We love transferable points programs. The ability to move bank points into multiple airline and hotel programs makes it possible to get far outsized value from your points.
Want to book ANA First Class from the U.S. to Japan? Great. Once you find available award space, you can transfer points from Amex, Chase, Citi, or Marriott to Virgin Atlantic to book this sweet-spot award.
The problem is that not all transfers are instant. That coveted first class award space may disappear before your points have converted to miles. This post is intended to help with that and below you’ll find data-driven time estimates for point transfers from all of the major bank rewards programs (and Marriott) to the various airline and hotel loyalty programs.
How transfer times are determined
AwardWallet is a tool that helps you keep track of your points and other rewards (details about AwardWallet can be found here). AwardWallet also has a cool feature called Balance Watch that will check your account balance frequently and alert you when points post. This is great to use when transferring points to book an award because you’ll get an alert when points post. That’s far preferable to logging into your rewards account over and over again to check.
Another cool feature of AwardWallet is that they use real world Balance Watch data to come up with data-driven transfer time estimates. You can find their results here or in the post below. Many of the time estimates shown below come from AwardWallet’s data, but in quite a few cases where they didn’t have data we provided results from our own experience, or from readers. We’ve also added this information to our Transfer Partner Master List.
American Express Membership Rewards
For details about Amex points, see: Amex Membership Rewards Points Complete Guide.
| Rewards Program | Amex Transfer Ratio (and transfer time) |
|---|---|
| Aer Lingus Avios | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| AeroMexico ClubPremier | 1 to 1.6 (Instant) |
| Air Canada Aeroplan | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Air France KLM Flying Blue | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Alaska MileagePlan | 1 to 1 via Hawaiian (Instant) |
| ANA Mileage Club | 1 to 1 (~1 day) |
| Avianca LifeMiles | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| British Airways Avios | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Cathay Pacific Asia Miles | 1 to 1 (~1 day) |
| Choice | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Delta SkyMiles | 1 to 1 plus excise tax (Instant) |
| Emirates Skywards | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Etihad Guest | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Finnair Plus+ | 1 to 1 via BA (Instant) |
| Hawaiian Miles | 1 to 1 plus excise tax (Instant) |
| Hilton | 1 to 2 (Instant) |
| Iberia Avios | 1 to 1 (~12 - 72 hours (slower over weekend)) |
| JetBlue | 250 to 200 plus excise tax (Instant) |
| Marriott Bonvoy | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Qantas Frequent Flyer | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Qatar Privilege Club Avios | 1 to 1 (12 - 24 hours) |
| Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Virgin Atlantic Flying Club | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
Bilt Rewards
For details about Bilt points, see: Bilt Rewards Complete Guide.
| Rewards Program | Bilt Transfer Ratio (and transfer time) |
|---|---|
| Accor Live Limitless | 3 to 2 (Unknown) |
| Aer Lingus Avios | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Air Canada Aeroplan | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Air France KLM Flying Blue | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Alaska MileagePlan | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Avianca LifeMiles | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| British Airways Avios | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Cathay Pacific Asia Miles | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Emirates Skywards | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Finnair Plus+ | 1 to 1 via BA (Instant) |
| Hilton | 1 to 1 (Unknown) |
| Hyatt | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Iberia Avios | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| IHG | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Marriott Bonvoy | 20K to 25K (Instant) |
| Qatar Privilege Club Avios | 1 to 1 via BA (Instant) |
| TAP Air Portugal | 1 to 1 (Unknown) |
| Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| United MileagePlus | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Virgin Atlantic Flying Club | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
Capital One “Miles”
For details about Capital One Miles, see: Capital One “Miles” Complete Guide.
