Awhile ago I created a master list of all the transfer bonuses American Express has ever offered (and a similar list for Citi). I thought I’d look through the list to see if there is any patterns we can use to determine if it’s likely that a transfer bonus will be offered at a certain time.
- Hawaiian Airlines has offered a 25% bonus in June in both 2016 and 2017.
- Virgin Atlantic has offered a 25-30% bonus in April/May in 2015, 2016 & 2017.
- SPG has offered a 50% transfer bonus in 2014, 2015, 2016.
- Virgin America has offered 25% bonuses + status in September of 2015 & 2016. Not sure if they will offer something again this year given the partnership ends in October, but might be worth waiting for.
Those are the obvious ones that stand out to me. Plenti offered a 50% transfer bonus last year, I suspect that was to try and get more people using Plenti in general. British Airways seems to offer frequent transfer bonuses but the dates have varied a lot in previous years (e.g July – September this year, August – October last year and then December/January in 2014/2015). Personally I think before transferring Membership Rewards points it’s worth checking the master page to see if they have offered a transfer bonus and possibly holding off to transfer until they do offer a bonus unless you have an immediate need for the miles/points.
