The best way to maximize your credit card rewards for travel is to earn transferable points currencies. However, the value propositions and specifics of the currencies are constantly changing. Every so often I like to take a big-picture look at the state of transferable points currencies.
In this post I wanted to share my general thoughts on the four major transferable points currencies — Amex Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi ThankYou, and Capital One. This includes sharing what I like, what I don’t like, and how I generally redeem each of these points currencies.
Let me start by mentioning that all four programs have a bit of overlap, so often the differences are nuanced. For example:
- All four programs partner with Air France-KLM Flying Blue, Emirates Skywards, and Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
- Three programs partner with Air Canada Aeroplan, Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, and Etihad Guest
We’re seeing more and more overlapping transfer partners, and that’s both a blessing and a curse — it’s bad because the programs have few unique transfer partners nowadays, but it’s good because it means you can pool points from different transferable points currencies toward the same redemption.
With that out of the way, let me share how I’m feeling about these programs.
In this post:
American Express Membership Rewards
Here are the 20 Amex Membership Rewards transfer partners, including 17 airline partners and three hotel partners:
Airline Partners | Hotel Partners |
|---|---|
Aer Lingus AerClub | Choice Privileges |
Aeromexico Club Premier | Hilton Honors |
Air Canada Aeroplan | Marriott Bonvoy |
Air France-KLM Flying Blue | |
ANA Mileage Club | |
Avianca LifeMiles | |
British Airways Executive Club | |
Cathay Pacific Asia Miles | |
Delta SkyMiles | |
Emirates Skywards | |
Etihad Guest | |
Hawaiian Airlines HawaiianMiles | |
Iberia Plus | |
JetBlue TrueBlue | |
Qantas Frequent Flyer | |
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer | |
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club |
Things I love about Amex points
- Amex Membership Rewards continues to have the most transfer partners of these four programs
- Amex offers transfer bonuses the most often of the four programs, which can really help you maximize the value of your points
Things I don’t love about Amex points
- Amex is the only one of these programs that passes on a federal excise tax when transferring points to a US-based frequent flyer program; this isn’t a huge deal, but it’s something that other programs don’t pass on
- Amex only lets you transfer points to a partner loyalty account in the name of the primary cardmember or authorized user (and the authorized user needs to be on your account for at least 90 days); you can’t gift points to others, including a spouse or household member
Where I’m seeing value transferring Amex points
- All Nippon Airways Mileage Club is a unique transfer partner that has some incredibly low redemption rates; the catch is that transfers sometimes aren’t instant, you can’t book one-way awards, and the process of booking can be cumbersome
- Air Canada Aeroplan is a valuable transfer partner, especially for award tickets on partner airlines with stopovers, and this used to be exclusive to Amex; however, now Aeroplan is also partners with Capital One and Chase, so that’s no longer a competitive advantage
- Air France-KLM Flying Blue can be useful, given business class transatlantic award pricing and availability
- British Airways Executive Club is valuable for short haul awards, especially when there are transfer bonuses
- Etihad Guest has some great niche redemptions
- Singapore KrisFlyer continues to be a great program for premium cabin redemptions on Singapore Airlines, and all four programs partner with the program
- Virgin Atlantic Flying Club has some phenomenal niche redemptions, especially in conjunction with a transfer bonus
Where I’m seeing less value transferring Amex points
- Delta SkyMiles was a valuable program back in the day, but nowadays is almost useless for transfers
Best cards for earning Amex points
American Express has lots of great cards, though I’d say the best for earning Membership Rewards points include the following:
- American Express® Gold Card (review), which offers 4x points at restaurants, 4x points at U.S. supermarkets (up to $25,000 per calendar year), 3x points on flights booked directly with airlines, and 1x points everywhere else
- Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express (review), which offers 2x points on the first $50,000 spent every calendar year (1x after that)
Chase Ultimate Rewards
Here are the 14 Chase Ultimate Rewards transfer partners, including 11 airline partners and three hotel partners:
Airline Partners | Hotel Partners |
|---|---|
Aer Lingus AerClub | IHG One Rewards |
Air Canada Aeroplan | Marriott Bonvoy |
Air France-KLM Flying Blue | World of Hyatt |
British Airways Executive Club | |
Emirates Skywards | |
Iberia Plus | |
JetBlue TrueBlue | |
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer | |
Southwest Rapid Rewards | |
United MileagePlus | |
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club |
Things I love about Chase points
