When it comes to earning rewards for travel, credit card transfer partners can be a great way to get even more value out of your points.

For anyone who is unfamiliar with the term “transfer partner”, there are specific selections of airlines, hotels, and other travel brands that have partnered with credit card companies to allow cardholders to transfer their points to their loyalty programs. When you transfer your points to one of these travel partners, you will (typically) exchange your credit card points for travel rewards at a 1:1 ratio, meaning that 1,000 points from your credit card will become 1,000 points in the travel partner's program.

There are several reasons why you might want to use credit card transfer partners. To start, you can often get far better redemption rates on flights, hotels, and other travel expenses by transferring your points to a travel partner. For example, you might be able to book a flight for 25,000 points through your credit card's travel portal, but you could get the same flight for just 15,000 points by transferring your points to the airline's loyalty program.

However, each bank has a different set of travel partners; depending on which particular airlines and hotels you use most frequently, you will want to factor in each bank’s transfer partners when deciding which credit cards make the most sense for you to add to your wallet. At the end of the day, if you can’t use your points in the way you want, what value do they really provide you?

Therefore, to help you figure out which bank will provide you with the best travel partners, we’ve pulled from our personal experience, the data, and popular consensus to give you our 3 favorite banks and specific credit cards with the best transfer partners. While this list isn’t definitive, these are the banks that we feel provide you with the best possible point transfers.

With the background out of the way, let’s jump into the list!

The credit cards with the best transfer partners

1. Bilt Rewards (Bilt Mastercard)

This may surprise many credit card pros out there, but our overall favorite collection of travel transfer partners is from Bilt Rewards.

For those who are unfamiliar with Bilt, they only offer one credit card: the Bilt Rewards Mastercard from Wells Fargo. The Bilt card is extremely unique in that it allows you to pay for your rent using the card without any of the typical fees that are associated with rent (as well as a wide variety of other payment types, such as utilities).

This is a huge advantage for renters who normally have no way to get any points for their rent payments. For most people, rent is one of their biggest expenses, so being able to get points from your rent is a huge boon for increasing your points accumulation.

Bilt started out with very few transfer partners and has slowly amassed one of the most impressive and valuable sets of airline and hotel partners across any rewards ecosystem. To date, Bilt now has 12 different airline partners and 2 different hotel partners—while this isn’t as many partners as some of the larger banks on this list, the partners that Bilt does have are some of the most valuable.

While you can get exceptional value out of all of these partners, there are two that elevate Bilt to the top spot on our list.

1. American Airlines: American Airlines is one of the biggest airlines in the USA, yet shockingly, Bilt is the only major bank ecosystem that allows point transfer to AA at a 1:1 ratio. While there are a few other ways to transfer points to American Airlines, Bilt remains the only major platform that lets you do it directly. For this reason alone, Bilt has a huge advantage over every single other reward ecosystem, and frankly, is a reason to consider getting the card in of itself.

2. World of Hyatt: For those who are unfamiliar, booking at Hyatt is largely considered to be one of the best possible uses of your credit card points. Booking Hyatt properties with points is extremely simple and yet very effective, with redemptions often pushing above 2 cents per point on a regular basis (see below)! While Hyatt is more well known as Chase’s main partner, Bilt also offers point transfer to Hyatt at a 1:1 ratio.

With other partners like United, Virgin, and FlyingBlue, Bilt offers point transfers to all the major airline alliances, allowing you to use your points to travel to destinations all over the world! The breadth of top-tier transfer partners makes Bilt our overall favorite bank and specific credit card for transferring points to travel partners.

2. Chase Bank (Chase Sapphire Preferred)

The second bank on our list for best transfer partners is Chase Bank, and particularly, the Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card. Chase is arguably the most well-known credit card provider out there, with over 30 different Chase and co-branded credit cards on offer.

