In prior posts I have often written about transferring points from one of your credit card issuers (usually a major US bank) to an airline or hotel transfer partner. But, what are the transfer partners for the various card issuers? I’ve often found it difficult to find this information in one place, so I decided to make a post about it.
Find below tables with all the airline, hotel and other transfer partners for every major points currency. Note that Bank of America does not have a points currency, and so is not included. Also, this does not take into account any partnership a bank may have with a certain airline, such as Citibank’s American Airlines AAdvantage cards, or Chase’s Air Canada Aeroplan credit card; this is only about transfer partners of each bank’s rewards program.
This information is current as of April 2026 and reflect partners available in the US.
- An overview of the various points currencies
- What are the most useful airline programs?
- Airline transfer partners
- Hotel transfer partners
- Other transfer partners
- Summary
An overview of the various points currencies
Before getting into the transfer partners, I thought I’d give my two cents for what I think are the most useful credit card points currencies. Of all of them, you will see that the various currencies are a mosaic of usefulness, though this will largely depend on the airlines you want or need to fly, and the hotels you like to stay at:
- Chase’s Ultimate Rewards is perhaps the all-around most useful points currency. It covers a great deal of useful transfer partners, with very useful representatives of each major alliance, while also offering competitive credit cards to help ease your travels. If you have to pick, I’d recommend prioritizing getting a Chase credit card.
- American Express Rewards has a good mix of transfer partners, including unique ones in All Nippon Airways (ANA) (which prices one-way business class rewards at a very low 55.000 points), and Delta Airlines, though I don’t recommend making use of that given Delta’s generally horrible rates.
- Bilt Rewards I’ve written quite a lot about, and is known for its points on housing options, be it rent or mortgage. What I’ve written less about are Bilt’s intriguing transfer partners. Most interesting are Japan Airlines MileageBank and Alaska Airlines Atmos, both of which I consider valuable and useful programs. I especially like Alaska’s Atmos program, as it has access to cheap American Airlines flights within the US, but also great deals on flights to Europe on Aer Lingus and Condor: these can be as cheap as 45.000 points one way!
- Citibank ThankYou recently added an exclusive partnership with American AAdvantage. This is exciting for two reasons: American has access to reward seats on many excellent oneworld airlines, such as Japan Airlines and Cathay Pacific, and it also has those against some of the lowest prices available anywhere (though note availability can be hard to come by!). Otherwise, Citibank offers a good mix of transfer partners, including a second unique one: Thai Airways Royal Orchid, though I don’t consider it all that useful and it may be better to book Thai Airways through Air Canada Aeroplan instead.
- Capital One has a nice selection of transfer partners, and it’s exciting that Japan Airlines is one of them, though the transfer rate is only 1:0.75 (worse than Bilt). There is one unique partner: Finnair. However, because Finnair’s Avios currency can be transferred back anf forth with British Airways, it’s not hard to get access to Finnair Avios and shouldn’t be a reason to get a Capital One card.
- Probably least useful right now is Wells Fargo, given how few programs they partner with, and even more so given that they chose to partner with programs that nearly everybody else already partners with. We will have to wait and see how they evolve their partnerships.
What are the most useful airline programs?
This is just my opinion, but here are some of the programs I find most useful:
- Alaska Airlines Atmos: Generally good pricing on a variety of partners, and especially a good way to get cheap domestic American Airlines flights. A unique aspect of Atmos is that rewards flights count towards your loyalty qualification, so it can be worthwhile to book award for flights through Alaska.
- American AAdvantage: To date has some of all-around best prices for award flights on oneworld airlines, so it can be an excellent choice to book highly thought-after flights on Japan Airlines, Qatar Airways or Cathay Pacific through American.
- Air Canada Aeroplan: Aeroplan has some very attractively priced transatlantic flights, including on Singapore Airlines for a mere 60.000 points. Plus, Aeroplan allows you to chain together flights to massively reduce the overall cost. Who doesn’t like to fly from Asia to North America for only 87.500 points? This would require looking for individual legs and then calling Aeroplan’s call center to have them book it for you.
- Air France-KLM Flying Blue: Unfortunately there have been some devaluations and restrictions on availability to Flying Blue Platinum members, but it can still be possible to get business class awards in Air France and KLM for 60.000 points. For SkyTeam-operated flights, this is probably the most useful program out there, and certainly has better pricing than Delta SkyMiles.
- Avios programs: Avios is not a program, but rather a currency shared by the programs of Aer Lingus, British Airways, Finnair, Iberia and Qatar Airways. Unique is that you can freely transfer your Avios between these programs. As such, you can transfer points to all these programs as long as one of them is a transfer partner of your credit card program. I’d argue each of these programs has their own value proposition. For example, Qatar Airways makes most seats available to members of its own program, even if it won’t be the cheapest way to book those flights. On the other hand, flights from the US to Madrid on Ibra are pretty much the cheapest through Iberia Club, for instance, at only 40.500 points.
- Virgin Atlantic Flying Club: This program is mainly known for some of its niche redemption opportunities, including on ANA flights. However, a more ‘mainstream’ use is its excellent prices for flights to Europe at off-peak times, sometimes as low as 6000 points in economy, or 29.000 points in business class on flights operated by Virgin Atlantic! But, prepare to be flexible to score these prices.
