Can you transfer points between Amex, Chase and Citi?

Why no issuer takes in another bank's points

A bank rewards currency is a liability on that bank's own books, redeemable only through the doors the bank has contracted. Amex sells points to airline and hotel programs; Chase does the same with its own list; neither has any reason to accept a liability created by a competitor. That is why the partner lists read the way they do. American Express prints 20 U.S. partners on its transfer page, 16 airlines and 4 hotel programs. Chase's transfer guide names 10 airlines and 4 hotel programs. Capital One's partner guide names airline and hotel programs only. Citi's Strata Premier page names seven partners, from American Airlines and JetBlue to Choice Hotels, followed by 'and others'. Not one of those lists contains a bank.

The second half of the answer is that the move is one way. Every issuer whose terms were read for this guide says so in its own words, and those words matter because they decide what happens to a balance once it leaves home. The table puts the four statements side by side, with the minimums that set how finely you can split a transfer. Citi does not publish its per-partner rules on a public page, so its row records only what the Strata card pages state.

Read the table as a warning about direction rather than speed. A transfer that posts in 20 minutes is no easier to undo than one that takes seven business days. Once points arrive in a partner program, they follow that program's expiry, pooling and redemption rules; Wyndham, for example, starts a four-year clock when transferred points post, as the Wyndham guide explains, and the guide to when airline and hotel points expire is the place to check the clock that starts running.

The shared-partner map: programs two or more banks feed

Because the banks cannot talk to each other directly, the useful map is the list of programs where their doors open into the same room. The table below is built from each issuer's own page on October 22, 2026. Amex and Capital One print a ratio for every partner. Chase prints none on its public guide, apart from its announced World of Hyatt rate for some cards, so the Chase column says only whether the partner is listed. Citi names seven partners publicly and prints no ratios. Bilt prints a ratio for every partner in its help center article on transfer partners, last updated October 20, 2026, and its card page says points transfer at a 1:1 ratio for Bilt travel partners. A Bilt cell that says not listed means the program is absent from that article.

A blank does not mean a partnership is impossible. It means the issuer's public page did not show it that day. The transfer screen inside your own account outranks any table, including this one, and the issuer-by-issuer ratio explainer covers how to read the notation each bank uses. Closing the card that holds the points is a separate risk, covered in what happens to points when you close a card.

One partner, two exchange rates

A shared partner is not a shared price. When two banks feed the same program at different ratios, the same award costs a different number of points depending on which balance pays, and that difference decides the order in which you draw on each bank. Three pairs on the map make the point clearly. Cathay Pacific Asia Miles cost Amex holders 1,000 points for every 800 miles, while Capital One prints 1:1. Hilton Honors gives Amex holders 2,000 Hilton points per 1,000 Membership Rewards points, while Bilt's help article lists Hilton at 1:1. JetBlue TrueBlue takes 250 Amex points for 200 TrueBlue points plus a fee, and 5 Capital One miles for 3 TrueBlue points.

Those ratios are not a ranking of the banks. A ratio is an exchange rate for one door, and a bank with a poor rate into one partner may have the only route into another. What the ratios do tell you is which balance to spend first when both reach the same award: spend from the side that buys more partner currency per bank point, and keep the other side for the doors only it opens.

The excise tax offset fee is the other cost that differs by door. The Membership Rewards terms (November 2026 edition) charge $0.0006 per point, up to $99, on transfers to a U.S. airline program. Amex's partner list includes two U.S. airline programs, Delta SkyMiles and JetBlue TrueBlue. Moving 25,000 Amex points to JetBlue adds $15. No other issuer page read for this guide states a comparable fee, so a JetBlue top-up drawn from a different bank avoids that line, although it pays a different ratio instead.

Filling a single award from two balances

The common case looks like this: an award costs more than either balance holds, but both banks reach the program. The rule for filling it has three parts. First, convert each bank's balance into partner currency at its own printed ratio. Second, draw first from the side that delivers more partner currency per bank point. Third, round each transfer up to that bank's step size and count whatever is left over in the partner as spent unless a second booking is already in view.

