Chase Ultimate Rewards has launched a few new transfer bonuses today, complementing the 50% transfer bonus to Marriott Bonvoy that’s currently available. It’s nice to see how Chase has become really competitive among the transferable points currencies when it comes to transfer bonuses.
In this post:
Chase offering 30% bonus on Avios transfers
Between August 28 and September 22, 2023, Chase Ultimate Rewards is offering a 30% bonus when you transfer points to British Airways Executive Club.
This is the fourth time we’ve seen such a bonus, as it seems to be offered about once per year — we also saw this in 2022, 2021, and 2020.
Not only is there a 30% transfer bonus to British Airways Executive Club, but the same bonus is available to Aer Lingus AerClub and Iberia Plus. That’s nice, though keep in mind that you can freely transfer Avios between the various “flavors.”
The bonus isn’t hard-coded into the transfer ratio, meaning that when you transfer Ultimate Rewards points you won’t see the bonus on the transfer page. Rather you’ll see the 30% bonus show up in your Executive Club account once the points transfer (which is typically instant).
This is especially awesome when you consider that there are Chase cards offering 1.5x points per dollar spent on everyday purchases, like the Chase Freedom Unlimited® (review) and Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card (review). So getting a 30% bonus means you’re looking at earning 1.95 Avios on non-bonused spending.
Then you have cards like the Ink Business Cash® Credit Card (review), which offer up to 5x points, or cards like the Chase Sapphire Reserve® Card (review) or Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card (review), which offer up to 3x points.
British Airways Executive Club is also transfer partners with Amex Membership Rewards and Capital One. We do sometimes see transfer bonuses from those currencies to British Airways Executive Club as well.
Redeeming British Airways Avios
British Airways has a roughly distance based award chart. The cost of an award is based on the distance of each individual segment you fly. Here’s the award chart for travel on British Airways, Iberia, and Aer Lingus:
Zone // Distance | Economy Off Peak // Peak | Premium Economy Off Peak // Peak | Business Off Peak // Peak | First Off Peak // Peak |
---|---|---|---|---|
Zone 1 1-650 miles* *Not available in North America | 4,000 // 4,500 | 5.750 // 6,750 | 7,750 // 9,000 | 15,500 // 18,000 |
Zone 2 651-1150 miles | 6,500 // 7,500 | 9,500 // 11,250 | 12,750 // 15,000 | 25,500 // 30,000 |
Zone 3 1151-2000 miles | 8,500 // 10,000 | 12,750 // 15,000 | 17,000 // 20,000 | 34,000 // 40,000 |
Zone 4 2001-3000 miles | 10,000 // 12,500 | 20,000 // 25,000 | 31,250 // 37,500 | 42,500 // 50,000 |
Zone 5 3001-4000 miles | 13,000 // 20,000 | 26,000 // 40,000 | 50,000 // 60,000 | 68,000 // 80,000 |
Zone 6 4001-5500 miles | 16,250 // 25,000 | 32,500 // 50,000 | 62,500 // 75,000 | 85,000 // 100,000 |
Zone 7 5501-6500 miles | 19,500 // 30,000 | 39,000 // 60,000 | 75,000 // 90,000 | 102,000 // 120,000 |
Zone 8 6501-7000 miles | 22,750 // 35,000 | 45,500 // 75,000 | 87,500 // 105,000 | 119,000 // 140,000 |
Zone 9 7001+ miles | 32,500 // 50,000 | 65,000 // 100,000 | 125,000 // 150,000 | 170,000 // 200,000 |
Then here’s British Airways’ award chart for travel on partner airlines, excluding Aer Lingus and Iberia:
Zone // Flight Distance | Economy | Premium Economy | Business | First |
---|---|---|---|---|
Zone 1 1-650 miles* *Not available in North America | 6,000 | 9,000 | 12,500 | 24,000 |
Zone 2 651-1150 miles | 9,000 | 12,500 | 16,500 | 33,000 |
Zone 3 1151-2000 miles | 11,000 | 16,500 | 22,000 | 44,000 |
Zone 4 2001-3000 miles | 13,000 | 25,750 | 38,750 | 51,500 |
Zone 5 3001-4000 miles | 20,2750 | 41,250 | 62,000 | 82,500 |
Zone 6 4001-5500 miles | 25,750 | 51,500 | 77,250 | 103,000 |
Zone 7 5501-6500 miles | 31,000 | 62,000 | 92,750 | 123,750 |
Zone 8 6501-7000 miles | 36,250 | 72,250 | 108,250 | 144,250 |
Zone 9 7001+ miles | 51,500 | 103,000 | 154,500 | 206,000 |
The basic things to be aware of include the following:
- For the British Airways award chart, peak and off-peak pricing varies based on the day you’re flying
- Pricing is per segment, so no matter what type of award you book, you’ll pay individually for each segment
- Travel on British Airways and many partner airlines is subjected to carrier imposed surcharges, which is the frustration that many people have with the program
- In some cases flights don’t follow the above chart, as British Airways Executive Club has a tendency to devalue the program without notice
Here’s a post I wrote sharing some great ways to redeem British Airways Avios without paying big carrier-imposed surcharges.
