partners transfer featured

Tutorial: List of major points transfer programs in Canada

To the point Major Canadian transferable points programs include American Express Membership Rewards, Marriott Membership Rewards and RBC Rewards.
partners transfer featured

American Express Membership Rewards

Points transfer partners

In Canada, American Express Membership Rewards partners with various airline and hotel loyalty programs. This allows you to transfer your Membership Rewards into points or miles.

For Aeroplan and Delta Skymiles, the transfer is immediate. For the others, it usually takes between 5 and 7 days.

Partner Ratio
Air Canada – Aeroplan 1:1
Air France KLM – Flying Blue 1:0,75
British Airways Executive Club 1:1
Delta Skymiles 1:0,75
Cathay Pacific Asia Miles 1:0,75
Etihad Guest 1:0,75
Marriott Bonvoy 1:1,2
Hilton Honors 1:1

American Express Membership Rewards are considered THE most valuable points currency in Canada, thanks in part to their ability to be converted into many great programs.

However, not every conversion is worthwhile:

  • British Airways Executive Club: The regular conversion rate is identical to the one for Aeroplan. However, several times a year, there is a 35-40% conversion bonus. I suggest you wait until then to transfer your Membership Rewards
  • Hilton Honors: the conversion rate is really not interesting. This can be only useful for topping up a points balance to get a free room.
  • Marriott Bonvoy: while the conversion rate remains generally attractive, I recommend that you give priority to accumulation via Marriott Bonvoy credit cards, and if necessary complete it with one of the Membership Rewards credit cards such as the American Express Cobalt® Card

Credit cards

Here is the list of Membership Rewards credit cards in Canada:

Posts

Here is a list of the top articles on Milesopedia about the Membership Rewards program:

RBC Rewards

Points transfer partners

With RBC Rewards, you have access to these transfer partners:

Partner Ratio
WestJet Rewards 100:1
British Airways Executive Club 1:1
Cathay Pacific Asia Miles 1:1
American AAdvantage 1.43:1
Hudson’s Bay Rewards 1:2

RBC Rewards points are useful for building up your WestJet Dollars, British Airways Executive Club Avios or Asia Miles balance.

However, not every conversion is worthwhile:

  • British Airways Executive Club : several times a year, there is a 35-40% conversion bonus. I suggest you wait until then to transfer your RBC points to Avios miles
  • American AAdvantage : the conversion rate is not really interesting. This transfer should only be done to supplement an existing mileage balance.
  • Hudson’s Bay Rewards : If you want to travel, Hudson’s Bay Rewards won’t take you far! I do not recommend this transfer.

Credit cards

The following is a list of RBC Rewards (Avion) credit cards that can be used to transfer points to airline partners:

Posts

Here is a list of the top articles from Milesopedia about the RBC Rewards program:

HSBC Rewards

Points transfer partners

You can convert HSBC Rewards points into miles from 3 airline programs.

The conversion will be done at fixed thresholds (25,000 – 35,000 – 45,000 HSBC Rewards points):

Partner Ratio
Cathay Pacific Asia Miles 3.125:1
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer 2.78:1
British Airways Executive Club 2.5:1

Here we find two partners also available through American Express and RBC Rewards Membership Rewards, namely Asia Miles and British Airways Executive Club.

If you already have American Express or RBC cards, the best partner for you is Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer! But it can also be useful to transfer HSBC points into British Airways Executive Club Avios miles, especially during conversion promotions.

Credit cards

The HSBC World Elite® Mastercard® offers HSBC Rewards points that are transferable. In addition, this is one of the only cards that does not charge conversion fees for foreign currency transactions:

Posts

Here is the list of the main articles from Milesopedia about the HSBC Rewards program:

Marriott Bonvoy

Points transfer partners

With Marriott Bonvoy, you can transfer your points into miles from various airline programs.

The transfer rate is generally 3:1 (30,000 Marriott points = 10,000 miles). And for every 60,000 points transferred, Marriott adds a bonus of 15,000 points (equivalent to 5,000 miles).

So 60,000 points = 25,000 miles (bringing the transfer rate to 2.4:1).

Note that Marriott Bonvoy and United have a special relationship: point transfers to United have a 10% bonus.

