Quick summary
- Major credit card issuers offer credit cards with transferable rewards.
- Transferable points offer flexibility, allowing users to choose the best partner for their desired itinerary.
- Transferable credit card rewards offer the highest value for travelers, allowing them to get better redemption options.
- Transferable rewards do not expire while you keep your credit card account active and in good standing.
When you are into travel rewards, you know that the most valuable rewards are the ones that get you where you want to go. Airline miles or point rewards can help you book free flights or hotel rooms, but transferable rewards can do both and even more.
Transferable rewards (or transferable points) are points issued by banks through their own rewards programs. These points can be earned with certain cards and transferred to any of the participating loyalty programs. So instead of having points with just one airline or hotel, you can transfer points to several different ones.
There are five major programs with transferable rewards:
– American Express Membership Rewards (20 transfer partners)
– Capital One Venture Miles (15+ transfer partners)
– Chase Ultimate Rewards (10+ transfer partners)
– Citi ThankYou Rewards (20 transfer partners)
– Bilt Rewards (23 transfer partners)
Each of these programs has a collection of transfer partners (airline and/or hotel loyalty programs), allowing you to transfer rewards to a loyalty program of your choice. Here is why transferable rewards are more valuable.
Transferable Rewards Provide Flexibility
When you are looking for a new travel credit card, you are basically facing two choices: apply for a co-branded card that earns rewards that can be redeemed with your favorite airline or hotel chain, or apply for a general travel rewards credit card that allows you to redeem earned rewards with many airlines and hotel chains.
The second option obviously provides you with more flexibility. A travel rewards credit card, like The Amex Platinum Card® or Chase Sapphire Reserve® card, offers you more valuable rewards because they can be redeemed with both airline and hotel partners. Even more, if you do not want to redeem points for travel, you have other ways to use your rewards.
Transferable points programs partner with various airline and hotel loyalty programs giving you a broader range of redemption options instead of just one. Transfer ratios are either neutral or favorable in most cases. Plus, points transfers are processed quickly (or in many cases, instantly). This kind of flexibility adds even more value.
Transferable Rewards Can Provide Greater Value
Once, when airlines had award charts for award flights, airline loyalty programs gave so much value to so many travelers. However, devaluations of loyalty programs are imminent and many big carriers switched to dynamic award charts, meaning that award tickets are now tied to the cash price of the tickets. And while that may be good in some cases where you don’t have to redeem a lot of miles for a short, inexpensive flight, it has become much harder to get outsized value and book those aspirational awards through airlines’ loyalty programs.
This is where transferable points come into play. With five main programs, you get access to a collection of airline partners, which allows you to transfer points to a loyalty program of your choice. You can accumulate additional points with an eligible credit card and when you are ready to book, you can pick the program that offers the best rewards rate for your desired itinerary and transfer your points.
For example, it may be more beneficial to book an American flight using British Airways Avios thanks to British Airways’ distance-based award chart. Another example is that it might be better booking a United business class flight through Aeroplan thanks to definitively lower award rates. You can almost always maximize the way you spend your points by taking advantage of different partner programs and booking through them, rather than using the airline’s own miles.
Transferable Rewards Have More Favorable Expirations Policies
Many airline loyalty programs have expiration policies that can cause your rewards to vanish over time. With airlines, you generally have 12 to 36 months to keep awards active. This means you will have to fly with the airline at least once a year or once every two years. If you are not a frequent traveler and you do not monitor your loyalty accounts actively, it’s much easier to let rewards lapse and disappear in that lifetime.
In contrast, transferable points generally don’t expire as long as your account remains open and in good standing. You don’t have to actively track your transferable points – they will be accumulating as you use your credit card. Once you are ready to redeem, you simply transfer them to the desired loyalty program.
Earn Transferable Points
There are plenty of credit cards that earn transferable points. Here we’ve picked top offers from the different programs.
American Express Membership Rewards
- The Platinum Card® from American Express
- American Express® Gold Card
- The Business Platinum Card® from American Express
Capital One Venture Miles
- Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card
- Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card
- Capital One Spark Miles for Business
Chase Ultimate Rewards
- Chase Sapphire Reserve®
- Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
- Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card
Citi ThankYou Rewards
- Citi Strata Premier® Card
- Citi Strata Elite℠ Card
Bilt Rewards
- Bilt Palladium Card
- Bilt Obsidian Card
- Bilt Blue Card
Bottom Line
Transferable points can be beneficially converted into points or miles with various airline or hotel loyalty programs. This will allow you to avoid losing value when airline programs devalue their rewards. More than that, since you have access to various partner programs, you can explore a vast network of partners and transfer to one that offers the most value. Thus, you can benefit from each redemption and actually use your rewards instead of accumulating them without being able to redeem them.