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Chase Has a 30% Transfer Bonus to British Airways Avios, similar to a 2019 offer, although not as good as past AMEX 40% transfer bonus to British Airways Avios. Nevertheless, Chase Ultimate Rewards points are easier to earn for most people, thanks to more 3X and 5X category bonuses for Chase cards. For example, the Chase Sapphire Reserve earns 3X points on all travel and dining, and the Sapphire Reserve earns 3X on groceries from November 2020-April 2021. The Chase Freedom and the new Chase Freedom Flex earn 5X on rotating bonus categories (the current Chase Freedom 5X categories are 5X on PayPal and Walmart for Q4 2020). Don't forget the Ink Cash, which by earning 5X on office supply store spend enables 5X on all Amazon, Whole Foods, and other stores' spend if you buy gift cards for these stores at Staples or another office supply store.
Here are the Chase to British Airways 30% transfer bonus offer details:
- You must be enrolled in British Airways Executive Club
- Transfer at least 1000 Ultimate Rewards points to British Airways Executive Club, with a 30% transfer bonus
- Deadline to transfer is 11:59pm ET December 9, 2020
- Points transfers, as always, are final and may not be transferred back to Chase Ultimate Rewards
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Best Uses of British Airways Avios
The 2019 British Airways Avios Devaluation modestly increased award rates on longer flights, and increased the award rates of the shortest business class flights ~40%. Check the above link to see how many Avios you need. Because British Airways Executive Club has a distance based award chart, the best value use of Avios tends to be short to medium haul intra-regional flights, such as those in Japan on JAL, on Cathay Pacific within Asia, and in Australia on Qantas, and in the U.S. on AA, as these don't have fuel surcharges and can be quite reasonable, even in business class (which most clients prefer, for a bit more personal space, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic).
Another good award redemption with British Airways Avios can be fifth freedom flights, such as Singapore to Sydney, which have much lower fees than anything involving London, due to not only high fuel surcharges on flights departing London, but also the UK's onerous air passenger duty (APD) tax.
While expensive in terms of miles required, we used to sometimes book JAL First Class for clients who had more British Airways Avios than they knew what to do with, but at least for now, JAL has stopped releasing most first class awards to partner airlines such as British Airways. JAL Business Class is still available, but it makes more sense to book these awards more inexpensively with Alaska Mileage Plan or American AAdvantage miles. British Airways Avios does give early access to Cathay Pacific First Class awards, as the award calendar opens before AAdvantage and Alaska Mileage Plan, but be prepared for the premium in miles: 144,250 Avios (so 111K Ultimate Rewards points, with the 30% transfer bonus) for New York JFK to Hong Kong, vs. 110K miles with AAdvantage or just 70K Alaska Mileage Plan miles.
Do you plan to take advantage of the 30% transfer bonus from Chase Ultimate Rewards to British Airways Avios?
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