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The Points Guy believes that credit cards can transform lives, helping you leverage everyday spending for cash back or travel experiences that might otherwise be out of reach. That's why we publish a variety of editorial content and card comparisons: to help you find a great card to turn your goals into reality.
Our site may earn compensation when a customer clicks on a link, when an application is approved, or when an account is opened with our partners, and this may impact how or where these products appear. While we don't cover all available credit cards, our editorial team creates and maintains all of the analysis of these cards, and our content is not influenced nor subject to review by any credit card company, bank or partner prior to (or after) publication. Please view our advertising policy and product review methodology for more information.
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Why Transferable Points Are More Valuable Than Ever
Born and raised in Northern California, schooled in our Nation's capital, and currently working in the greatest city in the world - NYC. I was instantly hooked to traveling the second I stepped foot in Europe. The addiction only grew once I found out I could do it for free, all on points and miles.
I could also eat bagels for every meal.
April 26, 2019 • 9 min read
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Quick summary
Major US airlines are shifting to dynamic award pricing, removing fixed award charts and making it harder to predict or maximize points value.
Despite these changes, transferable points remain valuable as they can be moved to various airline and hotel partners for potentially better redemption rates.
Booking flights through partner loyalty programs can often yield more favorable award rates than booking directly with the airline's own program.
Flexibility and holding points in multiple transferable programs can help travelers adapt to ongoing loyalty program devaluations.
What to consider
Some partner programs still use fixed award charts, but these can change with little notice, so rates may not always remain favorable.
Dynamic pricing means award ticket costs may fluctuate based on cash fares, reducing the chance for outsized value on premium or long-haul flights.
Certain partner programs may have quirks like segment-based pricing or limited online availability, so researching options before transferring points is essential.
What you'll miss from the article
A detailed breakdown of which partner programs offer the best value for booking flights on major US airlines and specific examples of award rates.
Generated by AI with support from our editorial team.
Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.
For anyone who's lurked around the points and miles world for at least a few years, there are a handful things that every award traveler will know. The most important of all of these is simple: Devaluations of loyalty programs are always imminent. Earlier this month, United announced it would be moving to a dynamic award chart this November, causing most award travelers to sigh as the program that had given so much value to so many travelers would likely become a shell of its former self (even though it's slowly been devalued over the last few years).
Mileage Plus will no longer display an award chart for United flights (although it will keep the same rates when booking on its Star Alliance partners — for now), and our analysis has found that award tickets appear to be tied to the cash price of the ticket. 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 likely means that it will become much harder to get outsized value and book those aspirational awards through United's MileagePlus program. Even worse, it looks like American Airlines and its AAdvantage program are headed in the same direction.
Over the last few years, we've seen a massive flood of points and miles into the market thanks to sky-high credit card welcome bonuses along with more and more consumers jumping on the award travel train. While it's a great thing that more people can get involved in this lucrative hobby, it still comes down to pure economics. When there are more points and miles in circulation, more consumers are competing for the same number of award seats. Airlines aren't simply going to open up additional award inventory, as they need to ensure they're not giving away too many seats that they could be selling for cash.
Additionally, airlines do this simply because they can. Delta removed its award chart and introduced dynamic pricing a few years ago, and the program is still thriving. In fact, SkyMiles is one of the carrier's biggest profit centers. It says it's been good for consumers, and in some respects you can find decent value in the program. However, by removing award charts, Delta can set prices at will, resulting in award rates like these one-way business class tickets from New York-JFK to Tel Aviv (TLV) this summer:
All hope is not lost, however.
The Good News
The good news is that there are still ways to get outsized value out of your points and miles, even if you want to book flights on airlines like United and Delta (and likely American). This is where transferable points come into play. There are five main programs that fall into this category:
American Express Membership Rewards
Capital One
Chase Ultimate Rewards
Citi ThankYou Rewards
Marriott Bonvoy
Each one of these programs has a collection of airline partners (some also have hotel partners), allowing you to transfer points to a loyalty program of your choice. The big benefit here is the flexibility. By having additional options, you can wait to transfer your points until you're ready to book and then pick the program that offers the best award rate for the your desired itinerary.
For instance, it can make more sense to book an American flight using British Airways Avios in many cases thanks to British Airways' distance-based award chart, an award that's even more lucrative when a credit card program is offering a transfer bonus. On the other hand, you may want to book a United business class flight through Aeroplan thanks to definitively lower award rates. By taking advantage of different programs' sweet spots, you can maximize the way you spend your points.
