Newly Improved Best Card - Sapphire Preferred

 That's right! In June 2025, Chase revamped the Chase Sapphire Reserve card (learn more here) and also introduced the Sapphire Reserve for Business (learn more there). But this June, Chase announced a revamp of my favorite card; the Chase Sapphire Preferred!

You will find this card in several of my posts, including Best Beginner Cards and My Everyday Cards; for good reason! It has a low annual fee and is a great point earner for every day purchases. Let's just in to review the card and it's newest benefits!

A few "Chase Rules" to keep in mind:

• Chase now allows you to hold the Sapphire Preferred AND Sapphire Reserve at the same time (in the past, this was not allowed)
• Chase added "lifetime language" that you are only eligible for a sign up bonus once for each card (ie one SUB for Preferred and one SUB for Reserve; this is a change from the past and the former 48-month rule)
• You need a "premium" Chase card, aka a Chase brand card with an annual fee, in order to transfer Chase points to travel partners (like hotels and airlines). Transferring points to these partners often help you spend less points than if you used points to book in the Chase Travel Portal. Sapphire Preferred is the lowest annual fee card with benefit.

Now on the main event!

Chase Sapphire Preferred

Annual Fee: $95

Current Elevated Offer*: Spend $5,000 in 3 months and earn 100,000 points!

(*elevated, meaning it's a limited time higher offer than the standard offer. The standard offer for this card is spend $5,000 in 3 months and earn 75,000 points )

Referral Link: absolutely free to you; but gives me credit with Chase for you applying. This is an easy way to help support my small business and keep free content coming! 

Note: the referral link offers haven't updated to 100k points yet. If you're interested in opening this card, I would love you forever if you'd wait until referrals show 100k and use my link to apply! Thanks ;)

5/24: This is a personal card and therefore WILL take up one spot in your Chase 5/24 count. (What's Chase 5/24? Read Rule 2 in This beginner post)

Cash Value Benefits

• $100 Annual Hotel Credit (added 2026): Valid for any hotel booked in the Chase Portal and charged to this card. You will receive a $100 statement credit to offset the charge
• This benefit was previously $50 and as of 6/15/26, increased to $100. 
• If you use this one benefit every year, you are gaining more value for the card than what you pay for the annual fee!

• Global Entry/TSA Precheck: $120 credit every 4 years; charge this card for your application and receive a statement credit

• AppleTV: get one year of free AppleTV when activated by 12/31/26
• Activate through Chase.com or Chase app
• If you already have an active paid Apple TV subscription purchased directly through Apple, your complimentary Apple TV subscription through Chase will automatically suspend your existing subscription. Once your complimentary Apple TV subscription through Chase ends, your paid Apple TV subscription will automatically resume at the then-current price.
• If you close or change your eligible card to an ineligible card at any time during this offer, you will no longer be eligible for complimentary Apple TV 

• Doordash: Annual free DashPass (which saves you on delivery fees) AND monthly $10 credit for non-restaurant door dash purchases)

Points Earning/Use Benefits

• Earn 5X points on Chase Travel Portal
• Earn 3X points on dining (including food delivery services)
• Earn 3X points for online groceries (excludes Target, Walmart, and Wholesale Clubs)
• Earn 3X points on gas stations and EV charging (new in 2026)
• Earn 3X points vacation homes top brands* (new in 2026)
• * Bookings made with Airbnb, VRBO, Plum Guide, HomeAway, Homestay.com and Vacasa qualify
• Earn 2X points on travel
• Earn 1X point on all other purchases
• Ability to transfer to travel partners (remember rule 3 above?)
• Travel insurance protection (for travel charged to this card)

Yall; so many of these earn point earn category are what makes this the card I grab for on a daily basis when we're not working on a minimum spend for a new card. You can learn more about My Every Day Cards here.

Why this Card?

I truly recommend starting with this card and starting with the Chase ecosystem because I find it the most straightforward and easiest to use. I know, some of you are rolling your eyes because I've thrown a lot of information at you that feels overwhelming and it IS a lot of info; but I promise - Chase Points Travel is user friendly!