- Chase Ultimate Rewards has the only useful hotel transfer partner of any of the transferable points currencies (that’s to say that transferring points to World of Hyatt is actually a good deal, unlike any of the other hotel transfer options out there)
- Chase doesn’t charge fees for transferring points to any partners
- Chase lets you transfer points to a member of your household, even if they’re not an authorized user on any of your cards
- Chase lets you redeem Ultimate Rewards points at an efficient ratio toward a travel purchase (if you have the Sapphire Reserve, points can be redeemed for 1.5 cents each toward the cost of a travel purchase through the Chase Travel Portal)
Things I don’t love about Chase points
- Unlike American Express, Capital One, and Citi, Chase historically hasn’t had many transfer bonuses, though this is something that has improved in the past couple of years, as we’ve started to see bonuses
- Chase doesn’t have as many transfer partners as some of the other programs; for example, Chase has 11 airline partners, but three of them overlap (Aer Lingus, British Airways, and Iberia), so really I only view Chase as having nine airline partners
Where I’m seeing value transferring Chase points
- World of Hyatt is probably where I see the most value; World of Hyatt is a lucrative program, and having easy access to points that you can redeem for Hyatt stays is fantastic
- Singapore KrisFlyer continues to be a great program for premium cabin redemptions on Singapore Airlines, and all programs partner with KrisFlyer
- I’m excited that Air Canada Aeroplan was added as an Ultimate Rewards transfer partner, and there’s even the newly launched Aeroplan® Credit Card (review)
Where I’m seeing less value transferring Chase points
- Given the 1:1 transfer ratio, IHG One Rewards and Marriott Bonvoy aren’t valuable transfer partners since their points aren’t worth as much
- Chase lost Korean Air SkyPass as a transfer partner in 2018, and this was a huge loss, because in my opinion SkyPass was the single most valuable transfer partner that Chase had
- United MileagePlus has been devalued in recent years that there aren’t many circumstances where it makes sense to transfer Ultimate Rewards points to MileagePlus
Best cards for earning Chase points
Chase has lots of great cards, though I’d say the best for earning Ultimate Rewards points include the following:
- Chase Sapphire Reserve® Card (review), which offers 3x points on dining and travel
- Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (review), which offers 3x points on dining, online groceries, and select streaming services, and 2x points on travel
- Chase Freedom FlexSM (review), which offers 5x points in rotating quarterly categories, on up to $1,500 of spending per quarter, plus 3x points on drugstores and dining
- Chase Freedom Unlimited® (review), which offers 3x points on drugstores and dining, plus 1.5x points on everyday spending
- Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card (review), which offers 3x points on the first $150,000 spent every anniversary year on travel, shipping purchases, internet, cable, and phone services, and advertising purchases made with select social media sites and search engines
- Ink Business Cash® Credit Card (review), which offers 5x points on the first $25,000 spent in combined purchases each anniversary year on cellular phone, landline, internet and cable TV services, plus 2x points on the first $25,000 spent in combined purchases each anniversary year on gas stations and restaurants
- Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card (review), which offers 1.5x points on everyday spending
Citi ThankYou Rewards
Here are the 16 Citi ThankYou transfer partners, including 14 airline partners and two hotel partners:
Airline Partners | Hotel Partners |
|---|---|
Aeromexico Club Premier | Accor Live Limitless |
Air France-KLM Flying Blue | Choice Hotels |
Avianca LifeMiles | Wyndham Rewards |
Cathay Pacific Asia Miles | |
Emirates Skywards | |
Etihad Guest | |
EVA Air Infinity MileageLands | |
JetBlue TrueBlue | |
Qantas Frequent Flyer | |
Qatar Airways Privilege Club | |
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer | |
Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus | |
Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles | |
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club |
Things I love about Citi points
- Citi has added several transfer partners in recent years
- Citi doesn’t charge fees for transferring points to any partner programs
- Citi lets you transfer up to 100,000 points per year to any ThankYou member; it doesn’t even have to a member of your household
- Citi offers transfer bonuses with some frequency, which can really help you maximize the value of your points
Things I don’t love about Citi points
- When you transfer Citi points to others or to a different card, the points have a hard expiration date of 60-90 days, which is extremely frustrating if you close down a card
Where I’m seeing value transferring Citi points
- Air France-KLM Flying Blue can be useful, and I ideally like to transfer points with a transfer bonus
- Avianca LifeMiles is a program that offers great value for redeeming on Star Alliance carriers; while LifeMiles doesn’t always have access to all Star Alliance award space, more often than not I find a lot of value with this program
