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The rise of low-cost carriers (LCCs) has had a massive impact on air travel over the last decade. What were once legacy carrier strongholds are now peppered with low-cost airlines offering heavily discounted fares. Even transoceanic flights previously flown by just a few airlines have new competition from airlines like Norse Atlantic, Play Airlines, and ZIPAIR.
A common complaint from award travelers is that many LCCs don’t participate in airline alliances or frequent flyer partnerships, making booking tickets with points and miles difficult. And even though the price of revenue tickets is usually low enough to justify paying cash instead of using rewards, there are still ways to use points and miles to book flights on low-cost carriers.
While you can book some tickets directly through credit card portals or award transfers, others require a phone call. If all else fails, you can redeem points as a statement credit against tickets purchased directly from the airline. Here's how.
Page Contents
- Beware of Hidden Fees on Low-Cost Carriers
- Can You Transfer Flexible Rewards Points to Low-Cost Carriers?
- Book Low-Cost Carriers Through the Amex, Bilt, Capital One, Chase, or Citi Travel Portals
- Redeem Points as a Statement Credit for Tickets on Any Low-Cost Carrier
- Erase the Cost of Low-Cost Carrier Tickets Using Fixed-Value Points & Cash Back
- Final Thoughts
Beware of Hidden Fees on Low-Cost Carriers
Before purchasing a ticket or redeeming points for an award flight on an LCC, remember the base ticket price isn’t likely to include any “extras” like checked baggage, entertainment, or a meal — services many of us take for granted on award flights. You generally need to pay for additional options if you want even the most basic creature comforts when flying low-cost airlines.
Can You Transfer Flexible Rewards Points to Low-Cost Carriers?
Not unless you consider JetBlue and Southwest discount airlines. Southwest is a 1:1 transfer partner of Chase Ultimate Rewards, and you can transfer points from Amex, Chase, and Citi to JetBlue TrueBlue. You can’t move points from Capital One, Chase, Citi, or Amex to ultra-low-cost carriers like Allegiant or Spirit.
Outside of a few second-degree partners (which can be booked as a partner award using the transfer partner’s miles), the options to transfer flexible points to low-cost carriers are slim to none.
But that's not necessarily a bad thing. Transferring points to airline and hotel partners is an excellent way of maximizing the value of rewards but only if you redeem those miles for premium cabin awards, high-cost economy flights, or free nights. Even for economy fares, you can find award availability on mainline carriers for as little as a few thousand miles.
By calculating the cash value of the points you would spend on an airline ticket versus paying for the ticket outright, you can determine whether or not redeeming rewards is the best way to travel.
Related: How Much Do AwardWallet Members Actually Save When Redeeming Points?
Book Low-Cost Carriers Through the Amex, Bilt, Capital One, Chase, or Citi Travel Portals
Fortunately, several banks and card issuers allow you to book one or more low-cost carriers by redeeming points for a fixed value through their respective travel portals. Just note that not all airlines can be booked online; some require you to call in and book over the phone.
American Express Travel®
While all Amex card members get access to the American Express Travel portal, The Platinum Card® from American Express is the best card to use. That's because you'll earn 5X points on flights booked directly with airlines or with American Express Travel® (on up to $500,000 on these purchases per calendar year) and 5X points on prepaid hotels booked on amextravel.com.
Low-cost carriers you can book with Amex Membership Rewards include:
- Book online: Air Transat, GOL, JetBlue, Porter Airlines, and WestJet
- Book via phone: Southwest
To book over the phone, contact American Express Travel at 800-297-3276.
Bilt Rewards Travel Portal
Bilt Rewards has gained popularity in the points and miles space since it launched in 2021. Nowadays, you can earn Bilt Points when you pay your rent with Bilt, leverage its Neighborhood partners, and spend on The Bilt Mastercard®.
The program has an array of great Bilt transfer partners, but members can also redeem through the Bilt Rewards Travel Portal. Those without a Bilt Mastercard can redeem at 1 cent per point, while those with the card can redeem at 1.25 cents per point.
That said, the portal doesn't support many low-cost airlines.
- Book online: Air Transat, GOL, JetBlue, Pegasus Airlines, Porter Airlines, and WestJet
The Bilt Rewards Travel Portal does not have a published phone number.
Capital One Travel
As Capital One continues to expand into the travel market, its cards and transfer rates have become significantly more competitive. The feature-packed Capital One Travel portal reinforces the issuer's commitment to the travel rewards market.
Both the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card and Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card offer the same redemption rates (1¢ per point) in the travel portal, although the Capital One Venture X includes a $300 annual travel credit for use in the portal.
