Points and miles are relatively easy to understand at a high level, but most consumers get lost in the nitty-gritty details. Transfer bonuses fall into the category of nitty-gritty because they always sound like a no-brainer way to increase your miles and points balance, but are they really always a good option?
What are Transfer Bonuses?
Transfer bonuses are promotions by a financial institution and a loyalty program to sell more points. The promotion is simple in nature. If the normal transfer ratio is 1:1, it will be increased for a limited time to something like 1:1.3, meaning you’ll receive 30% more loyalty points than you would have normally when transferring points into that program.
It sounds great in theory, but transfer bonuses are rarely something that is a “must-do” activity in the points and miles world. Quite often, these promotions are run by the least popular transfer partners, as they’re hoping more people will take the plunge with their loyalty program. The most popular programs to transfer your points to, like Air Canada Aeroplan, rarely run transfer bonuses in Canada.
How to Keep Track of Miles & Points Transfer Bonuses
To shamelessly plug our own service, the Frugal Flyer Team prides itself on being the most up-to-date website in Canada regarding transfer bonuses. By clicking on the ‘Bonus’ radio button on our miles & points transfer partner tool you can see every issuer that has a transfer bonus when transferring to a loyalty program for Canadian and American banks.
Using the Transfer Partner filter, you can also get an idea of which bank programs transfer to the same loyalty programs. This is helpful if you’ve diversified your points earning (which is a very smart thing to do) and want to keep track of how many points you could transfer to one loyalty account.
In this example, I’ve highlighted the loyalty programs that use “Avios” as you can easily transfer points between them. If you’re new to that concept, it’s a bit of a strange loyalty program. Many Oneworld carriers use the same loyalty program, Avios, and you can transfer your British Airways points to Qatar’s loyalty program, Qatar Airways Privilege Club, or Iberia’s loyalty program, Iberia Plus.
Understanding which points can be transferred where, and at what ratio, will go a long way in determining the value of a transfer bonus should one pop up for a loyalty program you are interested in.
The Value of Transferring Points During a Transfer Bonus
Accrue More Loyalty Points
This is a fairly obvious point, but you will receive more loyalty points if you transfer your points during a transfer bonus promotion. Points can be earned relatively easily, but having more of them is always a good thing as it can allow you to stretch your earned miles and points that much further.
As long as they get used before expiry… read up on Miles & Points Expiration Rules if you want to know more about how long your miles will be good for in a certain loyalty program.
Receive a Greater Value Per Bank Point
When you take advantage of a transfer bonus, you also receive more value from each bank point. In Canada, RBC Avion Rewards annually offers at least one transfer bonus to British Airways Executive Club that ranges from 25% to 30% year to year.
This can significantly increase the amount of points a card earns. For example, the RBC Ion+ card regularly earns 3 points per dollar on gas, but if you transfer your points to British Airways during a 30% transfer bonus, you’ve effectively earned 3.9 points per dollar spent on gas.
That is far and away the best multiplier on fuel purchases in Canada, as each British Airways Avios is worth about 2 cents, making for a 7.8% return on fuel. This doesn’t take into account the 3 cents per litre discount you receive for using an RBC card at Petro Canada locations, which is worth another ~1.8% depending on the price of fuel.
And keep in mind, gift cards are also sold at gas stations!
Get Closer to Your Next Redemption
In addition to receiving more value for your points, you’ll also be closer to your next redemption for that double bed in the sky on Qatar Airways QSuites or a wistful hotel stay at the Mount Juliet Estate in Ireland if you transfer to Marriott Bonvoy.
Simply put, transferring points during a transfer bonus when you have a redemption in mind is an easy way to make that redemption effectively cheaper than if you transferred at a normal ratio. If you know you’re going to use the points before they expire, transferring during a bonus could be an excellent opportunity to inch closer to your next vacation.
The Risks of Speculatively Transferring Points Due to a Transfer Bonus
Award Program Devaluations
Contrary to real-life currency, which ebbs and flows in value, loyalty program currencies never increase in value and will always decrease in value over time. This is what we refer to as a devaluation, and it tends to happen yearly as loyalty programs update their award charts, usually not in consumers’ favor.