| Rewards Program | Capital One Transfer Ratio (and transfer time) |
|---|---|
| Accor Live Limitless | 1000 to 500 (Instant) |
| Aer Lingus Avios | 1 to 1 via BA (Instant) |
| AeroMexico ClubPremier | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Air Canada Aeroplan | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Air France KLM Flying Blue | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Avianca LifeMiles | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| British Airways Avios | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Cathay Pacific Asia Miles | 1 to 1 (1 - 2 days) |
| Choice | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Emirates Skywards | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Etihad Guest | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| EVA Air Infinity MileageLands | 1000 to 750 (~1 day) |
| Finnair Plus+ | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Iberia Avios | 1 to 1 via BA (Instant) |
| Qantas Frequent Flyer | 1 to 1 (~1 day) |
| Qatar Privilege Club Avios | 1 to 1 via BA (Instant) |
| Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| TAP Air Portugal | 1 to 1 (Unknown) |
| Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Virgin Atlantic Flying Club | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Wyndham | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
Chase Ultimate Rewards
For details about Chase points, see: Chase Ultimate Rewards Complete Guide.
| Rewards Program | Chase Transfer Ratio (and transfer time) |
|---|---|
| Aer Lingus Avios | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Air Canada Aeroplan | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Air France KLM Flying Blue | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| British Airways Avios | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Emirates Skywards | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Finnair Plus+ | 1 to 1 via BA (Instant) |
| Hyatt | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Iberia Avios | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| IHG | 1 to 1 (5 hours) |
| JetBlue | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Marriott Bonvoy | 1 to 1 (1 - 2 days) |
| Qatar Privilege Club Avios | 1 to 1 via BA (Instant) |
| Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer | 1 to 1 (~1 day) |
| Southwest Rapid Rewards | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| United MileagePlus | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Virgin Atlantic Flying Club | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
Citi ThankYou Rewards
For details about Citi points, see: Citi ThankYou Rewards Complete Guide.
| Rewards Program | Citi Transfer Ratio (and transfer time) |
|---|---|
| Accor Live Limitless | 1000 to 500 (Instant) |
| Aer Lingus Avios | 1 to 1 via Qatar (~1 day) |
| AeroMexico ClubPremier | 1 to 1 (~6 days) |
| Air France KLM Flying Blue | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Avianca LifeMiles | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| British Airways Avios | 1 to 1 via Qatar (~1 day) |
| Cathay Pacific Asia Miles | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Choice | 1 to 2 (Instant) |
| Emirates Skywards | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Etihad Guest | 1 to 1 (~1 hour) |
| EVA Air Infinity MileageLands | 1 to 1 (2 to 4 days) |
| Finnair Plus+ | 1 to 1 via Qatar (~1 day) |
| Iberia Avios | 1 to 1 via Qatar (~1 day) |
| Jet Airways Inter Miles | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| JetBlue | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Leading Hotels of the World | 1K to 200 (Instant) |
| Malaysia Enrich | 1 to 1 (1 to 2 days) |
| Preferred Hotels & Resorts I Prefer | 1 to 4 (Instant) |
| Qantas Frequent Flyer | 1 to 1 (~1 day) |
| Qatar Privilege Club Avios | 1 to 1 (~1 day) |
| Shop Your Way Rewards | 1 to 10 (Instant) |
| Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer | 1 to 1 (~1 day) |
| Thai Airways International Royal Orchid Plus | 1 to 1 (3 to 7 days) |
| Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles | 1 to 1 (12 - 24 hours) |
| Virgin Atlantic Flying Club | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Wyndham | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
Marriott Bonvoy
For details about Marriott points, see: Marriott Bonvoy Complete Guide.
