How often do airline and hotel programs offer transfer bonuses?

Let’s say that you have a healthy stash of transferable points like Amex Membership Rewards or Chase Ultimate Rewards. You see that there’s a 30% transfer bonus to a specific travel partner that lasts one month only. Should you transfer?

If you have an immediate high value use for the points, then you absolutely should. But what if you don’t have a near term need for the points but you’re still confident you’ll use the them to good value eventually (what we call a speculative transfer)? While we normally advise against transferring points speculatively, it can be a good idea with a program that you use often. After all, who doesn’t want an additional 20-40% in value?

The question then becomes, “how long will I have to wait until the next transfer bonus rolls around?” If it’s likely to come back soon then there’s no need to hurry. If the bonus is a rare event, then it could be worth considering taking the plunge now.

Fortunately, we keep a running list of transfer bonuses, both current and expired, on our Current Transfer Bonuses page.  Just for larks on a sunny afternoon, we dug through that list to find which bonuses are common and which are rare. Here’s what we found.

Airlines

Greg previously published a salacious expose on the airline programs that you’re most likely to see hawking their wares to a transferable points partner. No surprise, the most “promiscuous” programs are some of the most frequently-bonused as well.

Frequent (bonus) Milers (5+per year)

Air France / KLM Flying Blue (~5-6/year)

The current Membership Rewards bonus is the fifth transfer bonus to Flying Blue this year, one for each of the major programs that it partners with, which seems to be the general flow that it’s held to over the last several years.

When we will see the next bonus? If Air France holds to the current pattern, then this will be the last one this year. We’d expect the next one to appear in March or April of 2025.

Avianca LifeMiles (~5 to infinity and beyond/year)

The 25% transfer bonus from Citi ThankYou Rewards is the fifth transfer bonus to Avianca LifeMiles this year. However, Avianca seems to be on a one year on, one year off cycle. In 2022 and 2024 it was a respectably frisky 5 and 6. respectively. In the odd years, it went crazy: 11 transfer bonuses in 2021 and 13 in 2023. Either way, there’s no need to hurry to get in on the current transfer version as  another one should appear soon.

When we will see the next bonus? LifeMiles seems to like November transfer bonuses so we’ll think that we’ll see another bonus in November of 2024.

Avios (4-5/year)

Multiple awards programs share a common currency called Avios: British Airways, Aer Lingus, Iberia, and Qatar. Since it’s possible to move points from one program to another, it makes sense to lump all of the transfer bonuses to any of these programs together. In other words, when there are transfer bonuses to both British Airways and to Aer Lingus at the same time, we only count that as one. Similarly, if there’s a transfer bonus to Iberia early in the year and one to Qatar late in the year, those would count as two separate Avios transfer bonuses.

In 2024 we’ve seen three transfer bonuses, all identical at 30%. In previous years, it was more common to have 4-5 transfer bonuses, with the recent addition of Qatar improving our options.

When we will see the next bonus?  We’ve never seen back-to-back bonuses this late in the year, so the assumption is that this will be the last in 2024. The next one pop will probably pop up in April or May of 2025.

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club  (~7-8/year)

Virgin Atlantic probably takes the “crown” as the most frequent “bonuser” from year-to-year. The current 30% bonus from Citi ThankYou Rewards is the eighth that we’ve seen this year…and that was after eight bonuses in 2023.

When we will see the next bonus? Virgin Atlantic has had offered transfer bonuses from Membership Rewards in December several times over the last few years. We’ll go out on a limb and predict that we’re going to see another one this year.

On occasion (1-4/year)

Air Canada Aeroplan (2-3x/year)

Historically Amex has offered a small transfer bonus (10% to 20%) to Aeroplan about once per year, but we haven’t seen that happen since 2022…instead it’s primarily been from Chase Ultimate Rewards and through hotel programs.

When we will see the next bonus? Chase has done an end of the year Aeroplan bonus each of the last two year, which makes us think that we’ll see one coming up in the next six weeks or so.

Cathay Pacific Asia Miles (~2-4/year)

We haven’t seen anything higher than a 20% bonus to Cathay Pacific since 2018. Lately, it’s been primarily 10-15%…and we’ve only seen one this year. The last two years, we’ve also seen Cathay run bonuses from four different programs at the same time along with another, mid-year promo with Citi.

