Update, October 5, 2026: The 4:3 ratio is now live on every Sapphire Preferred and Ink Business Preferred, so the October 1 deadline below has passed. The new news is Bilt: on October 1, it announced its own Hyatt transfers drop to 4:3 on January 1, 2027, with no exception for its top card. After that, the $795 Sapphire Reserve (personal or business) is the only credit card route that still moves points to Hyatt 1:1. If you hold Bilt points and have a Hyatt stay planned, transfer by December 31.
If you carry a Chase Sapphire Preferred and you were sitting on points for a Hyatt stay, the cheap window closed October 1. Chase cut the Hyatt transfer ratio from 1:1 to 4:3. That means 40,000 Ultimate Rewards now buys 30,000 Hyatt points instead of 40,000. It’s a 25% haircut on what was, for a decade, the card’s best redemption.
Chase announced the change on June 10. The 4:3 ratio hits the Sapphire Preferred, the Ink Business Preferred, and the legacy Ink Plus and Corporate Flex cards. Chase Sapphire Reserve and Sapphire Reserve for Business keep their 1:1 ratio to Hyatt. Translation: Hyatt is being pushed upmarket into a Reserve perk.
Bilt just confirmed the direction. Its Hyatt transfers go to 4:3 on January 1, 2027, and Frequent Miler notes that “even if you hold the $495-per-year Palladium card, your 4 Bilt points will still be worth only 3 Hyatt points.” Thrifty Traveler’s summary: starting next year there’s “exactly one way” to move card points to Hyatt without losing a quarter of them, and it’s the Reserve.
The timing bites harder because Hyatt already reset its own award chart on May 20, moving to dynamic pricing that pushed peak-night prices up on most categories. Frequent Miler tracked a Category 4 peak night that used to run 18,000 Ultimate Rewards points now needing about 27,000 with both changes stacked. That’s a 50% increase in points for the same room.
Here’s what they don’t tell you. If you rarely stay at Hyatts, none of this costs you anything. United, Southwest, JetBlue, Marriott, Air Canada, IHG, and the rest of Chase’s transfer partners are still 1:1. But if you built a Hyatt stash on a Preferred, a 60,000-point weekend now needs 80,000 Ultimate Rewards.
The Reserve upgrade math also shifted. The $795 annual fee gets easier to justify if you burn 100,000 or more Chase points a year at Hyatt, because Reserve keeps 1:1 and Preferred doesn’t. At 4:3, 100,000 points lands 75,000 Hyatt points instead of 100,000. It’s still an expensive door. Do the math on your actual Hyatt spend, not the theoretical maximum.
Bilt points and a Hyatt stay on the calendar? Move them by December 31. Transfers to hotel partners can’t be reversed, so don’t ship points speculatively. Transfer for a stay you can actually name.
Chase Preferred holders, decide. If Hyatt was the whole reason you had the Preferred, either upgrade to Reserve (crunch the fee against your Hyatt volume) or shift your points to a partner where 1:1 still works. Southwest, United, and Marriott all still buy real value at the Preferred’s ratio. Our best travel credit cards list ranks the cards that make sense once the Hyatt cheat code is gone.
If Hyatt wasn’t your play, file this away. Your Preferred still earns 5x on Chase travel and 3x on dining, and every other transfer partner is untouched.
The Preferred is not dead. It just stopped being the cheat code for Hyatt, and Bilt is about to stop being the backup.
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Sources
- Bilt Cuts Hyatt Transfer Ratio to 4:3 Starting January 1, 2027 (Thrifty Traveler, October 1, 2026)
- Bilt To Cut Hyatt Transfer Rate From 1:1 To 4:3, Live 1/1/27 (Doctor of Credit, October 1, 2026)
- Bilt following Chase's example and reducing Hyatt transfer ratio (Frequent Miler, October 2, 2026)
- Bilt Devalues World Of Hyatt Points Transfers As Of 2027 (One Mile at a Time, October 1, 2026)
- Chase slashes Hyatt transfer ratio to 4:3 for Sapphire Preferred and Ink Business Preferred (Frequent Miler, June 10, 2026)
- Chase Sapphire Preferred cuts Hyatt transfer value, adds new perks (The Points Guy)
- The Chase Sapphire Preferred Got Better, Except for This (NerdWallet)