I was very disappointed to see the news last week about Chase making changes to the Sapphire Preferred card. If you don't want to pay the huge annual fee for the Reserve, the Preferred has been an excellent alternative. However, some of the changes may affect your points earning and redeeming strategy.
The primary announcement is here: https://media.chase.com/news/Meet-the-New-Chase-Sapphire-Preferred
Top items to note:
- The addition of 3x points on gas and EV charging is a great category adjustment - Airbnb/vacation homes earning is not useful for many in frequency
- Complimentary Apple TV is not applicable for many
- The 10% anniversary points bonus goes away, and was a notable perk for the card
- Points transfers to Hyatt will now be at a 4:3 ratio. This is terrible. Feedback so far has been quite negative and I wouldn't be surprised if many shift spend away to other cards. This will be the only transfer partner that isn't 1:1.
