Transfer Bonus Example: Virgin Atlantic

Do you ever hear people talking about exciting transfer bonuses and wonder what the heck their talking about? We want to explain what a transfer bonus is AND give you an example of how this can be beneficial if you have an upcoming trip in mind.

What is a transfer bonus?

Before we can answer that, we want to make sure you understand what a transfer partner is. Banks like Chase, American Express, Citi and Capital One all have what they call “transfer partners” that, depending on the credit card you hold, will allow you to transfer that banks point currency directly to their transfer partner airlines and hotels vs booking directly in the portal. This is typically recommended as you usually get a better redemption rate that allow your points to go further vs booking in the travel portals. (Check out all of the transfer partners using our free cheat sheet HERE)

At the time of writing this article, Chase has a transfer bonus for Marriott and Virgin Atlantic inside of their Chase Travel^SM Portal:

What does this mean? This means that when you can transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards to Marriott Bonvoy and you will get 40% MORE points once they hit your Marriott account. When you transfer to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, you’ll receive 30% MORE. Transfer bonuses do end, so keep that in mind. Currently, both of these bonuses will end at 11:59PM ET on June 15, 2024.

Keep reading to watch a real time example for Virgin Atlantic:

I want to go to London this fall over my birthday. A quick search on Virgin shows me I can get there from Austin on September 12th for 15K miles in economy!

15k in itself is awesome! But with this transfer bonus, that means I only have to transfer 12K Chase Ultimate Rewards Points instead of 15k. For a family of 4, you’re saving 12k Chase Ultimate Rewards Points which is another ticket if you wanted to bring along grandma too! Or a night at the Hyatt Place London Heathrow Airport (8k points per night) if you have an early flight back home and want to be closer.

It’s also worth noting, this flight is actually operated by KLM which partners with Virgin Atlantic. A quick search shows me that this exact flight via KLM’s Flying Blue program is currently 22K points.

So the exact same flight, but purchased via Virgin saves me 10k points per person! If you’re bummed because you missed the Flying Blue promo, well, this is a better deal anyways! Aren’t you glad you didn’t preemptively move those Chase Ultimate Rewards Points to Flying Blue during their promo just because you didn’t want to miss out but didn’t actually know what you were doing with them?! If you were to have done that then you’d be sitting on FlyingBlue miles and either need to move more Chase Ultimate Rewards Points if you want the Virgin flight or decide to pay the 22k.

Not sure how to make the actual transfer? Make sure to check out THIS blog that shows you step by step how to transfer from Chase. The example is with Hyatt but the process is the same with every partner. Just make sure you’ve signed up for their loyalty program before making the transfer so that you have a number to put it.

Important Reminder: We DO NOT recommend transferring points just because there is a bonus. I know it may feel like FOMO but if you don’t have a plan for those points, then they’ve lost their power of being flexible like they are in your chase account. Once they are transferred, there is no reversing.

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