Partner Ratio Bonus in miles / 60,000 points Time in days
Aegean Airlines Miles 3:1 5 000 10
Aeroflot Bonus 3:1 5 000 14
AeroMexico Club Premier 3:1 5 000 2
Air Canada Aeroplan 3:1 5 000 5
Air China Phoenix Miles 3:1 5 000 5
Air France/KLM Flying Blue 3:1 5 000 1
Air New Zealand Airpoints 200:1 25 2
Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan™ 3:1 5 000 2
ANA Mileage Club 3:1 5 000 7
American Airlines AAdvantage 3:1 5 000 2
Asiana Airlines Asiana Club 3:1 5 000 10
Avianca Airlines Lifemiles 3:1 5 000 14
British Airways Executive Club 3:1 5 000 1
Cathay Pacific Asia Miles 3:1 5 000 10
China Eastern Airlines Eastern Miles 3:1 5 000 14
China Southern Airlines 3:1 5 000 3
Copa Airlines ConnectMiles 3:1 5 000 14
Delta Air Lines SkyMiles 3:1 5 000 2
Emirates Skywards 3:1 5 000 6
Etihad Guest 3:1 5 000 5
Frontier Airlines MyFrontier 3:1 5 000 14
Hainan Airlines Fortune Wings 3:1 5 000 14
Hawaiian Airlines HawaiianMiles 3:1 5 000 2
Iberia Plus 3:1 5 000 6
Japan Airlines JAL Mileage Bank 3:1 5 000 7
JetBlue TrueBlue 6:1 2 500 1
Korean Air SKYPASS 3:1 5 000 7
Latam Airlines Latam Pass 3:1 5 000 2
Lufthansa Miles and More 3:1 5 000 6
Qantas Frequent Flyer 3:1 5 000 6
Qatar Airways Privilege Club 3:1 5 000 6
Saudi Arabian Airlines Alfursan 3:1 5 000 14
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer 3:1 5 000 6
South African Airways Voyager 3:1 5 000 14
Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards 3:1 5 000 2
TAP Air Portugal 3:1 5 000 14
Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus 3:1 5 000 10
Turkish Airlines Miles 3:1 5 000 14
United MileagePlus 3:1.1 5 500 2
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club 3:1 5 000 1
Virgin Australia Velocity 3:1 5 000 2

I often advise you to use loyalty program points ONLY for what they were originally intended for:

  • hotel points for free hotel nights
  • airline miles for airline tickets

However, it can be interesting to deal with Marriott Bonvoy to get miles, especially at certain times of the year by taking advantage of transfer bonuses ! Aeroplan and British Airways Executive Club run 3-4 annual promotions during which you can earn 25-30% more miles by converting your hotel points.

It’s also a good way to earn miles from foreign airline programs like United MileagePlus, Singapore KrisFlyer, Emirates Skywards, etc.

Credit cards

Here is the list of Marriott Bonvoy credit cards in Canada:

American Express Membership Rewards points can also be transferred to Marriott Bonvoy points at a 1:1.2 (or 5:6) rate.

So 50,000 Membership Rewards = 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points.

If your goal is to go through the Marriott Bonvoy program to earn airline miles, the best credit card will be the American Express Cobalt® Card.

With this card, you can earn 5 Membership Rewards points per dollar spent in some categories: grocery stores, convenience stores and restaurants. And in grocery and convenience stores, you can buy gift cards for many other retailers (SAQ, Amazon, Walmart, Ikea, etc.) to earn 5 points per dollar.

And since 5 Membership Rewards points = 6 Marriott Bonvoy points = 2 airline miles, that means that at these stores you earn 2 miles per dollar of purchase! Which is incredible!

While there aren’t many promotions for transferring Membership Rewards points to airline points like Aeroplan, transfer bonuses to hotel programs are more common, usually once a year.

Here is the list of credit cards that earn Marriott Bonvoy Points in Canada:

Posts

Here is the list of the main articles from Milesopedia about the Marriott Bonvoy program:

Best Western Rewards

Points transfer partners

With the Best Western Rewards program, you can redeem your points for airline partner miles. Let me warn you right away: the exchange rate is far from being the best.

However, if you have Best Western Rewards points that you don’t need, you might as well put them to use!

A minimum of 5,000 Best Western Rewards points is required to make a transfer.

Partner Ratio
AER LINGUS AERCLUB 5:1
Air Canada Aeroplan 5:1
Alaska Mileage Plan 5:1
American AAdvantage 5:1
Cathay Pacific Asia Miles 5:1
Asiana Airlines Asiana Club 5:1
British Airways Executive Club 5:1
Air France/KLM Flying Blue 6:1
Iberia Plus 5:1
Avianca Airlines Lifemiles 5:1
Meridiana Club 5:1
Lufthansa Miles and More 5:1
Vueling Club 5:1
Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards 4.17:1
AeroMexico Club Premier 3.125:1
AIR MILES 62.5:1

Posts

Here is the list of the main posts on Milesopedia about the Best Western Rewards program:

Bottom line

With these 5 programs, you can easily transfer your points to dozens of other loyalty programs and travel the world with your reward points!

Do you start with the points? With one of these five credit cards, you will earn transferable points:

Come to discuss that topic in our Facebook Group!
Jean-Maximilien
Jean-Maximilien is an expert in Canada and France about Loyalty programs, Credit cards and Travel. He is the Founding President of Milesopedia.

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