How to Transfer Credit Card Points to Airlines

Every issuer keeps its own list of partners, and the lists overlap only partly. The full grid is on the transfer partners page; the outline is:

• Chase Ultimate Rewards: United, Aeroplan, British Airways, Flying Blue, KrisFlyer, Virgin Atlantic and others at 1:1, from cards that earn transferable points such as Sapphire Preferred, Sapphire Reserve and Ink Preferred. Transfers move in blocks of 1,000 points.
• Amex Membership Rewards: Delta, Aeroplan, British Airways, Flying Blue, KrisFlyer, Virgin Atlantic and Qantas at 1:1; Cathay and Emirates at 5:4. Amex no longer transfers to Etihad. Transfers to US airlines carry an excise fee of $0.0006 per point, capped at $99.
• Capital One miles: Aeroplan, British Airways, Cathay, Etihad, Flying Blue, Qantas, Qatar, KrisFlyer, Turkish and Virgin Red at 1:1; Emirates, EVA and JAL at 2:1.5. The minimum transfer is 1,000 miles.
• Citi ThankYou: American (premium cards only), Aeromexico, Avianca, Cathay, Emirates, Etihad, EVA, Flying Blue, JetBlue, Qantas, Qatar, KrisFlyer, Thai, Turkish and Virgin Atlantic.
• Bilt: Alaska and Hawaiian (Atmos Rewards), United, Aeroplan, British Airways, Cathay, Emirates, Etihad, Flying Blue, JAL, LifeMiles, Qatar, Turkish, Virgin Atlantic and others at 1:1; American is not on Bilt's list. Minimum 2,000 points for Blue members and 1,000 from Silver, in blocks of 1,000.

Two programs have no bank partners at all: Korean Air SKYPASS and Lufthansa Miles & More. Miles in those programs come only from flying and co-brand cards, which is one reason program-specific valuations differ so much.

Timing depends on the airline, not the bank. Chase says most transfers post by the next business day but may take up to seven business days. Bilt says transfers are immediate but to allow up to 48 hours, or 72 hours for Southwest. Amex shows the time per partner inside the transfer tool once you are logged in; its non-US sites list British Airways and Virgin Atlantic as instant, Delta and Aeroplan within about 30 minutes, and Cathay, Etihad and KrisFlyer taking several business days.

In practice British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, Aeroplan, Flying Blue, United and Delta post within minutes from most issuers, while KrisFlyer, Cathay, JAL and Etihad can take days. Never transfer for a seat that could disappear during a slow transfer without first checking that the program lets you hold or waitlist it.

Chase: "point transfers to travel partners are final." Amex: "all transfers are final." Capital One: there is no way to transfer miles back once the transfer is finalized. Bilt: once points are transferred, they cannot be reversed. Every issuer says the same thing in its own words, and none makes exceptions when an award seat disappears.

So the order of operations matters: find the award seat first, confirm it is bookable with the program you are transferring to, check the taxes and surcharges, and only then move the points. If the seat is gone by the time the miles land, you own miles in a program you may not otherwise use, which is exactly the situation people are in when they sell airline miles.

• Most partners are 1:1. The exceptions worth knowing: Amex to Cathay and Emirates at 5:4; Capital One to Emirates, EVA and JAL at 2:1.5; Citi to Emirates at 1:0.8; Marriott Bonvoy to almost every airline at 3:1 with 5,000 bonus miles per 60,000 points.
• Issuers run transfer bonuses of 15 to 40 percent to particular partners for a few weeks at a time. Bilt's terms say it "may offer promotions of varying transfer rates"; the others announce bonuses on their transfer pages. A bonus changes the math enough that it is worth waiting for one when the booking is not urgent.
• Amex charges an excise fee of $0.0006 per point on transfers to US airlines (Delta, JetBlue, Hawaiian), capped at $99 per transfer. Other issuers charge nothing.
• Amex will only transfer into an airline account held by the cardholder or an additional card member whose card was issued at least 90 days earlier; Chase allows transfers to a household member's account. Transferring into an unrelated person's account breaks the card terms.

A transfer wins when the award you actually want costs fewer miles than the cash value of the points. Business class to Europe through Flying Blue at 60,000 miles plus surcharges, or ANA through Virgin Atlantic at 52,500 points one way, are worth several cents per point against a cash-out rate of one cent or less.

A transfer loses when the seats are not there, when the surcharges eat the saving, or when the balance sits unused because the trip never happens. Bank points held as bank points keep their flexibility; once transferred they are subject to the airline's expiry rule (see do airline miles expire) and its devaluations.

If you are unlikely to book a premium award in the next year or two, compare a quote from Points Plug for the points as they are. Our guide to selling credit card points covers what each currency fetches, and the award chart references show what a transfer would actually buy.