Chase Points Boost: A New Way to Stretch Your Travel Rewards

by Zac Hood | Oct 20, 2025 | Beginner Resources, Credit Card Strategy
A person wearing a hat and backpack sits on a stone wall overlooking the ocean and a coastal city, arms outstretched. Text: Travel Tips. Best hotel credit cards. The new way to stretch your rewards points.

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Chase has rolled out a brand-new way to use your Ultimate Rewards® points when booking through the Chase Travel℠ portal. It’s called Points Boost, and it changes how much value you can get from your points—sometimes for the better, and sometimes not.

If you have one of these premium cards, this update applies to you:

Here’s a simple breakdown of how Points Boost works, what’s changed from the old system, and what those changes mean for both new and existing Chase cardholders.

A woman sits on the deck of a sailboat looking at rocky cliffs and blue water. Text overlay reads: 2-night stay in Mallorca. Now 60,000 pts with best hotel credit cards, was 120,000 pts. For illustrative purposes only.

What Is Points Boost?

As of June 23, 2025, Points Boost is Chase’s new way of giving Chase Ultimate Rewards cardholders a way to stretch their points even further on select flights and hotel booked through Chase Travel. Instead of the fixed redemption rate that Chase previously offered, the value of your points can jump, sometimes reaching up to 1.75 or even 2 cents per point on certain flights and hotels. However, this boost does not work for activity, rental or cruise bookings made through the portal. Those bookings only provide 1 cent per point value when booked through the travel portal. 

The boost you receive also depends on the credit card:

  • Chase Sapphire Reserve and Sapphire Reserve for Business members can get up to 2 cents per point on eligible premium airfare and select hotels
  • Chase Sapphire Preferred and Ink Business Preferred cardholders can earn up to 1.75 cents per point on premium airfare and 1.5 cents per point on hotels.

For example: A $600 flight could cost just 30,000 points if you’re getting 2X value through Points Boost depending on the card you use, and the specific Points Boost bonus for that flight when booking.

However, if you opened your card before June 23, 2025, there’s some good news. Any points earned before October 26, 2025 can still be redeemed at the original guaranteed rate through October 26, 2027. Even better, if a Points Boost offer gives you a higher value, you’ll automatically get that better rate instead.

Important deadline for Freedom, Ink Cash, or Ink Unlimited cardholders:
Before October 26, 2025, move (or “combine”) your Ultimate Rewards points into your premium card account if you have one. That way, those points will qualify for the higher-value redemption rate or the new Points Boost — whichever option gives you the better value.

How It Worked Before

Up until 6/23/25, redemptions in the Chase Travel portal were simple:

  • Sapphire Preferred & Ink Business Preferred: 1.25 cents per point (25% more value).
  • Sapphire Reserve: 1.5 cents per point (50% more value).

That flat-rate system meant you always knew the value you’d get when redeeming through Chase Travel.

In short: Premium cards now offer the potential for more value on certain bookings, but for new cardholders, the guaranteed baseline of 1.25 cents per point has gone away. On the flip side, however, not all flights and hotels offer Points Boost, where the value could be less as well.

How to Use Points Boost when Booking Travel

When you search for flights or hotels in the Chase Travel® portal, any Points Boost offers will appear automatically in your results. 

Flight options from Denver to New York for November 4th on United Airlines, with prices and points for Economy Plus, Fully Refundable, and First or Business class. Departure and arrival times included—perfect for travelers using the best hotel credit cards.

If you’re specifically looking for Points Boost options, you can toggle to view “Points Boost only,” as seen below. 

Screenshot of United Airlines flight options from Denver to New York. First or Business class fares are highlighted: $1,123 or 64,169 miles, and $1,488 or 85,027 miles. Great for travelers using the best hotel credit cards to earn points. “Points Boost only” filter is enabled.

Who’s Affected?

New cardholders (after June 23, 2025): You’ll only get the Points Boost rates when they’re available. Otherwise, points are worth just 1 cent per point each in the portal.

Existing cardholders (before June 23, 2025): For points earned before October 26, 2025, you’re protected until October 26, 2027. You’ll keep the old guaranteed rates (1.25X or 1.5X), but if a Points Boost is available, you’ll automatically get the higher value.

This means if you hold multiple Chase Ultimate Rewards credit cards, you’ll want to transfer all of your points to your highest redemption card (either the Chase Sapphire Preferred or Chase Sapphire Reserve), so you can continue to take advantage of this redemption rate for the next two years. Reminder: the deadline for doing this so that you can get the most value out of your points is before October 26, 2025.

Using Freedom and No-Fee Ink Cards with Points Boost

If you also have Chase’s no-fee cards, like the Freedom Flex®, Freedom Unlimited®, Ink Cash®, or Ink Unlimited®, you can still take advantage of Points Boost—but only if you pair them with one of the premium cards listed above.

Here’s how it works:

Freedom and no-fee Ink cards on their own can’t redeem points in the Chase Travel portal above 1 cent per point each.

But if you combine those points into a Sapphire Preferred, Sapphire Reserve, Ink Preferred or Sapphire Reserve for Business account, then you unlock Points Boost rates in the Chase Travel portal. 

This combo is one of the best ways to earn a ton of points on everyday spending (using Freedom/Ink cards) and then get outsized value by redeeming them through a card that offers Points Boost.

For a step-by-step guide on how to combine your points from a Freedom or no-fee Ink Card to a premium card, check out our Chase Ultimate Rewards Guide.

The Edit by Chase Travel

One of the most interesting pillars of the new Points Boost ecosystem is the integration with The Edit by Chase Travel, Chase’s curated hotel-collection offering. For eligible cardholders (e.g., Sapphire Reserve and Sapphire Reserve for Business℠), booking a stay through The Edit not only delivers luxury-hotel perks like breakfast for two, a hotel credit and elite-night accrual, but also unlocks the highest Points Boost redemption tier – up to 2 cents per Ultimate Rewards point. The result: you’re layering program perks, hotel benefits and enhanced point value all in one booking. 

Maximizing value means doing a little homework: check the Chase Travel portal, filter for “Points Boost only”, confirm the underlying hotel is in The Edit, and compare the cash rate vs. point cost carefully.

The Ups and Downs

The positive spin on Points Boost

  • Up to 2x value for premium flights and luxury hotels depending on the Chase card used and the booking
  • Existing cardholders keep their old rates for a couple more years
  • Boosted bookings often still earn airline miles and hotel points

The down-side

  • New cardholders lose the guaranteed minimum value
  • Non-boosted bookings are just 1 cent per point
  • Chase Travel prices can sometimes be higher than booking directly, so the boost doesn’t always mean a better deal

Final Thoughts

Chase’s new Points Boost feature is a bit of a trade-off. You can now unlock higher value on select flights and hotels. But, the straightforward, guaranteed rate that made Ultimate Rewards® redemptions so easy to understand is gone.

Bottom line? Points Boost is a new tool in your travel rewards toolkit. But like all tools, it works best when you know how (and when) to use it.