To Transfer or Not To Transfer Points: That is The Question

Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous transfer promos, or to take arms against a sea of redemptions, and by hoarding, save your points?

Hamlet only had the one existential question to wrestle with. Those of us in the miles and points game face ours every time a transfer bonus email lands in the inbox, promising 30% more Avios if we act before Friday at midnight.

The dilemma goes like this: convertible bank loyalty currencies like American Express Membership Rewards and RBC Avion Rewards are the bedrock of any good Canadian points strategy precisely because they’re flexible. 

However, the moment you convert them into an airline or hotel program, that flexibility is gone for good. Transfers are a one-way street, and there are no refunds at this box office. So should you transfer now to grab a bonus, or sit on your convertible balance until you have a redemption actually lined up?

Alas, poor hoarder. Let’s put both arguments on trial.

The Case Against Transferring Points Now

The best default in this hobby is “just in time.” This is a term I’ve shamelessly stolen from supply chain logistics, but it’s the same principle: keep your points in convertible form until the moment you actually need them, then transfer, then book. This is exactly how many retail businesses operate, not wanting to keep inventory cluttering up shelves, instead getting things “just in time” for you to buy them.

The caveat emptor to this approach is the following: know your transfer times. Transferring American Express Membership Rewards to Aeroplan is effectively instant, while RBC quotes up to four weeks for Avios (but it is often far quicker) – so know your lead times! The ability to convert when you want, to the partner you want, is the entire value proposition of convertible point currencies like Membership Rewards or Avion points. 

A balance that can become Aeroplan points on Monday, Avios on Wednesday, or Flying Blue miles the day a wedding invitation from Champagne (the French county, not the drink) arrives is simply worth more than the same balance locked inside any single one of those programs.

Of course, we should consider FOMO, or the “fear of missing out”, which is when you chase the latest promo, certain that you’ll get a chance to redeem points.

Remember: the harder you FOMO, the higher your chance of getting burnt. My editor and Frugal Flyer co-founder Josh learned this one the hard way when he went all-in on Virgin Atlantic Flying Club to book ANA First Class back in 2021, one of the truly aspirational redemptions in this game. Then the flights wouldn’t line up with his schedule, the trip never happened, and the points sat there gathering dust.

To add insult to injury, in March 2023 Virgin Atlantic hiked the redemption price on those ANA First Class awards from 110,000 to 145,000 points round trip from Canada and the Western U.S. Oh, and the fuel surcharges were absolutely giving no breaks, either.

One note: speculative transfers start expiry clocks ticking, a problem that convertible bank points largely don’t have. Amex Membership Rewards or Chase Ultimate Rewards balances don’t expire so long as your credit card account is open, whereas unused Aeroplan points expire after 18 months. Fortunately, this cuts the other way, too – a great way to prevent points from expiring can be transferring ahead of time.

So let’s get into those other reasons for transferring points speculatively….

The Case For Transferring Points Now

Aside from resetting the expiry clock on your points, there are also times a promo is too succulent and juicy to turn your nose up at.

The recurring RBC Avion to British Airways Avios 30% transfer bonus is the classic Canadian example, showing up like clockwork about twice a year, most recently from May 11 to June 19, 2026. 

At 13 Avios per 10 Avion points transferred, 100,000 Avion becomes 130,000 Avios, with only a 10,000 point minimum transfer. So you’d be getting 13,000 points no matter what, which is enough for a transatlantic Economy fare from Canada to the Emerald Isle on Aer Lingus in Economy!

And if flying Economy class isn’t your thing, this also makes flying British Airways’ excellent Business class product (or any of their partner airlines) that much easier. Just please heed my warning: do NOT bother with British Airways Premium Economy. 

Second, the transfer rate you enjoy today is not guaranteed tomorrow. For example, both our American friends and Canadians who’ve taken the jump into the American credit card market had horrible news as of June 15, 2026.

On that day, a day which shall live in infamy, Chase cut the Sapphire Preferred’s transfer ratio to World of Hyatt from 1:1 to 4:3 for new cardholders, with existing cardholders following on October 1. 

