How To Decide Which Transferrable Points To Use For An Award

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If you’ve been paying attention, you know that it’s a good idea to distribute your points across various rewards programs. If you’ve been doing this for some time, you probably have points with most, if not all, of the banks’ transferable reward programs.

That would mean you have points with:

• American Express Membership Rewards
• Bilt Rewards
• Capital One
• Chase Ultimate Rewards
• Citi ThankYou

When you have points in different programs and need to book an award ticket, deciding which points to transfer can be challenging. Some airlines partner with multiple banks for point transfers. In such cases, it’s important to consider which points to transfer when booking a flight. For example, I transferred points from Citi, Chase, and AMEX to book a flight with Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer. 

I’ll use an example from when I needed to transfer points to British Airways Executive Club to book an American Airlines ticket. While American wanted 12.5K AAdvantage miles, booking with BA only required 9K Avios.

The two tickets cost 18,000 Avios, but I had just over 9,000 in my account. I needed to transfer points to British Airways. Thankfully, BA partners with (American Express, Bilt, Capital One, and Chase). But which program’s points should I use?

As with most questions regarding points and miles, the answer is “It depends.” Here are some things to consider when deciding which points to use:

What accounts have the highest balances?

I often have one bank where we have an outsized number of points. If you have more points than you have a use for, that’s a prime candidate for transferring points. However, that’s not the only thing to consider.

Does a program have unique transfer partners?

You may have the most points with American Express, but Membership Rewards has some transfer partners exclusive to their program. If you’re keeping track of which banks partner with every program, here’s a way to keep things organized. Some programs have just a single partner and here’s a breakdown:

American Express Membership Rewards

• Delta SkyMiles
• HawaiianMiles
• ANA Mileage Club

Bilt Rewards

• Alaska MileagePlan

Capital One

• TAP Portugal Miles&Go
• Finnair Plus

Chase Ultimate Rewards

• Southwest Rapid Rewards

Citi ThankYou

• Thai Royal Orchid Plus

While I have a bunch of AMEX points, I might want to save them for an award with ANA or Delta. I also try to save all of my Chase points for Hyatt rewards. However, I don’t plan on making a reservation with TAP or Finnair, so using Capital One points makes more sense.

Is there a current transfer bonus?

I also consider if there’s a program offering a transfer bonus. Programs occasionally offer 25% discounts when moving points between programs. Using 9,000 miles for a ticket is nice, but it’s even better to use 7,200 points for the same award.

If the transfer bonus is good enough to make up for the difference, booking with a program that charges more points for the same ticket can even make sense.

How easy is replacing the points (AKA: How many sign-up bonuses do you have left)?

Some points are easy to replace, but it’s getting more complicated. AMEX now has a “Little Brother” rule, and Chase can be stingy, only allowing one Sapphire bonus every 48 months. It would be helpful to consider the ability to recharge points when choosing which ones to transfer for an award.

What points did I transfer to British Airways?

I decided to transfer Capital One points to British Airways Executive Club. While the Capital One website claimed the transfer could take up to 24 hours, it was instant.

Considering that we both earned 100K Capital One points with the Venture X sign-up bonus, that’s a bunch of Avios award flights. I’ll save my AMEX points for Delta flights and Chase points for Hyatt stays.

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