March marks the return of two transfer bonuses that, while I personally don’t care for, you might! And a third that’s much better (but please no speculative transfers!)
In this article
50% Bonus: Chase Ultimate Rewards to Marriott Bonvoy
As shown on our master list of credit card transfer bonuses, you’ll get a 50% Bonus when you transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards to Marriott Bonvoy through May 15th.
Keep in mind the transfer is normally 1:1, so even with this bonus you are trading an Ultimate Rewards point worth about 1.75 cents for 1.5 Bonvoy points worth about 0.6 cents each, essentially trading 1.75 cents for 0.9 cents.
This means that it’s only a good transfer bonus if you need to top off your Marriott stash for a specific award and/or found a specific Bonvoy award that will have your points worth more than 1.75 cents.
20% Bonus: Citi ThankYou to Avianca
There are never any shortage of transfer bonuses to Avianca’s Lifemiles, a program that would be terrific if it didn’t have such issues. You’ll get a 20% bonus through the end of March 2023 when you transfer Citi ThankYou to Lifemiles.
Lifemiles are known for the best way to fly First Class to Europe on Lufthansa with no surcharges and other good deals, like JFK-Lisbon in TAP business class for 35,000 Lifemiles.
But, you have to also read the Downsides of the LifeMiles program.
Capital One Bonus: 30% to Virgin Red
Best used to book ANA First Class for 42,500 – 47,500 Capital One points (30% bonus). For First Class, round trip, you’ll pay 85,000 Amex points from the West Coast or 93,000 Amex points from the East Coast. The transfer bonus will give you the 110,000 (West Coast) – 120,000 (East Coast) Virgin miles required for the trip. One way flights are now allowed, thus my 42.5k – 47.5k range each way.
Also great for domestic US redemptions (plus Mexico/Canada) and for US-Europe redemptions on Delta which price at 50,000 Virgin miles if you can find space.
I recently booked a Mexico City – JFK flight with Virgin on Delta metal for 15,000 points when Delta wanted 57,000 points.
Thoughts?
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You can find credit cards that best match your spending habits and bonus categories at Your Best Credit Cards.
New to all of this? My “introduction to miles and points” book, MilesTalk: Live Your Wildest Travel Dreams Using Miles and Points is available on Amazon and at major booksellers.