 
Without a doubt, this is definitely the best place to start. Chase credit cards allow you to earn Chase Ultimate Rewards (CURs), which are their universal flexible points. While you can use CURs to book travel in the Chase Travel Portal, this is much like booking a trip through a third party service like Expedia. You don't earn any loyalty or benefits. The best way to maximize your value of your points (aka spend less points for travel) is to transfer to Chase Travel Partners. You can view all of Chase's Transfer Partners and how/why to transfer in this post.

As mentioned in the intro, there are only a few Chase credit cards that allow you to transfer your Chase points directly to travel partner. Basically any Chase card with an annual fee. The Sapphire cards are the only non-business cards that allow this. Chase points are considered highly flexible because they transfer to 3 hotel chains (Hyatt, Marriott, and IHG), and 11 airlines (but keep in mind, airlines work in alliances or partnerships. So while there are 11 airlines with a direct transfer, alliances give you the opportunity to book flights with over a dozen airlines).

I know a lot of people are hesitant to open credit cards with annual fees. The Sapphire Preferred DOES have an annual fee of $95/year, but there are benefits to offset that cost. (and honestly, the $95/year to have the ability to transfer to travel partners like Hyatt, Southwest, and United to take free trips we've taken is worth it alone to me).

The Bad 2026 Change? 

Chase is changing the transfer ratio for Hyatt with the Sapphire Preferred Card (CSP). If you open a CSP starting 6/15/26; when you transfer Chase points to Hyatt, it will be at a 4:3; meaning you "lose" 25% of your points moving them to Hyatt. 

So if you have 100,000 Chase Points, they become 75,000 Hyatt points. Bummer!

However, if you're willing to get the "big brother" card, the Sapphire Reserve (Personal or Business), is maintaining the 1:1 ratio.

And if you already are a CSP holder, you will maintain the 1:1 Hyatt Ratio until 10/1/26, at which point it will drop to the 4:3 mentioned above.

Summary

I will forever hold a Chase Sapphire card to maintain my ability to transfer my Chase points to travel partners! The CSP, with it's low annual fee, is a great card to have at least one household member hold at all times. Keep in mind that when transferring points from Chase to a Transfer Partner (Hotel or Airline), the name on the CSP card MUST match the name on the loyalty account you're transferring too.

Since I generally like to have our flights and hotels booked under my name/accounts when I can, I will always hold a Sapphire card to have this ability.

If you open this card, I would truly appreciate if you use my referral link! This doesn't cost you a cent, but provides me with some extra points and keeps all of my content free! Thank you in advance!

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Looking for more information on points/miles? You can find all of my points talk posts linked here.

Trying to figure out your next card? Here is my FREE personalized Next Card Recommendation form. Simply fill this out and I'll let you know suggestions.

Curious what cards I (and/or my husband) have, and why? Read here!

June Elevated Offers

Chase is FULL of elevated offers right now! Let's see if any of them are a good fit for you. 

Keep in mind - Chase has recently changed their eligibility rules on several cards. For the following cards, you are now only to receive ONE sign up bonus (EVER!): 

Personal Cards

• Chase Sapphire Preferred
• Chase Sapphire Reserve

Business Cards

• Chase Ink Preferred
• One bonus from either (but not both!): Chase Ink Cash OR Chase Ink Unlimited
• (Currently we believe you can earn the sign up bonus more than once on the Sapphire Reserve for Business!)

With this information in mind; if you have not previously opened and received a sign up bonus for these cards; I would highly suggest considering opening any of these cards when there is an elevated offer; which conveniently all of these cards have (at least as this very moment).

Before I dive into the offers themselves, I want to acknowledge that a lot of people see "business card" and automatically write them off as not applicable. This isn't always the case! You can get approved for Business Cards without an LLC/EIN; etc. If you sell used items on Facebook, Poshmark or perhaps you shop for Instacart or drive Lyft - all of these incomes can qualify you as a "sole proprietor" business. This post outlines why you should reconsider applying for business cards and even gives you a step-by-step tutorial how to apply!

Chase Elevated Offers

Below is an overview of each card and it's elevated offer. If you want more details on the card and it's benefits, click the informational link.