And the best way to go about this is by having a stash of transferable points, preferably in more than one program.
It may seem odd, but booking United-operated flights isn’t always best through the carrier’s MileagePlus program. (Photo by Alberto Riva / The Points Guy)
In short, for all the US airlines that are doing away with their own award charts, you can still book their flights through partner programs — many times at better rates than using the airline's own miles.
The best part is that all three of these programs partner with multiple transferable currencies.
Avianca LifeMiles: Partners with Amex, Capital One, Citi and Marriott
Singapore KrisFlyer: Partners with Amex, Capital One, Chase, Citi and Marriott
Aeroplan: Partners with Amex, Capital One and Marriott
Delta-operated flights
Looking to book Delta flights? You can get amazing value by booking through Virgin Atlantic Flying Club. Examples include 50,000 miles for business class from the US to Europe and 60,000 miles for business class from the US to Asia — you can even book the airline's fantastic new Delta One Suite at those rates. If coach is more your style, you can shell out 12,500 miles for one-way domestic US flights and 20,000 miles to fly from the lower 48 to Hawaii.
Delta One Suites aboard an Airbus A350
Unfortunately, Virgin Atlantic used segment-based pricing for Delta awards, so you'll be charged separately for each leg of your trip (even if it's just a connection). As a result, your best bet is to stick to nonstop award routings.
Bear in mind that Delta-operated flights can also be booked through Flying Blue, the loyalty program of Air France and KLM (along with other smaller carriers). However, this program also switched to a variable pricing model (in 2018), and it's had issues displaying Delta-operated flights online, so Virgin Atlantic will likely be a better option.
Just like Singapore, you can transfer points from all five transferable programs to both Flying Club and Flying Blue, giving you plenty of ways to utilize your credit card rewards on Delta flights.
American-operated flights
As noted above, British Airways Avios (transferable from Amex, Chase and Marriott) are a great way to book American Airlines flights in both premium and economy cabins. Another under-the-radar program is Etihad Guest, which uses American's pre-2016 devaluation award chart to book flights on the carrier. One-way business class flights from North America to Europe, Japan or Korea run just 50,000 Etihad miles, significantly less than what American currently charges on those routes. And you can pick up Etihad miles by transferring from Amex, Capital One, Citi and Marriott).
Check award rates
All that being said, transferable points can even come in handy when you do want to book with United, Delta or American miles, as their respective dynamic pricing models can lead to lower prices than booking through a partner's fixed award chart. We've seen round-trip flights to Europe on Delta from 22,000 miles, and in cases like that, it could make sense to transfer Amex or Marriott points to SkyMiles. The same goes with American's Economy Web Specials (when you could transfer Marriott points) and United's new award prices starting at 5,000 miles one-way (when you could transfer from Chase or Marriott).
Earn Transferrable Points
There are more than a dozen credit cards that earn transferable points, but I've rounded up a few of our top picks from the different programs.
Earn American Express Membership Rewards points:
The Platinum Card® from American Express
American Express® Gold Card
Earn Chase Ultimate Rewards points:
Chase Sapphire Reserve
Chase Sapphire Preferred Card
Earn Capital One miles:
Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card
Capital One Spark Miles for Business
Earn Citi ThankYou Rewards points:
Citi Prestige
Citi Premier® Card
Earn Marriott Bonvoy points:
Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant™ American Express® Card
Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Credit Card
Shopping portals are also a viable way to earn Chase Ultimate Rewards and more recently Amex Membership Rewards through Ebates. In addition, Amex, Chase and Citi offer a referral program where existing cardholders can refer friends and family members to sign up for credit cards and earn their own referral bonuses in the process.
Bottom Line
As airlines continue to change their award charts (or get rid of them entirely), having flexible points that can be used to book awards through multiple programs becomes more and more important. Award travelers will have to find ways to cope with these changes like being more flexible with travel plans and booking earlier than ever. Fortunately there are still plenty of ways to earn transferrable points through credit cards, shopping portals and more — and for the time being their transfer partners still allow for those aspirational redemptions we all dream about.
By commenting, you agree to our Community Guidelines to help create a positive space for conversation. The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser, our partners, or The Points Guy (“TPG”). They have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any of these parties. All responses are submitted by individual contributors, and neither the bank advertiser, our partners, nor TPG are responsible for ensuring that all posts and/or questions are answered.
