My favorite points programs, by far, are transferable points programs. These are programs where points can be transferred 1 to 1 (or better) to airline and hotel programs. This makes it possible to cherry-pick the best opportunities. If you earn points in only one loyalty program then you may find that flight awards or hotel awards are not available when and where you need them. With transferable points programs, though, your opportunities are far greater.
I’m also a fan of promiscuous transfer partners. These are the loyalty programs that make their points available to multiple transferable points programs. For example, Virgin Atlantic points are transferable from all five of the transferable points programs: Amex Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi ThankYou Rewards, Diners Club, and Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG). The value to this should be obvious: if you need more points to book an award, you can get those points from any one of the supporting transferable points programs. So, if you opportunistically earn transferable points when it is easiest to do so (via big signup bonuses, special promotions, etc.), you will likely find that you can scrape together points needed for an award by pooling points from multiple transferable points programs into a single promiscuous partner.
Promiscuous transfer partners, ranked by number of partners
Let’s look at the programs that are most widely available through transferable points programs. Since Diner’s Club cards are no longer available to new applicants, I’ll restrict this view to transfer partners of Amex Membership Rewards (MR), Chase Ultimate Rewards (UR), Citi ThankYou Rewards (TY), and SPG.
Shown below are all airline programs that are transfer partners with all four transferable points programs:
(Note: For a complete list transferable points programs, please see my Transfer Partner Master List)
| 4 Partner Airlines |
Amex MR | Chase UR | Citi TY | SPG |
| Air France / KLM Flying Blue | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| Virgin Atlantic Flying Club | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer | Y | Y | Y | Y |
Shown below are all airline programs that are transfer partners with three out of four transferable points programs:
| 3 Partner Airlines |
Amex MR | Chase UR | Citi TY | SPG |
| Cathay Pacific Asia Miles | Y | Y | Y | |
| Etihad Airways | Y | Y | Y | |
| British Airways Executive Club | 250 to 200 | Y | Y | |
| Virgin America | 2 to 1 | 2 to 1 | Y |
Shown below are all airline programs that are transfer partners with two out of four transferable points programs:
| 2 Partner Airlines |
Amex MR | Chase UR | Citi TY | SPG |
| AeroMexico | Y | Y | ||
| Aeroplan/Air Canada | Y | Y | ||
| Alitalia MilleMiglia | Y | Y | ||
| All Nippon Airways (ANA) Mileage Club | Y | Y | ||
| Delta Air Lines SkyMiles | Y | Y | ||
| Emirates Skywards | Y | Y | ||
| Hawaiian Airlines | Y | Y | ||
| Korean Air | Y | Y | ||
| Qatar Airways | Y | Y | ||
| Thai Airways International Royal Orchid Plus | Y | Y | ||
| United MileagePlus | Y | 2 to 1 |
With hotel programs, only Hilton is available from more than one transferable points program. Here are all of the programs available for transfers:
| Hotel Program | # of Transfer Partners | Amex MR | Chase UR | Citi TY | SPG |
| Choice | 1 | Y | |||
| Hilton | 2 | 1 to 1.5 | * | 1 to 1.5 | * |
| Hyatt | 1 | Y | |||
| IHG | 1 | Y | |||
| Marriott | 1 | Y | |||
| Ritz-Carlton | 1 | Y | |||
| Starwood | 1** | 3 to 1 | Y** |
* It is possible to transfer from Chase and SPG to Virgin Atlantic and then to Hilton at a 2 to 3 ratio.
** SPG isn’t technically a transfer partner with itself, but it seemed necessary to put a “Y” in that column anyway since SPG points can obviously be used to book SPG stays
Wrap Up
The tables above show the “promiscuous” programs. These are the programs that are supported by multiple transferable points programs. Of course, just because you can transfer points to a particular program does not mean that it’s a good idea. Every airline and hotel program has its own award rates and rules. And, especially with airline programs, the best program to use for booking an award is often not the airline you want to fly. Thanks to partnerships and alliances, many flights can be booked from many different programs. And, these programs differ both in how they price awards and in the taxes and fees charged.
To see a complete list transferable points programs, please see my Transfer Partner Master List.
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[…] they may go beyond current partners. In my post “Promiscuous transfer partners” I pointed out that three airlines were transfer partners with all four of the most popular […]
[…] sounds grim. But, in reality, I could book them all today if I wanted to. Virgin Atlantic Flying Club is the single most promiscuous airline loyalty program in that it partners with all of the major transferable points programs: Amex Membership Rewards, […]
[…] Thanks to Singapore being one of the 3 most promiscuous airline programs, their miles are easy to get. Simply transfer 1 to 1 from Amex Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate […]
[…] Last week I flew to Colorado in First Class on United Airlines. I paid for the flight with Singapore Airlines miles — for a few reasons. The primary reason, for me, was that I had Singapore miles that would otherwise expire later this year. That said, Singapore would have been a good choice anyway. For First Class domestic flights they charge just 20,000 miles one-way (United charges 25,000 miles) and, unlike United, there are no close-in award booking fees. Since I booked the flight less than 21 days in advance, United would have charged me $50 (I have United Silver elite status thanks to Marriott Platinum status. Those without status would be charged $75) for the privilege of using my miles. Singapore miles are also easy to get since you can transfer points from any transferable points program to Singapore (see: Promiscuous transfer partners). […]
I know most programs let you transfer into airline miles, but do any allow you to transfer out… to hotels, rental cars, etc… Sometimes I am just a few points short in some programs and was wondering if you knew if this was possible at all…
Yes, some do. Take a look at the alternate tabs on my transfer partner master list. I have some of that info there.
This is the type of list I keep myself, except your version is on steroids.
Have you considered adding an e-Rewards column? I’d be happy to contribute. Thanks to them, I activated my Iberia Avios with activity so that I can transfer to/from BA Avios.
I’d be happy to add e-Rewards to the spreadsheet. Let me know which mileage programs they support and I’ll throw it in there.
The problem with e-Rewards is that their partners vary by members. My only airline xfer partner is AA. Rip off.
Looked at Master List.Wow! Is El Al still an AA partner?
Good catch. No, El Al isn’t an AA partner anymore. Fixed.
I just came here to say that I enjoyed this: Your example for most promiscuous partner is the one that starts with the word Virgin hahaha.
LOL, yes leave it to Virgin to hook up with 5 separate partners 🙂
Nice post! I think Virgin America is a citi transfer partner at 2-1.
Thank you. Yes, the data for Virgin America was jumbled. It is now fixed. Thanks for pointing it out!