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Chase is at it again, announcing yet another lucrative transfer bonus for Ultimate Rewards points. This time, Ultimate Rewards point collectors will get a 30% transfer bonus when transferring points to British Airways Executive Club Avios. This bonus starts today (June 1, 2022) and lasts through July 31, 2022.
30% Avios Transfer Bonus Key Terms
- Transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards to British Airways and receive a 30% bonus Avios.
- This bonus is available on points transfers through 11:59PM ET on July 31, 2022.
- Transfers between Chase Ultimate Rewards and British Airways Avios are typically instant.
- Must transfer points in increments of 1,000 with a minimum transfer of 1,000 points.
It appears that the bonus is not hardcoded on Chase's end of the transfer. That means that although you'll see the bonus clearly listed as you're preparing the conversion (like the screenshot below), Chase doesn't process the bonus itself. Instead, the target loyalty program (British) issues the bonus Avios on their end. So, once you've transferred points, you'll see a separate transaction depositing the 30% bonus.
Best Ways to Leverage 30% Bonus Avios
Put plainly, a 30% transfer bonus is significant. Depending on the circumstances, it can save you a considerable amount of points for your travels.
The great aspect about Avios is that you can easily transfer Avios between programs. Of the four Avios programs, the three most valuable partners are certainly British Airways, Iberia, and Qatar. All three belong to Oneworld and utilize the Avios currency. However, their respective programs have entirely different sweet spots.
Transfer to British Airways Executive Club
British Airways utilizes a distance-based award chart that (unfortunately) prices each segment individually. Moreover, the airline is famous for levying sky-high carrier-imposed surcharges for redemptions on British Airways metal to/from/via London. That means that long-haul, multi-segment itineraries aren't worth pursuing. They cost far too many points and out-of-pocket cash for the value.
Consequently, the ‘sweet spot' for the British Airways Executive Club program tends to be with short-haul, one-segment itineraries—particularly on partner aircraft.
We've written before about how valuable British Airways Avios can be for booking short award flights on AA. But more specifically, one of my favorite ways to redeem Avios is for flights between the West Coast of the U.S. and Hawaii.
The standard award rate from Los Angeles (LAX) to Honolulu (HNL) is 13,000 Avios each way — or 26,000 Avios round trip. However, with a 30% transfer bonus, this round trip itinerary to Hawaii could be yours for as few as 10,000 Ultimate Rewards points each way!
Transfer to Iberia Plus (via British Airways)
Like British Airways, Iberia Plus now utilizes a distance-based award chart that prices each segment individually. However, Iberia charges far more reasonable surcharges on award redemptions comparatively. Also, Iberia partners with additional airlines — such as Avianca and LATAM.
With Iberia, the best redemption is often found when booking short/medium-haul itineraries with partners or on Iberia itself.
Perhaps one of Iberia's greatest sweet spots is with off-peak awards in Iberia business class. This is particularly lucrative for awards from the Midwest/East Coast of the U.S. to Iberia's hub in Madrid.
An off-peak award in Iberia business class from Chicago (ORD) to Madrid (MAD) costs just 34,000 Avios. However, utilizing Chase's 30% transfer bonus, you could book this eight-hour business class flight for only 27,000 Ultimate Rewards points! That's less expensive than what many programs charge for the same itinerary in economy!
Boost Your Ultimate Rewards Balance
This 30% transfer bonus is only available for 2 months. So, only those with an existing Ultimate Rewards balance are going to be able to take advantage of this Avios transfer bonus. However, if you're looking to build your Ultimate Rewards balance after utilizing this transfer bonus, the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is offering a 60,000-point sign-up bonus:
- Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. That's $750 when you redeem through Chase Ultimate Rewards®.
- Enjoy benefits such as a $50 annual Ultimate Rewards Hotel Credit, 5x on travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards®, 3x on dining and 2x on all other travel purchases, plus more.