| Rewards Program | Marriott Transfer Ratio (and transfer time) |
|---|---|
| Aegean Miles + Bonus | 60K to 25K (~3 days) |
| Aer Lingus Avios | 60K to 25K (Unknown) |
| Aeroflot Bonus | 60K to 25K (Unknown) |
| AeroMexico ClubPremier | 60K to 25K (2 - 4 days) |
| Air Canada Aeroplan | 60K to 25K (4 - 5 days) |
| Air China Phoenix Miles | 60K to 25K (Unknown) |
| Air France KLM Flying Blue | 60K to 25K (1 - 3 days) |
| Air New Zealand Air Points | 60K to 307 (1 - 2 days) |
| Alaska MileagePlan | 60K to 25K (12 - 24 hours) |
| American AAdvantage | 3K to 1K (~2 days) |
| ANA Mileage Club | 60K to 25K (4 to 7 days) |
| Asiana | 60K to 25K (~1 day) |
| Avianca LifeMiles | 3K to 1K (~1 day) |
| British Airways Avios | 60K to 25K (~10 hours) |
| Cathay Pacific Asia Miles | 60K to 25K (~1 day) |
| China Eastern Airlines | 60K to 25K (Unknown) |
| China Southern Airlines’ Sky Pearl Club | 60K to 25K (Unknown) |
| Copa Airlines ConnectMiles | 60K to 25K (~3 days) |
| Delta SkyMiles | 3K to 1K (1 - 2 days) |
| Emirates Skywards | 60K to 25K (~3 days) |
| Etihad Guest | 60K to 25K (3 - 5 days) |
| Frontier Miles | 60K to 25K (Unknown) |
| Hainan Airlines | 60K to 25K (12 hours to 1 day) |
| Hawaiian Miles | 60K to 25K (1 - 2 days) |
| Iberia Avios | 60K to 25K (~1 - 2 days) |
| JAL (Japan Airlines) Mileage Bank | 60K to 25K (~3 days) |
| Jet Airways Inter Miles | 60K to 25K (~7 days) |
| JetBlue | 60K to 12.5K (Unknown) |
| LATAM Pass | 60K to 25K (~1 day) |
| Multiplus | 60K to 25K (Unknown) |
| Qantas Frequent Flyer | 60K to 25K (~2 days) |
| Qatar Privilege Club Avios | 60K to 25K (3 - 4 days) |
| Saudia Airlines | 60K to 25K (~5 days) |
| Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer | 60K to 25K (~4 days) |
| South African Airways Voyager | 60K to 25K (Unknown) |
| Southwest Rapid Rewards | 60K to 25K (1 - 2 days) |
| TAP Air Portugal | 60K to 25K (Unknown) |
| Thai Airways International Royal Orchid Plus | 60K to 25K (~4 days) |
| Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles | 60K to 25K (~1 day) |
| United MileagePlus | 60K to 30K (2 - 5 days) |
| Virgin Atlantic Flying Club | 60K to 25K (12 - 24 hours) |
| Virgin Australia Velocity Frequent Flyer | 60K to 25K (Unknown) |
| Vueling Club | 60K to 25K (Unknown) |
Sorted by Loyalty Program
Note that if you prefer to see the transfer times arranged by loyalty program rather than by transferable points program, see our Transfer Partner Master List.
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Just transferred Cap 1 miles to Singapore from wife’s and my account. Both transfers were instantaneous.
Awesome, thanks for the info!
Attempted to transfer 400k+ Cap1 miles to Flying Blue in last month. Points never made it to Flying Blue.
15 days after the transfer attempt received a form email from Cap1 that “something about the transfer didn’t seem quite right and they wanted to check with me before moving forward”.
Problem is I called Cap1 phone reps at least 5x over these 15 days to verify I wanted the points transferred. The Cap1 reps have zero ability to help beyond saying you need to wait 15 days to see if the “external transfer” completes. Asking for a supervisor was equally pointless. Zero customer service.
Haven’t transferred any points yet but would love to hear any advise as to whether I may be stalled if my middle name is on my passport + ID but not my credit card. I understand it should be an exact match from cc to airline membership for it to transfer instantly, and hope when booking a redemption the airline allows me to fill in the name as it shows on my ID’s. As I’m busy setting up all possible new airline memberships in anticipation of a future transfer, add middle name now or not?
Chase > IHG has been ~1 business day for me. Latest xfer was last week.
Chase > Hyatt was a few days, did the transfer a few weeks ago.
I’ve almost never experienced instant transfer from Chase.
Gonna produce another DP. All of my Amex -> CX transfers have been instant. Includes P1->P1 and P2->P1 xfers. I also had a Marriott->JMB take 2 days but that’s close enough.