- Turkish Miles&Smiles is an underrated program in terms of redemption value, both for domestic redemptions on United, and for transatlantic redemptions on Turkish; the catch is that the process of booking through Turkish can be a pain
- While Cathay Pacific Asia Miles is far from my favorite program, it is the best value program for booking long haul Cathay Pacific first class awards of any of the partners of the four transfer programs
- Etihad Guest has some great niche redemptions, and we’ve seen some transfer bonuses in the past
- Qantas Frequent Flyer is a surprisingly useful program, especially for redemptions on some non-alliance airlines; for example, one of the best ways to book EL AL awards is through Qantas, and the program also partners with some airlines that really interest me, like Air Niugini
- Virgin Atlantic Flying Club has some phenomenal niche redemptions, especially in conjunction with a transfer bonus
Where I’m seeing less value transferring Citi points
- A lot of Citi’s partners programs are those belonging to great airlines, but where the award redemption value is limited, like EVA Air Infinity MileageLands, Qatar Privilege Club, and more
Best cards for earning Citi points
Citi has lots of great cards, though I’d say the best for earning ThankYou points include the following:
- Citi Premier® Card (review), which is incredibly well rounded and offers 3x points on gas, groceries, dining, air travel, and hotels
- Citi Prestige Card (review), which offers 5x points on dining and air travel, and 3x points on hotels and cruises
- Citi Rewards+® Card (review), which offers 2x points on gas and groceries on the first $6,000 per year, and then 1x points
- Citi Custom Cash℠ Card (review), which offers 5x points in your top eligible spending category, on up to $500 spent each billing cycle
- Citi® Double Cash Card (review), which offers 1x points when you make a purchase and 1x points when you pay for that purchase; this is one of the best cards for everyday spending
Capital One
Here are the 18 Capital One transfer partners, including 15 airline partners and three hotel partners:
Airline Partners | Hotel Partners |
|---|---|
Aeromexico Club Premier | Accor Live Limitless (ALL) |
Air Canada Aeroplan | Choice Privileges |
Air France-KLM Flying Blue | Wyndham Rewards |
Avianca LifeMiles | |
British Airways Executive Club | |
Cathay Pacific Asia Miles | |
Emirates Skywards | |
Etihad Guest | |
EVA Air Infinity MileageLands | |
Finnair Plus | |
Qantas Frequent Flyer | |
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer | |
TAP Air Portugal Miles&Go | |
Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles | |
Virgin Red (parent of Virgin Atlantic) |
Things I love about Capital One miles
- While perhaps minor, Capital One miles post to your account as soon as your purchase posts, rather than when the statement closes (or when the second statement closes)
- Capital One doesn’t charge fees for transferring points to any partner programs
- Capital One lets you transfer your Spark or Venture miles to any other cardmember with the same card, making these points easily transferrable
- Capital One has massively improved the value proposition of its mileage transfer program, both by adding new partners, and by improving the transfer ratio, with a vast majority of partners now offering 1:1 transfers
Things I don’t love about Capital One miles
- Capital One’s transfer program lacks unique partners; all of Capital One’s valuable partners are ones that at least one other program has as well
- While Capital One’s cards are great for everyday spending, I wish Capital One had more cards that offered bonus points in certain spending categories
Where I’m seeing value transferring Capital One miles
- Capital One is awesome for transfers to programs like Air Canada Aeroplan, Air France-KLM Flying Blue, Avianca LifeMiles, Emirates Skywards, Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer, and more
Where I’m seeing less value transferring Capital One miles
- I used to think that redeeming Capital One miles for one cent each toward the cost of a travel purchase was a good value, but with mileage transfers now being 1:1 to a vast majority of programs, I have a strong preference for converting Capital One miles into airline miles
Best cards for earning Capital One miles
Capital One has several good cards, though I’d say the best for earning Capital One miles include the following:
- Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card (review), which earns 2x Venture miles per dollar spent
- Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card (review), which earns 2x Venture miles per dollar spent
- Capital One Spark Miles for Business (review), which earns 2x Spark miles per dollar spent
- Capital One SavorOne Cash Rewards Credit Card (review), which earns 3% cashback on dining, grocery stores, and entertainment; in conjunction with a card earning Venture or Spark miles, those rewards can be converted into Capital One miles at a rate of one point per cent
- Capital One Spark Cash Plus (review), which earns 2% cashback on all purchases; in conjunction with a card earning Venture or Spark miles, those rewards can be converted into Capital One miles at a rate of one point per cent
How much are transferable points worth?
