through December 22 at that level as well. So there’s still an opportunity here.
A Chase spokesperson tells me,
Some of our Chase Travel content marketing the 2x points boost promotion for The Edit remained in market longer than intended. We will proactively honor 2x points value for any customers who book a stay at a property in The Edit through December 22, 2025. Customers will see the points adjustment in their Ultimate Rewards balance.
You’ll redeem at the current prevailing rates, but they’ll make up the difference to you later. The other piece of good news is that while some previous Points Boost opportunities have dropped out or been reduced in value, it actually seems they’ve added some – which is a good sign for the program. For instance,
- JetBlue premium cabin flights are now available in Points Boost, including at 2 cents per point.
- They’re also boosting a lot of economy (but not basic economy) at 1.5 cents per point: Southwest Airlines, Air Canada, Aer Lingus, EVA Airways, Emirates, LATAM, Singapore Airlines, Qantas and United.
Basic economy doesn’t get Points Boost because airlines don’t pay as much commission on those tickets, and they don’t further discount them to Chase in the same way.
With the old fixed 1.5 cents per point, that worked out alright for Chase on most hotel bookings. Their commission was subsidizing the redemptions. But when you’d send points on airfare with airlines they didn’t have fixed agreements with, it was a money-loser. Chase’s solution has been to offer more value at times than before – when they can work out an agreement with a partner that pencils.
And Chase actually delivers quite a lot of passengers when they do this. They’re now one of the biggest sellers of online travel. Chase points redemptions, like American Express points redemptions, move the needle filling planes.
Was it the public-shaming and mocking that did it, or did Gary call-in a favor?
By the way, @Gary Leff, it appears the US government admitted (via DOJ filings in court) that controller and helicopter pilot error in the AA5342 midair collision from January 2025; probably helps lawyers representing victims’ families in their attempted recovery. I’d imagine you’ll post an update to it at some point. Kinda wild for this of all admins to admit to anything. Maybe tides are changing.
To clarify, is this for booking by 12/22 not stays?
Oh come on, not only did they lie, they’ve been playing a shell game for the last few months with ridiculously inflated prices so that the 2.0cpp was never really 2.0cpp as compared to FHR pricing. Maybe this latest embarrassment got enough press where someone senior said “fine, give folks 5 days notice and we’ll work it out on the back end.”
Personally, I’d let the clock run on 2025’s balance sheet and call in mid-January 2026 for retention offers.
As for “one of the biggest sellers of online travel…” I mean, Chase is #7 on some industry magazine’s “Skytrax” list which claims Chase did $11b in 2024 sales, but they are nowhere even close to the $100bb+ volume Booking.com and Expedia do, let alone Amex corporate travel at $40bb. Maybe they are doing a bit better than Costco at this point? Per yesterday’s article on Costco Travel in the WSJ-
“The famously private, publicly traded company reveals scant details about the size of the business and skips trade-magazine travel-agency rankings. But executives revealed this nugget during an earnings call last week: U.S. Costco members booked more than $100 million in travel in the five days after Thanksgiving, up 12% from a year ago. Annual gross bookings run in the billions, executives told me in a rare interview at the company’s Issaquah, Wash., headquarters.”
If Chase Travel is what Chase wants to invest in and target as a growth area, fine, it’s their wildly successful bank, they can do whatever they want! But perception matters – it’s often the most important thing! And right now, their brand perception is awful and, dare I say, bordering on dishonest. Thus far in 2025 all they’ve succeeded in doing is really pissing off a lot of HNWI folks that have lots of options about where to bank (and where to purchase travel), especially in an age where most banking is done online. So if their goal is to convert folks to the JPM wealth management side of the house (I only get 2 emails a week about that from them on that topic…), uh, not the best pitch this year guys.
What does that mean? You have five days to find a trip to book to get the rate they promised? Is that a joke?
@Peter gets it. 100%. Amex FHR is still way above Chase The Edit. That said. Citi’s Strata Elite credit and horrendous portal make Chase look like a saint. If Citi could make the user interface a little better and include more 4-and-5-star properties, it might get to Chase-level. The 2-nights for the credits is lame for both, though. Amex does it better.