- Get 25% more value when you redeem for airfare, hotels, car rentals and cruises through Chase Ultimate Rewards®. For example, 60,000 points are worth $750 toward travel.
- With Pay Yourself Back℠, your points are worth 25% more during the current offer when you redeem them for statement credits against existing purchases in select, rotating categories
- Count on Trip Cancellation/Interruption Insurance, Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver, Lost Luggage Insurance and more.
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2024.
- 5X points on Lyft rides through March 2022
- 5X points on travel purchased through Chase
- 3X points on dining at restaurants worldwide
- 3X points on eligible streaming services
- 3X points on online grocery purchases (excluding Target, Walmart, and wholesale clubs)
- 2X points on all other travel
- 1X point per dollar spent on all other purchases
Meanwhile, small business owners can earn 100,000 bonus Ultimate Rewards points through the current Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card sign-up bonus:
- Earn 100k bonus points after you spend $15,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. That's $1,000 cash back or $1,250 toward travel when redeemed through Chase Ultimate Rewards®
- Earn 3 points per $1 on the first $150,000 spent on travel and select business categories each account anniversary year. Earn 1 point per $1 on all other purchases
- With Fraud Protection your card transactions will be monitored for possible signs of fraudulent activity using real-time fraud monitoring
- With Zero Liability you won't be held responsible for unauthorized charges made with your card or account information
- Redeem points for cash back, gift cards, travel and more - your points don't expire as long as your account is open
- Points are worth 25% more when you redeem for travel through Chase Ultimate Rewards®
- Purchase Protection covers your new purchases for 120 days against damage or theft up to $10,000 per claim and $50,000 per account.
- 3X points per $1 on the first $150,000 spent in combined purchases on travel, shipping purchases, Internet, cable and phone services, advertising purchases made with social media sites and search engines each account anniversary year
- 1X point per $1 on all other purchases
Bottom Line
Chase just announced a new 30% transfer bonus for transfers to British Airways through July 31, 2022. Until last year, Chase lagged behind as the major flexibly award currency that historically offered the fewest transfer bonuses. Now, that seems to be changing. It's encouraging to see Chase picking up the pace.
This 30% transfer bonus matches:
- The first transfer bonus we saw Chase offer for Ultimate Rewards points in 2019 (which excluded Aer Lingus).
- Another 30% transfer bonus was offered to all three Avios programs through December 6, 2020.
- Yet another 30% transfer bonus offered to all three programs through September 26, 2021.
The downside this time around is that the transfer bonus only seems to be available to British Airways. However, you can easily get around this limitation by transferring Avios between programs.
A 30% bonus is significant enough to make previously out-of-reach redemptions fall within your budget. If you need to book any upcoming travel, be sure to check the award rates with any of these partners first.
Will you take advantage of Chase's 30% transfer bonus to British Airways?
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JT, The delay in Chase transfer times to British Airways is still a real issue. Transferred 250K yesterday for 2 first class that won’t be there long, and the email from Chase says “We received your point transfer request, and it’s now in progress.”
Called Chase and got the same answer, could take up to 7 days which is completely useless these days in booking a reward.
Saved the points for years for a redemption like this and probably won’t be able to use them because of Chase’s hidden manual transfer process which they refuse to admit any take any responsibility for.
Ugh! That’s so frustrating! Have the Avios arrived yet?
Unfortunately it looks like I missed the deadline. I wonder what the Chase to OneWorld transfer rate is now, maybe 1:1?
The sweetest part of this deal is that both Chase and Amex are offering lucrative transfer bonuses on Avios SIMULTANEOUSLY. I can shave off a few MR points here, some UR points there and make a few AA flights in the coming months.
BA is useful only for short haul on AA. And less utility given generally lower cash fares of late. But worth considering.
Another good reason for me to hurry up and get a Chase card so that I’m ready the next time this bonus comes around…
Good to see a transfer bonus again, wouldn’t say no to a better one but this is a start!
