Transferable credit card points: the six US currencies

What a transferable point actually is

A transferable point is a currency with an exit door. You earn it on a card, it sits in the issuer's own program, and one day you move it into an airline or hotel account and it becomes a seat to Lisbon or a room off 42nd Street. Six US issuers run one of these currencies: American Express Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi ThankYou, Capital One miles, Wells Fargo Rewards and Bilt Rewards.

The door matters more than the balance. A partner who takes 1,000 of your points and hands back 500 has halved your account while the number on your statement stayed still. So the useful question about a points card is never how fast it earns. It is where the points go, at what rate, and what the trip costs once they land.

This page answers the first two from the issuers' own pages, read on 28 September 2026. The credit card points hub holds the rest of the series.

Two things moved this year. Chase repriced its World of Hyatt transfers, and Bilt replaced its single no-fee card with a three-card lineup. Both changes land on people who already hold a balance. ^{3, 1}

What does each currency cost to hold?

Annual fees for the flagship card behind each of the six currencies, as printed on the issuers' own pages on 28 September 2026.

The spread is USD 895 wide. At one end Bilt Blue charges nothing a year. At the other the Platinum Card from American Express charges USD 895 for the Basic Card, USD 195 for each Additional Platinum Card and nothing for a Companion Platinum Card. In between sit four cards at USD 95, which is where most people start. ^{1, 2}

Two people on one account changes the arithmetic. Chase Sapphire Reserve is USD 795 a year plus USD 195 for each authorized user, so a couple sharing one account pays USD 990 before a single point is earned. Amex prices the second card lower, at USD 195, and gives the Companion Platinum Card away. ^{11, 2}

A fee you avoid is money too. Chase runs the example on its own page: spend USD 5,000 abroad on a card with no foreign transaction fee and you avoid USD 150 in fees. That works out to 3 percent of the spend. Chase names no comparison card, so treat 3 percent as the going rate on cards that charge one, and read the quote itself with MMT's guide to foreign transaction fees and exchange rates. ⁸

Who are the Amex Membership Rewards transfer partners?

American Express counts its partners in public and names them behind a login. The Platinum Card page states that Amex offers transfers to 20 airline and hotel travel partners, and stops at the count. Sign in to your Membership Rewards account to see the rate for each partner; it is the only place Amex publishes them. Check yours in your own account before you move anything. ²

Then there is the fee almost nobody budgets for. Moving Membership Rewards points into a US airline's frequent flyer program costs USD 0.0006 a point, capped at USD 99 per conversion. Amex says the charge offsets the federal excise tax it pays on those conversions. Hotel transfers and transfers to airlines outside the United States sit outside the fee, per the same paragraph. ⁵

One other Amex number is worth keeping separate. Pay with Points at AmexTravel.com has a minimum of 5,000 points, and that is a different door entirely: it spends points against a travel purchase at a fixed rate instead of moving them into a partner program. Keep the two mechanics apart when you compare offers. ⁵

What are the Chase Ultimate Rewards partners, and what changed?

Chase names all 14 of its partners on the card page itself, which makes it the easiest of the six to check before you apply. Ten airline programs and four hotel programs take Ultimate Rewards points from Sapphire Preferred, Sapphire Reserve and Ink Business Preferred. ^{8, 13}

• The ten airline programs are Aer Lingus AerClub, Air Canada Aeroplan, British Airways Executive Club, Flying Blue for Air France and KLM, Iberia Plus, JetBlue TrueBlue, Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer, Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards, United MileagePlus and Virgin Atlantic Flying Club. ⁸
• The four hotel programs are IHG Rewards Club, Marriott Bonvoy, World of Hyatt and Wyndham Rewards. ⁸
• Points move in increments of 1,000, and a transfer is final once sent. ¹³
• Most transfers land by the next business day, and some take up to 7 business days. ¹³

On 15 June 2026 Chase repriced one of those partners. Ultimate Rewards points from Sapphire Preferred and Ink Business Preferred now reach World of Hyatt at 4:3, so 1,000 points arrive as 750. Anyone who applied on or after 15 June 2026 sees the new rate already. For cardmembers who applied earlier, it starts on 1 October 2026. Sapphire Reserve holds the old 1:1 rate. ³

Run it on a balance worth having. A 60,000-point transfer used to reach Hyatt as 60,000 points. Under 4:3 the same transfer arrives as 45,000, a difference of 15,000 Hyatt points on a single move. On the Reserve, the same 60,000 still lands whole. ³

How many points come out the other side?

Capital One is the only one of the six that publishes its full ratio table and works the arithmetic for you.