I would also love to see Hyatt->Airline DPs since it can often be possible to transfer 2:1 into anything with WoH. It’s not always a great play but can be a sneaky little value play for something like JAL JMB’s 50k US-TYO J space.
What do you mean by P2 -> P1?
I transferred from my wife’s Membership Rewards account into my AsiaMiles account. I’m an authorized user on one of her MR earning cards and have been for some time.
Oh and one more. The handful of times I’ve needed to do Chase->IHG to top off have all been instant, fwiw.
Feedback / request — I’d love to see the transfer time as a separate column so it’s like:
Partner | Time | Ratio
And allow sorting / filtering by columns.
Two weeks ago had to xfer 220K C1 to Aeroplan. It took over 1 week to be completed and I needed points asap to get an award. I ended up xferring 220K AMEX to Aeroplan which occurred instantly in order to get the tickets.
I posted this on a different thread but Singapore from Chase also wasn’t instant – took over 24h for me and over 3 days for P2 this spring. In the past it was instant. From the other comments here and from comments I’ve seen on elsewhere, Chase transfers to several programs have not been instant recently for all.
Chase to Emirates is not always instant, in fact there are many reports on r/awardtravel of this issue. I recently transferred on a weekend, and it took 72 hours for the points to arrive (Sunday – Wednesday).
https://www.reddit.com/r/awardtravel/comments/1c6pv4z/emirates_points_transfer_delay/
Fortunately, if you call Emirates you can put tickets on hold and call back once the points show up. They held the tickets for 96 hours.
However, I think the table should be updated because Chase is not a reliable instant transfer partner of Emirates, and if you are planning to upgrade at check in and need an instant transfer then you can’t be sure Chase will work out. I have not heard similar reports about Amex, so I will try them if I can upgrade at check in.
Funny, I needed a quick transfer to Emirates for an award booking a few days ago. I started with Amex, and after doing the transfer, within minutes, the transfer appeared to happen and then get reversed, with the MR points returned to my account. Wasn’t sure why, so went to Chase, and the transfer was instant with no issues. So for me UR was much better than MR.
I recently had a UR transfer to BA take 45 hours! The JAL first class space I was booking obviously disappeared while they screwed around
[…] you transfer points to Flying Blue, they should be in your account within a few minutes or up to one day. You will need to create a Flying Blue account in […]
FYI I initiated a transfer of Marriott Bonvoy points to United on 10/18 (6 days ago). They still haven’t posted and when I contacted them they said it would take 6-8 weeks!! That may be their standard line they’re supposed to feed, but pretty unreal.
Exactly my experience since transferring miles on Oct 19th and haven’t posted yet. I don’t have any travel planned on the horizon yet but for someone who’s planning 6-8 weeks is outrageous.
Update here: They posted on the 7th day. Almost exactly a week down to the hour after I initiated the transfer. They probably quote the 6-8 weeks since they’re told to, but this was not a quick experience.
I transferred Marriott Bonvoy Points to United MileagePlus it’s day 6 not yet recieved
Yikes. Once your miles post please let us know how long it took so that we can update this.
New data point for transfers from Amex to Singapore. They MIGHT be instant. Transferred today 10/19 and was surprised to see a message saying something to the effect of “most transfers are immediate…but may take up to 48 hours…” I didn’t think much of it, but when I checked my Singapore account a couple hours later the miles were there.
Interesting. That would be a nice improvement!
Circling back on this because I made another Amex to Singapore transfer and can confirm that transfers are indeed instant now. Big improvement.
Thanks! I updated the table accordingly.
I transferred AMEX to Singapore in April & it took 3 days. Then the fun started. It turned out that my birth date in my 50 year old Membership Rewards account was off by one day. I had never had a problem transferring to anyone else before. But, I set up the Krisflyer account just before I transferred the points and that, I think, started a 10 day rodeo providing all kinds of identifying information because they suspected fraud (I think). It finally got resolved, but I would recommend verifying the personal data in your MR account before you need to transfer points.
[…] from 48 hours to seven days. Yep, seven! Read my sad story and weep. Although, per Award Wallet and Frequent Miler, things might have improved since […]