Great opportunity to boost your Avios balance from Chase. Avios can be very useful for domestic point to point flying in the US on AA…which is a good thing since BA makes Avios totally useless for getting to Europe with their ridiculously exorbitant fuel surcharges (oftentimes almost as much as just buying a ticket elsewhere….). AA point to point works great due to the distance based nature of Avios redemptions if you can find availability on AA.
Is there any easy way to search for avios award availability? The BA day by day search where you don’t see actual award ticket prices and fees is painfully slow.
There isn’t a great answer here. You can check availability that “could” be booked with Avios using the Qantas award search. That at least has a calendar view. But it will only tell you if there are seats available, not what it will cost in Avios or taxes if you use BA instead of Qantas to confirm an award. I check the Qantas search and write down dates that would work, then go to BAs clunky site to get the pricing.
Is this a current promotion? All of these comments appear to be from 2020. I wanted to use some of our Avios on AerLingus but there is no way to transfer from BA Avios to AerLingus Avios any longer that I can find, all of the articles I’ve read on it are out-of-date and it doesn’t seem to be an option so maybe using Chase as a transfer might be a good option?
This is a current promotion that’s very similar to a promotion from 2020. You should be able to transfer points between Aer Lingus and British through the Avios.com website. Log in with your Aer Lingus account information and then go to Combine My Avios (https://www.avios.com/us/en/my-avios/combine-my-avios).
BA makes it almost impossible to get business or first class award seats. I just booked two one way business class tickets to London. They cost 82,500 miles each plus $749 each in fees. They were the only tickets available for the month. Even with that exorbitant cost, you have to pay for seat assignment starting at $113/seat
The only reason I used my BA miles is that they were about to expire.
You’d be a lot better off keeping your Ultimate reward points and buying a ticket for the points or with any other airline.
30% is a nice bonus but for me to hit my needed targets on BA, I really need something like a 50%.
we have an Avios flight booked with Iberia for October 2021 – however with the new rule change from EU we are not sure we’d be able to go
they have been a NIGHTMARE to get in touch with. We’ve tried every interface – email, website, phone, twitter, facebook
Just cannot get ahold of anyone. The one time we got through via phone after a 30 min hold, the agent said there’s nothing she can do as it’s an Avios booking and is handled by a different department (that is apparently unstaffed – the call hangs up automatically after being on hold for ~5 mins)
Any tips? What has others’ experience been? Are we doing something wrong??
That sounds awful! Unfortunately, it seems that’s becoming an increasingly familiar story with airlines. You’ll probably need to check with official sources about whether or not you can enter. For example, if you’re American, check the US Embassy site for the latest Spain entry requirements: https://es.usembassy.gov/covid-19-information/
Unfortunatetly, we know that you’re not the only one having this trouble right now with Avios; if it’s happening to you, it’s happening to others. Search online to find folks facing similar treatment. Whether it be a frequent flier forum, reddit or a negative Avios hastag, it’s there that you’ll others highly motivated to find a solution to getting the airlines attention. Good luck!
Me da mucha pena no tener está cuenta porque tengo Iberia plus con varios Avisos acumulados pero teniendo una bonificación del 30% sería mucho más favorecedor
Has Chase done any bonuses other than BA? I’m glad they’re doing bonuses now but I’d love to see something else.
I hope Chase keeps it up with transfer bonuses. This makes collecting UR points all the more valuable and important.
30% is a great bonus. Too many people miss out on how useful Avios can be.
Have enough in my account to see me through for now so I’m passing this time.
Indeed, Citi has been awfully quiet lately. What about Capitol One?
I still like to keep my flexibility on where to transfer my points so unless you have an immediate use for the points, dont do this transfer even with the bonus.
I will not be transferring any of my Ultimate Reward points to Avios. I would love to see a 30% transfer bonus to United Airlines or Hyatt hotels.