The above is my take on the pros and cons of transferable points, but how much is each point actually worth? People often disagree about which transferable points currency is most valuable, and that makes sense, given that we all have different redemption goals.
For example, if you’re a Hyatt loyalist then you’ll no doubt value Chase Ultimate Rewards points a lot, since you can transfer points 1:1.
How much do I value transferable points? At this point I value all four of them at 1.7 cents each. If I had to prioritize Amex, Chase, Citi, and Capital One points, based on my personal redemption patterns, how would I do so? The truth is that my prioritization of these currencies depends on several factors. I always try to earn as many points per dollar as possible, but what’s the tiebreaker?
- I look at which points currency I have the lowest balance of, so I can rebuild that
- I look at at what my future travel plans are, and which currency would come most in handy based on their unique transfer partners, history of offering transfer bonuses, etc.
My general thoughts are as follows:
- Chase points put me most at ease, because I can redeem them for 1.5 cents each toward expenses; I love that World of Hyatt is a transfer partner, since that’s a unique partner that can be incredibly valuable, and I can never have enough Hyatt points
- I’d say my second favorite currency is Amex points, thanks to the variety of partners, and the number of transfer bonuses we see
Am I overvaluing transferable points?
Historically I’ve thought that I’ve taken a conservative approach to valuing points. Others value transferable points at two or more cents each, and personally I think that’s aggressive. At the same time, I haven’t lowered my valuation of transferable points in years, and I’m wondering if it’s time?
On the one hand, I feel pretty comfortable with my valuations. While some points currencies have been devalued, we also see quite a few transfer bonuses, which make up for many of those devaluations.
At the same time, we’re now at a point where you can earn 2x transferable points per dollar spent with cards like the Capital One Venture X Card, Citi Double Cash Card, Amex Blue Business Plus Card, so it does make me wonder if suggesting you’re getting a 3.4% return isn’t steep.
I guess it depends if you look at points valuation from the perspective of acquisition cost, or from the perspective of realistic redemption value. I’d certainly welcome some opinions on this!
Bottom line
If you’re trying to maximize the points you earn through credit card spending, I highly recommend accruing transferable points currencies. In addition to these cards often having great bonus categories, having transferable points gives you a lot of flexibility with how you redeem points, as the points hold their value extremely well.
How do you view the relative value of the four transferable points currencies?
"Capital One’s transfer program lacks unique partners; all of Capital One’s valuable partners are ones that at least one other program has as well"
*cough*Accor*cough*
This doesn't feel like a problem to me though, it's an actual benefit if, like a lot of us, you occupy space in more than one credit card ecosystem.
For instance, if you're an "AMEX and..." like a lot of us who go outside the US and regularly encounter "whoops,...
"Capital One’s transfer program lacks unique partners; all of Capital One’s valuable partners are ones that at least one other program has as well"
*cough*Accor*cough*
This doesn't feel like a problem to me though, it's an actual benefit if, like a lot of us, you occupy space in more than one credit card ecosystem.