Additionally, Capital One Travel offers significantly more low-cost airlines to book online than its competitors. Low-cost carriers you can book with Capital One Travel include:
- Book online: Air Asia, Air Transat, Allegiant, Avelo, Azul, Breeze, EasyJet, Frontier, JetBlue, Lion Air, Pegasus, Play, Porter Airlines, Spirit, Sun Country, Volaris, and WestJet
- Book via phone: Southwest
You can call Capital One Travel at 844-422-6922.
Chase Travel℠ Portal
Chase Ultimate Rewards has offered the most flexibility for award travel for several years, as both transferring to airlines and redeeming through Chase's travel portal provide good redemptions. When you redeem Ultimate Rewards points through the Chase travel portal, the redemption rate is determined by which card's points you're redeeming:
- Chase Freedom Flex℠, Chase Freedom Unlimited® (Rates & Fees), Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card (Rates & Fees), and Ink Business Cash® Credit Card (Rates & Fees): Points are worth 1¢ each in the Chase Travel Portal.
- Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (Rates & Fees) and Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card (Rates & Fees): Points are worth up to 1.75¢ each in the Chase Travel Portal, depending on the specific redemption.
- Chase Sapphire Reserve® (Rates & Fees) and Sapphire Reserve for Business℠ (Rates & Fees): Points are worth up to 2¢ each in the Chase Travel Portal, depending on the specific redemption.
Low-cost carriers you can book with Chase Ultimate Rewards:
- Book online: Air Transat, Azul, Batik Air, JetBlue, Lion Air, Pegasus, Porter Airlines, Southwest, Sun Country, and WestJet
Call the Chase Travel reservation center at 866-951-6592 to book over the phone.
Citi Travel Portal
Citi recently overhauled its portal, which is now called Citi Travel with Booking.com. Again, not all airlines can be booked online. Redemptions with the Citi Strata Premier℠ Card, Citi Prestige® Card (no longer open to new applicants), and Citi ThankYou® Preferred Card (no longer open to new applicants) will net you 1¢ per point.
Unfortunately, Citi Travel supports just a handful of low-cost carriers.
You can book these low-cost carriers with Citi Travel:
- Book online: Azul, GOL, JetBlue, Pegasus, Porter Airlines, and WestJet
- Book via phone: Air Asia and Southwest
To book over the phone, contact the ThankYou® Service Center at 833-737-1288.
Redeem Points as a Statement Credit for Tickets on Any Low-Cost Carrier
Redeeming points as a statement credit may not give you the best value for your hard-earned rewards. But if you cannot redeem points directly for tickets on a low-cost carrier, purchasing tickets directly with the carrier and redeeming points as a statement credit works as a last resort.
- Capital One miles: 1¢ per mile (towards travel booked in the last 90 days)
- Chase Ultimate Rewards: 1¢ per point
- Citi ThankYou® Rewards: 0.5¢-1¢ per point
- Amex Membership Rewards: 0.6¢ per point toward purchases
- Bilt Rewards: 0.5¢ per point (if you have the Bilt Mastercard)
Erase the Cost of Low-Cost Carrier Tickets Using Fixed-Value Points & Cash Back
Tickets on low-cost carriers are the ideal redemption for fixed-value points and cash back, as you can wipe out the travel charge at a fixed rate. You can take advantage of the terrific sign-up bonuses on cards like the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card, and — provided the merchant codes as travel — you can redeem your miles at a value of 1¢ apiece toward the purchase.
- Earn 75,000 Miles once you spend $4,000 on purchases within the first 3 months of account opening
- 5X miles on hotels, vacation rentals and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel
- 2X miles on all other purchase
- Fee credit for Global Entry or TSA Pre✔® (up to $120)
- No foreign transaction fees
- $95 annual fee
- 5X miles per dollar on purchases through Capital One Entertainment (through 12/31/2025)
- 5X miles per dollar on hotels, vacation rentals and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel
- 2X miles per dollar on all other purchases
The same goes for cash-back cards, which offer even greater flexibility, allowing you to redeem for any travel expense you can dream up. The same applies to airlines that price award tickets based on the cash price, such as Southwest and JetBlue.
Final Thoughts
Redeeming flexible points for low-cost carriers doesn’t typically offer the best redemption value for your points, nor is it as easy as redeeming points for legacy carriers. However, you can still redeem Amex, Bilt, Capital One, Chase, and Citi rewards at a fixed value for tickets on several discount airlines, potentially saving thousands of dollars in travel costs each year, depending on how much you fly.
If you have experience redeeming Amex, Bilt, Capital One, Chase, or Citi points on low-cost carriers — either domestic or international — we’d love to hear from you in the comments.
For rates and fees of the cards mentioned in this post, please visit the following links: Chase Freedom Unlimited® (Rates & Fees), Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card (Rates & Fees), Ink Business Cash® Credit Card (Rates & Fees), Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card (Rates & Fees), Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card (Rates & Fees), Chase Sapphire Reserve® (Rates & Fees), and Sapphire Reserve for Business℠ (Rates & Fees)
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