A transfer bonus to Hyatt would be ideal right now since I’m going to transfer points soon to book a mattress run to take advantage of the lowered Globalist qualifying requirements and double elite night promotion.
Did anyone experience a long transfer time between Chase and British Airways mileage transfer? It should be instant, and 6 out of 7 transfer that I made successfully transferred though instantly. Except for the one transfer for over 100k points. I called Chase several times and each agent said something different, computer acts slower at night time, system reset, or that the point transfer balance is so high that they need more time to verify?! And one agent told me it could take up to 7 business days to transfer. I’m not sure if I will be able to get my 30% bonus if it takes 7 days to get my points. Very frustrating that no one can really help on the Chase side and no one really knows what’s going on except that it says “in progress”.
That’s quite concerning – especially as others have gone through instataneously. I haven’t seen any reports of delays like this. I also wonder if it’s because it was just a large transfer.
Avios going strong these days. Several companies offer transfer bonuses at the same time too.
My avios account will reach its expiration date in a few months. Does transfering from Chase reset the avios expiration clock?
Yes it should! Here’s our guide on what activity qualifies for extending British Airways Avios expiration: https://awardwallet.com/blog/british-airways-avios-expire/
Finally a transfer bonus I can actually use. I do often transfer to BA Although right now it’s hard to take advantage of it with the UK in lockdown.
Wow, 30% is great especially for BA.
I think it is safe to travel to the UK in the summer of 2021, so this offer might be of useful to a few out there.
I believe that it is the much more attractive offer for many than the latest Avianca one.
Why does Chase seem to be having alot of offers lately? Thats all i get in the mail. Why cant Citi come thru?
Why do you not compare Iberia Avios awards to identical BA Avios awards? Or vise-versa. ie: If BA charges 13K CA to HI on American, how much does Iberia charge? If Iberia charges 34K NYC to Madrid in Biz, how much does BA charge?
I assume you mean they are the same distance chart with just the (great) advantage with Iberia that they charge for total distance and not segments.
Aer Lingus is not Avios-transferable from BA or Iberia as far as my experiences. Iberia is but Iberia is often a nightmare to deal with.
Aer Lingus Avios can be transferred to/from by setting up an account on Avios.com. I’ve used this method to clear out orphaned Aer Lingus Avios – and transfer points back-and-forth for an example in a post.
I’m curious why you think we should list the award price for the other program when pointing out BA/IB sweet spots. Since Avios can be transferred between programs, we are just focusing on the best uses!
I’ve never been able to transfer to or from Aer Lingus through Avios.com from BA and several people told me it wasn’t possible to do so with BA or IB Avios. IAG really needs to fix that kink. And twice I’ve transferred to IB from BA I’ve had to spend an hour signing into IB because they constantly want new passwords. IB has the worst website I know for user-friendliness (when it’s working).
13K to Hawaii from the west coast or 34K J to Europe from the east means more if an example of the “normal” airline cost is given. And comparing these 3 is part of the story but no comparison is given. And for sweet spots, it really depends on if where you live has nonstops on these. Those of us in WAS/NYC/BOS love the cheap off-peaks one-way to LHR on BA (and Virgin).
I routinely transfer my AmEx rewards to BA when their 40% bonus comes and it would be nice to easily transfer them to IB or Aer Lingus.
Agreed that Iberia’s website is buggy as heck. I log into it at least once a week for my round of news checks, and I hate it every time.
Understood what you’re saying on the comparison. I can definitely see the value, but I’d rather compare the price to other programs that readers would be more familiar with like AA, United, or Delta.
I see what you are asking and it would be nice to see ,that it’s not relevant as it has been written many times that you do not want to use award ticket for Avios flying into LHR due to the extremely high fuels surcharge and taxes. I believe that is why it was written with best use, and not repeating the other info. If you are looking for flight into LHR, it would be be a case of using Delta Miles to get award ticket for Virgin metal I think…. but the better deal would be virgin points and book award ticket on delta metal which is low on award ticket fees.