As a reminder, I also share my referral links. If you decide to open one of these card, I appreciate you using my referral link to apply. It is absolutely free to you, but provides me a small kick back from the bank. Think of it as a free thank-you gift for the time and effort to share and educate how to earn and use points ;)

Chase Sapphire Reserve

• Elevated Sign Up Bonus (scheduled to end 6/15/26; 9am ET): Spend $6,000 in 3 months; earn 150,000 points
• High annual fee - but a high amount of points and benefits to offset
• Information on Annual Fee and Benefts
• Referral Link

Chase Ink Business Unlimited

• Elevated Sign Up Bonus: Spend $8,000 in 4 months; earn 100,000 points*
• (*Note: this elevated offer has not quite hit referral links yet; but is anticipated to start 6/15. I would so appreciate if you'd be willing to wait and use my link!)
• No annual fee card with one month longer than usual to hit the minimum spend
• Information on Annual and Benefits
• Referral Link

Chase Ink Business Cash

• Elevated Sign Up Bonus:  Spend $8,000 in 4 months; earn 100,000 points*
• (*Note: this elevated offer has not quite hit referral links yet; but is anticipated to start 6/15. I would so appreciate if you'd be willing to wait and use my link!)
• No annual fee card with one month longer than usual to hit the minimum spend
• Information on Annual and Benefits
• Referral Link

Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business

• Elevated Sign Up Bonus: Spend $30,000 in 6 months; earn 200,000 points*
• (*Note: this elevated offer has not quite hit referral links yet; but is anticipated to start 6/15. I would so appreciate if you'd be willing to wait and use my link!)
• High annual fee - but a high amount of points and benefits to offset; 6 months to hit the minimum spend instead of the stand 3 months
• Information on Annual and Benefits
• Referral Link

June 2026 Transfer Bonuses

What is a Transfer Bonus?

Essentially - it's free points or miles!

Transfer bonuses are a limited time promotion where bank/partner programs will offer extra points to transfer your flexible bank points to a specific hotel or loyalty program. Banks frequently (sometimes monthly, sometimes sporadically) announce transfer bonuses, which means if you transfer points from the bank to the partner with the bonus, you’ll get more points for free with that partner, just for transferring! 

In order to take advantage of these bonuses, you need to transfer your flexible bank points to the travel partner with the bonus. Not familiar with how to transfer points or which hotels/airlines partner with which banks? You can learn how to transfer points here, Chase Transfer Partners here, American Express transfer partners here and Capital One's here. 

Keep in mind.. once you transfer points, you cannot transfer them back to your bank. They are then "stuck" in whichever airline/hotel partner you transferred to. Transfers from banks to airline or hotel partners are irreversible.

It is NOT recommended to transfer points from a bank to a travel partner, just because there's a bonus. It's generally best to keep your points flexible until you're ready to book travel, at which point you then transfer out of the bank.

Current Transfer Bonuses

(As of 6/2/2026; these are subject to change/additional bonuses added)

American Express 

• Air France/KLM (Flying Blue): 25% bonus through 11:59pm MT 6/30/2026

• Air France/KLM can charge high taxes/fees; but they also can charge less in points for flights. Read this post to learn more about why I love Flying Blue for families!
• Don't want or need to fly Air France or KLM? Not going to Europe soon? Keep in mind that Flying Blue is part of an Airline Alliances. With this transfer bonus, you may be able to book flights on other airlines in the same alliance, such as Delta, even for domestic flights
• For example, you can fly Delta one-way from Denver to Minneapolis this summer and fall for just 9,000 miles booked with Air France (and this is before the transfer bonus!)



That's less miles than booking direct on Delta - for the same exact flight. 
(This is why Airline Alliances can be so powerful!)

• Marriott Hotels: 20% bonus through 11:59pm MT 6/30/2026

Capital One

• None at this time

Chase

• Marriott Hotels: 55% bonus through 11:59PM ET June 30th, 2026
• Virgin Atlantic: 35% bonus June 9, 2026 through 11:59PM ET July 14th, 2026
• Southwest: 30% bonus through 11:59PM ET June 5th, 2025 (this bonus ended)

How Many Points to Transfer

To figure out how many points you NEED to transfer, you take the amount of points needs to book your flight/hotel and divide that number by the transfer bonus (in numerical form, the percent plus 1).

So say you want to book a 50,000 point flight and there's a 20% transfer bonus. You would calculate 50,000 / (1.2) to figure out how many points you need to actually transfer. In this case, it calculates out to 41,667 points.

