Transfer Bonuses for August
Transferring your points from your credit card to airline and hotel partners is the best way to get a ton of value from your credit card points. To make things even better, we occasionally see bonuses on points transferred. Let’s take a quick look at what bonuses are out there for the month of August.
We’re seeing transfer bonuses from Chase, Citi, Capital One, and American Express!
None of these are something I would speculatively transfer points for unless I have a specific redemption in mind.
Chase to Marriott Bonvoy with a 70% Bonus
From 8/1/2024 to 8/14/2024
Chase is offering a 70% transfer bonus to Marriott Bonvoy. Normally, I wouldn’t recommend transferring Chase points to Marriott but this transfer bonus changes things (a bit).
I value Chase points at 1.7 cents per point and Marriott points at 0.7 cents per point so you were losing quite a bit of value before this transfer bonus.
With the current bonus if you transfer 1,000 Chase points you’d get 1,700 Marriott points. You’d be getting 1.19 cents per point in this case. That’s still not great and less than what I value Chase points. However, if you need Marriott points for a specific redemption and can get a lot of value from an expensive hotel who isn’t charging a lot of points, it could make sense.
Stay at the St. Regis Maldives for only 59,000 Chase points per night
Citi to Air France KLM Flying Blue with a 25% Bonus
From 7/21/2024 to 8/17/2024
Citi is offering a 25% transfer bonus to Air France KLM Flying Blue. Flying Blue is one of my favorite ways to get to Europe as business class award seats start at just 50,000 points each way. With this bonus you could score one for 40,000 Citi points each way.
Air France A350 Business Class
Capital One to Qantas with a 20% Bonus
From 8/1/2024 to 8/31/2024
Capital One is offering a 20% transfer bonus to Qantas. Finding business or first class award space from the US to Australia on Qantas is extremely difficult, but Qantas is a member of the OneWorld Alliance so you can use Qantas points to fly on airlines like American (domestically or internationally), British Airways, Cathay Pacific (like we’re doing next month from Kyoto to Hong Kong), Qatar, or even Royal Air Maroc plus a ton of others.
First Class on Cathay Pacific
American Express to Hawaiian Airlines with a 20% Bonus
From 8/1/2024 to 8/31/2024
American Express is offering a 20% transfer bonus to Hawaiian Airlines. While Hawaiian’s award chart is more expensive than some other airlines, this could be a good use of your points especially if there aren’t any award seats available on other airlines to Hawaii. Hawaii charges 20,000 points in economy and 40,000 points in first (business) class from the West Coast to Hawaii. With this transfer bonus you would only need 17,000 points in economy or 34,000 points in first class each way.
Hawaiian Airlines First Class
American Express to British Airways Avios with a 30% Bonus
From 8/1/2024 to 9/30/2024
American Express is offering a 30% transfer bonus to British Airways. While British Airways imposes pretty significant taxes and fees on their award tickets and has increased the costs of their awards, their Avios points currency is extremely valuable for partner awards on airlines like 8,250 Avios for an American Airlines flight from Miami to the Caribbean.
Another interesting aspect of British Airways Avios is that you can then transfer those points to their other partner airlines who also use Avios as their frequent flyer program like Qatar, Iberia, Aer Lingus and Finnair. Each of those airlines have their own award charts and sweet spots so there’s a ton of other options for you.
Domestic First Class on American Airlines
American Express to Iberia Avios with a 30% Bonus
From 8/1/2024 to 9/30/2023
American Express is offering a 30% transfer bonus to Iberia. You can use Iberia Avios for things like a business class flight from Miami to Madrid for only 42,500 points each way. Iberia also only charges roughly $100 in taxes and fees which is much better than British Airways.
One thing to note with Iberia is that you likely need to have an existing frequent flyer account with them before you transfer your points. Normally, points are transferred instantly but for those with a new account it can take days or weeks to transfer over, or sometimes not at all. I would definitely recommend joining their program now so you don’t run into this problem in the future when you want to transfer points to them for a specific flight.
Iberia Business Class
American Express to Aer Lingus Avios with a 30% Bonus
From 8/1/2024 to 9/30/2023
American Express is offering a 30% transfer bonus to Aer Lingus. Much like British Airways and Iberia, you can use their points for travel on any of their partner airlines. You can redeem just 50,000 points for a business class seat from the East Coast to Ireland or the West Coast to Ireland for only 62,500 points.
Aer Lingus Business Class
Wrapping Up
There are a ton of great transfer bonuses out in August and some even last through the end of September. Your points become even more valuable with these bonuses!
