[Ends Today!] Get 30% Bonus Points When You Transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards Points Into BA, Iberia, Or Aer Lingus Avios, Now With Improved Award Space

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Josh Hallett [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons
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Update: DEAD! Don’t miss it if this becomes alive again. Sign up for deal notification alerts here!


Update, 9/22/23: This bonus ends today! Award availability on American flights through BA Avios is better than it has been in many years, making this a potentially lucrative transfer!

Update, 8/28/23: This bonus is alive again through 9/22/23!


Originally posted on 6/1/22:

Get 30% Bonus Points When You Transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards Points Into BA, Iberia, Or Aer Lingus Avios

Chase is back with another 30% transfer bonus offer for Avios for transfers through 7/31/22.

 

Chase points normally transfer into Avios at a 1K:1K ratio, but with this bonus you can get 1,300 Avios for every 1,000 Chase points.

You can also transfer BA Avios to Qatar Avios, where you can redeem for expanded availability Qatar awards.

I typically use my Chase points for paid travel or Hyatt and United transfers, though some other airlines also offer a compelling value. AMEX runs periodic transfers 20%-40% transfer bonuses for BA Avios, so it has never been worthwhile to transfer Chase points to BA unless there’s a compelling redemption that you’re ready to book.

I’d only transfer if you have a redemption to make in the near future. It’s not a good idea to speculatively transfer bank points into miles.

If you, a member in your household, or an authorized user has one of the following Chase cards, you can transfer points into miles:

Chase no-annual fee cards that are fantastic for earning points, but require one of the cards above for points transfers include:

  • Ink Business Cash® Credit Card has a 75K signup bonus and earns 5 points per dollar on cable, TV, telecom, cellular, office supply stores, and gift cards from office supply stores, plus 2 points per dollar on dining and gas ($0 annual fee). Read more here.
  • Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card has a 75K signup bonus and earns 1.5 points per dollar everywhere ($0 annual fee). Read more here.
  • Chase Freedom Flex has a 20K signup bonus, plus 5 points on rotating categories, 5 points per dollar on travel purchased through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal, and 3 points per dollar on dining and drugstores ($0 annual fee). Read more here.
  • Chase Freedom Unlimited® has a signup bonus offering 3 points per dollar on up to $20K of spending in your first 12 month, afterwards earn at least 1.5 points per dollar everywhere, 5 points per dollar on travel purchased through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal, and 3 points per dollar on dining and drugstores ($0 annual fee). Read more here.

Chase transfer partners include:

  • United (Star Alliance)
  • Air Canada (Star Alliance)
  • Singapore (Star Alliance)
  • Air France/KLM Flying Blue (Skyteam)
  • British Airways (OneWorld)
  • Aer Lingus (OneWorld)
  • Iberia (OneWorld)
  • Emirates
  • JetBlue
  • Southwest
  • Virgin Atlantic
  • Hyatt
  • IHG
  • Marriott

Here is the BA Avios award chart for partner airlines that I’ve put together (as BA still hasn’t published it) for flying on a single partner airline. Rates are for each segment flown. You can search the distance between 2 airports on GCMap.com. For example you can see why a round-trip flight from West Palm Beach to Chicago is cheaper than a flight from Fort Lauderdale to Chicago.

ZoneFlight DistanceCoachBusinessFirst
1 (Flights that don't touch the USA)1-6506,00012,50024,000
1 (Flights to, from, or within the USA)1-6507,50015,00030,000
2651-1,1519,00016,50033,000
31,152-2,00011,00022,00044,000
42,001-3,00013,00038,75051,500
53,001-4,00020,75062,00082,500
64,001-5,50025,75077,250103,000
75,501-6,50031,00092,750123,750
86,501-7,00036,250108,250144,250
97,001+51,500154,500206,000

About British Airways Avios:

In 2011 BA launched the Avios program and it provides a great value for short-haul flights. Unfortunately their domestic OneWorld partner, American, has been stingy with award availability since they merged with USAirways, but there are still bargains to be had. You can also now book Alaska Airlines awards on BA.com.

  • There are no expedite or close-in fees for last minute award ticket bookings with BA Avios.
  • Earning or redeeming any amount of Avios extends your entire account validity for another 36 months.
  • You can cancel tickets and redeposit miles for the lesser of $55 or the taxes you paid.  That means you pay just $5.60 to cancel a one-way domestic itinerary (and you always should book domestic flights as one-ways).
  • British Airways only charges 10% extra miles for a lap child flying internationally, even when traveling on AA. AA and other domestic carriers charge a whopping 10% of the full fare, which can add up to be a small fortune.
  • BA.com does not display all available awards, so you’ll have to call BA sometimes to book an award.
  • I’ve booked dozens of short-haul tickets using Avios for travel on American.  A Cleveland-NYC ticket can cost $1,200 round-trip if you don’t stay for at least 3 days. That means you can get a value of 8 cents per mile.

Combine Avios:

You can combine Avios via this link via the BA site.  Avios from Iberia, Qatar, and Aer Lingus can be combined.

You can save Avios on some routes by with Iberia Avios. Iberia’s awards start at 11K Avios round-trip. However Iberia partner awards are not changeable or cancellable, so you’ll typically want to use British Airways Avios to book partner award travel.

You can also save on fuel surcharges by transferring Avios to Qatar.

