199. Transferable Points Power Rankings: Comparing the 5 Major Points Programs
Points Talk®: Your Travel Dreams, Made Possible by Points
The hosts of Points Talk compare the five major transferable points programs—Chase, American Express, Capital One, Citi, and Bilt—across thr
Key takeaways
- Bilt Rewards is ranked #1 for transfer partners due to unique 1:1 transfers to Japan Airlines and Emirates, as well as Alaska Airlines (referred to as Atmos Rewards in transcript).
- Chase Ultimate Rewards is identified as the best program for beginners because of its familiar partner list and ease of use.
Main topics
- Transferable points program rankings
- Airline transfer partner comparisons
Notable quotes
Bilt is a transfer partner powerhouse, really.
Conclusion
The best points program is subjective and depends entirely on an indiv
Transcript preview
Speaker 2 (0:00) Of the five major transferable points programs, which one is the best? Listen in as we compare them based on partners, welcome offers, and ease of earning. Speaker 2 (0:11) Welcome to Points Talk. Speaker 3 (0:12) We Speaker 2 (0:13) are three moms who've discovered how to leverage credit card welcome offers to get hundreds of thousands of dollars of travel expenses for nearly free. We've used credit card points and miles to take vacations to places like Hawaii, Paris, Greece, Maldives, Japan, and so much more. And the best part, we each still have 800 plus credit scores. Imagine being able to take the vacation of your dreams for nearly free. It's totally possible and we're here to show you how. Speaker 2 (0:42) Hey, I'm Alex. Speaker 1 (0:44) And I'm Pam, Alex's mom. And I'm Jess. Let's talk points. Today, we're comparing the five major transferable points programs in our transferable points power rankings. We'll be covering Chase Ultimate Rewards, American Express Membership Rewards, Capital One Venture Miles, City Thank You Points, and Built Rewards, and ranking them based on partners, welcome offers, and ease of earning. All right. So I will kick it off with best transfer partners, okay? Number one, you may not have seen this coming, or maybe you have based on what we've been saying recently. Our number one for best transfer partners is Built Rewards. They currently have 24 transfer partners, 17 airlines, seven hotels. I feel like they update their transfer partners the most out of any of these banks. They're constantly, I feel like, adding. new transfer partners. Well, Speaker 2 (1:40) and I'm interested to know, like, how do they get all these partners? Because some of them, it's like, for example, like Chase, it makes sense that they're the only ones with United because Chase issues a United card or City with AA because City issues the AA co-branded cards. But Bill doesn't have that same, they don't have co-branded cards, you know, they're just a rewards program. So it's just, they're, I don't know if that maybe makes it so they have this flexibility where they're not a bank. But it's just interesting. Yeah. Speaker 3 (2:10) It's really interesting, very interesting that it's our top one. I would never have thought even six months ago that we'd be saying that. Speaker 1 (2:19) So BILT is the only program that transfers to Atmos Rewards, which is the loyalty program of Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines. They are the only program that transfers to Japan Airlines and Emirates one-to-one. Speaker 1 (2:36) are the only one, not the only one. Okay, so they still transfer to Hyatt one-to-one. With Chase, things are getting a little trickier. So if you have the Sapphire Reserve personal or business, you can still transfer one-to-one. But starting October 1st, if you have the Sapphire Preferred or the Ink Preferred, that transfer is moving to four-to-three to Hyatt. So I like that Built still transfers one-to-one to Hyatt. No matter which card you have, or even if you don't have cards, you're just earning built points. You can still transfer one-to-one to Hyatt. Not all of their hotel partners are one-to-one, but most of them are. They also transfer to Hilton, Marriott, IHG, and Wyndham. Again, I don't necessarily think it's worth transferring your built points to those. I think Hyatt is still... the star of the show when it comes to their hotel rewards. Some other notable airline partners are United, Qatar, Southwest, Turkish, Air Canada. Lots of these airlines are partnered with programs, but Bilt has them all in one place. That's what I really like. The big one that they're really missing is American Airlines. They used to have American Airlines. Now they don't anymore. Now Citi exclusively has American Airlines, but they just have so many. in one place that it just makes them, I feel like a transfer partner powerhouse, really. Yeah, Speaker 2 (3:56) I totally agree with you. Like the fact that with Atmos Rewards, that is huge that you can transfer to Atmos because Atmos has really good partner airline options. So that's a really huge one, I think. And then the Hyatt one is huge. Japan Airlines, Emirates, one-to-one, but that's massive. So it's just really, really good. Speaker 1 (4:18) I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. I'm like, I know. I know. I'm Speaker 2 (4:21) like, Speaker 1 (4:21) are they going to go out of business? Are they going to go like. Speaker 2 (4:25) I know, like this is like almost too good to be true that you have so many good partners. Is Speaker 1 (4:32) this sustainable long term? I don't know, but I'm going to ride the train while I can. Speaker 2 (4:36) Yes. Speaker 3 (4:37) Yeah. Yeah. And I think, you know, we've preached and preached about what our favorite awards have been, which is Chase Ultimate Rewards for Hyatt transfers. I mean. A lot of that, there's been so many changes in that, that isn't quite as exciting as it used to be. And so I think I got it in my mind, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, there's nothing better. And now I'm seeing, you know, the transfer value is just phenomenal with the built program. Now, Chase Ultimate Rewards is still a very good program with 10 airlines, four hotels, definitely a lot less than built. But it is still, without a doubt, the easiest program for beginners. Their transfer partners are really very familiar, programs that everybody's familiar with, like United Southwest, JetBlue, R. Hyatt, IHG, Marriott, Wyndham. They're really good. It really is still probably, although it's not the transfer powerhouse that built is, it is probably still our favorite program for new people in the program. Starting out, it's the easiest program for you to learn about transfer programs. Really good transfer programs. Doesn't come up. Quite as often as maybe some of the others, I have transferred Chase Ultimate Rewards to the Flying Blue program before. Obviously, I've done it to United. I would say that it's best to only transfer to IHG and marry it when there is a transfer bonus. Otherwise, it just doesn't make a lot of sense. But yes, the Chase Ultimate Reward program is still a great transfer program. We still hold it in very high esteem. But we're giving it to built as being the big powerhouse. So Alex, you've got what's our what comes in number three? Yeah. Speaker 2 (6:37) So well, first of all, this is all just our opinions here. Like this is right. You can have you can think very differently. There's no right or wrong answers. I think a lot of it will depend on your personal travel style, the airlines you fly. For example, if you're. an AA person and use exclusively fly AA, your best, the winner of this is for every category for you is probably going to be city thank you points. And so just take what we're saying with a grain of salt. It's just our opinion, you know, just a fun little discussion. Okay. You do you. I. Yeah, you do you. Next up, we're doing Amex and Citi. It was a toss-up. Jess and I were talking about this one. We were together recently on a trip in Chicago, and I was working on this outline. I was like, what do you think should get third? And she's like, I don't know. I think you said Citi, didn't you? Speaker 1 (7:28) Yeah, I Speaker 2 (7:29) said Citi. You said Citi. I was like, but I can see an argument for Amex. So basically, that means Capital One is getting... fifth place, which no shame on that. And I think the reason is they don't really have transfer partners that are unique to Capital One. Their transfer partners, other people have them as well. And so still a great partner, still great partners in a great program and one that we are always going to be like, yes, let's get as many venture miles as we can get. But as far as transfer partners, the other two just edge it out a little bit. Third and fourth is a tie between Amex and Citi. So Amex, that's the one you're going to want if you fly Delta, if you're