Most programs require you transfer points in 1,000 point increments, which means for our example, with a 20% transfer bonus, you'd transfer 42,000 points to book your 50,000 point travel.

Or save your brain cells and some points - use my free Transfer Bonus Calculator! Find all of the current transfer bonuses and calculator linked here.

Bi-Annual/Quarter End Credits

Writing this on June 1st, 2026, we are quickly approaching the midpoint of 2026. What?!

Many of the premium/higher fee flexible points earn cards include "coupon" type benefits that are valid quarterly or bi-annually (twice a year), and are "use it or lose it". As I review my own cards and benefits I still need to use before this quarter/biannual end (ie before July), I figured I'd share this list with you. If you have any of these cards, make sure you're utilizing these benefits to the best of your ability to help offset credit card annual fees :)

(And if you don't have any of these cards and these benefits sound worthwhile; I would love to refer you! It's free to you to apply with my links and provides me a small kickback; think of it as a free investment to keep my content free)

Bi-Annual/Quarter End Credits

This list isn't all inclusive of all the bi-annual and/or quarterly benefits out there; but highlights several popular flexible/transferrable point cards.

Chase

Chase Sapphire Reserve

• $300 Stubhub Credit; twice a year. $150 statement credit for stubhub purchases made Jan-Jun and Jul-Dec when you pay with this card
• $300 Dining Credit; get $150 statement credit bi-annually for dining and paying with your Sapphire at Sapphire Reserve Exclusive Restaurants through Open Table; Jan-Jun and Jul-Dec (note - some people have reported that if you simply purchase a giftcard to these restaurants you will receive the statement credit)

Sapphire Reserve annual fee is HIGH, at $795. But if you utilize these 2 benefits, plus the $300 annual travel credit - you have "made" money by holding this card! ($300+$300+$300 = $900 vs $795 annual fee)

Learn more about Sapphire Reserve here or apply here! (Don't forget - Chase has changed the rules. You are now only eligible for each Sapphire sign up bonus once, but you can now the Reserve and the Preferred at the same time).

Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business

• $100 Giftcards.com Credit; twice a year for purchases made Jan-Jun and Jul-Dec on at giftcards.com/reservebusiness

Learn more about Sapphire Reserve Business here or apply here!

American Express

Amex Gold (Personal)

• $100 to Resy Restaurants with a $50 statement credit bi-annually for dining and paying with your Amex Gold Personal card at restaurants listed on Resy; Jan-Jun and Jul-Dec 
• If you simply purchase a giftcard to these restaurants you may receive the statement credit (instead of dining in)
• You do NOT have to have a Resy reservation in order to earn this statement credit. Just pay with your card. 
• You can split forms of payment and pair this with another Amex Card with the Resy benefit! For example, I hold the Platinum and Gold Personal cards. If I pay with both cards at a Resy restaurant, I can get a total of $150 statement credit for my meal)

Learn more about Amex Gold Personal here or apply here!

Amex Platinum (Personal)

• $400 to Resy Restaurants with a $100 statement credit quarterly for dining and paying with your Amex Platinum Personal card at restaurants listed on Resy;  
• If you simply purchase a giftcard to these restaurants you may receive the statement credit (instead of dining in)
• You do NOT have to have a Resy reservation in order to earn this statement credit. Just pay with your card. 
• You can split forms of payment and pair this with another Amex Card with the Resy benefit! For example, I hold the Platinum and Gold Personal cards. If I pay with both cards at a Resy restaurant, I can get a total of $150 statement credit for my meal)
• $600 annual Hotel Credit: provided as 2 $300 bi-annual (Jan-Jun and Jul-Dec) credits. 
• You need to book a pre-paid Fine Hotel+Resort or Hotel Collection stay in the Amex Portal during these time frames, but do not have to stay during the time period, in order to get the credit. 
• Fine Hotel+Resorts have no minimum night stays, include early checkin, late checkout, free breakfast for 2 and a $100 resort credit
• For example, it's June at the time of writing this post. I could use my $300 hotel credit to book a Fine Hotel+Resorts stay later this year, or even next year and that would utilize my Jan-Jun $300 credit
• Learn how I used this benefit in the past here!
• $300 Lululemon Credit: with a $75 statement credit quarterly when you paying with your Amex Platinum Personal card at Lululemon

If you thought Sapphire Reserve annual fee was high; Amex Platinum is even higher at $895/yr! Ouch! But as you can see, if you utilize the benefits, such as those listed above, it truly does help to offset the annual fee, if not find additional value and come out "ahead".