Bottom line
For the next several weeks, you can get a 30% bonus when you convert your Chase Ultimate Rewards points into British Airways Executive Club Avios. The same bonus is also available to Aer Lingus AerClub and Iberia Plus.
Ultimately Avios aren’t the most valuable points currency out there, but this is still worth considering. It could be worth transferring some points so you have a reserve of Avios, though I also wouldn’t go overboard. After all, there’s lots of value to the flexibility offered by Ultimate Rewards points.
Do you plan on taking advantage of this transfer bonus from Chase Ultimate Rewards to British Airways Avios?
Keith’s Spouse,
Regarding a 30% bonus for transferring UR miles to Chase Avios, I called Chase (Sapphire Preferred), then British Airways Executive Club and finally Chase (British Airways - Avios). No one knew anything about a bonus. Chase (Avios) informed me that they would have emailed if there was such a bonus.
Did you get it resolved? It happened to me as well that I transferred from Chase Sapphire to BA Avios with an expectation of 30% bonus and none of bonus points posted. I called Chase twice and both agents told me the 30% bonus is awarded by BA. When I called BA both agents told me it's a bonus from Chase and they have no information about the promo in their BA office/call center. I...
Did you get it resolved? It happened to me as well that I transferred from Chase Sapphire to BA Avios with an expectation of 30% bonus and none of bonus points posted. I called Chase twice and both agents told me the 30% bonus is awarded by BA. When I called BA both agents told me it's a bonus from Chase and they have no information about the promo in their BA office/call center. I called Chase back again and they said they would talk to their marketing department. How long will it take??? I don't know. Is there anyone at Chase Sapphire specifically I need to speak with regarding this?
I am having this same issue right now. Did yours get resolved?
Unless you have the flexibility to plan your travel around a great redemption you've already found (which is not common these days) and will use your points right away, please don't transfer your valuable UR points to any frequent flyer program. If you have the Reserve card, you can book flights on any carrier for any date that fits into YOUR schedule on Chase's travel portal, and get $0.015 per point value plus loyalty &...
Unless you have the flexibility to plan your travel around a great redemption you've already found (which is not common these days) and will use your points right away, please don't transfer your valuable UR points to any frequent flyer program. If you have the Reserve card, you can book flights on any carrier for any date that fits into YOUR schedule on Chase's travel portal, and get $0.015 per point value plus loyalty & miles points from that airline. Speculatively transferring points into one of these programs have often netted me $0.01 per point or worse valuation in the end because I usually don't have the flexibility to plan my trips entirely around the very few great redemption opportunities that occasionally pop up. I suspect many other working folks also don't have such flexibility.
I adamantly disagree with this comment. Sure, if you are dead-set on finding AMAZING first class international deals, you're going to run into a bit of difficulty with flexibility. But it is extremely easy to get far more valuable out of points transfers than redeeming via CC portals. Gosh, a simple Virgin Atlantic premium economy points purchase (easy to find availability) meets this criteria, as do simple short-haul domestic economy flights on most airlines.
If...
I adamantly disagree with this comment. Sure, if you are dead-set on finding AMAZING first class international deals, you're going to run into a bit of difficulty with flexibility. But it is extremely easy to get far more valuable out of points transfers than redeeming via CC portals. Gosh, a simple Virgin Atlantic premium economy points purchase (easy to find availability) meets this criteria, as do simple short-haul domestic economy flights on most airlines.
If it doubt, just do the simple points calculation and, if favorable, make the transfer. Easy. With the exception of certain rare events (including last minute bookings on airlines that don't open up more availability close to departure), using CC portals is a rip-off. And yes that includes the "better" CSR redemption rate.
Curious. My spouse called up Chase. The agent checked online and found the announcement, but he reported that the system is only transferring points at 1 to 1. Am I missing something?
They do transfer at 1:1. The bonus is awarded in the travel partner account. Ie 40,000 UR points would be 52,000 avios.
Quite a coincidence that Qatar basically zero out saver award availability during 30% avios bonus promo. Half of me want to do specualtive transfer but probably wiser to NOT transfer if there is no saver space. I might be little pessimistic but i smell devaluation following this promo.