Credit Card Points, Ranked
Tl;dr: Bilt and Chase points are the most valuable and easiest to use, but you can go far with any credit card that offers transferable points.
There are many credit cards to choose from out there, and often they earn points at rates. But not all points are created equal. Each bank has different opportunities and restrictions when it comes to using points. While the best type of point for you will depend on your travel habits, some points are generally more valuable than others.
Below, you’ll find my rankings of the various points currencies for value, simplicity of use, and flexibility, followed by some explanations of what to look for in a credit card points program.
RANKINGS
1) Bilt Rewards ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
With an easy and high-value redemption option in a 25% travel portal bonus, the two most valuable transfer partners in Alaska and Hyatt, another domestic airline partner in United, and a vast array of secondary partners, Bilt points take the prize as the best on the market.
2) Chase Ultimate Rewards ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Chase also sports a 25% portal bonus (50% if you have the Sapphire Reserve), and bests Bilt in a couple key areas. Chase offers an easier redemption option with it’s convenient 1¢-per-point statement credit option (although that loses a lot of value compared to using the portal) and also offers consistent, convenient value for domestic air travel with transfers to United, JetBlue, and Southwest. But Alaska is a much more valuable partner than anything Chase can offer, and Chase also lacks the deep roster of alternative transfer partners boasted by its competitors.
3) American Express Membership Rewards ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Amex is weighed down by the lack of any convenient redemption option, but if you are willing to learn how to transfer points, it offers the deepest collection of options. Delta provides an easy option for domestic and international redemptions with good value (great value if you have a Delta credit card and the 15% discount on award tickets) and JetBlue offers solid value as well. The unique access to ANA points is a valuable resource, as is Amex’s vast list of alternative transfer partners.
4) Citi ThankYou Points ⭐⭐⭐
Although it lacks a star partner like Delta or Amex’s vast array of partners, access to a domestic transfer partner (JetBlue) and a bonus on transfers to Choice Hotels make it a solid rewards program with relatively easy ways to get more value from its points than the statement credit option.
5) Capital One Venture Miles ⭐⭐⭐
Capital One cardholders can easily “erase” travel purchases at 1¢ per point and have a wide variety of travel partners to potentially eke even more value out of their points. However, lacking a domestic travel option or consistent bonus opportunity, Capital One miles can’t quite compete with Citi’s.
6) Wells Fargo Rewards ⭐⭐
The availability of a simple statement credit option means that Wells Fargo points are respectable, and the availability of Choice, Avios, FlyingBlue, and Virgin redemptions offers some possibility of higher value, but Wells Fargo Rewards clearly lack the flexibility and opportunity of its more-established competitors.
EXPLANATION
As I said above, the rankings are based on value, simplicity, and flexibility. A perfect program would have: an easy way to redeem your points for decent value; a higher-value bonus when booking travel through the bank, access to partners that offer fixed, reliable, high-value redemptions; partnerships with domestic airlines for easy redemptions at good value; and a wide array of international travel partners for opportunities for sale or luxury redemptions.
Easy redemption options
Easy, lazy redemptions are good. The best simple redemptions allow you to hop on the bank website or app and, with a few clicks, redeem your points for cash back or a statement credit for a minimum of 1¢ per point, ideally on any spending. Lesser alternatives include banks that limit redemptions to certain categories of spending (e.g. travel) or require you to redeem them for travel booked through that bank’s travel portal.
Sub-ranking
Chase (1.25¢ through the travel portal with the Sapphire Preferred, 1.5¢ through the portal with the Sapphire Reserve, 1¢ as a statement credit on any spending)
Bilt (1.25¢ through the travel portal)
Citi, Wells Fargo (1¢ as a statement credit)
Capital One (1¢ back as a credit toward travel spending)
Amex (1¢ towards flights in the travel portal)
Redemption bonus
Not every bank offers a redemption bonus, but those that do pull ahead thanks to an increased guaranteed minimum value when redeeming for travel through the bank’s travel portal.
Sub-ranking
Chase (1.25¢ with the Sapphire Preferred, 1.5¢ with the Reserve)
Bilt (1.25¢)
Domestic airline partners
An easy and reliable way to get good value from points is via transfers to US airline frequent flyer programs. These are easier to use, as most people fly domestically more often than internationally, and almost all major US airlines offer redemptions that will typically offer more than 1¢ in value (1.2-1.4 is typical, in my experience). Most also offer the occasional international award ticket at a good price as well.
Note that Amex charges $6 per 10,000 points transferred to domestic airlines to offset a federal excise tax (up to $99), while other banks don’t pass the tax on to customers. Note also that AA has some of the most valuable points, but they currently do not have any credit card transfer partners.