Learn more about Amex Platinum Personal here or apply here!

Amex Platinum (Business)

• $600 annual Hotel Credit: provided as 2 $300 bi-annual (Jan-Jun and Jul-Dec) credits (same as the Personal Card)
• You need to book a pre-paid Fine Hotel+Resort or Hotel Collection stay in the Amex Portal during these time frames, but do not have to stay during the time period, in order to get the credit. 
• Fine Hotel+Resorts have no minimum night stays, include early checkin, late checkout, free breakfast for 2 and a $100 resort credit
• For example, it's June at the time of writing this post. I could use my $300 hotel credit to book a Fine Hotel+Resorts stay later this year, or even next year and that would utilize my Jan-Jun $300 credit
• Learn how I used this benefit in the past here!
• You can use multiple of these credits to book back to back stays; for example - 2 $300 credits could get you 2-night stay 

If you thought Sapphire Reserve annual fee was high; Amex Platinum is even higher at $895/yr! Ouch! But as you can see, if you utilize the benefits, such as those listed above, it truly does help to offset the annual fee, if not find additional value and come out "ahead".

Learn more about Amex Platinum Business here or apply here!

Summary

As you can see - some of the high annual fee cards also come with high dollar benefits to help offset those fees. You just have to make sure you utilize the benefits to help find value in the card.

If you want to open this card, or any of the cards I post about, I would SO appreciate if you utilized my referral links to open cards. This doesn't cost you anything, but provides me with some extra points and keeps all of my content free! Thank you in advance!

Reminder, if you're viewing this through a Meta app, please open an external browser to apply. This protects your data and gives me credit.

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Looking for more information on points/miles? You can find all of my points talk posts linked here.

Trying to figure out your next card? Here is my FREE personalized Next Card Recommendation form. Simply fill this out and I'll let you know suggestions.

Curious what cards I (and/or my husband) have, and why? Read here!

2026 Hyatt Changes

About three months ago, Hyatt announced a fundamental change to their standard award chart. The changes and an overall Hyatt Overview (why do people love Hyatt?!) can be found here.

We are a week out from when the "new" award chart goes into effect: May 20th, 2026. I've received a few questions about the impending changes that seem worth compiling here.

2026 Hyatt Changes

Why is this a big deal?

The general jist of the change in award chart points pricing is that Hyatt is going to be able to charge significantly more points and/or a wider range of points for the same hotel. The previous standard award chart only had 3 rate options for points (Off-Peak, Standard, Peak) without too large of a sway between them. The new award has 5-pricing tiers with a huge sway in the points price.

For example, if you want to travel between the winter holidays, one could assume that would be consider peak rates.

With the "old" award chart a Category 6 hotel like Hyatt Regency Maui would cost you 29,000 points per night (at most). With the "new" award chart, the same hotel for the same "peak" dates will cost 40,000 points per night after 5/20.

2025 Award Chart

This may be somewhat tolerable; but look at the Category 8 pricing. Grand Hyatt Kauai is a Category 8 hotel that currently costs 45,000 points per night for peak and will jump up to 75,000 points per night after 5/20! 

Comparing old to new:

What Should I Do?

After 5/19, we really will be at the mercy of Hyatt. You will either need to earn more points, travel less, book lower category hotels, or change your travel plans to travel at less peak times (which, as a mom of 2 which kids in school; can be hard to do!).

Book Now: Since Hyatt generally (currently) releases award availability 13 months in advance*, most Hyatt Hotels calendars are open into June 2027. If you have points or even are contemplating a trip in the next year - I would book in now. 

*Note: Hyatt has said they will be changing how the release availability dates. Those with Explorist or Globalist Status or who hold a Hyatt credit card will be able to book 13 months in advance, but those who don't, will only be given a 12month in advance window. Essentially, incentivizing you to get status or a credit card.

What if I Book Now and Plans Change?

Pay attention to the cancellation policy; but more than likely if you book a trip now and can't make it happen, you can cancel and get your points back.

