At long last, the time has arrived. You have build yourself out a pretty strong Chase Trifecta engine that is earning regular Ultimate Rewards Points. In addition to that, you successfully met the spend requirements for the SUBs on those cards, and now find yourself with a respectable nest egg. Finally, you’ve joined our Facebook Group and Community Forums for great real time deals on awards flights (of which you can now afford). At last, you are ready to leverage those partner awards and travel, bay-bay!
CONTENTS
1. What Is Partner Awards Travel?
2. Steps To Leveraging Partner Awards Travel
3. Considerations
4. Reward Transfer Partners
5. Airline Alliances
6. Final Thoughts
The Next Step In Your Journey To Expert Level Travel
But, wait. What the hell is a “partner awards booking”? Why is everyone talking about Air France and Aeroplan?? What the heck is a “Star Alliance” even, and why should you car? You just want to fly United, after all!
If you have gotten to the point where you are ready to spend you not-so-hard earned Chase Ultimate Rewards points, so to, have you likely run into a few new terms flowing from the keyboards of your Would Be Wanderer peers. I have been there. We have all been there.
Maybe you asked your community of choice if a travel portal redemption was worth it, to which everyone yelled “no” (not true in all cases, by the way). Or, maybe you just stared stupidly at your computer screen, scratching your head, completely lost as to where folks were seeing these US to Europe business class flights for 40k (granted, that one might be from my personal memory bank). Maybe you have even begun to grasp the idea of having to transfer points from one partner awards program to another to take advantage of unbelievable deals, and now are scouring the internet and chats for any sliver of an idea of how to start doing that (also me). Regardless of the path that brought you here, rest assured…I got you.
What Is Partner Awards Travel?
It’s a fair question. But keep in mind, it is also a question that everyone before you has asked. The ability to transfer points to partners to redeem for flights and accommodations at a much stronger value is (rightfully) obfuscated to the masses. Airlines best kept/worst kept secret, and the “cheat code” to getting those wildly priced award flights you see folks posting all over the place. And surprisingly, it is a pretty simple concept: Partner Award Travel is the practice of using one airlines awards to pay for a flight on a different airline within their partner network (or Airline Alliance). Not too complicated, right?
An Airline Alliance is a group of Airlines, working together to offer more seats to more flyers, by sharing bookings with one another. For instance, let’s say you are looking to book a flight to Thailand through United. While United does not fly to Thailand, it is part of Star Alliance with Airlines like ANA, and Lufthansa both of which, do fly to Bangkok. The result? A seamless experience in which a customer can go to United’s site, book a trip from Denver to Bangkok, and not have to worry about booking additional legs that United does not cover on its equipment. In other words, you would book once through United, however may fly on multiple carriers throughout your journey.
…and Why Do We Care?
This partnership becomes extra beneficial for the savvy traveler when you understand one key element. A specific seat on a flight may show up on the booking portals of multiple carriers in an alliance…and, most importantly, the cost of any particular seat can vary, dependent on from which carrier you book it.
Let that sink in. Therefore, using the example above, if we see an economy seat to Thailand on United Airlines booking website for $1000 round trip, it is possible (and likely probable) that were we to check ANA’s booking website, we would see the SAME seat on the SAME flight for a fraction of the cost.
This method of sale also goes for award travel, so where you may see the above flight on United for 45,000 rewards, it may show up on ANA for 25,000 rewards. One step further we may then find a business class seat for 45,000 rewards points through ANA. Since many point transfers can be made at a 1:1 value (see below), this easily becomes one of (if not) the most valuable redemptions offered for your hard earned rewards/points/miles/whatever.
Steps To Leveraging Partner Awards Travel
When I first started digging into partner award flights and transferring points, the first thing I noticed is that there is a LOT out there. Secondly, I found that it was all confusing. Perhaps a testament to my public school upbringing, but for the life of me, I could not find one source of truth in demystifying the concept. I would find an article on understanding airline alliances, and another on finding partner flights, then finally a third on transferring points and booking. I imagine this is done to keep an audience glued to a blog, or avoid entry fatigue or whatever, but the result was me feeling like I was part of the Manhattan Project, and only allowed to see a small portion of the bigger picture out of fear that too much information in the hands of one person would be dangerous.