One thousand miles can become 500 points or 2,000, and Capital One shows you which. Its transfer page, dated 29 January 2026, lists five distinct ratios and spells each one out on a 1,000-mile transfer. No other issuer in this set states its rates that plainly in one place. ⁴

A rate under 1:1 is a price tag in disguise. Bilt moves all 26 of its partner programs at 1:1. Wells Fargo states 1:1 as its default and reserves the right to state otherwise for a given partner, though it keeps the exceptions inside its rewards portal. Chase moved points to World of Hyatt at 1:1 until this change. Before you transfer, price the award against the cash fare with MMT's points versus cash worksheet. ^{10, 9, 3}

Which Citi ThankYou partners are open to everyone?

Citi publishes the longest openly readable partner list of the six. Its ThankYou FAQ, dated 10 October 2025 and still live on 28 September 2026, names every program by hand: a long airline group, five hotel groups and one retailer. Citi files Virgin Red with the airlines, which makes the airline count read 15 or 16 depending on how you class a general rewards club. ⁶

• Airlines: Aeromexico Rewards, American Airlines, Avianca Lifemiles, Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, Emirates Skywards, Etihad Guest, EVA Air Infinity MileageLands, Flying Blue for Air France and KLM, JetBlue TrueBlue, Qantas Frequent Flyer, Qatar Airways Privilege Club, Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer, Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus, Turkish Airlines Miles and Smiles, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club and Virgin Red. ⁶
• Hotels: ALL Accor Live Limitless, Choice Privileges, Leaders Club, Preferred Hotels and Resorts, and Wyndham Rewards. ⁶
• Retail: Shop Your Way, the only retail program in any of the published partner lists. ⁶

American Airlines is the reason many US readers look at Citi at all. It is the one major US legacy carrier in this partner set, and Citi's own Strata Premier page puts the minimum transfer at 1,000 ThankYou Points. The card costs USD 95 a year, charges nothing on foreign purchases, and carries a minimum interest charge of USD 0.50. ^{7, 6}

Wells Fargo and Bilt: the quiet end and the open end

Wells Fargo states the rule and keeps the list to itself. The Autograph Journey terms page says one Wells Fargo Rewards Point equals one partner mile, point or credit, unless Wells Fargo states otherwise. Sign in to Wells Fargo Rewards to see which partners fall outside 1:1 - that portal is the only place the list appears. The card is USD 95 a year, charges nothing on foreign purchases, and has a minimum interest charge of USD 1.00. ⁹

The card returns some of the fee in one lump. Each year the first airline purchase of at least USD 50 earns a one-time USD 50 statement credit, applied within one to two billing periods. Charter flights and private jet flights are excluded. That credit covers more than half the annual fee for anyone who buys a single ticket a year. ⁹

Bilt went the other way and rebuilt the whole lineup. ¹

Its partner page is the widest public list in this set: 17 airline programs, 8 hotel programs and Amtrak Guest Rewards, all at 1:1. That is 26 programs, and Amtrak is the only rail program in any partner list published here. The airline group runs from Japan Airlines and Cathay Pacific to Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines, Southwest and United. ¹⁰

Palladium is where Bilt charges like a premium card. ¹

What should you check before you move a point?

A transfer runs one way. Chase says it in plain words on its own education page: point transfers to travel partners are final. Every good habit below follows from that one sentence. ¹³

1. 01

   Find the award first

   Search the partner program for the exact seat or the exact room, on the dates you want, and write down what it costs in partner points. Transfer after you know the award exists. ¹³

2. 02

   Read today's rate inside your own account

   Rates change by card and by application date. Chase's Hyatt rate splits by product and by when you applied, and Amex keeps its per-partner table behind a login. ^{3, 2}

3. 03

   Add the transfer fee

   Moving Membership Rewards points into a US airline program costs USD 0.0006 a point, capped at USD 99. On 60,000 points that is USD 36 on top of the fare taxes. ⁵

4. 04

   Mind the minimum and the increment

   Chase moves points in 1,000-point increments, Citi sets a 1,000-point minimum transfer (its page does not state an increment size), and Capital One asks for a balance of at least 1,000 miles before any transfer. ^{13, 7, 4}

5. 05

   Leave time

   Most Chase transfers land by the next business day, and some take up to 7 business days. Book with that gap in mind, because award space moves faster than a transfer queue. ¹³

Then price the alternative before you commit. Work the redemption against the cash fare, taxes included, with MMT's points versus cash worksheet. Read the partner programs on their own terms at the airline loyalty hub. Six currencies, one habit: know the award, the rate and the fee before the points leave your account.