Be careful - if you book a reservation before 5/20; and need to modify after 5/20, you are at jeopardy that you will likely be required to pay the points differential to the "new" award chart.

What if I Book Now and Price Goes Down?

If you book a Hyatt reservation at one price and the annual changes lead to a drop in that price, historically Hyatt had automatically credited your account for the points difference/drop. It remains to be seen if that will still be the case. (Although if you see this happen to your reservations, you could always cancel yourself and rebook for less)

What if I Want to Apply an Award?

For those of us who have reservations booked for stays after 5/19 and have a Hyatt award we want to utilize (see my Hyatt post for more details on Hyatt awards); your safest bet is to apply the award now, before 5/20.

This is the same advice that was given in past years, but Hyatt seems to have been flexible in the past, that if you had a reservation and the point price increased with the annual changes AFTER you had already booked, if you applied the award after the price increase - there was a chance that you'd have to pay the higher point level. However, having used several GOH awards, I've not run into this issue yet...

...but it doesnt like it may be more strictly implemented now!

Summary

Hyatt's standard award chart and Guest of Honor awards are my favorite reason to keep booking Hyatts. Keep in mind, Chase and Bilt are the only Hyatt transfer partners, which is why I try to save those points for Hyatt and use my other bank stashes to book flights!

I'm curious to see just how "bad" these changes actually are once they go into effect. But, I won't like - a week out and I'm debating scrambling to book a few "just so we have the option" trips for the next year. What Hyatts are you booking?!

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Looking for more information on points/miles? You can find all of my points talk posts linked here.

Trying to figure out your next card? Here is my FREE personalized Next Card Recommendation form. Simply fill this out and I'll let you know my suggestions.

Wondering how I keep all of this information organized? Check out my Points Tracker!

Curious what cards I (and/or my husband) have, and why? Read here!

May 2026 Transfer Bonuses

 What is a Transfer Bonus?

Essentially - it's free points or miles!

Transfer bonuses are a limited time promotion where bank/partner programs will offer extra points to transfer your flexible bank points to a specific hotel or loyalty program. Banks frequently (sometimes monthly, sometimes sporadically) announce transfer bonuses, which means if you transfer points from the bank to the partner with the bonus, you’ll get more points for free with that partner, just for transferring! 

In order to take advantage of these bonuses, you need to transfer your flexible bank points to the travel partner with the bonus. Not familiar with how to transfer points or which hotels/airlines partner with which banks? You can learn how to transfer points here, Chase Transfer Partners here, American Express transfer partners here and Capital One's here. 

Keep in mind.. once you transfer points, you cannot transfer them back to your bank. They are then "stuck" in whichever airline/hotel partner you transferred to. Transfers from banks to airline or hotel partners are irreversible.

It is NOT recommended to transfer points from a bank to a travel partner, just because there's a bonus. It's generally best to keep your points flexible until you're ready to book travel, at which point you then transfer out of the bank.

Current Transfer Bonuses

(As of 5/12/2026; these are subject to change/additional bonuses added)

American Express 

• Hilton: 20% bonus through 5/30/2026. 
• Note that Amex standard transfer ratio is 1 Amex point equals 2 Hilton points! So when you transfer 1,000 Amex points with this transfer bonus, they become 2,400 Hilton points! (and if you have Hilton Gold Status, which you can get by having an Amex Personal Platinum or Business Platinum card; when booking 4 consecutive nights on points, you get the 5th night free!). This is a GREAT transfer points to take advantage of!

Capital One

• Qantas: 20% bonus through 11:59PM ET, May 31st, 2026 
• Don't want or need to fly Qantas? Maybe you've never even heart of them! (Australian Airline) Keep in mind Airline Alliances. With this transfer bonus, you may be able to book flights on other airlines in the same alliance, such as American Airlines or British Airways, even for domestic flights!

Chase

• Flying Blue (Air France and KLM): 20% bonus through 11:59PM ET, May 27th, 2026

• Don't want or need to fly Air France or KLM? Not going to Europe soon? Keep in mind that Flying Blue is part of an Airline Alliances. With this transfer bonus, you may be able to book flights on other airlines in the same alliance, such as Delta, even for domestic flights!
• For example, you can fly Delta one-way from Denver to Minneapolis this summer and fall for just 9,000 miles booked with Air France (and this is before the transfer bonus!)