Take an arithmetic illustration with stated inputs, not live inventory. A Cathay Pacific award is priced at 45,000 Asia Miles. The traveler holds 30,000 Amex points and 30,000 Capital One miles. Capital One's 1:1 ratio delivers 30,000 Asia Miles from the full Capital One balance. The remaining 15,000 Asia Miles must come from Amex at 1,000 to 800, which takes 18,750 Amex points; rounded up to Amex's 1,000 step that is 19,000 Amex points, delivering 15,200 Asia Miles and leaving 200 in the Cathay account. The award consumes 49,000 bank points in total.

Reverse the order and the same award costs more. Drawing all 30,000 Amex points first delivers 24,000 Asia Miles. The remaining 21,000 come from Capital One at 1:1, so 21,000 Capital One miles. The total is 51,000 bank points, 2,000 more than the first order, for exactly the same seat. The table shows both orders, plus a third option many people reach for by default: splitting the cost evenly between the two banks. One input in that third row is an assumption: Capital One's partner page states a 1,000-mile minimum but no step size above it, so the 23,000 assumes Capital One rounds in 1,000-mile steps like the other banks. If it accepts 22,500 exactly, the even split sends 51,500 bank points and leaves 700 Asia Miles over, still the most expensive of the three orders.

When both banks reach the partner at 1:1

If both sides transfer at 1:1, the order no longer changes the points total, and the decision moves to three other questions. Which balance has fewer other uses? Which bank posts faster to that partner? And which transfer leaves less stranded in the partner after rounding? Flying Blue is the cleanest case, because Amex prints 1,000 to 1,000, Capital One prints 1:1, and Bilt's help article lists it at 1:1.

Another arithmetic illustration. A Flying Blue award costs 57,500 miles plus surviving fees. The traveler has 40,000 Amex points and 40,000 Bilt Points. Any split that sums to 58,000 bank points in 1,000 steps works, for example 40,000 from Amex and 18,000 from Bilt, and leaves 500 Flying Blue miles behind. Moving 40,000 from each bank would also cover it, but would leave 22,500 miles stranded in Flying Blue instead of flexible at the banks. The arithmetic says to move 58,000 in total and no more.

Speed is the tie-breaker that can matter on the day. Bilt says most transfers complete within 20 minutes but may take up to 48 hours. Amex's terms say a transfer typically takes 48 to 72 hours to process, though some programs post later. Chase says most transfers process by the next business day but may take up to 7 business days. When a seat is the last one at that price, the faster side should send its share last, so that both halves land as close together as possible, or the slower side should go first and the booking waits until both have posted. The step-by-step transfer procedure covers checking that points have landed before you book.

Avios: the one family where partner accounts can pass currency along

Most partner programs are dead ends: points go in and come out only as awards. The Avios programs are the exception that makes cross-bank planning more flexible, because the airlines themselves let a member move Avios between linked accounts. Qatar Airways' Avios terms, read on October 22, 2026, say that after linking a Privilege Club account to a British Airways Club account, Avios can be moved in either direction without incurring any fee, credited immediately at 1:1, with no minimum or maximum.

Most combinations do not need that rule at all. Amex, Chase and Capital One all list The British Airways Club directly, so a Chase balance and a Capital One balance can both be sent to one person's British Airways account and spent there together. What linking adds is a second door for Avios that are already sitting in an airline account. Amex and Capital One also reach Qatar Airways Privilege Club, and Avios that landed in a Privilege Club account can be moved across to a linked British Airways account, or the other way, at 1:1 with no fee, when the award you want is priced or bookable on the other program's site. Avios already in either account from past travel can top up the same award without another bank transfer.