When we will see the next bonus?  We haven’t yet seen Asia Miles do its usual multi-partner jamboree of transfer bonuses this year. In 2024, it happened at the end of the year in December; we very well may see that again this year.

Hawaiian Airlines (~1 per year)

Membership Rewards has run 1-2 transfer bonuses to Hawaiian since every year but 2020, the most recent being in September of 2024. However, Alaska Airlines now owns Hawaiian, and Hawaiian’s relationship with Barclays will be ending next year when the program merges. The transfer relationship with American Express is extremely unlikely to survive that transition.

When we will see the next bonus? If previous patterns hold, we’d anticipate seeing one either in February or June. Greg thinks that there’s a good chance of Hawaiian doing a last hurrah for Auld Lang Syne. I’m a little more pessimistic and believe that September’s bonus was the last hurrah.

Slower than molasses on a winter’s day (less than 1 per year)

AeroMexico

Capital One and Citi transfer 1:1 to AeroMexico. However, that’s usually an unattractive option, even with a transfer bonus, as AeroMexico charges more for their awards than many other programs. Amex Membership Rewards, though, transfers 1,000:1,600 to AeroMexico and so a transfer bonus from Amex might be interesting.

When we will see the next bonus?  It’s hard to say. We’ve only seen one transfer bonus to AeroMexico in the last three years. Luckily, we’re not missing out on much in the meantime.

Qantas

In 2019 we saw 6 different transfer bonuses to Qantas. Since then, there were two in 2020, one in 2021, one in 2022 and only one in the last two years. At first it seemed like COVID and the resulting travel disruptions were the culprit, but we’re not certain why they’ve continued to be so infrequent since then.

When we will see the next bonus? No idea.

Hotels

Accor Live Limitless (1 per year)

Accor is an interesting program, as points are worth a fixed value of 2 Eurocents each (~2.16 cents at current exchange rates). With that kind of value, transferring from any program would be an awesome deal at 1:1. Unfortunately, Capital One and Citi both transfer at 2:1, while Bilt is slightly better at 3:2. Citi has been running a yearly 50% bonus to Accor, effectively making the transfer worth around 1.5 cents each. That’s not dynamite, but it’s probably the best opportunity if you’re looking to dip your toes in the Live Limitless program. If Bilt decides to run a transfer bonus on top of its standard 3:2 ratio, it could be very interesting.

When we will see the next bonus?  Unless Bilt uses Accor for a Rent Day bonus, we anticipate that the next Accor bonus will be from Citi in the first half of next year.

Hilton Honors (2 or 3 per year)

We’ve seen two or three transfer bonuses each year from Amex to Hilton. Common bonuses include 25%, 30%, and 40%. Amex’s standard transfer ratio to Hilton is 1000 to 2000, so a 30% bonus bumps that up to 1000 to 2600.

When we will see the next bonus?  We’re betting another one will show up in November December.  .

IHG (~1-2 per year)

IHG is a 1:1 transfer partner of both Bilt and Chase, but it’s a terrible idea to use either of them. IHG points are routinely on sale for 0.5 cents each, so you’d get a much better return on your Ultimate Rewards by cashing them out at 1 cent each and then buying the IHG points.

When we will see the next bonus?  Probably early next year, but don’t be tempted.

Marriott Bonvoy (~3 per year)

Recently, we’ve seen 3-4 Marriott transfer bonuses per year, 2 from Chase and 1-2 from Amex. This year we saw the biggest, Bonvoy transfer ever when Chase ran a 70% promo in August.

When we will see the next bonus?  We wouldn’t be surprised to see Amex slide one in within the next few weeks…probably about the time that the current Chase promo ends.

Wyndham (~1 per year)

We’ve seen one 20% transfer bonus per year from Citi ThankYou Rewards to Wyndham, something that can be attractive for those that use Wyndham points for Vacasa Vacation rentals. This year, Citi surprisingly doubled-up, doing one in July and one at the end of the year.

When we will see the next bonus? Next Summer, same bat time, same bat place.

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