The pricier Chase Sapphire Reserve Card, meanwhile, keeps its 1:1 ratio. Under the new math, a 60,000-point Hyatt redemption costs Preferred cardholders 80,000 Ultimate Rewards points. That’s a 25% penalty for waiting. Worse yet, sometimes the door slams shut entirely, as it did when Chase dropped Korean Air SkyPass as a transfer partner in 2021.

I must note that rates occasionally move in your favour; Amex Canada’s Flying Blue ratio improved from 1:0.75 to 1:1 in January 2026. Unfortunately, this is the exception and not the rule: the arc of loyalty history bends toward devaluation.

The final advantage for speculatively transferring convertible points currency is simple: peace of mind and consolidation. Points scattered across a household are points that never quite add up to a trip. 

Pooling everyone’s balances into a single ecosystem via Aeroplan Family Sharing or a British Airways Household Account can turn four orphaned balances into one bookable itinerary. Is that always mathematically “optimal”? Maybe not. But there’s something to be said for seeing your whole war chest in one place when award space finally opens up. For families, this might be ideal because it means you and your little ones actually get to board a plane.

What to Do If You Speculatively Transferred & Now Have Stuck Points

So you ignored the first half of this article, FOMO’d a couple hundred thousand points into an airline program during a transfer bonus, and then the trip fell through. Welcome to the club; the jackets and matching golf club sets are on order. We’ve got you covered with what to do next.

First, hope your program still has a pocket of value left in it. Virgin Atlantic is the poster child here: the ANA devaluation stung, but Virgin Atlantic Flying Club still has an incredible sweet spot for redeeming points in Europe, with intra-Europe Air France and KLM flights starting at 4,000 points in economy and 8,000 in business class off-peak, less than half of what Flying Blue would charge for the same seat. Stuck points aren’t dead points if the award chart cooperates.

(PS: thanks to Josh for bailing out my Europe Summer 2025 trip by graciously giving me some points from this balance. Cramped Air France alleged Euro “business” class never felt better). 

So your first lesson: look for sweet spots. They can’t always be found. But sometimes, they are available. If your balance is too small and awkward to do anything with, take a look at our guide as to what you can do with orphaned points.

Second, spend down your balance ASAP in case your chosen loyalty program pulls a Qatar Airways.

In June 2026, Qatar Airways Privilege Club made significant changes to its program as to how redemption functions, as it requires your account to be at least 30 days old and to have either one credited Qatar Airways flight or one co-branded credit card transaction before you can add anyone to its new redemption lists, and those lists lock in your nominees for six months at a time. 

Members who speculatively parked big Avios balances in Doha without ever flying the airline are, for now, locked out of booking awards for anyone but themselves until they meet the requirements.

What this means is: if you’ve parked points, burn them ASAP. While I was grateful for Josh to bail me out with his extra points, it’s usually better to spend than it is to let points sit.

Third, and this is the trick most blogs don’t bother publishing, is that you can look for the side door. 

Not every points currency is movable outside of its program, but some are. The most obvious is Avios: if your points are marooned in one Avios program, you can move them between British Airways, Qatar Airways, Iberia, Finnair, and Aer Lingus, and shop five award charts instead of one. This isn’t always easy or, for that matter, free, as the best method right now requires moving points to Finnair and paying a couple euros as a “transfer fee”.

Again, not every program can do this. But for example, you can move Marriott Bonvoy to Aeroplan or United Airlines MileagePlus, which is not always at the best value, but it might be better if you’re sitting on too large a balance off a promo.

Conclusion

Dormant points don’t get more valuable. Loyalty programs don’t pay interest; they print currency and raise award prices, and every so often the suits in charge rewrite the rules in ways that are not customer-friendly.

Whether you transfer speculatively to chase a juicy bonus or hold the line and convert just in time, the endgame is the same: have a plan, book the seat, fly the trip. Sometimes that means converting early is the play. Usually it isn’t. Just don’t make decisions based on pure aspirational FOMO.

Remember what Hamlet didn’t: the secret is to earn, to burn. To burn, to fly. And in that flight of points, what travel dreams may come?