There are four major travel rewards programs in the credit card realm for U.S. cardholders.
- Amex member benefits
- Capital One Venture Rewards
- Chase the ultimate reward
- City Thank You Rewards
When you first start collecting travel rewards, you need to choose a program. Having used all four to varying degrees, I can say that each has its pros and cons, including the different quality of transfer partners.
Amex and Chase both offer the most comprehensive programs, which is why they rose to the top of the list. However, choosing the exact order for this list turned out to be a little more difficult than I expected. The results are as follows.
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1. Chase the ultimate reward
To be honest, I went back and forth about who would be number one and number two. I’m an Amex fan, so I’m biased that way. But objectively, I had to call it a win for the Chase Ultimate Rewards program.
The main thing that sets this program apart from others is Chase’s travel portal. Specifically, the fact that some Chase credit cards offer increased redemption rates through the portal.
If you have an eligible Chase card, you can earn $0.015 per point when you redeem through the portal. This is a great rate for those who don’t want the usual hassle of transferring or redeeming points at peak value.
2. Amex Membership Rewards
The American Express Membership Rewards program is a close second here. And if your only goal is to transfer points, I would argue that this wins by a wide margin.
Amex has 17 airline transportation partners, 10 of which are not affiliated with Chase and three are AmEx-only. (FYI, Chase only has two of his affiliate partners: American MileagePlus and TAP Air Portugal, and none with Amex.)
All Amex partner airlines transfer at a 1:1 rate except JetBlue (JetBlue transfers at a 1:0.8 rate). This means he will earn 1 mile in the partner program for every Membership Rewards point he transfers unless he earns a bonus.
That’s right, Amex regularly offers switching bonuses. Earn up to 50% more points or miles when you transfer Membership Rewards points to eligible partner programs.
3. (Tie) Capital One Venture and Citi ThanksYou
Neither Capital One Venture nor Citi ThankYou are as robust or profitable as Chase or Amex’s services. However, both programs still have advantages.
Admittedly, it’s actually pretty hard to find a winner here. Both programs offer roughly the same number of partners, including his 10 companies that overlap. Most are one-to-one transfers, but Capital One Venture has worse rates with two airlines, and with one hotel brand, he has worse rates with Citi.
Both programs have their own travel portals where you can use your points directly to book travel. Both also have a value of $0.01 per point/mile when redeemed for travel through the portal.
Ultimately, your choice between the two programs will likely come down to one of two factors:
- Do you like a particular card best? Citi has one travel rewards card that lets you earn ThankYou points. Capital One has three personal card options (plus three business cards). Certain cards may be required for perks, welcome bonuses, or perks.
- Is there a particular airline you would like to fly with? Approximately half of the partners are overlapping, but a large number of non-overlapping partners remain. If you use one of these specific partners, please use their program.
Comprehensive comparison
One good chart can be worth a thousand words. See all our airline transfer partners side by side.
Airlines |
Amex member benefits |
Chase the ultimate reward |
City Thank You Rewards |
Capital One Venture Rewards |
---|---|---|---|---|
aero mexico |
1:1 |
X |
1:1 |
1:1 |
air canada |
1:1 |
X |
X |
1:1 |
Alitalia |
1:1 |
X |
X |
2:1.5 |
aer lingus |
1:1 |
1:1 |
X |
X |
american airlines |
X |
X |
X |
X |
ANA |
1:1 |
X |
X |
X |
Avianca Life Miles |
1:1 |
X |
1:1 |
1:1 |
British Airways |
1:1 |
1:1 |
X |
1:1 |
Cathay Pacific |
1:1 |
X |
1:1 |
1:1 |
delta |
1:1 |
X |
X |
X |
emirates skywards |
1:1 |
1:1 |
1:1 |
1:1 |
etihad airways |
1:1 |
X |
1:1 |
1:1 |
EVA Air |
X |
X |
1:1 |
2:1.5 |
Finnair Plus |
X |
X |
X |
1:1 |
Flying Blue (Air France/KLM) |
1:1 |
1:1 |
1:1 |
1:1 |
Hawaiian |
1:1 |
X |
X |
X |
iberia plus |
1:1 |
1:1 |
X |
X |
jet blue |
1:0.8 |
1:1 |
1:1 |
X |
jet privilege |
X |
X |
1:1 |
X |
Lufthansa German Airlines |
X |
X |
X |
X |
malaysia airlines |
X |
X |
1:1 |
X |
Qantas Airways |
1:1 |
X |
1:1 |
1:1 |
qatar airways |
X |
X |
1:1 |
X |
singapore airlines |
1:1 |
1:1 |
1:1 |
1:1 |
Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards |
X |
1:1 |
X |
X |
TAP Air Portugal |
X |
X |
X |
1:1 |
Thai Airways International |
X |
X |
1:1 |
X |
Turkish Airlines |
X |
X |
1:1 |
1:1 |
united airlines |
X |
1:1 |
X |
X |
Virgin Atlantic Airways |
1:1 |
1:1 |
1:1 |
X |
virgin red |
X |
X |
X |
1:1 |
Source: American Express, Capital One, Chase, Citi
Ultimately, as long as you choose a program that makes you happy. use, you really can’t go wrong. Points that have expired or are left idle in your account have no value.
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