Avoiding fuel surcharges:

  • There are no fuel surcharges for travel on American within the Western Hemisphere. Flights start at 7,500 Avios plus $5.60.
  • Alaska flights have no fuel surcharges systemwide.
  • Flights within Australia, Europe, Japan, and many other countries and regions have little to no fuel surcharges.
  • There are also no fuel surcharges for flying on Qantas within or from Australia.
  • Fuel surcharges on award-winning carrier Cathay Pacific are also very low or non-existent.
  • You can significantly cut the fuel surcharges when flying on Iberia by transferring your BA Avios into Iberia Avios
  • British Airways 5th Freedom Flights (flights that don’t depart from or arrive to the UK) have significantly lower fees. For example even though Singapore-Sydney is a longer flight than NYC-London the fees in first class on Singapore-Sydney are less than half of those from NYC-London.
  • As long as you have earned a single Avios within the past 12 months then fuel surcharges for intra-Europe and intra-Africa flights will be very low. You can transfer points from AMEX, Chase, or Marriott to activate that benefit.

Combine Avios:

You can combine Avios via this link via the BA site. Sometimes that link doesn’t work so you can also try this link on the Iberia site to combine points. Avios from all 3 airlines can be combined.

You can save Avios on some routes by with Iberia Avios. Iberia’s awards start at 11K Avios round-trip. However Iberia partner awards are not changeable or cancellable, so you’ll typically want to use British Airways Avios to book partner award travel.

Sample uses (Don’t forget you’ll also get a 30% bonus for transferring points from Chase into Avios!) :

  • 6,000 Avios is enough for a one-way short-haul ticket from Iguazu Falls-Sao Paulo, Johannesburg-Victoria Falls, Hong Kong to Taiwan, and Melbourne to Sydney.
  • 7,500 Avios is enough for a one-way short-haul ticket between New York and places like Boston, Cleveland, Detroit, Montreal, Pittsburgh, or Toronto, or between Miami and the Bahamas or Cancun or Palm Springs to San Francisco.
  • 9,000 Avios is enough for a one-way short-haul ticket between New York and places like Bermuda, Chicago, Miami, or Orlando, or between Denver to Seattle or LA and Cabo on OneWorld partners Alaska or American.
  • 11,000 Avios is enough for a one-way flight between Chicago and LA, Detroit to Seattle, Hong Kong to Singapore, or JFK to Cancun.
  • 13,000 Avios is enough for a one-way flight between the west coast and any of the Hawaiian islands, Seattle to Kauai, Seattle to Cancun, Chicago to Anchorage, or JFK to Los Angeles.
  • 20,750 Avios is enough for a one-way flight between Dallas and Hawaii or New York and London (though you’ll be hit with fuel surcharges for crossing the Atlantic on most airlines).
  • 25,750 Avios is enough for a one-way flight between New York and Brazil or Argentina.
  • 36,250 Avios is enough for a one-way flight between the US and Hong Kong in coach. Note that Hong Kong is an exception route and routes like JFK-Hong Kong are charged as a zone 8 award even if it should be a zone 9 award.

Will you transfer points to BA Avios with this bonus?

Leave a Reply

32 Comments On "[Ends Today!] Get 30% Bonus Points When You Transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards Points Into BA, Iberia, Or Aer Lingus Avios, Now With Improved Award Space"

All opinions expressed below are user generated and the opinions aren’t provided, reviewed or endorsed by any advertiser or DansDeals.

Israel Love

If you can explain why you typically only transfer to united or Hyatt year would greatly appreciate

Mia Flyer

lately united has horrible redemptions , makes elal and delta sound great

Pete Weiss

Does the name on the chase account need to match the name on the ba account

Pete Weiss

Anyone know?

Dave Parker

Yes

Danfan

Generally yes

Alex

How can I transfer points to Elal ?

UncleMo

“and you always should book domestic flights as one-ways”

Can you explain why? Thx

Traveller

How do you book a ticket on American using BA Avios?

too tired

A wonderful question. Avios flights between Detroit to Philadelphia haven’t been available for two years.

JDC

chase only lists the bonus for BA, not Iberia or air linus

Danfan

Not true

Eric in Memphis

I just transferred 26,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards to British Airways, and wound up with 33800 Avios! I guess someone from Chase forgot to turn off the 30% bonus!

Schlepper

Anyone know if this still works?

Mendel

Any good redemption on emirate from /to dubai tlv.?

Danfan

To make your redemption even better, open A BA account with a British address, you’ll get much lower YQ. Just google any English street address and…. memorize it

Daniel

Can you elaborate on this? If you use an English address for your Avios the surcharges are lower?

Danfan

Yes. that is when flying on BA metal

Daniel

How much lower you talking? 10%, 20%, 30%? An approximation is fine if you know. Thank you!

Danfan

It’s more like 40%, for example: a Nyc-Lon would be 100 USD fee with an American account but only 50 GBP (63 USD) on a British Account

Zundel

Should we be expecting a ba devaluation if they’re offering this bonus?

Johnny, CPA

I travel a lot to Toronto, rarely are there award seats from NYC-YYZ on American using BA Avios

Yitz

Same for NYC-Montreal, and especially JFK.

Yg

Till wan is this offer?

AAA

Why do i always have problem logging in to my ba account?
Anyone else with the same issue?

UR

which offer low feuel fees, good availability to TLV Passover 2024?

happy to transfer, need to know which airline is an option without $250 fee each way for LHR airport taxes pp

Eric in Memphis

If I book a ticket with my British Airways Account for my son and my son has an American Airlines credit card, will he get 1 bag free, or will he have to pay the bag charge since the ticket was not purchased directly from American Airlines?

Thank you

Do you recommend this for flight from NY to Vietnam?

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