For instance, if you're an "AMEX and..." like a lot of us who go outside the US and regularly encounter "whoops, no AMEX acceptance", Capital One is a very good option because all their cards are no international fee (a real problem for Chase Freedom/Citi Double Cash).
So having a Capital One points balance that easily works with a bunch of AMEX transfer options doesn't seem like a bad thing at all...
While not as good as they used to be, Chase is the winner for me because:
- I'm a United frequent flyer, and semi-hub captive
- I'm in a household and wish to easily pool points
- I like having an easily used strong baseline value for my points (1.5 cents per point)
- I dine out a lot, so it's effectively $250 for Sapphire Reserve and $0 for Freedom Unlimited, which...
While not as good as they used to be, Chase is the winner for me because:
- I'm a United frequent flyer, and semi-hub captive
- I'm in a household and wish to easily pool points
- I like having an easily used strong baseline value for my points (1.5 cents per point)
- I dine out a lot, so it's effectively $250 for Sapphire Reserve and $0 for Freedom Unlimited, which I consider to be a reasonable and not-too-complicated maximum earning setup that yields an easy minimum of 2.25%-4.5% towards travel before looking for better value with transfers
- The Chase travel booking portal, while indeed awful, is less awful than American Express or Citi's (haven't used Capital One)
And I'm not even a Hyatt person (I'm a hotel free agent, there being so many wonderful independent hotels in the world), but the above reasons are enough.
As for the United transfer value proposition, for some of us, it's huge. While UA miles sure ain't what they used to be before 2019, there are still plenty of cases where there are saver level economy tickets, especially at the last minute, that are much better values than their cash prices. It's less often true with business/first class, but, for example, right now you can fly 90K nonstop on UA metal from CDG to EWR all over May/June, which ain't incredible, but it's certainly acceptable (especially compared to, say, 221K on Air France).
And, with UA award tickets now counting towards Premier status in 2023, the miles are considerably more valuable to me than they were before. And, as noted by others, the fact that "discounted Standard is the new Saver" means you need United miles for United metal (e.g. domestic travel). So, having Chase points certainly helps with all that.
I also need to fly domestic transcon all the time and the Polaris seats (which there are a ton of) are second only to JetBlue suites (which there are hardly any of), and if you're flexible on time of day you can usually find United Business for 60K miles on most days, or even fewer Chase points if the cash price is low enough.
As with so many things, it all depends on what your use cases are. If you're a solo traveler primarily interested in flexible date international travel to anywhere with or without stops and most of your spending is on groceries, then an Amex Gold + Blue Business Plus combo is probably gonna work out better for you. If you hate having to think about multiple cards or have distaste for spending more than $100 in annual fees, then Venture or Venture X might be your jam. I'm sure there's some use case for Citi but I find their whole travel site logic so incomprehensible that I don't know what it is.
Anyway, thanks for the article, I think all the systems have their pros and cons but the Chase pros are strongest, for me. And then Amex comes next. Just as Ben concluded.
While not to the level of DCS, I don't fully understand the dislike of UA Mileageplus. Despite being in Denver, I'm pretty agnostic as to what programs I use and I consistently get value out of United's program. This year alone I redeemed for AC and TK business class at good rates (in the 60k range). It's one of the main reasons I'm keeping my Chase UR cards to have access to a pool of...
While not to the level of DCS, I don't fully understand the dislike of UA Mileageplus. Despite being in Denver, I'm pretty agnostic as to what programs I use and I consistently get value out of United's program. This year alone I redeemed for AC and TK business class at good rates (in the 60k range). It's one of the main reasons I'm keeping my Chase UR cards to have access to a pool of miles for United. Amex is my most preferred currency, but Chase isn't that far behind. I'm still new to C1 and haven't had any redemptions yet to have a good feel for how I'll use them.
EVA Air can be useful if you taking their flights frequently. They were knew to reserved most of award seats to their own member (just like Singapore Airline does)
I have sizeable balances in all these transferable credit card programs (plus that of Marriott Bonvoy). If two credit cards offer the same number of points/$ for a purchase, I tend to use either my AmEx or Chase card. For me, the value of a AmEx MR point slightly exceeds that of Chase UR, primarily because its transferability to ANA (the only other program whose points are transferable to ANA is Marriott Bonvoy). Chase UR...
