Maximize Your Points with Transfer Bonus Alerts

There are so many transfer bonuses to Avios, many 30% – 40%, that I don’t think you need to speculatively transfer on this one unless Capital One Miles are your only transferable point and you regularly use Avios anyway (meaning you know how you’ll use them in advance).

Otherwise, my usual thoughts apply:

Despite past shortfall domestic sweet spots evaporating, you can still transfer these miles over to Qatar Airways Avios where that same flight would be 9,500 miles (up from 6,000 but still cheaper than BA). And that’s the thing – you can transfer these Avios to any other Avios program airline including Finnair.

Also – outside of the US, BA still prices flights under 650 miles (i.e. SYD-MEL on Qantas) at 6,000 miles in Economy and only 12,500 miles in Business – hello, sweet spot!

BA does have a very favorable lap infant policy – 10% of the miles paid for the adult fare. Beware their draconian surcharges on long haul awards.

Get 40% Bonus Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points when you transfer Ultimate Rewards points between 12:00 AM ET on October 15, 2024 and 11:59 PM ET on November 30, 2024. Most point transfers process by the next business day, but may take up to 7 business days.

CAVEAT: Beginning October 30th, 2024, Virgin Flying Club will move to a dynamic pricing for awards. Historically this has never been good news as higher priced times that you would get higher value from awards become more expensive with points. If you are transferring during the first two weeks of this bonus, you have time before the switch. We aren’t 100% sure if the dynamic pricing will apply only to Virgin metal awards or a wider swath of awards.

Virgin Atlantic transfer bonuses are fairly frequent between various programs. See historical transfer bonuses to Virgin Atlantic here. Excluding Bilt’s one-day 100% bonus on Sept 1st, other bonuses this year have been 30%.

Best Uses of Virgin Flying Club points:

This bonus is targeted by account. You may be offered 10% or 15% (or possibly no transfer bonus).

Cathay Pacific Asia Miles are very useful in the right circumstances. They used to “hard expire” regardless of activity, but no longer as you can reset expiration with activity every 18 months.

Best for booking Cathay Pacific metal long haul premium flights which may only be made available to its own members. Also great for booking long haul in a premium cabin with a short connection in a lower class of service which prices the entire trip lower than just the primary premium long haul segment. You can now book AA flights online as well.

I personally love Asia Miles for booking flights to Asia (either to or transiting Japan) as the booking window for Asia Miles is 360 days out which aligns with JAL’s giving you two chances to snag a First or Business Class seat right at the booking window.

I’m just going to come straight out and tell you not to do this unless you are an unbelievably experienced Avianca Lifemiles user and know exactly what you need more miles for. They also have transfer bonuses all the time, almost always more than 15%.

The transfer bonus is paltry at 15%, the Lifemiles program just did a major unannounced devaluation, and they are no longer the only option for avoiding surcharges on Star Alliance flights (hello Aeroplan).

Also see: Downsides of LifeMiles program.

Transfer ThankYou Points to Virgin Flying Club or Virgin Red and receive a 30% Bonus in Virgin Points. Offer is valid for Point Transfers to Virgin Points completed by 11:59 PM ET November 16, 2024.

Note that there is currently a 40% transfer bonus from Chase to Virgin Atlantic until Nov 30,. 2024.

CAVEAT: Beginning October 30th, 2024, Virgin Flying Club will move to a dynamic pricing for awards. Historically this has never been good news as higher priced times that you would get higher value from awards become more expensive with points. If you are transferring during the first two weeks of this bonus, you have time before the switch. We aren’t 100% sure if the dynamic pricing will apply only to Virgin metal awards or a wider swath of awards.

Virgin Atlantic transfer bonuses are fairly frequent between various programs. See historical transfer bonuses to Virgin Atlantic here. Excluding Bilt’s one-day 100% bonus on Sept 1st, other bonuses this year have been 30% except for the current 40% bonus from Chase.

Best Uses of Virgin Flying Club points:

Transfer ThankYou Points to Wyndham Rewards and receive a 20% Bonus in Wyndham Rewards points. Offer is valid for Point Transfers to Wyndham Rewards completed by 11:59 PM ET November 16, 2024.

That means that Citi Strata Premier and Citi Prestige cardholders get a 1,200 Wyndham points for 1,000 Citi while Citi ThankYou^® Preferred, Citi Rewards+^®, Sears Mastercard, Citi Double Cash^®, AT&T Universal Rewards World, AT&T Universal Savings and Rewards, AT&T Universal Rewards, AT&T Points Plus^SM Card from Citi or AT&T Access Card Cardmembers get 960 Wyndham points for every 1,000 Citi points transferred.

(Wyndham is one of the few programs the no fee ThankYou cards can transfer to without having a Premier or Prestige, but note the lackluster transfer ratio.)

Also note that Citi ran the same transfer bonus this summer.

Chase JUST finished a 70% transfer bonus August 15th. So be aware of that.

This is almost never a good transfer unless you are topping off for an award you are ready to book. Keep in mind that we value a Chase point at roughly 3X the value of a Marriott Bonvoy point.

However, there are always exceptions and you might find a 5 night stay (5th night free) where the transfer makes sense so do the math – but you likely do not want to transfer speculatively unless you are a Bonvoy pro and believe you will exceed value you can get via other Ultimate Rewards partners.

Interesting that Amex is launching this on the 10th of the month (we most often see these launch on the 1st or 15th). It’s their first transfer bonus to Flying Blue since September 2023, which was 25%.

In 2024, Chase, Citi, and Capital One have all had transfer bonuses of 20-25%.

Flying Blue rates are variable, so run a search before transferring. When you get lucky, business class from the US to Europe can run as low as just 50,000 Flying Blue miles. That would be just 42,000 American Express Membership Rewards points during this promotion!

Flying Blue is the best way to book Virgin Atlantic Upper Class from the US to Europe and beyond, due to the lowest taxes of any way to book Virgin Atlantic. It can also book Delta, KLM, and other SkyTeam members.

Bilt’s Rent Day offer this much is a 50% or 100% Transfer Bonus to BA Avios.

We don’t know why some accounts get one or the other. It’s easy to pass on 50% since a 30-40% transfer bonus is common with other programs.

If you have 100% and you are an experienced Avios user – meaning you don’t need to know how to use them and you already frequently do, then you’ll probably want to move some over. How much depends on how often you use Avios vs other airline currencies, your Bilt balance, and your other point balances.

British Airways Avios used to be best for shorthaul flights on Oneworld carriers but recent changes have killed that. Where a flight from New York to Toronto (under 650 miles) used to be as little as 4,500 miles in years past, it’s now 12,000 miles.

However, you can still transfer these miles over to Qatar Airways Avios where that same flight would be 6,000 miles. And that’s the thing – you can transfer these Avios to any other Avios program airline including Finnair.

Also – outside of the US, BA still prices flights under 650 miles (i.e. SYD-MEL on Qantas) at 6,000 miles in Economy and only 12,500 miles in Business – hello, sweet spot!

BA does have a very favorable lap infant policy – 10% of the miles paid for the adult fare.

Beware their draconian surcharges on long haul awards.