Step One: Decide Which Rewards Points You Want To Use
Later down the line, when you are at five star expert level, you may be just waiting for email alerts for any non-specific flight deal while simultaneously sitting on a pile of Amex Membership Rewards, Venture Miles AND Chase Ultimate Rewards that are just waiting to get redeemed. Until that day comes, let’s just say that this step is entirely personal preference and will likely come down to which rewards you have the most of.
Step Two: Find Out Where Your Preferred Rewards Transfer Partners
Unlike an airline’s Travel Partner (the other airlines within the same Alliance) a Transfer Partner is the airline and hotel rewards programs that your chosen program can transfer to, easily. This is one of the easiest steps of the process, because you don’t really have to go anywhere. I f you scroll down I will include reward specific details, including transfer partners for each.
Step Three: Search For POSSIBLE Award Routes
I am emphasizing the word “possibly” here. This step is optional (but I find super handy) and employs the free-to-use site AwardHacker to find potential partner awards routes (not to be confused with the flights’ ACTUAL availability). We will be inputting Departure/Arrival cities and seat class and we are just taking note of the airlines and routes ignoring ALL OTHER information. Please keep in mind, the site is outdated (and buggy). It may take a few refreshes to yield any results, but when you find a route it will be that much easier to manage the following steps. The below image is of a search for an economy award seat from Dallas to Sydney, You can see below that Air Canada offers this route and that Membership Rewards, Ultimate Rewards, Capital One Rewards and Marriot Bonvoy points are all transferrable.
Step Four: Search For AVAILABLE Flights
With the information above (Air Canada, EWR – FCO), we can now head over to the airline listed (in this case Air Canada). With a quick search, we can see business class flights for about 70k (these were listed as $3500/each). The formula for cash value of points will be (cash price – any paid fees / point cost). In this case (3500-121) / 70000 = 0.048 (or 4.8 cpp). This is already a very good redemption. There is also (as of this writing) a 30% bonus on Chase Ultimate Rewards to Aeroplan, meaning it would actually only cost 54k Chase URs for this flight, bringing our CPP up to 6.25, which is great.
Step Five: Search Partner Airlines For The Flights Found Above
In this particular case, I do not think we will be able to beat 6.25 CPP with any other partner awards, but for the sake of this tutorial, if we were interested in hunting better pricing we could use the below award charts and find associated seat availability through the airline’s partners. Once an available reward seat is found on a partner airline, we should be able to come back to our transfer partner site and find the same seats, by date.
Step Six: Transfer The Required Amount Points To The Partner Airline
Now (and only now) are we ready to transfer our points from our reward portal to our transfer partner. In this case we are transferring from Chase to Air Canada Aeroplan, which is an instant transfer and has a 1:1 conversion rate, In the Chase Ultimate Rewards Portal, find “Transfer To Partner”
This will take us to the transfer partner portal, where we can transfer the required points with one click
Step Seven: Book Your Flight With The Partner Airline
That’s it, ladies and gents. You are booked for a business class flight with a 6.25 CPP and now drawing the admiration of all the others in your Facebook group. Drink it in…bask in the glow of expert level point redemption, and graciously pay it forward when all the people that come after you ask you how you did it.
Considerations
- Make sure to be aware of both, airline Travel Partners (Alliances) and Rewards Transfer Partners (and try not to confuse the two). Both Are Explained a bit below.
- Do NOT transfer your partner awards points until you have found an available seat on an airline, for risk of losing those points (or, at least, having to let them sit for a while)
- Keep in mind point transfer times (below). If you find a flight with 2 available seats, but your transfer might take 3 days, there is a good chance availability will disappear before the transfer completes.
- Practice. This stuff is complicated, for a reason. Mess around with searching flights for a bit, see what you come up with.