Related: The Full Chase Credit Card Tier List

Chase Ultimate Rewards are considered by many to be some of the most valuable reward ecosystems, largely due to the strength of Chase’s transfer partners. However, while Chase’s transfer options are no doubt excellent, their best partners (e.g., Hyatt, United, FlyingBlue, Air Canada, Virgin) are all shared with the Bilt rewards ecosystem.

Therefore, to differentiate the two, we have to look at the exclusive transfer partners (i.e., the ones that aren’t shared with any other reward systems). As we mentioned, Bilt’s main exclusive partner is American Airlines, while Chase’s main exclusive partner is Southwest.

When we compare the value of using points on American Airlines and on Southwest, AA wins every time—they fly to more destinations, cover a greater area of the country, and are also part of an airline alliance that can be helpful for booking flights internationally. Plus, AA lets you choose your seat ahead of time (looking at you, Southwest).

Therefore, even though Chase also has JetBlue and Marriott as transfer partners while Bilt does not, those two partners are shared with other members on this list. When we take the full list of partners into account, the addition of American Airlines for Bilt elevates it just beyond Chase.

However, Chase still has an incredible range of transfer partners that can help you get great value out of your hard-earned points. We always recommend using your Chase points at Hyatt, JetBlue, United, and Virgin/FlyingBlue, as these are the partners that tend to give the best value for points and be the most helpful for fulfilling your travel goals.

3. American Express

Our third favorite bank for transfer partners is American Express, and particularly, the American Express Gold card. While the AmEx Gold card is less well-known than the more expensive Platinum card, it is a far better card for earning Membership Rewards points, as the Platinum is designed to focus more on giving travel benefits. Compared to the Chase Sapphire Preferred, the AmEx Gold gives more points for your spending across a variety of categories!

American Express’s reward ecosystem has the most transfer partners of any bank on this list, with 18 airline partners and 3 hotel partners. While not all of these partners have the best point/mile redemption rate, the sheer quantity of partners lets cardholders use their points to travel to almost every continent on Earth!

Delta has transfer partners in every major alliance and has Delta Air Lines as an exclusive transfer partner. While Delta SkyMiles aren’t particularly valuable—you’re unlikely to ever get a redemption rate of greater than 1.5 cents per point—it is extremely simple to transfer your American Express Membership Rewards points directly to Delta for booking flights.

However, the biggest downside of transfer points to Delta is that the airline charges a slight fee to transfer points—if you’re hoping to book any more expensive business class flights, this can get as high as $90.

See below for the full list of American Express transfer partners:

Our favorite American Express transfer partners are JetBlue, Delta, Air Canada, FlyingBlue, ANA, and Virgin. Between Delta/Virgin and Air Canada, you’ve got the ability to use your points for almost any SkyTeam or Star Alliance flight! If you’re interested in flying from the USA to Japan, ANA is largely considered the best airline for booking flights to Japan with points/miles.

Overall, while American Express has the most total transfer partners, the vast majority are shared with other ecosystems on this list. While it’s great to have the ability to send your points to Delta, with the added fees to transfer points, it definitely devalues the usefulness of transferring points.

Therefore, American Express (and particularly the Gold card) is number three on our list of the best banks and credit cards for transfer partners.

Summary

Utilizing transfer partners to redeem your points is one of the best ways to get value from your spending. Luckily, many banks have a great selection of partners to help you travel the world with your points.

Our three favorite banks for transfer partners are Bilt, Chase, and American Express, as these three have a healthy mix of airline and hotel partners that can be useful no matter where you’re traveling.

However, while these are our favorites based on our personal experience, it’s always important to consider your travel plans when deciding on which transfer partners will be the most helpful for you. For instance, if you live in Boston and fly frequently, Delta and JetBlue will likely be more valuable than Southwest or United.

We hope this article was helpful! If you’re interested in some of the credit cards we’ve mentioned here, make sure to check out comparisons of the Chase Sapphire Preferred vs. the United Explorer card, and the American Express Gold vs. the Delta SkyMiles Gold.

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