Chase Ultimate Rewards has launched a couple of new transfer bonuses today. Not only is Chase offering a 50% bonus on transfers to Marriott Bonvoy, but there’s also a bonus on transfers to British Airways Executive Club. It’s nice to see this trend continue, as Chase has historically offered the fewest transfer bonuses of major transferable points currencies.
In this post:
Chase offering 30% bonus on Avios transfers
Between June 1 and July 31, 2022, Chase Ultimate Rewards is offering a 30% bonus when you transfer points to British Airways Executive Club.
This is the third time we’ve seen such a bonus, as it seems to be offered about once per year — we also saw this in 2020 and 2021.
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. In the past we’ve sometimes seen transfer bonuses from Amex to British Airways, but we haven’t seen a bonus yet from Capital One.
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 couple of months, you can get a 30% bonus when you convert your Chase Ultimate Rewards points into British Airways Executive Club Avios.
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?
I keep seeing posts about how you can use Avios to fly from U.S. west coast to Hawaii. I went to BritishAirways.com to check availability, and zero Hawaii airports are available there. Are those routes just completely unavailable right now? I'm trying to fly Phoenix (PHX) to anywhere in Hawaii.
Is this a one time transfer bonus or can I transfer a certain amount of points as many times as a I wish until July 31st?
I see varying comments with regards to extending the expiration of BA miles. I just transfered 1,000 UR points to BAEC Avios. Will this def. extend the expiration 3 more years? THX.
If I transfer UR points to authorized user BA account do they get the 30% bonus as well?
As noted, American Airlines saver award space is very limited. At one point in time flying non-stop to and from CLT was the best option for all things British Airlines Avios; but not so much today...
Over $800 in surcharges for a oneway TATL. Plus points. Just crazy.
Sure, you use Avios on partner airlines, or short-haul BA. Everyone knows that.
This will e great for me, planning to use BA to book JAL to Vietnam maybe this winter or next.
Same Q as Art. I can move to BA and then transfer to my existing Iberia Avios account for much better redemptions than at directly through BA?
@Ben - Since BA Avios & QR miles can now effectively be combined on linked accounts, can we use BA avios to book QR awards on the QR website? If so, that's 54k Chase UR points for a biz class award from N.America to Middle East in Qsuites.
This is correct. Best use of BA Avios now
Definitely not transferring. Too hard to find domestic saver award space on American, at least in my attempts.