Guide to Transfer Partners for Each Major Credit Card Program

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It’s never smart to have all your eggs in one basket. And for the same reason, earning just one airline or hotel rewards currency isn’t typically a good idea.

Award availability can be scarce, award rates can soar during peak travel dates and rewards currency devaluations can happen overnight without notice. This makes holding all your earnings in a single airline or hotel rewards currency a risky move.

Enter, transferable points.

Transferable points programs enable you to diversify your earnings by allowing you to transfer your points to multiple airline and hotel loyalty programs.

However, with multiple card issuers, airlines and hotels, as well as new transfer partners being added regularly, it’s difficult to keep up with who’s who.

We’ve created the ultimate guide to credit card transfer partners, with a useful cheat sheet you can use to navigate the world of partner point transfers.

What are Transferable Points Programs?

Transferable points programs are a type of credit card rewards program that enables you to transfer your point earnings to various hotel and airline rewards programs with whom the card issuer partners. They stand in contrast to fixed-value rewards programs as well as to rewards programs with a specific airline or hotel chain.

The standout benefit of transferable points programs is flexibility, which provides you with a greater chance of scoring the award booking you want and for better value.

For example, if you spent the last year diligently collecting Hilton points only to find out that there aren’t any available Hilton properties in the area you’re looking to stay, you’d have no plan B. You’d either have to book with cash or travel to a different destination where Hilton properties are available.

However, if you’d been collecting Chase Ultimate Rewards points instead of Hilton points, you could book an award stay with IHG One Rewards, Marriott Bonvoy or World of Hyatt, affording you greater flexibility and a better chance of securing an award stay in your desired destination.

Transferable points programs give you the widest range of choices when it comes time to redeem your hard-earned rewards. Instead of being restricted to a single airline or hotel, you can typically book award fares across all three major airline alliances as well as book award stays with multiple major hotel chains.

Each card issuer partners with different hotel and airline rewards programs, offering not only a different selection of transfer partners but occasionally different transfer rates. This can sometimes make it more lucrative to transfer your points from one card issuer over another card issuer, to a specific airline or hotel rewards program.

For example, Capital One Miles transfer to Choice Privileges at a rate of 1 Mile to 1 Choice Privileges point (1:1). However, if you have a stash of Citi ThankYou Points, you can transfer your Citi points to Choice Privileges at a rate of 1 ThankYou Point to 2 Choice Privileges points (1:2), offering greater value.

Likewise, American Express charges an excise tax offset fee on all point transfers to domestic U.S. airlines. It charges $0.0006 per point transferred, up to a maximum of $99 per transfer, to its domestic airline partners, including JetBlue Airways and Delta Air Lines.

That means you’d typically be better off transferring Chase Ultimate Rewards points or Citi ThankYou points to JetBlue, Bilt Points to Hawaiian Airlines and earning your Delta SkyMiles directly through a co-branded Delta card, instead of transferring Amex points.

Another option is to redeem transferable points directly through the card issuer’s travel portal, such as through Chase Travel℠, Capital One Travel or American Express Travel®. While you’ll typically get lower value for your points when redeemed in this manner, you have access to greater award availability and your booking is treated as a cash booking, meaning you’ll earn frequent flyer miles on your award fare.

So if equivalent cash prices are running low or availability is scarce, there are far worse ways to redeem your points than booking through your card issuer’s portal.

However, partner award bookings offer the most value for your points and should be a top priority in your credit card strategy.

What are the Major Transferable Points Programs?

Let’s take a look at the major transferable points programs that you should be earning points with.

American Express Membership Rewards

American Express Membership Rewards points are some of the most well-known and popular transferable points you can earn. And for good reason—Amex offers a high number of transfer partners of any card issuer and a range of luxury and functional travel rewards cards to help you earn points.

Amex has 20+ hotel and airline transfer partners, to most of whom you can transfer your points at 1:1 ratio. JetBlue TrueBlue is the exception to this rule, with a transfer rate of 1 Amex point to 0.8 JetBlue TrueBlue points.

On the flipside, you can transfer Amex points to Hilton Honors at a rate of 1:2 and to Aeroméxico Club Premier at a rate of 1:1.6.

It’s easy to transfer your Amex points to travel partners, and it’s one of the top ways to get the most value out of your points.