That's less miles than booking direct on Delta - for the same exact flight. 

(This is why Airline Alliances can be so powerful!)

 

• Marriott Hotels: 65% bonus through 11:59PM ET, May 15th, 2026; then changing to a 55% bonus through 11:59PM ET June 30th, 2026
• Southwest: 30% bonus through 11:59PM ET June 5th, 2025

How Many Points to Transfer

To figure out how many points you NEED to transfer, you take the amount of points needs to book your flight/hotel and divide that number by the transfer bonus (in numerical form, the percent plus 1).

So say you want to book a 50,000 point flight and there's a 20% transfer bonus. You would calculate 50,000 / (1.2) to figure out how many points you need to actually transfer. In this case, it calculates out to 41,667 points.

Most programs require you transfer points in 1,000 point increments, which means for our example, with a 20% transfer bonus, you'd transfer 42,000 points to book your 50,000 point travel.

Or save your brain cells and some points - use my free Transfer Bonus Calculator! Find all of the current transfer bonuses and calculator linked here.

Air Canada (and its tie to United)

I've mentioned Airline Alliances a few times on the blog. This post provides a deep dive on what they are and why you want to use them.

One of the most common airlines in airline alliances is Air Canada. Why? Because Air Canada is in Star Alliance and 3 major banks transfer points to Air Canada: American Express, Capital One, and Chase

Ummm, okay? Why does this matter? United is also in Star Alliance and a LOT of people love flying United. BUT - the only bank that transfers directly to United is Chase...and a lot of people save their Chase points to transfer to Hyatt. 

No idea what I'm talking about? Lets back up to How to Transfer Points (and Why) as well as Bank Transfer Partners: American Express, Capital One, and Chase

Are you still with me or have I made your head spin? Read on to learn more about Air Canada!

Air Canada Point Redemptions

First and foremost, I'm writing this post on 4/29/2026, but Air Canada announced earlier this week that effective June 2026, they will be raising their points pricing.

The pricing changes may alter how relevant this example is in the future, but it's still a great example to illustrate a benefit of using airline alliances and why.

Air Canada/United Booking Example

Earlier this week I had a friend reach out to ask for help with booking a last minute flight to attend a funeral in New York. 

Being in Denver, a United Hub, she had found a United flight that she wanted to book, but that was nearly $1,000!

She only has Chase points, so we priced the same flight out on United, booking with miles. A total of 30,000 miles roundtrip as a non-United cardholder 

(PS- United cardholders now get at least 10% off all flights! So this flight would have cost 27,000 miles. Learn more about United cards here)

30,000 miles for a roundtrip flight that would cost $947 is pretty good! Especially not to have to spend an unforeseen $1K out of pocket to attend a funeral... See how the United points show that these are "Saver Award" flights? That means there's a chance that airline alliance partners (like Air Canada) could have the United same flight bookable through Air Canada.

We searched, and low and behold, the same exact United flights were available on Air Canada's website for the same price of 30,000 points (although you will see that taxes and fees differ).

In this case, United and Air Canada are charging the same amount of points for the same flight (but Air Canada's fees are higher); but if I wanted to save my Chase points and use Capital One or American Express points instead - that's an option. (or if I had some points from one bank that I wanted to use and then "top off" with points from another bank!

BUT, we could do a little bit better because I remembered Chase is having a 20% Transfer Bonus to Air Canada. Using my Transfer Bonus Calculator, we plug in the needed 30,000 points, a 20% bonus, and a 1:1 ratio to learn that we only need 25,000 Chase points transferred to Air Canada to book this 30,000 point flight!

It's worth noting that there are 2 major considerations when specifically booking United flights through Air Canada:

• Taxes and Fees are higher. United charges the standard $5.60 one-way for domestic flights, whereas Air Canada is a bit higher (but the trade off is, you're saving points. So you'd have to decide where you find more value: saving cash or saving points)
• Cancellation Policy. United lets you cancel points flights for free and immediately redeposits the points so that you could book something else. Air Canada charges a hefty $150 cancellation fee if it's been more than 24 hours since your made your booking. (I generally only book flights on Air Canada that I know I am going to take! or if I need to cancel/change, I hope for a flight time change to give me the ability to decline accepting the changes).