If you transfer your points without an immediate plan to use them, you’re now at the whims of that loyalty program. For example, Cathay Pacific Asia Miles recently went through a devaluation that increased award prices by nearly 30%. So, if you had speculatively transferred points during a 15% transfer bonus, you would have effectively lost 12% of the value of your bank points.
Miles and Points Expiring
We don’t see this too often in the Canadian market as all of our common transfer partners (Aeroplan, British Airways Avios, Air France/KLM Flying Blue, and Asia Miles) are ‘expiry friendly’ and have easy ways to extend the life of the points in your frequent flyer account.
But if you’ve gotten into US Credit Cards, some partners, like ANA Mileage Club and Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer, have hard expiry dates, and you cannot extend the life of the miles. This means that if you are going to transfer points to these programs, you need to use ‘em or lose ‘em. This makes speculatively transferring into these programs a massive risk and often, a downright bad idea.
Stranding Points in a Less-Than-Useful Program For Your Travel Habits
The usefulness of a loyalty program depends entirely on your travel habits as each consumer will see the value that each program offers differently. British Airways Avios will be hard to use if you only travel domestically, as American Airlines has become quite stingy with partner award space.
So, while most of us love transferring our RBC Avion Rewards to British Airways during a 30% transfer bonus as a result of the number of great business class redemptions that are possible, a domestic traveler would be better off sending their Avion Rewards to American Airlines. Points only have value when you use them!
What Makes a Good Speculative Points Transfer
You Are Guaranteed to Use the Points
There are few and far between transfer bonuses that will be a home run. But some examples include Chase Ultimate Rewards offering a 20% bonus to Aeroplan.
Aeroplan is an extremely diverse program, as there’s value in traveling domestically or to virtually any corner of the globe. I think every type of traveler can use their Aeroplan points for high value.
Combined with the recent update to Aeroplan’s terms and conditions limiting members to 3 welcome bonuses, points have become harder to earn. Keeping Aeroplan points alive is also super easy. If you spend money on a co-branded Aeroplan credit card, your points stay alive for another 18 months.
While there’s an argument to be made that Chase Ultimate Rewards should be transferred to World of Hyatt, the recent loss of Small Luxury Hotels makes that hotel loyalty program even more niche than it already was.
Other Transfer Partners Have Less Value
Contrary to my previous point about RBC Avion Rewards, some travelers will probably never transfer RBC points to American Airlines. Reviewing the RBC Transfer partners, there’s a small selection to choose from for award travel enthusiasts which includes WestJet Rewards, American Airlines AAdvantage, British Airways Executive Club, and Cathay Pacific Asia Miles.
If you’re interested in sweet spots like Iberia’s Business Class for 34,000 Avios or hopping around Europe in British Airways Economy for 4,750 Avios, British Airways becomes the obvious choice for your RBC Points.
Using the Iberia Business Class example, this means only 27,000 RBC Points (transferred during a 30% bonus) per person to fly lie-flat to Europe!
Combine that with the fact that American Airlines has a poor transfer ratio of 1:0.7 from RBC Avion Rewards, and you’ll receive 85% more points by transferring your Avion Rewards to British Airways during a 30% transfer bonus.
A slam dunk, no-brainer, home run, random sports analogy, deal indeed!
Conclusion
Transfer bonuses almost always sound like a great deal; you’re getting more out of your hard-earned points! The reality is that the most popular loyalty programs rarely offer transfer bonuses, and if they do, you have to be prepared to take advantage.
You can track current offerings using our Miles & Points Transfer Partner Tool to maximize your points, but be sure you can use those bonus points soon!
Frequently Asked Questions
If you want to view the current transfer bonus promotions, visit the Miles & Points Transfer Tool and select the “Bonus” radio button. This tool is updated frequently with all current transfer bonuses in North America.
Unfortunately, there is no way to tell when the next transfer bonus will be available. Looking at trends historically can be helpful in determining the frequency at which transfer bonuses tend to be offered.
Certain programs, such as Virgin Atlantic Flying Club offer much more frequent transfer bonuses, whereas other programs, like Air Canada Aeroplan, offer transfer bonuses rarely.
Daniel Burkett
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