Amex’s transfer partners include all three major airline alliances, with access to lucrative award programs such as All Nippon Airways (ANA) Mileage Club, Air Canada Aeroplan and Virgin Atlantic Flying Club. Amex cardholders also have the ability to book cheap flights to Europe with British Airways Executive Club and its partners, take advantage of Air France-KLM Flying Blue promo awards and leverage Singapore KrisFlyer’s distance-based award chart, among other benefits.

Amex has a strong portfolio of travel rewards cards to help you earn its transferable Membership Rewards points, including American Express Platinum Card^® (see rates and fees), the American Express® Gold Card (see rates and fees) and the Blue Business Plus Credit Card from American Express (see rates and fees).

One of the major benefits of the American Express Membership Rewards program is the frequency of its transfer bonuses. Amex regularly runs promotional transfer bonuses with specific airline and hotel partners, enabling you to gain 20% to 40% more miles on your transfer. This offers huge value, making Amex points even more valuable to redeem.

If you want to redeem your points through American Express Travel® instead, you can redeem them for 1 cent apiece on flights and 0.7 cents apiece on all other portal redemptions.

Capital One Miles

Capital One has grown steadily as a transferable points and credit card rewards program over the last decade, now easily competing with heavyweights such as American Express and Chase.

With its own exclusive airport lounges and affordable luxury travel credit cards, a Capital One card is well worth a spot in your wallet.

Capital One boasts a choice of 15+ airline and hotel transfer partners, to most of which you can transfer your points at a 1:1 ratio, with a handful of exceptions.

You can transfer Capital One Miles to all three major airline alliances, opening up an array of opportunities for lucrative award redemptions. Transfering your Capital One Miles to travel partners is also the No. 1 way to reap the most value from your miles.

And while Capital One’s only U.S. airline partner is JetBlue, you can leverage alliance partner programs—and their lucrative zone- and distance-based partner award charts—to book competitive fares with other U.S. airlines. For instance, you can use Capital One Miles to book United flights to Hawaii through Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles, Virgin Red to book Delta flights (via Virgin Atlantic Flying Club) and British Airways Executive Club to book American Airlines flights.

Likewise, when it comes to redeeming your miles for international award travel, Capital One Miles can be used for booking lucrative Star Alliance partner award fares through Air Canada Aeroplan and Avianca LifeMiles, first-class award fares with Cathay Pacific and competitive award rates with Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer and Qantas Frequent Flyer.

Capital One also runs occasional transfer bonuses of up to 30% to its partners, enabling you to get more value for your miles.

Overall, with cards such as the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card, Capital One Venture Rewards Card and Capital One Spark Miles for Business, you have lots of affordable options for earning Capital One Miles and can redeem them for lucrative award travel with a range of partners.

If you want to redeem your miles through Capital One Travel instead of transferring them to Capital One’s travel partners, you’ll get a rate of 1 cent per mile redeemed.

Chase Ultimate Rewards

Chase Ultimate Rewards points are some of the most valuable transferable points you can earn.

While Chase may have just 14 transfer partners, it covers all three major alliances and is one of the best programs for transferring points directly to U.S. airlines, including to JetBlue Airways, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines, all at 1:1 transfer ratios. It’s easy to transfer your Chase Ultimate Rewards points to hotel and airline partners and is one of the best uses of your points.

With a stash of Chase Ultimate Rewards points to play with, you can take advantage of a range of transfer partner sweet spots, including Air Canada Aeroplan’s distance-based partner award chart for Star Alliance partner bookings, World of Hyatt for low-priced award stays, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club for lucrative SkyTeam redemptions and Air France-KLM Flying Blue monthly promos.

Chase also offers some of the most lucrative travel rewards credit cards on the market, including our all-time beginner favorite—the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card—as well as premium cards such as the Chase Sapphire Reserve® and business cards like the Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card.

If you hold one of the three aforementioned Chase cards, you can transfer your earnings from traditional “cashback” Chase credit cards to these cards, enabling you to use your cashback earnings as fully transferable Ultimate Rewards points for partner transfers. This ability to strategically combine your earnings across a range of Chase cards makes it a lucrative program for amassing hundreds of thousands of points.

