The Ultimate Points Transfer Table

March 12, 2013 By 25 Comments

Jonathan emailed me last week asking if I had any good ideas where he might find a table of all the transferable points options available. There aren’t really that many programs that allow transfers, but those that do are large enough and with enough overlap that it can be confusing. There also isn’t, as Jonathan pointed out, any good way to view all your options at once. Starwood has a good table, Ultimate Rewards has a simpler program I find easy to memorize, but I found myself clicking on far too many links to collect data for Membership Rewards.

I have organized this information in two ways, and I’ll be uploading these files as two PDFs on the Award Charts page, which you can find within the Travel Resources section on the top navigation bar. I’ve tried to include information like the transfer ratio (how many points/miles of X turn into how many points/miles of Y), the minimum transfer amount, and how many new points or miles you should expect to get if you started with 1,000 points in any given program. This doesn’t actually work if that program requires a minimum transfer greater than 1,000 points, but it is a way to make easy comparisons between programs.

The first table is organized by the input. What kind of points are you starting with? It’s the kind you’re most likely to find out there, and I’m probably not the first to put them all on one page. You can download the PDF instead of trying to copy the images.

Ultimate Rewards Transfers

Membership Rewards Transfers

SPG Transfers

Other Transfers

I think the second table might be more useful, organized by the output. What kind of points do you want, and which program offers the best transfer ratio? In this case, some of the choices can require a series of transfers. American Express will let you convert Membership Rewards to SPG Starpoints. It’s not a good ratio, but it allows you to use Membership Rewards points for more airlines than just the “official” Membership Rewards list.

It also makes clear some ways to improve your return. For example, the best option for getting more Hilton HHonors points is not to transfer Membership Rewards or Starpoints directly. Instead, transfer Starpoints to Hawaiian Airlines with a 25% bonus. Then transfer your HawaiianMiles to Hilton at a 1:2 ratio. You can download the PDF instead of trying to copy the images.

Transfer Comparisons

If I’ve made any errors or left out some programs, please let me know so I can update the lists. FYI, I purposefully left out Points.com. The rates are often poor, and it reminds me too much of a bad foreign exchange booth at the airport.

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About Scott Mackenzie

Scott founded HMT while traveling on a budget during graduate school and stays loyal to United, Alaska, Hyatt, and Starwood.
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  • Oscar

    Excellent job buddy, You are THE BEST!!!

  • Ben L

    First, this is awesome! But I MAY have found some errors.

    In MR…JetBlue Airways you listed 5:4 -> 250 -> 800. Wouldn’t 5:4 be 1000 -> 800?

    In MR…Virgin America Elevate you listed 2:1 -> 200 -> 500. Wouldn’t 2:1 be 1000 -> 500?

    I applaud this endeavor. I only made it to MR though.

    • Scottrick

      Even if the transfer ratio is 5:4 or 2:1, I’m assuming that you will be transferring 1,000 of the starting points. So 1,000 > 800 in the case of JetBlue. This makes it easy to compare multiple options.

      However, the minimum transfer for that particular program is only 250 (most MR options require you to transfer a minimum of 1,000). So if you transferred the minimum it would be 250 > 200.

  • THE HORNEY TRAVELER

    good content as usual

  • http://www.BaldThoughts.com/ Lee Huffman

    Scott, you rock. Thanks for posting this!

  • Ozaer N.

    defly a great post Scott!! thanks!….

  • Johnny Triumph

    You should also include transfer costs, where applicable

  • rasputin_ky

    this is a very nice post

  • Scottrick

    @bmvaughn pointed out that I missed some transfer options from Marriott Rewards, so I’ll update that later today. In the meantime, you can learn more about those here: http://www.marriott.com/rewards/usepoints/morerew.mi

  • http://www.facebook.com/adam.molnar Adam Molnar

    What about transfers from Hyatt? The rate’s not great, but they have a strong variety of partners.

    • Scottrick

      Also something I need to add. The transfers from Hyatt and Marriott are more complicated than the ones described above. I will need to think about how to present them.

  • thetravelplaybook

    Great job sir!

  • monster

    2 corrections:
    1. Starwood points can be directly transferred at a 1:1 ratio to Amtrak (it’s listed separately from airlines transfers on the web site). Also (unlike transfers to airlines), there’s no 5,000 point bonus on 20,000 point transfers.
    2. There have been reports of Hawaiian Airlines not allowing transfers of points out to Hilton that have been transferred in from other programs (I think it actually says this somewhere in their T&C). So, if you try this, you’re likely to end up being stuck with HA miles. It’s much safer to go through Virgin Atlantic which also transfers to Hilton at 2:1.

    • monster

      Sorry, I meant that Virgin Atlantic to Hilton is 1:2 not 2:1.

    • Scottrick

      Thanks. I’ll include that in my revisions.

  • Aptraveler

    Thanks for the concise information Scott, well done!

  • harvson3

    That’s awesome that you can transfer into VARIG Smiles. That way you could book a VARIG flight for 2005, when I last flew them.

    Sarcasm aside, Smiles is now the program for GOL Airlines in Brazil, not VARIG. (GOL bought VARIG’s remains.)

    • Scottrick

      Then Starwood really needs to update its charts. But I noticed lots of errors on there, so I should have been more wary.

  • Bill n DC

    Very Good Info I have a couple hundred thou each of UR & MR, but looks like I need the SPG AmEx to ‘join’ Lucky in the Shower Class :-)

  • http://twitter.com/FlyerTalkerinA2 George

    Ok, this was really good, you are in;-)

  • Jonathan

    This is great Scott, thanks for entertaining my request and for even responding to my newbie questions. Im glad to see other people find it useful as well.

    I have a suggestion for your consideration. I know this information is constantly in flux, and that we all need something like this as quick guide, so I wonder if; ‘A’ you could say whether this is something you plan to maintain into the future (for your own benefit and ours), and b. you could add a last modified date to the top of your charts? This way if somebody stumbles upon this post 2 years from now theyll know if the charts are reflective of information from 2 years ago, or 2 weeks ago.

    • Scottrick

      I could do that, but I feel it then implies that something not updated for a year is out of date even if it actually hasn’t changed at all. I’m usually pretty good about updating things if people point out errors as they come across them, and sometimes I do go back and check things on my own. It’s just like the CC links.

      • Jonathan

        That makes sense. In that case, “last reviewed for accurateness” may be a better descriptor/field then “last modified” should you choose to include a date. I believe that would be better then nothing because the alternative is for them to assume its as old as the post, but its up to you. Thanks again!

  • Michelle Singh

    Awesome. This is probably the best presentation I’ve seen. Even I learned a few new things!

  • Vineet Bhagwat

    This is very useful, thanks! One addition I was wondering is the options one would have if starting off with hotel points like Hilton, Hyatt, or Marriott and wanted to transfer them to airlines like United, American, etc. Would be helpful to have those too, thanks!