Welcome to my second post in my travel hacking guide series! In the first post
I talked about what travel hacking is and the basics of using credit cards and earning sign on bonuses! In the second edition I am going to be talking about transferable points and transfer partners! This is a harder topic to grasp so make sure you read my first post so you have a really good foundation of travel hacking.
What are transferable points?
Transferable points are points that can be used to book flights or hotels with many different companies as opposed to just one. I like to use the example of gift cards because it is easy to relate. Let’s say you have a $100 gift card to Target, that means you can only use that gift card at Target. If you have a Visa gift card though, you can use it at any store that accepts Visa. Visa gift cards are like the transferable points of the travel hacking world. An example in the travel world would be if you have 50,000 Delta SkyMiles you can only use those Delta SkyMiles on Delta, you cannot transfer them to any other airline company or hotel like United Airlines. On the other hand, transferable points like Chase, Amex, Citi, and Capitol One points are all transferable- meaning you can use those points at multiple different airline/hotels.
Transferable points are more valuable since you can use them to book flights on multiple different airlines and hotels. I always use my transferable points cards in my everyday spending so that I am racking up lots of points. Some of my favorite cards for earning on everyday spending are the:
— Chase Sapphire Preferred
https://www.referyourchasecard.com/19l/6T5S6I2SD7
— Amex Gold Card
— Chase Freedom flex (this card earns 5x points on certain categories each quarter. It is marketed as 5% cash back but if you have the Chase Sapphire Preferred or Reserve then you can turn that cash back into Chase points!)
— BILT Mastercard
— Chase Sapphire Reserve card
The caveat to these points are that each credit card company has different partners that they let you transfer your points. These different partners are certain airline and hotel companies.
For example, you can transfer Amex points to Delta, but not United.
You can transfer Chase points to United and Southwest, but not Delta. I live in Minnesota, which is a Delta hub, so I prefer to have points that can transfer to Delta, since I tend to fly them the most. In theory, that means I would like to spend a lot on Amex credit cards because those points transfer to Delta. But, it is still valuable to have transferable points from all the different banks.
Another good example: My boyfriend actually just used miles to book a United flight from Raleigh to LAX because there was a great mileage redemption rate and he had plenty of Chase points! I love transferable points for this reason because it allows you to be flexible! The ticket from RDU-LAX on Delta (our preferred airline) was 75,000 miles (aka 75,000 Amex points). That was a steep price for points that he didn’t really want to pay. Thankfully, Tyler has multiple different transferable points currencies so even though he doesn’t have any United miles, he does have lots of Chase points, so he checked the United website and saw that the flight from RDU-LAX on United was only 40,000 miles (aka 40,000 Chase points) roundtrip. He then transferred his Chase points to United and Viola!! He magically had 40,000 United miles:)
Here is a list I’ve complied of all the transfer partners for each program.
Chase: https://monkeymiles.boardingarea.com/complete-guide-chase-credit-cards/
Capitol One: https://monkeymiles.boardingarea.com/capital-one-venture-rewards/capital-one-transfer-partners-october-2021/
How do I know which airline or hotel programs I should transfer my points?
I love using these points to transfer to different airline programs. However, I do not like transferring my points to hotels (except the one caveat being Hyatt). The reason being is that hotel brands like Marriott and Hilton charge an arm and a leg for nights with points. Just look at this Marriott in Hawaii that Tyler and I stayed at last year- 50,000 points per night!
We stayed for 5 nights and had we used transferable points, that would have been a ton (250,000 to be exact). This is why when you see hotel branded credit cards you may see the sign on bonus as high as 250,000 points and the card has higher points earning categories like 3x on groceries and gas and 17x points at Marriott. It’s because one Marriott point is worth LESS than one Amex point. Which brings me to my next point…
Not all points are created equal
Say it louder for the people in the back!!! This is a very important concept. This is why I never transfer Chase/Amex/Bilt/Capitol One/Citi to hotel companies because you get less value when you do. For example, Nerd Wallet values Marriott points at 0.8 cents per point and they value Amex points at 2.8 cents per point. Meaning if you transfer an Amex point at a value of 2.8 cents per point to Marriott at a value of 0.8 cents per point- you just lost quite a bit of money. Stay tuned for next week to learn why Hyatt is the one caveat to my rule of “I will not transfer points to hotel companies.”
The Ratio
Most points transfer to their partners at a rate of 1:1: meaning 10,000 Chase points = 10,000 United miles. However, sometimes certain banks have transfer bonuses going on where you get more value for your points. A common bonus is when a company like Chase offers a 30% transfer bonus on Virgin Atlantic airlines. This would mean that if you transfer 10,000 Chase points= 13,000 Virgin Atlantic miles. It is a way to make your points stretch further!!
I hope you enjoyed this post in my travel hacking guide series!! This week we talked about transferable points. I personally love earning transferable points through my Chase, AMEX, and BILT credit cards. Stay tuned for the next post to learn about why I love Hyatt.