Chase is also unique as it’s one of the only card issuers to allow you to redeem your points for an increased value through their portal, Chase Travel℠. Chase Sapphire Preferred cardholders can redeem their points for up to 1.5 cents apiece, Chase Ink Preferred can redeem for up to 1.75 cents apiece, and Chase Sapphire Reserve cardholders can do so for up to 2 cents apiece, through Chase Travel℠. This automatically increases the baseline value of your rewards, compared to those of other card issuers.

Chase runs regular transfer bonuses, enabling you to earn up to 30% bonus points on transfers to specific partners, so keep an eye out.

Citi ThankYou Points

The Citi ThankYou Rewards program is often eclipsed by other credit card rewards program giants such as Chase and American Express. However, Citi ThankYou Points offer excellent value if used correctly—namely, if they’re transferred to Citi’s hotel and airline transfer partners.

Citi offers a range of credit cards, from $0 annual fee cards such as the Citi® Double Cash Card to the Citi Strata Premier® Card at $95 per year. Citi also issues co-branded American Airlines credit cards and is set to become the sole issuer of these cards, since its acquisition of Barclaycard’s American Airlines card portfolio.

All of Citi’s credit cards earn ThankYou Points, including its cashback cards. However, cashback cards have limited redemption options, as you can transfer your points to Choice Privileges, Wyndham Rewards and JetBlue TrueBlue only, and at less favorable transfer rates. However, if you hold a premium Citi card such as the Citi Strata Premier Card, you can pool your Citi points and redeem them with Citi’s full range of transfer partners and at better rates.

You can transfer Citi ThankYou points to 20 airline and hotel partners, including airlines from all three major alliances.

You can book low-priced domestic fares with JetBlue TrueBlue, leverage Virgin Atlantic Flying Club’s partner award charts for SkyTeam bookings, avoid carrier-imposed surcharges by booking Star Alliance award fares using Avianca Lifemiles, book competitively-priced award fares to Hawaii with United using Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles and take advantage of Singapore KrisFlyer and Cathay Pacific’s award charts and premium first-class products.

Citi also offers transfer bonuses from time to time, as well as gives access to Air France-KLM Flying Blue promos, allowing you to increase the value of your redemptions.

So if you’ve already maxed out your Chase 5/24 count and have an Amex card to your name, you may want to consider adding a premium Citi card to your wallet.

Bilt Rewards

Bilt Rewards lets members earn on both rent and mortgages with three Bilt Cards.

Bilt has an extensive range of transfer partners, including some of the most lucrative airline and hotel programs, as well as all three major airline alliances. For instance, using Bilt Points, you can book competitive Oneworld award fares with free stopovers through Alaska Atmos Rewards, leverage Avianca LifeMiles and Air Canada Aeroplan for lucrative Star Alliance award fares and use Virgin Atlantic’s partner award charts to book low-priced SkyTeam alliance award fares.

Bilt Points transfer at a 1:1 ratio to every single airline and hotel transfer partner, meaning your points will retain their value when redeemed in this way.

Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo is new to the world of transferable points programs, but it offers some solid credit cards with a growing list of transfer partners.

Wells Fargo currently offers a total of seven airline and hotel transfer partners. You can currently book Oneworld award flights using Wells Fargo points through British Airways Executive Club, lucrative Star Alliance award fares through Avianca LifeMiles and competitive SkyTeam award fares through Virgin Atlantic Flying Club.

Wells Fargo points transfer to airline partners at a 1:1 ratio. You’ll get double the value for each point transferred to Choice Privileges (1:2 transfer ratio)—its only hotel partner.

Currently, you can earn transferable Wells Fargo points on just two of its cards: the Wells Fargo Autograph® Card and the Wells Fargo Autograph Journey℠ Card. However, with lucrative benefits, one of these cards could be well worth a spot in your wallet.

How to Earn Transferable Points

With these transferable points programs in mind, let’s take a look at the major credit cards of each program that enable you to earn their transferable points.

American Express Credit Cards

American Express boasts one of the largest ranges of cards when it comes to earning transferable points.

It offers cards with a range of annual fees, from $0 to $695. It also has a strong selection of small business credit cards, making it a great card issuer for those looking to earn on their small business expenditure.