Does this mean all other programs are useless? Generally, no, of course not. Many other programs have useful redemptions, but they may not be as generally useful, and be more about the niches. For example, Unites Airlines MileagePlus is best for rewards on flights to Africa with Ethiopian Airlines. Yet many other programs are generally just good for flights on their own metal, even if it won’t be cheapest way to book them, such as Singapore’s KrisFlyer, Emirates Skywards and Etihad Guest. This is because they reserve premium cabin awards for members of their own programs.
Airline transfer partners
Arguably the most interesting, below you can find all the airline transfer partners for major credit card issuers in the US. As you will see, there is never full overlap between card issuers, but there are definitely card issuers with an overall more lucrative set of partners.
| American Express | Bilt | Capital One | Chase | Citibank | Wells Fargo | |
| Aer Lingus AerClub Avios | 1:1 | 1:1 | 1:1 | 1:1 | ||
| Aeromexico Club Premier | 1:1.6 | 1:1 | 1:1 | |||
| Alaska Airlines Atmos | 1:1 | |||||
| Air Canada Aeroplan | 1:1 | 1:1 | 1:1 | 1:1 | ||
| Air France/KLM Flying Blue | 1:1 | 1:1 | 1:1 | 1:1 | 1:1 | 1:1 |
| American AAdvantage | 1:1 | |||||
| ANA Mileage Club | 1:1 | |||||
| Avianca Lifemiles | 1:1 | 1:1 | 1:1 | 1:1 | 1:1 | |
| British Airways Club Avios | 1:1 | 1:1 | 1:1 | 1:1 | 1:1 | |
| Cathay Pacific AsiaMiles | 1:0.8 | 1:1 | 1:1 | 1:1 | ||
| Delta Airlines SkyMiles | 1:1 | |||||
| Emirates Skywards | 1:0.8 | 1:1 | 1:0.75 | 1:0.8 | ||
| Etihad Guest | 1:1 | 1:1 | 1:1 | 1:1 | ||
| EVA Air Infinity MileageLands | 1:0.75 | 1:1 | ||||
| Finnair Plus Avios | 1:1 | |||||
| Iberia Club Avios | 1:1 | 1:1 | 1:1 | 1:1 | ||
| Japan Airlines MileageBank | 1:1 | 1:0.75 | ||||
| JetBlue TrueBlue | 1:1 | 1:0.6 | 1:1 | 1:1 | 1:1 | |
| Qantas Frequent Flyer | 1:1 | 1:1 | 1:1 | |||
| Qatar Airways Privilege Club Avios | 1:1 | 1:1 | 1:1 | 1:1 | ||
| Singapore KrisFlyer | 1:1 | 1:1 | 1:1 | 1:1 | ||
| Spirit Free Spirit | 1:1 | |||||
| Southwest Rapid Rewards | 1:1 | 1:1 | ||||
| TAP Miles&Go | 1:1 | 1:1 | ||||
| Thai Royal Orchid Plus | 1:1 | |||||
| Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles | 1:1 | 1:1 | 1:1 | |||
| United Airlines MileagePlus | 1:1 | 1:1 | ||||
| Virgin Atlantic Flying Club | 1:1 | 1:1 | 1:1 | |||
| Virgin Red | 1:1 | 1:1 | 1:1 |
Hotel transfer partners
Like with the airlines, there’s never full overlap, but in terms of who offers the most partnerships, Bilt is definitely the winner here. But, see my comments above. Given that hotels don’t have the same kind of alliances that airlines have, your choice of credit card more directly impacts where you can spend your points.
| American Express | Bilt | Capital One | Chase | Citibank | Wells Fargo | |
| Accor Live Limitless | 3:2 | 1:0.5 | 1:0.5 | |||
| Choice Privileges | 1:1 | 1:1 | 1:2 | 1:1 | ||
| Hilton Honors | 1:2 | 1:1 | ||||
| IHG One Rewards | 1:1 | 1:1 | ||||
| I Prefer Hotel Rewards | 1:2 | |||||
| Leaders Club | 1:0.2 | |||||
| Marriott Bonvoy | 1:1 | 1:1 | 1:1 | |||
| Preferred Hotels & Resorts | 1:4 | |||||
| World of Hyatt | 1:1 | 1:1 | ||||
| Wyndham Rewards | 1:1 | 1:1 | 1:1 | 1:1 |
Other transfer partners
To me, these are something of a gimmick and not really worthwhile. But, for completeness sake, I list them anyway.
| American Express | Bilt | Capital One | Chase | Citibank | Wells Fargo | |
| Shop your way | 1:10 |
Summary
In this post I gave an overview of all the transfer partners for all the major points currencies of US banks. There really isn’t one points currency that is ‘the best’, as every currency has different partnerships that are more or less useful depending on your loyalty to certain airlines, where you live and what your preferences are. That said, I find Chase, Bilt and Amex to offer some of the most interesting transfer opportunities. That said, Citibank and Capital One are no slouches either, though Wells Fargo is definitely not in the same league as the others.
Points to Seats 
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