Chase’s Points Boost feature, which was once a solid alternative to stretch your Ultimate Rewards points further, has quietly become less impressive. The feature lets you redeem points through the Chase travel portal at a boosted rate, but recent changes have dropped some redemptions down to just 1.15 cents per point. That is a far cry from the 1.5 cents per point that premium cardholders like Chase Sapphire Reserve® users used to count on. The rollout of these lower rates has been uneven, meaning some users are seeing better value than others depending on the specific booking.

The math here matters. If you are redeeming points at only 1.15 cents each, you are barely doing better than the baseline 1 cent per point rate that comes with basic Chase cards. For context, transferring Chase Ultimate Rewards points to airline and hotel partners can routinely get you 1.5 to 2 cents per point or more, sometimes significantly more on premium cabin flights. The Points Boost feature was supposed to make the Chase portal more competitive, but at 1.15 cents per point, it simply does not stack up against transfer partners for most redemptions.

Recently, we did flag that some Edit hotels were valued at 2.5 cents per point but it seems like Chase is robbing Peter to pay Paul when we’re seeing so many hotels knocked all the way down to 1.15 cents per point in the portal.

Our Take

Our honest read on this is simple: the Chase travel portal should not be your go-to option for redeeming Ultimate Rewards points right now. The value just is not there for most bookings, especially when transfer partners to airlines like Hyatt, United, or Air France Flying Blue can deliver so much more value per point. If you are sitting on a pile of Chase points, our strong recommendation is to learn how to use transfer partners. It takes a little more effort, but the payoff is real and measurable.

Chase built a loyal following by offering strong redemption value, and watering down the Points Boost feature is a step in the wrong direction. We think cardholders deserve transparency about when and why these rates change. Until Chase brings more consistency and better value back to the portal, we believe your best move is to treat the travel portal as a last resort, not a first stop. Keep your points flexible, use transfer partners whenever possible, and do not leave value on the table by settling for 1.15 cents per point.