Some *chase sapphire preferred* cardholders are seeing a notice in their account that the card's 10% anniversary points bonus is being retired.

The report first surfaced on the r/ChaseSapphire subreddit, where a user posted a message appearing in their Rewards Activity feed: “The Anniversary Bonus is retiring. You will continue to earn 10% of your spend through 10/1/26.”

The notice appears to be rolling out unevenly, as members of our team with the card haven't yet seen it in their own accounts. But a Chase spokesperson confirmed the change to Thrifty Traveler on Friday, stating, “the notice surfaced earlier than intended.”

Chase added that the benefit is being discontinued as the company “regularly evaluates and updates benefits based on cardmember feedback and what benefits resonate most.”

The spokesperson also noted that Chase looks forward to sharing “additional updates to the Sapphire Preferred card in the near term” – a signal that changes beyond this benefit cut may be on the way.
 

What's the 10% Anniversary Bonus?

This 10% anniversary bonus was added to the Sapphire Preferred back in 2021 as part of a broader card refresh.

Here's how it works: Each year on your account anniversary, Chase deposits a bonus equal to 10% of the points you earned from purchases at the base rate of 1 point per dollar spent over the prior year.

In plain English, that means if you spent $20,000 on the card over the past 12 months, Chase would hand you an extra 2,000 points at your card anniversary. Spend $50,000, and that bonus would be 5,000 points.

It's worth being honest about what that's actually worth. Assuming a minimum value of 1 cent each, someone spending $20,000 would see about $20 in anniversary bonus value. It's not nothing, but it's not the reason anyone holds this card, either.

The bonus is capped by your actual spending, so it scales up only if you're putting serious volume on the card.

Still, a benefit is a benefit. And losing one – even a modest one – on a $95 annual fee card is a regression.

Related Reading: A Full Review of the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card

 

The Bigger Picture

This isn't happening in a vacuum. Chase has been reshaping its Sapphire lineup over the past year, and not in ways that have generally benefited cardholders.

The Sapphire Reserve just got a complete overhaul that raised the annual fee to $795 – a move that drew its own share of criticism. And World of Hyatt, the crown jewel of the Chase transfer partner lineup, recently announced its biggest award chart overhaul ever, moving to a five-tier pricing structure that pushes top-end redemptions meaningfully higher and, no doubt, makes Chase points less valuable overall. 

In March, we wrote about how the calculus around Chase has shifted away from treating Ultimate Rewards as the automatic foundation of a travel rewards strategy. A quiet benefit cut on the Preferred isn't going to move that needle dramatically on its own, but it fits into a broader pattern.

Chase is trimming the Preferred while simultaneously making the Reserve more expensive and harder to justify. Unfortunately, neither card is getting better at the moment.

 

What This Means for Cardholders

If you're carrying the Sapphire Preferred primarily for its transfer partners – and that's still the best reason to hold it – this change doesn't break anything.

You can still transfer your points to Hyatt, United, Southwest, and the rest of Chase's transfer partner lineup at 1:1. The core earning structure isn't changing. The $95 annual fee still keeps your Ultimate Rewards points alive and your access to those partners intact.

The honest math here: If you typically spend $25,000 on the card, you're losing out on 2,500 points per year – worth a minimum of $25.

That's a real loss, but it's not a reason to cancel the card. Where it stings most is if the Sapphire Preferred is your primary or only card and you're putting significant everyday spending on it. In that case, the anniversary bonus was quietly doing more work than it might have seemed.

 

Bottom Line

The Chase Sapphire Preferred's 10% anniversary points bonus is being retired as of October 1, 2026 – now officially confirmed by Chase. The bonus wasn't the card's headline feature, and for most cardholders, losing it won't change the fundamental math of holding the Preferred.

But it's a lost benefit on a card that hasn't gotten meaningfully better in years. Chase's mention of “additional updates in the near term” is worth watching – whether that means new benefits to offset this cut or something else entirely remains to be seen.