Chase trimmed Hyatt, Citi cut two hotel partners, and Amex slashed Flying Blue abroad. The points sold as inflation proof are being devalued.
The Currency That Was Supposed To Be Safe
The entire pitch of transferable points, the American Express Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards points, Citi ThankYou points, and Capital One Venture Miles that sit in a card account rather than an airline or hotel program, was intended to be insulation. Any single program can devalue, but flexible points let you move to whichever partner still offers value. That flexibility was supposed to make them the closest thing to inflation proof. The first half of 2026 have put a dent in that theory.
Chase Made Hyatt A Reserve Perk
The change that reached US wallets came from Chase. The transfer ratio from Ultimate Rewards to World of Hyatt, long the best redemption in the Chase stable at 1:1, dropped to four Chase points for three Hyatt points (4:3) for Chase Sapphire Preferred Card and Ink Business Preferred cardholders. New applicants absorbed it from June 15, and existing cardholders keep the old ratio only until October 1. That 25% haircut is going to play a factor in sign-ups, renewal, and charge activity for many savvy cardholders, as NerdWallet spelled out. Hyatt is far and away my largest single transfer partner from Chase, though I am unaffected by this change.
Chase’s “tell” is in which clients get to keep the 1:1 ratio and the consumer behavior it wishes to drive. Sapphire Reserve (both its consumer and its business version) still move points to Hyatt at 1:1 – for now – which makes this the first time Chase has tiered a transfer partner by card level. Hyatt was the crown jewel of Ultimate Rewards (objectively from a points perspective especially for high tier properties like Park Hyatt), and Chase just moved it behind the more expensive card. Layer in Hyatt’s own award chart increase in May, which pushed top properties up to 75,000 points per night, and the same stay now costs more points that are each harder to come by.
Citi Trimmed Its Partners Too
Citi has been moving in the same direction. In April it cut hotel transfers, slicing Choice Privileges by 25% and iPrefer by 50% for ThankYou cardholders, per AwardWallet. Then it came for airlines, dropping Emirates transfers by 20% starting July 27. (Airline partners also devalued Emirates or increased redemption costs) Capital One made the same Emirates cut to a 4:3 ratio, and AMEX trimmed Emirates earlier in the year. Four issuers devaluing Emirates Skywards is probably an Emirates cost increase over anything else, but in the past Emirates might have gotten the axe entirely rather than a depreciated rate.
American Express’ Flying Blue Cut Is The Canary
The loudest signal came from AMEX, and it landed abroad but not that far from home. On July 1, 2026 the Membership Rewards to Flying Blue ratio in the Netherlands fell from 5:4 to 8:4 AMEX to Flying Blue points, a 38% devaluation, as Platinum Flyer detailed. The US ratio is still 1:1, so American cardholders were not touched this round, but for how long will Americans be able to avoid a diminished value? When a flagship program runs a 38% cut in its home market (for the KLM portion of Flying Blue), it is testing the experiment before deciding whether to widen it. I don’t expect the Netherlands to stay the exception.
Are More Coming
More of these changes have to be in the works. Airline and hotel partners keep renegotiating what they charge issuers for points, card economics are tightening as rewards costs climb, and the generous ratios that made transferable points keep climbing but have to end at some point. This site argued early that your miles are losing value faster than cash, and the same logic now reaches the bank points that I and others felt were mostly immune. Hilton did it to award rates without an announcement, so did American on awards to Asia, and the transfer ratios are the next lever.
What I tell clients has not changed, it has only gotten more urgent. Do not hoard. Earn for a redemption you can name, not for a someday balance a program can trim while you wait. If Hyatt is your reason for holding Chase, the Reserve now matters in a way it did not a year ago. And if you are sitting on a large flexible balance, the ratio in your account today is the best it is likely to be.
Conclusion
Transferable points are not worthless, and for the right redemption they still beat cash back by a wide margin. But the marketing line and my own commentary that they are a safe, flexible hedge against devaluation is aging badly. The value was never in the points, it was in the ratios, and the ratios are what Chase, Citi, Capital One, and Amex have all moved the same direction this year. Treat every large flexible balance as perishable, because the issuers have stopped pretending it is not.
What do you think?
Kyle, yes, generally, the devaluations keep coming, and it seems there’s little we can do, especially when these corporations control all aspects of their programs, and there are no regulations to protect consumers. Instead of hoarding points, the best we can do is churn and burn. Do that SUB, get those bonus points, find the arbitrage opportunity, then sock drawer until renewal, attempt retention, if no dice, then cut it up, etc. Rinse and repeat. Either that, or revert to no AF, 2% cash-back like Citi DoubleCash or Fidelity Rewards. The economy has been trash, and these companies are tightening their belts as well. It was fun while it lasted.
I think the Netherlands thing is a coincidence at best. How many cardholders exist in that small market that doesn’t even have wide acceptance of Amex cards, 50K? And yes, while it’s a “home market” for Flying Blue, the US certainly has more total Flying Blue members, and far more points transfers. The relationship between US and NL here couldn’t be more different.
What a load of complete clickbait BS. Letting ChatGPT do your writing for you again?
Nobody anywhere, ever, has claimed that transferable currencies were devaluation-proof. Anyone who would suggest that would be an idiot.
While flexible points programs remain the most valuable tool in award travel, the underlying ecosystem is unfortunately undergoing a noticeable wave of devaluations… It’s time to be hypervigilant and never transfer your points to an airline or hotel program until you see live award availability.
The year is 2032. Chase announces a new card with a 5 million UR bonus and 30x on 5 different spending categories. AmEx counters with a new Platinum card refresh that has a $4,000 annual fee, 240 different credits, and earns 22x on all purchases. Points can now be redeemed for a variable rate that adjusts hourly.
I think that while your advice to earn and burn is well intended it’s mostly wrong.
Who exactly would you suggest do a strict earn and burn? The occasional traveler doesn’t have enough currencies to have the luxury of deciding what miles to use at any given time. They’re just trying to muster what they can to make their proposed trip a reality. They need to gather those miles over extended time to make award travel for them a reality.
For experienced miles and points gatherers, what do you advise? Stop collecting? How will that work when your family of four needs to fly somewhere – hopefully in business class? How are we supposed to have those amounts readily available if we burn them every time we accumulate a few?
I don’t completely disagree with your premise but at an absolute minimum it’s extremely simplistic and the world is not a simple place. Maybe saying something more like “Don’t hoard miles and points because they will only devalue” would be better advice. JMTC.
While it is always the case that points devalue over time, so far, at least, I seem to always be able to find a saver award on some airline I can transfer to, to get me to where I want to go in international J around the dates I need. Certainly the airlines that I find those on seem to shift over time, and I have to be flexible about dates and connections. But for now, the system works for me.