- Don’t give up. It can get frustrating, sure…but there is nothing quite as rewarding as that first killer deal (and subsequent flight to your next adventure)
Reward Transfer Partners
Chase Ultimate Rewards Partner Awards Transfer
Chase Ultimate Rewards transfers are at a 1:1 ratio (1,000 point increments) and typically instant. Please read our Chase Transfer Partners article above for comprehensive look at these partners, details, transfer times and conversion rates.
| Aer Lingus | Air Canada Aeroplan | Air France – KLM Flying Blue | British Airways | Emirates Skywards | Iberia Plus | JetBlue |
| Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer | Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards | United Airlines MileagePlus | Virgin Atlantic Flying Club | World of Hyatt | Marriot Bonvoy |
American Express Membership Rewards Partner Awards Transfer
Amex Membership Rewards can be transferred to the following partners through the Amex Travel Portal. Please see the Amex Transfer Partners article above for comprehensive look at these partners, details, transfer times and conversion rates.
| Aer Lingus | AeroMexico | Air Canada Aeroplan | Air France – KLM Flying Blue | ANA Mileage Club | Avianca LifeMiles | British Airways Executive Club | Cathay Pacific | Delta Airlines | Emirates Skywards |
| Etihad Guest | Hawaiian Miles | Iberia Plus | JetBlue | Qantas Frequent Flyer | Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer | Virgin Atlantic Flying Club | Choice Privileges | Hilton Honors | Marriot Bonvoy |
Capital One Partner Awards Transfer
Capital One Miles can be transferred to the following partners through the Capital One Travel Portal. Please see the Capital One Transfer Partners article above for comprehensive look at these partners, details, transfer times and conversion rates.
| AeroMexico | Air Canada Aeroplan | Avianca LifeMiles | British Airways Executive Club | Cathay Pacific Asia Miles | Emirates Skywards | Etihad Guest | EVA Air Infinity MileageLands |
| Finnair Plus | Qantas Frequent Flyer | Singapore KrisFlyer | TAP Air Portugal Miles&Go | Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles | Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles | ALL Accor Live Limitless | Wyndham Rewards |
Citi Thank You Points Partner Awards Transfer
Citi Thank You Points can be transferred to the following partners through the CitiBank Travel Portal. Please see the Citi Transfer Partners article above for comprehensive look at these partners, details, transfer times and conversion rates.
| Aeromexico Club Premier | Air France-KLM Flying Blue | Avianca LifeMiles | Cathay Pacific Asia Miles | Emirates Skywards | Etihad Guest | EVA Air Infinity MileageLands | InterMiles | JetBlue TrueBlue |
| Malaysia Airlines Enrich | Qantas Frequent Flyer | Qatar Airways Privilege Club | Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer | Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus | Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles | Virgin Atlantic Flying Club | Choice Privileges | Wyndham Rewards® |
Airline Alliances
Oneworld Alliance
| Alaska Airlines | American Airlines | British Airways | Cathay Pacific | Finnair | Iberia | Japan Airlines |
| Malaysia Airlines | Qantas | Qatar | Royal Air Maroc | Royal Jordanian | S7 Airlines | SriLankan |
SkyTeam Alliance
| Aeroflot | Aerolíneas Argentinas | Aeromexico | AirEuropa | Air France | Alitalia | China Airlines | China Eastern | Czech Airlines | Delta |
| Garuda Indonesia | Kenya Airways | KLM | Korean Air | MEA | Saudia | Tarom | Vietnam Airlines | XiamenAir |
Star Alliance
| Aegean Airlines | Air Canada | Air China | Air India | Air New Zealand | All Nippon Airways (ANA) | Asiana | Austrian Airlines | Avianca | Brussels Airlines | Copa Airlines | Croatia Airlines | EgyptAir |
| Ethiopian Airlines | EVA Air | LOT Polish Airlines | Lufthansa | Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) | Shenzhen Airlines | Singapore Airlines | South African Airways | Swiss Airlines | TAP Portugal | Thai Airways | Turkish Airlines | United Airlines |
Final Thoughts
As you can see, with the ability to transfer you rewards to a partner program, the options for affordable flying of all variety opens wide up. With just a little bit of work and information, you will be well on your way to booking that cheap business class flight to Asia and becoming the envy of all your friends and family.
Don’t forget to comment below and let us know what you think (or what booking wins you’ve accomplished with the help of this site!)
