What Is a Transfer Bonus?

A transfer bonus is a limited-time offer where an issuer tacks extra partner miles or points onto a transfer to one selected loyalty program. Issuers run them periodically. A 20% bonus means 50,000 issuer points land as 60,000 partner miles instead of 50,000 (50,000 × 1.20 = 60,000). The bonus is real money. The trap is that transfers only go one direction: Chase states that transfers to travel partners are final, and Capital One states there is no way to move miles back once a transfer is finalized. A bonus on points you cannot use is a discount on nothing.

How transfers actually work

You move points out of your issuer's program (Chase Ultimate Rewards, Amex Membership Rewards, Citi ThankYou, Capital One miles) and into an airline or hotel account you control. From there you book the award on that partner's own website with the transferred balance, not on the issuer's travel portal (Chase).

Four mechanics matter before you ever look at a bonus:

Transfers are final. There is no undo. Once the miles land in the partner account, they are that partner's miles, subject to that partner's rules, devaluations, and expiration policy.

Points typically move in increments of 1,000. You cannot top off an account by 400 miles.

Timing is not instant across the board. Chase states that most point transfers process by the next business day but may take up to 7 business days. If an award seat is sitting there right now, a transfer that takes a week may arrive to find it gone.

The ratio is not always 1:1. Most partners are 1:1. But Amex transfers to Hilton Honors at 1:2 (10,000 Membership Rewards points become 20,000 Hilton points) and to Emirates Skywards at 5:4 (10,000 points become 8,000 Skywards miles). Capital One transfers to Accor Live Limitless at 2:1, so 20,000 miles become 10,000 Accor points. Chase transfers to World of Hyatt at 4:3 for Chase Sapphire Preferred cardmembers.

A transfer bonus stacks on top of whatever the base ratio is. It does not change the base ratio.

When a bonus is worth acting on

Work backward from a specific award, not forward from the bonus.

Here is the order that works. Find the award seat or room first. Confirm the partner's price in that partner's currency. Then check whether the bonus gets you there for fewer issuer points. If the answer is yes and the seat is still bookable when your points land, transfer.

Say a partner award you have actually located prices at 50,000 miles and you hold 60,000 issuer points. At 1:1 you pay 50,000 points. With a 20% bonus you transfer 42,000 points (a clean multiple of 1,000) and get 50,400 miles, which covers it. Same seat, 8,000 fewer points. That is the whole case for a transfer bonus, and it is a good one.

When it is a trap

You do not have an award in hand. Speculative transfers are the single most expensive habit in this hobby. You are converting a flexible currency that works with several programs into a single-airline currency, permanently, because a banner told you to hurry.

The bonus does not close the gap. A hypothetical: the award costs 50,000 partner miles, you have 40,000 issuer points, and there is a 20% bonus. 40,000 × 1.20 = 48,000. Now you are 2,000 miles short of a bookable award and you cannot transfer back. Do that arithmetic before you click, not after.

The base ratio eats the bonus. A bonus on a 2:1 or 5:4 partner starts from behind. At Amex's 5:4 Emirates ratio, 10,000 points give you 8,000 Skywards miles. A 20% bonus on that transfer takes you to 9,600, still under the 10,000 points you spent.

You are transferring on a deadline you did not set. With transfers taking up to 7 business days at Chase, a bonus expiring in two days plus an award seat you have not confirmed is a bad combination.

Hotel points at rich-looking ratios. Amex to Hilton at 1:2 doubles the number, which feels like a win. Numbers are not value. Compare the transferred balance against the actual room rate in points, then decide.

What we're tracking lately (as of September 2026)

These are the transfer bonuses we have seen recently. Terms and end dates change, so confirm at the source before you move anything.

• Amex: 30% bonus to Avios (1:1.3). 50,000 Membership Rewards points become 65,000 Avios (50,000 × 1.3). Doctor of Credit
• Chase Ultimate Rewards: 20% bonus to Air Canada Aeroplan (up to 1:1.20), plus a 10% cardmember bonus. At 1:1.20, 60,000 Chase points become 72,000 Aeroplan miles. Doctor of Credit
• Chase to Aeroplan, framed as a 20% to 30% bonus. One Mile at a Time's read on the same offer. One Mile at a Time
• Citi ThankYou: 20% bonus to Air France-KLM Flying Blue. 50,000 ThankYou points become 60,000 Flying Blue miles. Doctor of Credit
• Is that Citi to Flying Blue bonus actually worth it? A longer look at the same promo. One Mile at a Time
• Capital One: 15% bonus to Avianca. Doctor of Credit
• Capital One: 30% bonus to Japan Airlines, listed at a 1,000:975 ratio. Check the ratio math against your specific award before transferring. Doctor of Credit
• A running list of every available transfer bonus, plus a history of past offers. Useful for judging whether a given program's bonus comes around often enough to wait for. Miles to Memories

We cover these as they land. Past editions are in the Points Wire archive.

FAQ

Can I transfer points back if the bonus turns out to be useless? No. Chase states that transfers to travel partners are final, and Capital One states there is no way to move miles back once a transfer is finalized. Treat every transfer as a purchase you cannot return.

Should I transfer during a bonus to stock up for a future trip? Only if you are comfortable holding that specific airline or hotel currency permanently. Without a confirmed award, you are trading flexible points for one program's miles and betting that program does not devalue before you book. The upside is capped at the bonus percentage. The downside is the whole balance.

How do I know if a bonus is actually good? Compare it against history. The Miles to Memories transfer bonus history shows what a given program has offered before. A 30% bonus to a program that regularly runs 30% is not urgent. A 30% bonus to a program that rarely bonuses at all is worth a harder look, assuming you have an award to book.

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