How long does it take to transfer points to airline and hotel programs?

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I love transferable points.  The ability to transfer points to 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 for only 55,000 or 60,000 points one-way?  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 resource post is intended to help with that.  For each major transferable points program, you’ll find below data-driven estimated times for point transfers.  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.

a hourglass with coins in it

AwardWallet is a tool that helps you keep track of your points and other rewards (details about AwardWallet, including a free 6 month upgrade to AwardWallet Pro 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 (details about Balance Watch can be found here).  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 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.  Most of the time estimates shown below come from AwardWallet’s data, but in a few cases where they didn’t have data we provided our own results (for example, Nick found that transfers from Capital One to Turkish Miles & Smiles were instant!).  We’ve also added this information to our Transfer Partner Master List.  One nice surprise (to me) when compiling this information was finding that a number of Marriott Bonvoy transfers only take about 1 day to complete.  I had the mistaken notion that most took much longer.

American Express Membership Rewards

For details about Amex points, see: Amex Membership Rewards Points Complete Guide.

Rewards ProgramAmex Transfer Ratio
(and transfer time)
Aer Lingus Avios1 to 1 (Instant)
AeroMexico ClubPremier1 to 1.6 (1 to 2 days)
Air Canada Aeroplan1 to 1 (Instant)
Air France KLM Flying Blue1 to 1 (~10 minutes to 1 day)
ANA Mileage Club1 to 1 (~1 day)
Avianca LifeMiles1 to 1 (Instant)
British Airways Avios1 to 1 (Instant)
Cathay Pacific Asia Miles1 to 1 (Instant)
Choice1 to 1 (Instant)
Delta SkyMiles1 to 1 plus excise tax (Instant)
Emirates Skywards1 to 1 (Instant)
Etihad Guest1 to 1 (Instant)
Hawaiian Miles1 to 1 plus excise tax (Instant)
Hilton1 to 2 (Instant)
Iberia Avios1 to 1 (~12 - 72 hours (slower over weekend))
JetBlue250 to 200 plus excise tax (Instant)
Marriott Bonvoy1 to 1 (~1 day)
Qantas Frequent Flyer1 to 1 (Instant)
Qatar Privilege Club Avios1 to 1 ()
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer1 to 1 (Instant)
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club1 to 1 (Instant)

Capital One “Miles”

For details about Capital One points, see: Capital One “Miles” Complete Guide.

Rewards ProgramCapital One Transfer Ratio
(and transfer time)
Accor Live Limitless1000 to 500 (Unknown)
Aer Lingus Avios1 to 1 via BA (Unknown)
AeroMexico ClubPremier1 to 1 (Instant)
Air Canada Aeroplan1 to 1 (Instant)
Air France KLM Flying Blue1 to 1 (Instant)
Avianca LifeMiles1 to 1 (Instant)
British Airways Avios1 to 1 (Unknown)
Cathay Pacific Asia Miles1 to 1 (Instant)
Choice1 to 1 (Instant)
Emirates Skywards1 to 1 (Instant)
Etihad Guest1 to 1 (Instant)
EVA Air Infinity MileageLands1000 to 750 (~1 day)
Finnair Plus+1 to 1 (Instant)
Iberia Avios1 to 1 via BA (Unknown)
Qantas Frequent Flyer1 to 1 (~1 day)
Qatar Privilege Club Avios1 to 1 via BA (Unknown)
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer1 to 1 (~7 hours)
TAP Air Portugal1 to 1 (Unknown)
Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles1 to 1 (Instant)
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club1 to 1 (Unknown)
Wyndham1 to 1 (Instant)

Chase Ultimate Rewards

For details about Chase points, see: Chase Ultimate Rewards Complete Guide.

Rewards ProgramChase Transfer Ratio
(and transfer time)
Aer Lingus Avios1 to 1 (Instant)
Air Canada Aeroplan1 to 1 (Instant)
Air France KLM Flying Blue1 to 1 (Instant)
British Airways Avios1 to 1 (Instant)
Emirates Skywards1 to 1 (Instant)
Hyatt1 to 1 (Instant)
Iberia Avios1 to 1 (Instant)
IHG1 to 1 (5 hours)
JetBlue1 to 1 (Instant)
Marriott Bonvoy1 to 1 (~1 day)
Qatar Privilege Club Avios1 to 1 via BA (Instant)
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer1 to 1 (~17 hours)
Southwest Rapid Rewards1 to 1 (Instant)
United MileagePlus1 to 1 (Instant)
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club1 to 1 (Instant)

Citi ThankYou Rewards

For details about Citi points, see: Citi ThankYou Rewards Complete Guide.

