Three new (and valuable) transfer bonuses

Good morning from Dushanbe, the “Paris of Central Asia.”

Just kidding, it’s way more beautiful than Paris.

But not more beautiful than these points and miles deals I’ve got for you.

Apparently, every bank decided to drop some new transfer bonuses on the same day… so today will be a transfer bonus bonanza:

• 🇬🇧 30% transfer bonus to Avios

• 🇦🇺 20% transfer bonus to Qantas

• 🏨 70% transfer bonus to Marriott

🇬🇧 30% transfer bonus to Avios

First on the docket is certainly the best of the new bonus offers.

Until September 30th, you can transfer MR Points to Avios with a 30% bonus, which opens up some pretty epic value for booking award flights.

I know I sound like a broken record here, but I need to remind you:

When you have Avios in any program that uses that currency (British Airways, Qatar, Iberia, Aer Lingus, Finnair), you can freely transfer them around between all of those airlines.

As you might imagine, this means you have hundreds of cool ways to use these points after getting your tasty 30% bonus.

Personally, I was JUST about to pull the trigger and transfer some points to Avios for a flight I need to book from Montevideo, Uruguay to Dakar, Senegal via Madrid.

Side note: How awesome is it that we can use points and miles to book such random and specific itineraries, like going from an obscure city in South America to an even more obscure city in West Africa?

Anyway, this flight normally costs 31,350 Avios to fly on Iberia, which I was already fine with paying for such a long set of flights.

With this bonus, however, I only need to shell out 24,000 MR Points, which is one of the better points deals I’ve booked all year.

But if you just want to use Avios to book flights with British Airways or even domestic flights in the U.S. on American Airlines, this is just an excellent opportunity and a great use of MR Points.

🇦🇺 20% transfer bonus to Qantas

Okay, here’s an interesting one…

While there are tons of ways to book Qantas flights with other programs, we rarely talk about Qantas’ own in-house award program.

As North Americans, there aren’t a ton of ways to really get outsize value out of it.

But when there’s a transfer bonus, it’s certainly worth paying attention to.

Oh, look at that. There’s a transfer bonus.

Until September 1st, 2024, you can transfer Capital One miles to Qantas with a 20% bonus.

Generally speaking, it’s better to book Qantas flights with other programs like Avios or Flying Blue miles.

But I also found some great deals on Qantas that beat those other programs, especially with this bonus.

For example, I have already booked a flight on Qantas for later this year from Jakarta to Sydney, which only costs 20,000 Qantas miles.

With this transfer bonus, that’s only 17,000 Capital One miles, which is a great deal for a 7-hour flight that normally costs around $400.

I’ve also been eyeing a trip to the teeny country of Timor-Leste later this year.

There are only two places you can fly from to get to the country’s capital of Dili, one of which is Darwin, Australia, on… you guessed it… Qantas.

Despite being a short, 1-hour flight, it costs almost $300 any day of the week.

Instead, I can transfer just over 6,000 Capital One miles, get the transfer bonus, and book this flight while paying just a fraction of the cash cost in taxes and fees.

So here’s the bottom line:

If you have plans on flying into, out of, or around Australia, definitely compare cash rates against Qantas award rates with this transfer bonus.

While it will rarely work out to be a crazy deal, it could definitely save you some money and points if you find the right sweet spots like I did!

Since many of you have recently signed up for the Capital One Venture Card (because of its amazing welcome offer), this is just one way you can put those miles to good use.

🏨 70% transfer bonus to Marriott

Okay, we’re almost done, folks. This time, let’s mix things up and move on to a hotel program.

Until August 14th (a weirdly short timeframe for a transfer bonus), you can transfer UR Points to Marriott Bonvoy with a 70% bonus.

Because Marriott points are worth less than most airline miles, it rarely makes sense to transfer UR Points there.

For example, you can book Hyatt hotels (also a transfer partner of UR Points) for as few as 3,500 points, while most Marriott hotels cost ten times that amount.

Still, if you’re a big Marriott boy like me, why not get some free stays and 70% more points than normal?

For example, let’s say you want to visit Santiago, Chile - one of the coolest cities in the world.

You could book five nights at this Marriott hotel for a total of just 48,000 points.

With a 70% transfer bonus, that’s just 28,000 UR Points, or around 5,000 points per night.

At this point, you’re basically on par with Hyatt’s lowest award rates.

So if you have better status with Marriott or you find a hotel that’s in a better location, you’re not leaving any value on the table by using your valuable UR Points for Marriott over Hyatt.

Similarly, you could book a more luxurious stay at a hotel like the Ritz-Carlton in Kuala Lumpur, which only costs 128,000 points for a five-night stay.

With the bonus, that’s just 75,000 UR points for five nights at Marriott’s most luxurious brand.

In the end, you should definitely do your research to make sure you can’t get better value elsewhere.

Still, there’s nothing wrong with getting 70% more points than normal to put toward a stay at a hotel chain that you like.

Holy cow, that was a lot of transfer bonus talk…

With these three banks offering bonuses to three different programs, I’m hopeful that there’s a little something here for everyone!

See you tomorrow for more points and miles fun times ❤️

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