The Thrifty Traveler Podcast · Thursday, October 1, 2026
Recent changes to Hyatt's award chart have significantly increased the points required for many hotel redemptions, particularly for premium properties. This, combined with a new 4:3 transfer ratio from the Chase Sapphire Preferred card (down from 1:1), makes transferring Chase Ultimate Rewards points to Hyatt less appealing for Preferred cardholders. Those who frequently transfer to Hyatt may now need to consider the Chase Sapphire Reserve for its 1:1 transfer ratio, despite its higher annual fee.
“Well, honestly, I mean, we did call it today's D-Day in Hyatt World. Unfortunately, the Chase Sapphire Preferred is now, I mean, everyone that has that card now is only able to transfer on a 4-3 ratio instead of 1-1. So I would say personally that's down.”
“Most of the properties, at least that I care about, got significantly more expensive. And what we feared at the time is when they made that change into this new five-tier award bucket, was that it would only get worse, that more and more properties, especially at the top end, would end up pricing out at those 60,000, 75,000 price tiers, pricing that didn't exist before.”
“This morning is October 1st. So the Hyatt transfer or the CSP transfers to Hyatt are all four to three now, which is very, very sad.”