The linking terms carry conditions worth reading before you rely on them. The personal details on the two accounts, including first name, last name, date of birth and email address, must match. Linking becomes available only 30 days after the account creation date, so a Privilege Club account opened on the day you need it cannot be linked that day. And a Privilege Club account can be linked to a British Airways account a maximum of twice in any fifty year period. Iberia Club and Aer Lingus AerClub also use Avios, but their combining rules were not read for this guide, so this section makes no claim about them.

Two people, two banks, one trip

Households often ask a different version of this question: can my Chase points and my partner's Amex points pay for one trip? The answer turns on names, not banks. Chase and Capital One require the name on the bank account to match the partner account. Bilt allows transfers only to a partner account that belongs to you and is in your own name. Amex allows your own partner account or an Additional Card Member's, linked first. None of those rules lets your bank points land in a second adult's airline account unless the issuer's own exception covers them.

What usually works is not a transfer at all. Each person moves points into their own account in the same program, and one of them books an award for the other, or the program lets the two balances combine on its side. The rules for both moves differ by program, and the guide to pooling and sharing points maps them program by program, including which programs charge for combining and which forbid it. This page stays with the bank side of the problem: which doors your two currencies share, and in what order to open them.

Stranded remainders: the hidden cost of a two-bank top-up

Every transfer rounds up to the sending bank's step, so splitting one award across two banks can create two rounding losses where a single bank would create one. In the Cathay illustration above, the best order still left 200 Asia Miles behind, and the even split left 1,200. Those remainders are not lost, but they are no longer flexible. They sit in one program, under that program's expiry rules, waiting for an award that uses them.

There are three ways to keep the remainder small. Send the larger, rounder transfer from the bank with the coarser step, so the finer-grained bank fills the exact gap: Amex's 250-point step into JetBlue is finer than Capital One's 1,000-mile minimum, for example. Check whether points already sitting in the partner account cover the odd amount. And when the remainder would be large, ask whether a slightly different award, a different date or cabin priced in round thousands, fits the transfer steps better. The guide to when not to transfer treats a large stranded balance as one of the reasons to stop.

A remainder also matters when the plan fails. If the award disappears between the first transfer and the second, one bank's share is already in the partner and the other is still at home. That is the strongest argument for confirming the seat to the final ticketing step before either bank sends anything, and for sending both shares in the same sitting.

A decision table for two-currency bookings

The table compresses the sections above into the choices people actually face. Each verdict is about one booking. None of it says one bank is better than another, and none of it is a reason to open an account at a second bank, which is a credit decision outside the scope of this site.

Pricing the combined award before anything moves

A two-bank award is still one booking, and it gets one verdict. Add up the bank points actually consumed, including rounding, and put that figure, not the partner's award price, into the cents per point formula with the same day's cash fare and the fees that survive. In the Cathay illustration, the award consumed 49,000 bank points in the best order. Against an assumed $950 cash fare and $90 in surviving fees, that is ($950 minus $90) divided by 49,000, or 1.76 cents per point for this booking. Drawn in the worse order, at 51,000 bank points, the same booking returns 1.69 cents. The difference is entirely the order of transfers.

If you hold balances at two banks and a specific award is in front of you, the useful next move is to price it with the real number of points that would leave both accounts. Enter that combined figure, the cash fare and the surviving fees in the Cash or Points Calculator, and compare the result with your own target before either bank sends a single point. The transfer guides hub collects the rest of the transfer mechanics in one place.

Checklist

• Confirm the award to the final payment screen before either bank sends anything.
• List which of your banks reach that program, using each issuer's transfer screen, not memory.
• Convert each balance into partner currency at its own printed ratio.
• Draw first from the side that delivers more partner currency per bank point.
• Round each transfer up to that bank's step and add the remainders to the cost.
• Check the name on every partner account matches the bank account sending to it.
• For Avios, check whether linked British Airways and Qatar accounts would remove a transfer altogether.
• Price the award with the total bank points consumed, then decide.