Why transfer credit card points? Check out my Points+Miles 101 post to find out why it’s the best use of your points! Credit card companies want you to choose the cashback, or giftcard option when redeeming your points. This option is very low value. Don’t let them win! What credit card companies don’t want you to know is that your points are worth a lot more when transferred out of their portals. Transferring your points to an airline/hotel program can maximize your hard earned rewards. Sometimes even getting a 15cent/point redemption value!

To transfer credit card points from your credit card portal first login to your bank. For this example I’ll show you how to transfer your Chase Ultimate Rewards points to your desired airline (I used AirCanada in this example) or hotel. Most banks all work the same as far as transferring credit card points goes. *Important*, don’t transfer credit card points until you are ready to redeem. Once you transfer points to an airline or hotel program, they cannot be transfered back to your bank portal.

Start by logging into your bank, I’m using the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal and find the tab on the left side of the screen and select transfer to travel partners.

Next, you will be taken to the screen with all the travel partners that Chase partners with. You can find a whole list of which credit cards partner with which airline and hotel by subscribing to my email list!

On this page you can also see what promotions are currently being ran. Currently you can see this month’s promotions: AirFrance/KLM is offering a 25% bonus, Marriott is offering a 50% bonus when you transfer points. For example, during this promo, if you transferred 50,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points, you would get 75,000 points when you transfer to Marriott. When you initiate this transfer, the 75,000 points would be deposited in your account. I always check what promotions are being ran when looking into booking reward travel. Each month there are new transfer bonuses depending on which credit card you have. Check these at the beginning of each month.

For this example I’ll say I want to book on Air Canada, I click on Air Canada and I’m brought to this page.

Click on transfer points and link your Air Canada account to your Chase account. If you don’t have an account with the airline you want to transfer points to, you will need to create one. This is always free to do. Make sure you save your rewards number and login info somewhere.

Type the amount of points you wish to transfer and select next. Most programs require you to transfer in 1,000 point increments. If you need 14,500 points for a flight, you’d need to transfer 15,000. Confirm your transfer and you will see the points deposited into your Air Canada account. Most airline programs transfer immediately but some can take a few days.