Boosting Your Travel Rewards “Portfolio” With Transfer Bonuses
The right offer at the right time can get you closer to your next flight
As I have mentioned before, I am a huge fan of flexible points such as Chase Ultimate Rewards points or American Express Membership Rewards points. While they can be used like money to pay down your credit card balances or turned into gift cards, the real value comes from transferring these points into the points or miles of airline (and sometimes hotel) partners.
Typical transfer ratios are 1:1 and do not change much over time. However, there are occasional transfer bonus offers that pop up as incentives to transfer your flexible points to specific airlines or hotel chains. These offers tend to appear without warning and might last up to a few months but can be short-lived. Although the extent and timing of these bonuses vary and are unpredictable, there are a few commonalities.
- For airlines, transfer bonuses for domestic (US) airlines are very rare. Bonuses tend to be for non-US carriers.
- There are transfer bonuses for hotel chains, but these transfers should be made with great care.
- Before taking advantage of a transfer bonus, you should have a specific plan in mind for the points.
An overview of recent transfer bonus offers for the major flexible point “currencies” follows. The order of offers shown for each currency does not imply any preference or ranking. However, the bolded airlines and hotel chains are the ones that tend to offer transfer bonuses more frequently (1-2 times per year) while the non-bolded ones offer bonuses less frequently.
American Express Membership Rewards (MR)
- Virgin Atlantic – 30% transfer bonus
- Flying Blue (Air France + KLM) – 25%
- British Airways – 25-30%
- Avianca LifeMiles – 10-15%
- Hawaiian – 20%
- Marriott – 20%
- Hilton Honors – 30-50%
- Cathay Pacific – 10-20%
- Singapore Airlines – 20%
- Qatar – 10%
- JetBlue -25%
- Qantas – 20%
- Iberia – 30%
- Aer Lingus -25%
- Aeromexico – 20%
- Air Canada – 20%
- Choice Hotels – 25%
Chase Ultimate Rewards (UR)
- Virgin Atlantic – 30%
- Flying Blue (Air France + KLM) – 25%
- Marriott – 40-50%
- Air Canada – 20-30%
- British Airways – 30%
- Iberia – 30%
- Aer Lingus – 30%
- IHG Hotels – 70%
Citi Thank You Points
- Qatar – 25-30%
- Virgin Atlantic – 30%
- Avianca LifeMiles – 20-25%
- Flying Blue (Air France + KLM) – 25%
- Wyndam Hotels – 20%
- Cathay Pacific – 10%
- Accor Hotels – 50%
Capital One points
- Avianca LifeMiles – 10-15%
- Virgin Atlantic – 30%
- Flying Blue (Air France + KLM) – 20%
- TAP Portugal – 15%
- Etihad – 30%
- British Airways – 20%
- Cathay Pacific – 10%
- Accor Hotels – 20%
Transfer Bonuses for airlines
As you can see, the airline transfer bonus offers tend to be for non-US carriers. Although there are occasional bonus offers for JetBlue and Hawaiian, I do not know of transfer bonuses ever being offered for the major carriers (American, United, Delta, Southwest).
However, you are in luck if you are interested in flying with Virgin, Air France, KLM, or Avianca. These airlines not only offer bonuses with some frequency, but also offer transfer bonuses for the flexible points of multiple credit card issuers.
Transfer Bonuses for Hotel Chains
Marriott and Hilton are the hotel chains that are most likely to offer transfer bonuses. However, transfers to these chains, and to IHG for that matter, are rarely a good deal. The points for these chains tend to be worth about one-half cent each while airline miles can often be redeemed for two cents each or more. Even as cash, the flexible points are worth one cent. Transferring flexible points to most hotel points would be like trading dollars for pesos at a 1:1 ratio. Even with the transfer bonuses (including the 70% bonus that IHG once offered)
it is rarely a good use of your flexible points.
One exception might be if you need a small number of hotel points (say 1,000 or 2,000) to “top off” your account and give you enough points for a specific redemption (ex: a free room that you would otherwise pay for with cash). Another exception might be if you participate in the Accor loyalty program and anticipate using their points within a year (as their points might be worth about two cents each).
Have a Specific Reason for the Transfer if Taking Advantage of a Bonus Offer
Transfer bonuses are nice but, even if you are getting free points, you should only take them when you have a specific use for them in mind and plan to use them within a year or so. Once you turn your hard-earned flexible points into airline miles (or hotel points) it is difficult to use them for anything other than that specific loyalty program.
To provide a personal example, Ms. Optimizer and I have a small stash of Citi Thank You points and we tend to look to the Flying Blue program (Air France + KLM) for award flights to Europe. There are no other Citi points transfer partners that are currently of interest to us so, with or without the bonus, those Citi points will ultimately go to Flying Blue. Should a transfer bonus opportunity appear, we will take it even without immediate plans to use the points since there is a high likelihood they will be redeemed within a year. As a backup, Flying Blue miles can sometimes be used for travel within the US (on Delta flights). So, while we would be locked into Flying Blue points, there is a low probability that this would be a poor or wasted transfer.
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To summarize, transfer bonuses are occasionally offered, and they can be a worthwhile opportunity if they fit into your travel goals. However, it is rarely a good idea to take advantage of these offers speculatively because, once the transfer is made, you lose flexibility. Furthermore, offers from hotel chains for bonus transfers only make sense in very specific situations.
Because these transfer bonuses are offered sporadically, we do not incorporate them into the Travel Rewards Optimizer plans we create for clients. It is impossible to predict when (and if) they will appear and we want TRO plans to generate a predictable flow of free or reduced cost travel for you.
One benefit of being a Travel Rewards Optimizer client is, if we are aware that you collect specific types of points, we can alert you when relevant transfer bonus offers appear so that you can take advantage of these opportunities.
We are ready to help you turn your routine credit card spending into the travel of your dreams.
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E-mail: frank@travelrewardsoptimizer.com
DISCLAIMER: I am not an investment advisor, financial planner, tax professional or legal professional. The projections provided in my plans are based on good faith estimates and client supplied information. I can not guarantee that credit card issuers will approve the applications of my clients. Credit card offers, loyalty program policies, and bank policies are subject to change over time.