I have sizeable balances in all these transferable credit card programs (plus that of Marriott Bonvoy). If two credit cards offer the same number of points/$ for a purchase, I tend to use either my AmEx or Chase card. For me, the value of a AmEx MR point slightly exceeds that of Chase UR, primarily because its transferability to ANA (the only other program whose points are transferable to ANA is Marriott Bonvoy). Chase UR is a very close second, primarily because of transferability to Hyatt (I don't find UA transferability that valuable at the moment because of its often ridiculous award pricing these days -- often worse than Delta).
Cahn't make this stuff up!
What is the reference point to that claim? More to bluntly, when was the last time the person making claim flew United, paid or on points? The fact is that this blogger was kicked out of MileagePlus and for may years was not even allowed to...
Cahn't make this stuff up!
What is the reference point to that claim? More to bluntly, when was the last time the person making claim flew United, paid or on points? The fact is that this blogger was kicked out of MileagePlus and for may years was not even allowed to fly with the airline. Where does his evidence that utterly ridiculous claim come from, considering the status of the other two of the US Big 3 FF programs?
Free advice: Take everything that you read here or elsewhere with a huge grain of salt because the purported "analyses" almost invariably reflect the writer's bias, in this case, someone with a chip on his shoulder for having been banned by the airline.
I am leaving UA MileagePlus for SQ Krisflyer at the end of this year after patronizing the former for over 2 decades, not because of deficiencies with M+, but because of the increased cost of making top elite in the program. IMHO, MileagePlus stands head and shoulder above the other two US Big Three programs.
BTW, you transfer UR points to UA not to fly on UA metal, but to book award flights on any of 26 *A carriers -- the most among the 3 major alliances.
See? It is not that complicated.
G'day!
"Unlike American Express, Capital One, and Citi, Chase historically hasn’t had many transfer bonuses, though this is something that has improved in the past couple of years, as we’ve started to see bonuses"
How about that recent 30% UR transfer bonus to Aeroplan. Excellent promotion and use of Chase UR points.
I'm always surprised at what little value bloggers place in EVA miles. While the destination options outside of Asia are limited, they remain a decent value (75,000 miles each way) and often have availability if you are flying USA to Asia.
Yeah, Lucky seems to knock it a lot, even though Gary at VFTW seems to "get it".
While the theoretical valuation might hold up, I feel like the general value of miles has gone down since it got tough to get interesting redemptions. First class awards are very restricted nowadays and business-class fares have gone down a lot.
Being based in Europe, it is normal to see Biz to far destinations for sub-2000€ (inkl Hawaii, South America, Oceania). With high fuel surcharges and almost no availability for awards, I rather take...
While the theoretical valuation might hold up, I feel like the general value of miles has gone down since it got tough to get interesting redemptions. First class awards are very restricted nowadays and business-class fares have gone down a lot.
Being based in Europe, it is normal to see Biz to far destinations for sub-2000€ (inkl Hawaii, South America, Oceania). With high fuel surcharges and almost no availability for awards, I rather take a positioning flight and take a good biz (or even first) deal from neighboring countries and earn status miles.
This is clickbait for @DCS
No, actually I agree with most everything in this post. Points valuations and utility are subjective at best, and a lot of good "points" were made here.
In no way will I spend hours writing a massive reply in the comments section of a blog and then obsessively track anyone who disagrees and call them stupid.
Come on, I have a life. What kind of loser do you take me for?
The preceding is not a comment I would write and it is not mine.
People who appropriate other commenters handles and post pretending to be those commenters are unethical and shameless and must banned forever from any and all discussion boards with extreme prejudice.
And it worked!
Lucky,
I know we never recommend transferring UR to Marriott. I recently transferred 73,000 UR to Marriott under their 40% bonus. Why? I wanted to book a Marriott hotel in Hawaii for 5 nights and needed about 104K in points. Worth it? Cash rates are $1,500 per night, and I technically got two more nights out of redemption. Other option was spending $938 to buy 100K points under the current Marriott points purchase promotion,...
