💳 Three weird transfer bonuses

Estimated read time: 5 minutes and 4 seconds

☀️ Good morning from Guangzhou, and welcome back to Daily Drop!

The past week has been filled to the brim with new transfer bonuses – and today, I want to tell you about three weird ones.

Let’s get started:

• 🏨 25% transfer bonus to Leading Hotels of the world

• ✈️ 20% transfer bonus to Qantas

• ✈️ Don’t use this 10% transfer bonus to JetBlue

🏨 25% transfer bonus to Leading Hotels of the world

We’ve been seeing a lot of transfer bonuses floating around recently, but one of these bonuses is not like the rest…

That’s because it involves a program that we rarely talk about and many of you likely haven’t heard of.

I’m talking about Leading Hotels of the World (LHW), which currently has a 25% transfer bonus from ThankYou Points.

When you first see that image above, you might be a bit confused.

We’re used to seeing programs transfer at a 1:1 ratio or even a 1:2 ratio with some.

Seeing 1,000 points turn into 250 points (including the transfer bonus) might seem like a terrible idea.

But it’s not. Not at all. In fact, it’s pretty good.

I found some pretty solid hotel options in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world that I think would be worthwhile at this effective 4:1 transfer ratio.

For example, check out this property in Ojai, California.

It costs less than 5,000 LHW points per night against a cash rate of over $500.

That means that with the current bonus, you’d shell out just 20,000 ThankYou points to book one night.

That’s actually pretty solid – not far off from redemption rates with other programs like Marriott, IHG, and Hilton for top-tier hotels like this one.

Plus, I found even better deals in an equally exciting city like Edinburgh, Scotland, which has this property for just 8,829 points per night:

With this transfer bonus, that’s 35,000 ThankYou points for a hotel that costs over $700 a night, giving you a value of over 2 cents per point.

But the program gets even better…

You see, when you become a member of LHW (which, like most programs, is totally free to sign up for), you get some nice perks when booking hotels with them, such as:

• Free room upgrades

• Continental breakfast for two

• Late checkout (when available)

• Members-only room pricing

This is a great way to get extra value and perks without needing any elite status, and it makes the points even more exciting and valuable.

So here’s the bottom line:

The 4:1 transfer ratio might look scary, but that’s just the way their currency works. The opportunity can definitely be a worthwhile and valuable way to use your ThankYou Points.

You’ll need one of these cards to use this transfer bonus, and it’s only valid until May 16. So hop on it before it’s too late!

✈️ 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 outsized 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.

For the rest of the month (through May 31), 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 had already booked a flight on Qantas from Jakarta to Sydney for later this year. When I booked it, it only cost 20,000 Qantas miles.

With this transfer bonus, that’s around 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 reach 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 to fly into, out of, or around Australia, definitely compare cash rates with Qantas award rates using 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, as I did!

Since many of you have recently signed up for the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card, this is just one way you can put those miles to good use.

✈️ Don’t use this 10% transfer bonus to JetBlue

If you’ve been reading Daily Drop for a while, you know that I usually avoid telling you not to do something as a blanket rule.

Everyone’s circumstances, travel goals, and preferences differ – so I usually aim for “if it feels good to you, then go for it.”

But there’s a transfer bonus to JetBlue that came out last week that sort of breaks that rule.

I didn’t tell you about it at first because I thought it was so bad. But today, I want to actually explain why it’s so bad – so you can understand when future “opportunities” like this pop up.

I’m talking about the 10% transfer bonus from MR points to JetBlue.

But here’s the catch:

The normal transfer ratio from MR points to JetBlue is 250:200. That means transferring 1,000 MR points generally gets you 800 JetBlue points.

With this 10% bonus, that ratio is 250:220.

In other words, even with the bonus, you’re still getting less than a 1:1 ratio.

If there were no other ways to get JetBlue points, that would be one thing…

But that’s not the case at all… UR points, ThankYou points, and even Wells Fargo points ALL transfer to JetBlue at a 1:1 ratio.

It gets even worse

MR points is also the only program that charges a weird “Excise Tax Offset Fee” when transferring points to domestic programs like JetBlue.

It’s nothing crazy and is usually worth paying for in most high-value redemptions.

But in this case, it just feels offensive to have such a terrible transfer ratio, small bonus amount, AND have to pay an extra fee for the privilege.

This is why you should diversify

This is why I suggest racking up points with multiple programs.

If you need to book a JetBlue flight, you don’t want to be stuck only holding cards that only earn MR points or Capital One miles (both of which have a poor transfer ratio to JetBlue).

Instead, you can have multiple currencies and always be in a position to use the one with the best transfer value.

If you want to get started with diversifying your points portfolio, check out our Top Cards Page for our best recommendations.

That’s all for today, folks. Did you enjoy this breakdown of three unique transfer bonuses?

Let me know if you like it when I explain why not to do something, in addition to just talking about the good deals.

Take care and see you tomorrow,

23°07′48″N 113°15′36″E

With contributions by Sam Anthony.