Your Points, Your Way: Optimizing Credit Card Transfers for Travel
As you rack up miles and points, knowing where to transfer them can unlock more value for your purchases.
If you have a travel-focused credit card that offers points on your spending, you can usually redeem them for flights and hotel rooms by visiting the issuer’s booking platform or getting statement credits for travel purchases.
And some cards offer another way to use your points: Transferring them to airline and hotel loyalty programs. The key is knowing conversion ratios, as this can help you maximize the value of the points you're transferring to a participating partner.
Here's a look at the credit card companies that offer points transfer, some of the participating partners they work with and how you can maximize your points value for elevated travel.
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Transferring points: What are my options?
American Express allows customers who collect Membership Rewards points with its cards to convert them to 20 loyalty programs, including Delta SkyMiles, Hilton Honors and Marriott Bonvoy.
Those who use the Chase Sapphire Preferred and Chase Sapphire Reserve cards can transfer their Ultimate Rewards points to 14 partners, such as Southwest Rapid Rewards, United MileagePlus and Marriott Bonvoy.
Eligible Citi cardholders can transfer their ThankYou points to about 20 programs, including American Airlines AAdvantage and Choice Privileges.
Capital One’s credit card miles are transferable to more than 15 partners; among them are JetBlue TrueBlue and Wyndham Rewards.
How to maximize your transfer value
Especially for premium airline tickets or luxury hotel stays, you may get the best value out of your rewards by making a transfer and redeeming the miles or points through the airline or hotel loyalty program.
But as you compare the options, factor in the transfer conversion rate. Some transfers take place at a 1:1 ratio, meaning 1,000 credit card points translate to 1,000 points with the loyalty program. In other cases, the ratio may differ. A transfer of 1,000 credit card points may result in 800 airline miles with some programs, for instance.
"Keep in mind that these transfers are irreversible," says Nick Ewen, editor-in-chief at travel website The Points Guy. He advises using transferred points as soon as possible. If you delay, you may miss out on any award bookings you were planning to make. And over time, loyalty programs may devalue their points or miles.
Note: This item first appeared in Kiplinger Personal Finance Magazine, a monthly, trustworthy source of advice and guidance. Subscribe to help you make more money and keep more of the money you make here.
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