Rewards ProgramCiti Transfer Ratio
(and transfer time)
Accor Live Limitless1000 to 500 (Unknown)
Aer Lingus Avios1 to 1 via Qatar, BA (1 to 2 days)
AeroMexico ClubPremier1 to 1 (~6 days)
Air France KLM Flying Blue1 to 1 (Instant)
Avianca LifeMiles1 to 1 (Instant)
British Airways Avios1 to 1 via Qatar (1 to 2 days)
Cathay Pacific Asia Miles1 to 1 (Instant)
Choice1 to 2 (Instant)
Emirates Skywards1 to 1 (Instant)
Etihad Guest1 to 1 (~1 hour)
EVA Air Infinity MileageLands1 to 1 (Instant)
Iberia Avios1 to 1 via Qatar, BA (1 to 2 days)
Jet Airways Inter Miles1 to 1 (Instant)
JetBlue1 to 1 (Instant)
Leading Hotels of the World1K to 200 (Instant)
Malaysia Enrich1 to 1 (1 to 2 days)
Qantas Frequent Flyer1 to 1 (~1 day)
Qatar Privilege Club Avios1 to 1 (1 to 2 days)
Shop Your Way Rewards1 to 10 (Instant)
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer1 to 1 (~1 day)
Thai Airways International Royal Orchid Plus1 to 1 (3 to 7 days)
Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles1 to 1 (~1 day)
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club1 to 1 (Instant)
Wyndham1 to 1 (Instant)

Marriott Bonvoy

For details about Marriott points, see: Marriott Bonvoy Complete Guide.

Rewards ProgramMarriott Transfer Ratio
(and transfer time)
Aegean Miles + Bonus60K to 25K (~1 day)
Aer Lingus Avios60K to 25K (Unknown)
Aeroflot Bonus60K to 25K (Unknown)
AeroMexico ClubPremier60K to 25K (2 to 4 days)
Air Canada Aeroplan60K to 25K (4 to 5 days)
Air China Phoenix Miles60K to 25K (Unknown)
Air France KLM Flying Blue60K to 25K (1 to 3 days)
Air New Zealand Air Points60K to 307 (1 to 2 days)
Alaska MileagePlan60K to 25K (~2 days)
American AAdvantage3K to 1K (~2 days)
ANA Mileage Club60K to 25K (4 to 7 days)
Asiana60K to 25K (~1 day)
Avianca LifeMiles3K to 1K (~1 day)
British Airways Avios60K to 25K (~10 hours)
Cathay Pacific Asia Miles60K to 25K (~1 day)
China Eastern Airlines60K to 25K (Unknown)
China Southern Airlines’ Sky Pearl Club60K to 25K (Unknown)
Copa Airlines ConnectMiles60K to 25K (~3 days)
Delta SkyMiles3K to 1K (1 to 2 days)
Emirates Skywards60K to 25K (~3 days)
Etihad Guest60K to 25K (3 to 5 days)
Frontier Miles60K to 25K (Unknown)
Hainan Airlines60K to 25K (12 hours to 1 day)
Hawaiian Miles60K to 25K (1 to 2 days)
Iberia Avios60K to 25K (~1 to 2 days)
JAL (Japan Airlines) Mileage Bank60K to 25K (~2 days)
Jet Airways Inter Miles60K to 25K (~7 days)
JetBlue60K to 12.5K (Unknown)
Korean Airlines3K to 1K (~1 day)
LATAM Pass60K to 25K (~1 day)
Multiplus60K to 25K (Unknown)
Qantas Frequent Flyer60K to 25K (~2 days)
Qatar Privilege Club Avios60K to 25K (3 to 4 days)
Saudia Airlines60K to 25K (~5 days)
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer60K to 25K (~1 day)
South African Airways Voyager60K to 25K (Unknown)
Southwest Rapid Rewards60K to 25K (1 to 2 days)
TAP Air Portugal60K to 25K (Unknown)
Thai Airways International Royal Orchid Plus60K to 25K (~4 days)
Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles60K to 25K (~1 day)
United MileagePlus60K to 30K (2 to 5 days)
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club60K to 25K (1 to 2 days)
Virgin Australia Velocity Frequent Flyer60K to 25K (Unknown)
Vueling Club60K 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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