Sub-ranking
Chase (United, Southwest, JetBlue)
Bilt (Alaska, United)
Amex (Delta, JetBlue, Hawaiian)
Cit (JetBlue)
Hyatt
Transfers to the World of Hyatt program deserve their own special mention, because Hyatt’s fixed award chart results in the single most valuable points currency currently available. They are useful both for getting discounts on luxury hotels and booking nice midscale hotels in major urban areas for as little as 3,500-5,000 points per night. Both Bilt and Chase points can be transferred to Hyatt.
Alaska and AA
Much like Hyatt, Alaska miles are so valuable that they deserve special mention. The Alaska website is easy to search for award availability and award tickets are consistently available at low prices if you plan ahead. If you live on the west coast and want to fly to Japan, for example, you can do so for 75,000 points and negligible taxes and fees. Or fly to Europe from the east coast for 45,000 miles. While other airlines might offer similar deals on rare occasions, you can go to Alaska and book that deal at virtually any time. This combination of value, convenience, and predictability makes Alaska miles extremely valuable.
American Airlines AAdvantage miles might be even better (you can usually take that flight to Japan for 70k AA miles), but, sadly, right now no bank offers transfers to AA.
International partners with good websites
Both FlyingBlue (the loyalty program shared by Air France, KLM, and Oman Air) and ANA have websites that are relatively user friendly and regularly offer good award redemptions on international flights. FlyingBlue has monthly promo awards that make it relatively easy to find a good deal on international trips. ANA, by contrast, has a fixed award chart but often high fuel surcharges which can decimate the value of award flights. That said, I have always been able to find a good-value deal through ANA if I search for 20 minutes or so.
I will cautiously add Virgin to this list. I find it essentially impossible to use its website, but if you sign up for ThriftyTraveler alerts or find availability some other way and show up knowing exactly what to look for you can get a really good deal, like a recent flight to Tokyo I saw for 70,000 miles.
Sub-ranking
Amex (ANA & FlyingBlue, Virgin)
All others (FlyingBlue, Virgin)
International partners with bad websites
That leaves us with the international airlines where you can occasionally find a good deal if you can actually wade your way through the booking process. These partners include:
Avios. The currency shared by British Airways, Aer Lingus, Iberia, Qatar, and FinnAir has various deals available in and out of JFK, but otherwise deals are few and far between, and attempting to search through most of these airline’s websites is a massive chore.
Air Canada. Air Canada’s frequent flyer program has the look of a well-organized website, but those looks are deceiving, as it can be difficult to even log into the program’s website, let alone run a search. Although you may find the occasional business class deal, mileage redemptions in economy generally offer poor value.
Avianca. Avianca often offers solid deals on flights to South America and even elsewhere, but the website is extremely buggy and difficult to navigate. (Edit: Although it is still extremely difficult to find partner awards by navigating the LifeMiles site, I have found it relatively straightforward recently to find flights to South America, with solid redemption rates, especially when a transfer bonus is available.)
Cathay Pacific. Although the AsiaMiles website is easy to log into and navigate, it is extremely hard to find available seats, even though the site will show you seats… they just never seem to be available. If you can actually find an available seat, there are decent deals in premium classes from time to time (if you have hundreds of thousands of points to burn).
Turkish. Turkish locked me out of my account, but I hear the website is still buggy and the deals hard to come by.
I have admittedly only spent a few hours perusing each of these sites trying to find a deal, but if it takes hours to find even a half-decent redemption, then a program is not a high-value partner in my opinion. I also receive award deal alerts from ThriftyTraveler, and I have never seen any deals that have led me to reconsider my opinion or contemplate transferring any points to any of these airlines.
There are also a few other programs out there (Aeromexico, Emirates, Etihad, EVA Air, Quantas, Singapore, TAP, & Thai) that could be useful for the occasional opportunity, but aren’t worth discussing at length.
Sub-rankings
Capital One (Avios, Air Canada, Avianca, Cathay Pacific + Emirates, Etihad, EVA Air, Quantas, Singapore, TAP)
Amex (Avios, Air Canada, Avianca, Cathay Pacific, + Aeromexico, Emirates, Etihad, Quantas, Signapore)
Bilt (Avios, Air Canada, Avianca, Cathay Pacific + Emirates)
Citi (Avios, Avianca, Cathay Pacific + Emirates, Etihad, EVA Air, Quantas, Signapore, Thai, Turkish)
Chase (Avios, Air Canada + Singapore)
Wells Fargo (Avios)
Other Hotels
Transferring credit card points to (non-Hyatt) hotels is usually a waste of points, as they tend to be worth much less than airline points or points redeemed through the bank’s travel portal. IHG and Hilton points are particularly low value. Marriott and Choice points can occasionally be redeemed for decent (not necessarily good value). Wyndham points, however, can sometimes be redeemed for a little better than 1¢ per point.
Sub-ranking:
Citi (Wyndham, Choice, double points on transfers to Choice)
Capital One (Wyndham, Choice)
Amex (Marriott, Hilton, Choice; bonus on transfers to Hilton)
Bilt (Marriott, IHG, Hilton)
Chase (Marriott, IHG)
Wells Fargo (Choice, double points on transfers)