Capital One, Citi, Chase and AmEx Transfer Bonus History

If you have a credit card that earns Chase Ultimate Rewards®, American Express Membership Rewards, Capital One or Citi ThankYou points, you hold valuable travel rewards because the points can be transferred to airline and hotel partners. Once transferred, those points can be used to book award flights and hotel nights.

Although most point transfers are at a 1:1 ratio, sometimes the credit card program will offer a transfer bonus to a specific airline or hotel to sweeten the deal. If you have a redemption in mind and there’s a transfer bonus happening, you could end up booking an award for even less.

We’ve put together a list of current and past transfer bonuses (since 2015) to give you an idea of which partners offer bonuses most often, and when they happen. Although there’s no way of knowing when the next transfer bonus will be, looking at the transfer bonus history could provide some insight.

AmEx transfer bonus history

AmEx has more airline and hotel partners than Chase, Citi and Capital One. In addition, AmEx has typically offered more transfer bonuses than all the other programs. There is no way to predict that this will continue into the future, but AmEx does consistently offer transfer bonuses to its partners.

If you’d like to take advantage of these transfer bonuses, you’ll first need to get a credit card that earns AmEx Membership Rewards points. American Express offers numerous personal and business cards, including those without an annual fee that accumulate these valuable points.

Those who already have some points and are looking for suggestions should be happy knowing that American Express has some excellent transfer partners, including Air France-KLM, ANA, Air Canada and many others.

Chase transfer bonus history

Chase doesn’t offer transfer bonuses very often, and only a few of its programs have participated, with British Airways bonuses offered most frequently.

If you want to start earning Chase Ultimate Rewards® points, you’ll need to get a credit card from Chase that earns these points. Unfortunately, you cannot earn Chase Ultimate Rewards® points if you only have a card without an annual fee. You’ll need to get a card like the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card to start earning points.

However, if you plan on traveling, the benefits provided by the card will more than offset that fee. In addition, once you have a card that earns Chase Ultimate Rewards® points, and you get a no fee card like the Chase Freedom Unlimited®, instead of earning cash back, you’ll be able to earn Chase Ultimate Rewards® points.

Citi ThankYou transfer bonus history

Citi ThankYou is partnered with 15 airlines, two hotels and Sears.

Citi offers transfer bonuses pretty frequently, particularly to AirFrance-KLM and Avianca.

Similar to the other programs, if you want to take advantage of Citi’s transfer partners, you’ll need to get a credit card from Citi that earns ThankYou points. Unfortunately, not all ThankYou point earning cards will give access to all the transfer partners, and so you’ll need to evaluate which partners are most important for you.

However, if you have the Citi Premier® Card or the Citi Prestige® Card, you can take advantage of all the transfer partners. In addition, holders of these two cards can transfer points to Choice and Wyndham at more favorable transfer ratios.

Air France-KLM, Avianca, Singapore Airlines and Turkish Airlines are Citi’s strongest transfer partners, but you’ll need to hold the Citi Premier® Card or the Citi Prestige® Card to take advantage of these partnerships.

Capital One transfer bonus history

Capital One has 14 airlines and three hotel transfer partners.

Capital One is the newest program and it used to have terrible transfer rates. However over the last few years, Capital One has significantly invested in the program, and now most partners transfer at a 1:1 ratio.

To earn miles with Capital One, you have a choice of four credit cards, including two that do not charge an annual fee. Capital One has several good transfer partners so getting one of the no fee cards can be an easy way to start earning miles.

Final thoughts on the transfer bonus history of Capital One, Citi, Chase and AmEx

Although it’s impossible to predict when a transfer bonus will be announced or how long it will last, looking over the bonus history of these four transferable point programs can offer some guidance.

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