Chase has been making headlines for all the wrong reasons recently after quietly reducing how far its new Points Boost redemptions go for luxury “The Edit” hotels. But while Chase insists that was always part of the plan, the record suggests otherwise.
It's another turn in the bank's troubled revamp of its flagship Chase Sapphire Reserve® travel card earlier this year. Combined with new credits to cover up to $500 a year on those top-tier hotels, getting a guaranteed 2 cents per point (and potentially less on other properties) when booking The Edit Properties through the Chase Travel℠ portal was a selling point – and a way to ease the pain of losing the flat 1.5-cents-per-point redemptions on any travel booking Reserve cardholders have enjoyed for nearly a decade.
Those hotel bookings were a major bright spot – often exceeding the value cardholders could get by transferring points to standout hotel chains like Hyatt instead. But that promise lasted less than six months.
Earlier this month, Reserve cardholders began to see some redemptions for The Edit hotels and resorts pricing out well below that 2-cent benchmark. To quiet the grumbling, Chase has said it'll honor the higher value redemptions through Dec. 22 … while insisting that it had always planned to reduce redemption values on some bookings.
We've got receipts.
What Chase Said at Launch & What Changed
When the Chase Sapphire Reserve relaunched this summer – complete with a steep annual fee hike from $550 to $795 a year – elevated Points Boost redemptions were billed as a big benefit. It also cemented The Edit portfolio, Chase's answer to American Express' Fine Hotels and Resorts: a smaller yet curated collection of higher-end hotels, complete with perks like complimentary breakfast and a $100 property credit.
And the bank was clear from the outset: While other Points Boost hotels redemptions were worth “up to 2x,” booking the Edit hotels with points would yield a flat 2 cents apiece, period. An archived version of Chase's website spelling out Points Boost from July 22 – the latest date for which an archived version of that page is available – spelled that out clearly (emphasis ours):
“If you have a Chase Sapphire Reserve card and you use Points Boost, your points are worth 2x when you book a hotel that’s part of The Edit, and up to 2x when redeemed for other top-booked hotels and flights with select airlines through Chase Travel.”
Chase clearly distinguished between:
- A fixed, double-value redemption at The Edit hotels
- Variable, “up to” double-value redemptions everywhere else
And the program matched that promise. When Points Boost launched, every Edit property priced out at a flat double-value redemption.
Today, that same page on Chase’s website now says points are worth “up to 2x” when booking hotels in The Edit – quietly folding what was once a guaranteed redemption into a dynamic, variable system.
It's unclear exactly when that change was made, but Chase never announced it.
There was no email to cardholders. No in-app alert. No notice inside Chase Travel explaining that The Edit would no longer redeem at a flat two cents per point rate. As a Sapphire Reserve cardholder myself, I received no communication from Chase flagging this change.
Instead, it was uncovered by a cardholder on Reddit who noticed something didn’t add up: the points cost for an upcoming Edit hotel stay had increased … even though the cash price had gone down. That discovery triggered a wave of similar reports from other Sapphire Reserve holders checking their own bookings and finding the same thing.
What it Means for Your Chase Points
While many properties that are part of The Edit are still pricing out at the old benchmark, the negative change is already hitting others.
Searching and booking in August, a two-night stay at the Four Seasons Hotel Minneapolis priced at $1,317 or 65,852 points – exactly 2 cents per point.
Checking that same hotel today shows a lower $1,159 cash price … but a higher 70,215-point cost. That means each point is instead worth about 1.65 cents apiece instead.
Chase Responds & Reframes the Story
As Reserve cardholders confronted worse redemptions for The Edit properties, Chase has said it will honor the original, double-value pricing for any bookings made through Dec. 22, 2025. Points adjustments will be applied retroactively – not on the front end.
But the bank has also tried to make the case that this reduction was always part of the plan, arguing it was always intended to offer a range of different redemption values from property to property – at The Edit hotels and elsewhere.
That explanation doesn’t square with how the benefit was originally described – or how Chase itself chose to market it at launch. At launch, Chase:
- Did not say The Edit might offer double-value redemptions – it said they would
- It didn’t say the benefit was temporary
- And it didn’t say it was subject to change
A Chase spokeswoman confirmed the change this week and again insisted that variable points redemption at The Edit properties was always the plan. At the same time, it has also acknowledged that “Chase Travel content marketing the 2x points boost promotion for The Edit remained in market longer than intended.”
Both can't be true. If you have to update marketing material in the first place, that means a change has been made.
A Problematic Pattern for the Sapphire Reserve
This Points Boost backtrack isn't happening in a vacuum.
Since relaunching the Sapphire Reserve this summer, Chase has already made several unusually rapid tweaks to the card: adjusting (and arguably improving) its welcome bonus, revising how some of its new credits work, and now quietly reworking one of its marquee redemptions.
Earlier this fall, we questioned whether Chase had fumbled the Reserve’s refresh – especially compared to the Amex Platinum's smash hit update just a few months later. And now, Chase is doling out another blow to cardholders by downgrading one of its best new features.
There's value in certainty – especially when you’re paying nearly $800 a year for a travel credit card. When Chase eliminated the Sapphire Reserve’s simple 1.5-cent redemptions, it positioned Points Boost as the replacement, highlighting even more valuable redemptions on select flights and double-value redemptions at The Edit. The Edit was supposed to be the safest part of that trade-off: predictable, premium, and easy to understand.
Now, it's just another moving target.
Bottom Line
Chase didn’t just quietly lower redemption values – it also quietly changed the terms Sapphire Reserve cardholders were sold on.
After promoting booking luxury “The Edit” hotels at a flat, 2-cents-per-point redemption, Chase has changed the game. And while the bank now insists that all Points Boost hotel redemptions were always meant to be dynamic, that's not how it was initially described, marketed, or implemented. And the bank’s own archived language makes that clear.
