Chase’s New ‘Points Boost’ Feature Is Here — But Is It Really Worth It?

Chase’s new Points Boost feature is live — and it’s got the kind of redemption potential that makes savvy cardholders perk up. But is it worth your attention?

Here’s what you need to know about Chase’s newest feature for Ultimate Rewards-earning cards.

What Is Points Boost?

Chase launched the new Points Boost feature on June 23, 2025. This feature applies to credit cards that earn Ultimate Rewards points, and it applies when using your points to book travel in the Chase Travel portal.

This new feature replaces the old way of using points (and their relative value) in the travel portal, and Points Boost may provide a higher value for your points, depending on what type of travel you’re booking.

However, what your points are worth can vary under Points Boost. And Points Boost may offer less value for your points than what you got in the past.

Here’s a comparison of the old system for using Chase Ultimate Rewards points in the travel portal and the new redemption values with Points Boost:

It’s worth emphasizing that point values are worth “up to” the maximum numbers. That doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed to always find redemptions worth that much. It’s also worth noting that points were previously worth more toward bookings beyond just flights and hotels — like theme park tickets or cruises — but that’s no longer the case.

Points Boost Explained: What It Means for You

When the Points Boost feature launched, Chase noted that your points would have varying values, depending on when you earned them and when you opened your credit card account.

Here’s how this will work in practice:

Starting October 26, 2025, points will be redeemed on a first-in, first-out basis — meaning the oldest points in your account will be used first.

If you transfer points to one of Chase’s transfer partners, the oldest points — which currently have more flexible value under Points Boost — will be used first. That means the points remaining in your account could be the newer ones with less favorable redemption options for certain bookings.

How To Keep the Old Redemption Rates With Points Boost

Chase allows you to freely and instantly combine points between your accounts — and with a family member living at your same address.

If you move points from another card, such as the $0-annual-fee Chase Freedom Flex^®, to a card with Points Boost, those points will still have the old, fixed value (worth 1.25 cents each on the Ink Business Preferred card or Chase Sapphire Preferred card or worth 1.5 cents apiece on the Chase Sapphire Reserve card) if you transfer the points by October 26, 2025.

These points will retain the ability to make redemptions at the previous values until October 2027.

What if you converted another card to the Chase Sapphire Preferred card or Chase Sapphire Reserve card? If you made the change before June 23, 2025 — when Points Boost launched — your points still qualify for the old redemption system. You’ll also get access to the new Points Boost rates when available, allowing you to choose whichever option offers better value through October 2027.

It’s also worth noting that Chase’s travel portal offers a “See how it works” button to tell you more about Points Boost, but as of the time of writing, it offers very little information.

Testing Chase’s New Points Boost Feature

To start with, we searched for a 2-night hotel stay in New York City over a random weekend in October. Results were sorted by “Recommended for you,” and hotels at the top of the results weren’t necessarily those offering Points Boost.

Prices were clearly displayed in both cash and points. Additionally, I easily found the button to show only search results with Points Boost available.

Since I have a Chase Sapphire Preferred card opened before Points Boost launched on June 23, 2025, search results that didn’t offer Points Boost still allowed me to use points at 1.25 cents each in value. Hotels offering Points Boost, however, gave me 1.5 cents per point in value.

When sorting hotels by the cheapest options, I had to scroll past the first 50 results before finding a hotel offering Points Boost. The cheapest available hotel was $260 for the 2-night stay, but the cheapest hotel offering Points Boost cost $542 — double the price.

When searching for a one-way flight from Miami (MIA) to Paris (CDG) in September, results were sorted by lowest price, though there were Points Boost recommendations at the top — available from United Airlines.

Chase representatives said that airlines available for Points Boost will rotate but did say that the initial list of airlines would include United Airlines, Air Canada, Southwest Airlines, Qantas, and Singapore Airlines.

Again, the button to see only Points Boost-eligible flights was easy to find, and that dropped my results from 393 flights to just 10. That’s a significant cut, meaning only 2.55% of the flights were eligible for this feature.

In this search, none of the economy flights qualified for Points Boost — regardless of whether they were refundable or not.

From premium economy to business class, all fares above economy class with United Airlines were eligible for Points Boost, offering redemptions of 1.5 to 1.75 cents per point — the maximum value possible with the Chase Sapphire Preferred card. With a Chase Sapphire Reserve card, you can get as much as 2 cents per point in value on these bookings.

With Air Canada, however, only business class offered Points Boost. Both of these offered a 1.75-cents-per-point redemption value.

Other searches for flights and hotels showed a similar pattern — Points Boost was available for higher-end hotel properties and premium cabin seats, but not for basic economy or the cheapest options.

Unfortunately, this means that booking inexpensive hotels or the cheapest seat on a plane is less likely to yield Points Boost-eligible reservations. That means you’ll redeem points at just 1 cent apiece going forward — down from the 1.25 or 1.5 cents per point previously offered on some of Chase’s credit cards.

Final Thoughts

Chase’s Points Boost feature is live, and it offers potentially more value than what your points were previously worth when using them in the Chase Travel portal. However, that won’t always be the case.

As our test searches show, inexpensive hotels and economy plane tickets are less likely to provide Points Boost-eligible reservations. While you may get as much as 2 cents per point on bookings going forward, thanks to Points Boost, you may not — and you most likely won’t if you’re not booking high-end hotels or premium plane tickets. You also won’t earn extra value on other types of travel, like event tickets or excursions, since these are excluded from Points Boost.

In summary, Points Boost can offer more value for your points — but that’s not guaranteed. Fortunately, existing cardholders can still enjoy their previous redemption rates through 2027.