Lucky,
I know we never recommend transferring UR to Marriott. I recently transferred 73,000 UR to Marriott under their 40% bonus. Why? I wanted to book a Marriott hotel in Hawaii for 5 nights and needed about 104K in points. Worth it? Cash rates are $1,500 per night, and I technically got two more nights out of redemption. Other option was spending $938 to buy 100K points under the current Marriott points purchase promotion, and topping off. Since I only have CSP, a travel portal redemption would only generated $913 in travel. So I went ahead and transferred. OK value I thought.
FWIW- Given a choice between $938 cash vs 73,000 UR points, I’d take the 73,000 UR points.
You should add Bilt awards. While they're newest on the scene you can't deny that their offerings are substantial.
Yeah, this seems like a miss here.
Ben, you said that all four programs partner with Air France-KLM Flying Blue, Emirates Skywards, and Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer.
How about Virgin? On this article, it looks like all programs partner with them too.
I think another great program that isn't mentioned in this article is Choice Hotels' points. Although their hotels aren't great domestically, the 2-to-1 transfer of those points from Citi Thank You means that you can get incredible deals in Europe, specifically in Scandinavia.
This is a bit complex, but as a United frequent flyer, Chase Rewards have recently increased in value in my eyes.
I have regularly used Aeroplan and Life Miles to book Polaris awards. But lately, United has seemed to use their strike-through pricing to offer discounted Polaris awards, which brings the price down very close to Saver award levels, but the strike-through prices are not classed as Saver Awards.
For example, I just...
This is a bit complex, but as a United frequent flyer, Chase Rewards have recently increased in value in my eyes.
I have regularly used Aeroplan and Life Miles to book Polaris awards. But lately, United has seemed to use their strike-through pricing to offer discounted Polaris awards, which brings the price down very close to Saver award levels, but the strike-through prices are not classed as Saver Awards.
For example, I just booked one way SFO-AMS in Polaris for 66,000 miles. These discounted awards are good values for a great hard product, but because they are not Saver fares they are only available using Mileage Plus, they are not available to Aeroplan or Life Miles.
Since Chase is the only currency that can directly transfer to United Mileage Plus, it has gone up relative to the others in my estimation.
It gets hard to summarize in a single number, but maybe the valuation of the transferrable points should be something like "1.5+ cents" rather than "1.7 cents", to reflect the fact that 1.5 cents is a more realistic target value but the + represents that you should use a "pure" 1.5 cent point value opportunity before you dip into the transferrable points, given their greater flexibility.
It would also be useful to create a single...
It gets hard to summarize in a single number, but maybe the valuation of the transferrable points should be something like "1.5+ cents" rather than "1.7 cents", to reflect the fact that 1.5 cents is a more realistic target value but the + represents that you should use a "pure" 1.5 cent point value opportunity before you dip into the transferrable points, given their greater flexibility.
It would also be useful to create a single table showing all the transfer partners with columns ticking off which of the four programs can be transferred from. I think looking at it that way helps draw out some of the value propositions ... like Amex has a decent number of unique partners still, but a lot of their unique partners are not very high value partners. Whereas most of Chase's partners are shared with others, but Hyatt as a unique partner is especially valuable. (So much so, IMO, that lately I have been taking 3x UR points for dining on Chase cards instead of 4x MR points on my Amex Gold card.)
Agree with Bgriff, Hyatt is a huge increase in Chase's value for me.
Yup, I have actually done the same thing with Sapphire vs. Amex gold spend. Given the value of the Hyatt transfer, I find it hard to agree with Ben valuing all 4 currencies the same. (That said, I do less international points travel than he does and many other readers do, so I have relatively more use for hotel points than miles. And there is the frequency of transfer bonuses on the other currencies, which...
Yup, I have actually done the same thing with Sapphire vs. Amex gold spend. Given the value of the Hyatt transfer, I find it hard to agree with Ben valuing all 4 currencies the same. (That said, I do less international points travel than he does and many other readers do, so I have relatively more use for hotel points than miles. And there is the frequency of transfer bonuses on the other currencies, which I think Ben is correct to say has helped maintain the 1.7 cent valuation being fair.)