Here’s a list of all the American Express cards you can earn Membership Rewards points with:

• American Express Platinum Card^®
• American Express Platinum Card® by Charles Schwab
• American Express Platinum Card^® Exclusively for Morgan Stanley
• American Express® Gold Card
• Centurion® Card from American Express
• American Express® Green Card
• Amex EveryDay® Preferred Credit Card
• Amex EveryDay® Credit Card
• Blue from American Express®
• The Business Platinum Card® from American Express
• American Express® Business Gold Card
• Business Green Rewards Card from American Express
• The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express

Each of these cards has its own unique offerings and is suited to different traveler and spender portfolios.

The Platinum Card product range offers the widest array of travel perks, with more than $1,500 worth of statement credit perks, complimentary access to the American Express Global Lounge Collection, and strong business-related statement credits for the Business Platinum Card.

Cards such as the American Express Gold Card offer strong functional value, allowing you to earn 4X points per dollar spent at U.S. supermarkets on up to $25,000 per calendar year (1X points thereafter) as well as 4X points on U.S. restaurants worldwide, including takeout and delivery, on up to $50,000 per calendar year (1X points thereafter).

Likewise, The Blue Business Plus Credit Card from American Express offers a competitive baseline rewards rate of 2X points per dollar spent on non-bonus category spending, on up to $50,000 per calendar year (1X points thereafter). For a $0 annual fee, this card is a solid asset to have in your wallet for earning a return on miscellaneous spending.

Overall, Amex has a wide range of cards to choose from when it comes to earning Membership Rewards points. Whether you’re after luxury travel perks, business-focused perks or everyday spending functionality, there’s an Amex card for you.

Capital One Credit Cards

Capital One offers a strong selection of travel rewards credit cards with which you can earn transferable points.

Capital One’s personal cards earn Venture Miles, while its small business cards earn Spark Miles, but the difference is only in name: both types of miles are essentially the same, offering the same opportunities for redemptions. Spark Miles and Venture Miles can also be pooled together, allowing for greater redemption opportunities.

You can transfer cashback earnings from Capital One cashback cards to miles-earning cards, enabling you to earn even more transferable points.

Here’s a list of the Capital One cards with which you can earn transferable miles:

• Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card
• Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card
• Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card
• Capital One VentureOne Rewards for Good Credit
• Capital One Spark Miles for Business
• Capital One Spark Miles Select for Business
• Capital One Venture X Business

This solid range of cards offers everything from small business functionality to luxury travel perks. Annual fees range from $0 to $395.

The Venture X and Venture X Business offer luxury travel perks, including complimentary Priority Pass Select, Plaza Premium Group and Capital One Lounge access, as well as a $300 travel statement credit perk for bookings made through Capital One Travel, all for $395 per year.

The Venture Rewards card is a scaled down version of the Venture X, offering a solid baseline rewards rate of 2X miles on all non-bonus category spending, as well as a Global Entry or TSA PreCheck® statement credit every four years, for just $95 per year.

If you hold one of the aforementioned cards, you can transfer your cashback earnings on any of the following cards to Capital One Miles:

• Capital One Savor Cash Rewards Credit Card
• Capital One Savor Student Cash Rewards Credit Card
• Capital One Quicksilver Cash Rewards Credit Card
• Capital One QuicksilverOne Cash Rewards Credit Card
• Capital One Quicksilver Student Cash Rewards Credit Card
• Capital One Quicksilver Secured Cash Rewards Credit Card
• Capital One Spark Cash Plus

If you want luxury perks and solid baseline rewards rates at a reasonable price, Capital One is a strong contender. However, its bonus spending categories lack breadth when it comes to earning miles on everyday expenditure, compared to Chase and Amex credit cards, so ensure that a Capital One card serves a purpose in your wider card strategy before applying.

Chase Credit Cards

Technically speaking, all Chase credit cards—except the Ink Business Premier® Credit Card—earn Ultimate Rewards points. However, the ways in which you can redeem these points differ depending on the card.

There are three cards which enable you to transfer your Ultimate Rewards points to Chase’s full suite of transfer partners. These are:

• Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
• Chase Sapphire Reserve®
• Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card

All other Chase cards earn Ultimate Rewards that can be redeemed as cash back or through Chase Travel℠ only. However, as previously mentioned, if you hold one of Chase’s three fully-transferable Ultimate Rewards-earning cards, you can transfer points from Chase “cashback” cards to these accounts, enabling you to redeem all your earnings with transfer partners.

Therefore, if you hold one of the three aforementioned credit cards, your earnings on any of the following Chase credit cards will also be transferable:

• Chase Freedom Flex℠
• Chase Freedom Unlimited®
• Chase Ink Business Cash® Credit Card
• Chase Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card

As previously mentioned, the Ink Business Premier Credit Card is the only true cashback card in Chase’s portfolio, whose cashback rewards can’t be converted into Ultimate Rewards points.

Just keep in mind that Chase’s 5/24 rule applies to new card applications, which prevents you from opening a new card account if you’ve opened five or more cards with any issuer in the last 24 months. Therefore, you’ll want to prioritize Chase cards when dipping your toe into the world of points and miles.

A card such as the Chase Sapphire Preferred is a great choice for earning fully-transferable Ultimate Rewards points. You can earn points on a wide range of bonus spending categories, benefit from a strong suite of travel protections, have access to all of Chase’s transfer partners and redeem your points for up to 1.5 cents apiece through Chase Travel℠.

Citi Credit Cards

Citi’s rewards credit cards can be a little more complex at a first glance. However, there are some strong contenders when it comes to earning and redeeming points.

Currently, you can earn fully transferable Citi ThankYou points on the following cards:

• Citi Strata Premier® Card
• Citi Strata Elite℠ Card
• Citi Strata℠ Card
• Citi Prestige® Card (no longer available to new applicants)

Additionally, Citi offers three credit cards that earn a limited-version of transferable points. These are:

• Citi Rewards+® Card
• Citi Double Cash® Card
• Citi Custom Cash® Card

Points earned on these cards can transfer to JetBlue TrueBlue, Wyndham and Choice Privileges only, and at less favorable transfer rates. However, if you hold both a premium Citi card, such as the Citi Strata Premier Card, plus a $0 annual fee card such as the Citi Double Cash Card, you can pool your earnings between both card accounts and transfer them to Citi’s full list of transfer partners.

The Citi Strata Premier Card offers strong bonus spending categories, including 10X points per dollar spent on hotels, car rentals and attractions booked on CitiTravel.com, and 3X points on restaurant, supermarket, gas and electric vehicle charging station purchases, as well as on hotels and air travel.

For a $0 annual fee, the Citi Double Cash Card offers a simple rate of 2% cash back (1% when you buy and 1% when you pay) on all spending. This makes it a solid card for earning on miscellaneous expenditure, particularly if you can pool your earnings with a premium Citi card.

Bilt Credit Cards

Bilt now offers three cards in partnership with Cardless (replacing the prior Wells Fargo-issued Bilt Mastercard):

• Bilt Palladium Card ($495, rates & fees)
• Bilt Obsidian Card ($95, rates & fees)
• Bilt Blue Card ($0, rates & fees)

Wells Fargo Credit Cards

The Wells Fargo Autograph® Card and the Wells Fargo Autograph Journey℠ Card earn fully transferable points.

For a $0 annual fee, the Wells Fargo Autograph Card earns 3X points per dollar spent on a wide range of everyday spending categories, including on gas, EV charging stations, restaurants (including takeout and delivery), travel, transit, streaming service purchases and phone plans.

For a $95 annual fee, the Wells Fargo Autograph Journey Card offers 5X points on hotels, 4X points on airlines and 3X points on restaurants and all other travel purchases. It also has a lucrative welcome offer that you can put to good use with its transfer partners.

Overall, these cards offer simplicity combined with a growing list of solid transfer partners.

Airline & Hotel Transfer Partners

It can be difficult staying on top of the latest transfer partners of each card issuer. That’s why we’ve created a handy transfer partner cheat sheet so you can easily find out where your points can take you and at what rates. We update that page regularly, so that’s the best resource on our site to see the transfer partners for each major card issuer.

Bottom Line

Transferable points programs give you the greatest value for your points while keeping you as flexible as possible. You can book award stays or fares with any of your card issuer’s respective transfer partners, as well as take advantage of partner award charts to make your points go even further.

Each card issuer has its own selection of transfer partners and credit cards, making some programs more suitable to certain travelers and spenders than other programs.

If you want to understand how to leverage transfer partners for maximum value and which transferable points programs to prioritize, sign up for our free 10xTravel course today.