Best transfer partners for domestic flights

Good morning and welcome back to Daily Drop, the healthiest part of a proper points and miles breakfast.

Today is a fun one:

• 🇺🇸 Best transfer partners for domestic flights

• 👩‍🏫 Join our masterclass on Monday

• ✈️ Save 40% on Southwest flights (today only)

🇺🇸 Best transfer partners for domestic flights

The world is a messed-up place right now. If you’re like me, traveling internationally might feel a little scary.

So today, I want to give you some tips for booking domestic flights.

You might be surprised to learn that using domestic programs (United, Delta, etc.) is often the worst way to book these flights.

If you play your cards right (pun VERY much intended), you can use less obvious programs to book domestic U.S. flights for fewer miles and better value.

Getting a lot of transferable points is easy

And just to zoom out for a second…

The idea here is to use the following formula:

• Step 1: Sign up for a credit card with a big welcome offer

• Step 2: Transfer points to one of these programs

• Step 3: Book dirt-cheap domestic flights

• Step 4: Profit (not really)

How it works

Points you earn from U.S. credit cards can transfer to dozens of programs, both domestic and foreign.

Once your points are in those programs, you can book flights on U.S. carriers.

That means you get the flexibility of a transferable currency plus the coverage of major U.S. airlines.

Here are some of the best domestic redemption options:

1. Etihad Guest for JetBlue or American Airlines

Capital One miles, MR points, Bilt Rewards, and ThankYou points all transfer to Etihad at a 1:1 ratio.

Etihad’s distance-based award chart  can make short-haul U.S. flights go for as little as 6,000 Etihad miles on both American Airlines and JetBlue:

Boom, domestic for cheap.

With a single welcome offer like the current one on the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card, that’s already around 12 flights at prices like this.

2. Avianca LifeMiles or Air Canada Aeroplan for United Airlines

Multiple U.S. banks transfer 1:1 to both Avianca LifeMiles and Aeroplan. 

That gets you access to United Airlines award seats via the Star Alliance network, even with programs that don’t directly transfer to United.

Short-haul flights on United will run you 10,000 Avianca LifeMiles (sometimes even less):

Flights from the West Coast to Hawaii can run as few as 12,500 Aeroplan points!

Either way, you’re almost guaranteed to get these flights for fewer overall miles than what United itself would charge.

3. Atmos Rewards for Alaska/American Airlines

This is the one domestic program that is on par with all of these foreign partner programs.

Atmos Rewards has some amazing deals for domestic flights on both Alaska Airlines and American Airlines.

For example, short-haul flights on both airlines can cost as few as 4,500 points in economy or just 9,000 points in first class.👇

Atmos also has more flexible change and cancellation policies than the other programs on this list, making it a great option for locking in a flight now and worrying about it later.

Sadly, there is currently only one way to get Atmos points: transferring Bilt Points.

If you sign up for the Bilt Palladium Card (and earn the 50,000-point welcome offer), this is one of the best ways to use those points.

4. Air France-KLM Flying Blue for Delta flights

This is one of my favorites…

KLM/Air France Flying Blue – another 1:1 transfer partner of every major transferable points currency – lets you book Delta flights for as few as 5,000 miles one-way in economy, or 15,000 in business. 👇

That is a deal and a half, especially considering that various banks also offer regular transfer bonuses to Flying Blue.

Longer flights will cost more, but this method is still a fantastic option if you’re a Delta loyalist.

5. Or just skip transfers completely and redeem for cash value

If you don’t want the hassle of search-and-transfer games, Capital One miles can be redeemed for travel at a fixed 1 cent per mile, which actually makes sense if you’re booking a cheap cash flight on an airline like Spirit or Frontier.

For example, this flight from Denver to Las Vegas costs $28.👇

You could simply use your Capital One card to purchase the flight, then use 2,800 miles to offset the purchase – no additional taxes and fees required.

Even if you want to add bags, seat selection, or other extras to your flight, you can still cover it with Capital One miles.

Why transfer partners are the move

Many airlines (especially U.S. airlines) price their flights dynamically when using their own points programs.

With partner programs, you get access to fixed-price award charts. 

So even for banks that do have U.S. transfer partners, it often makes more sense to book through the programs I talked about today.

What to watch out for

• Award availability: Partner programs have fewer seats or dynamic pricing on some routes (especially in premium cabins), so you might need to be flexible.

• Transfer time: Some transfers are instant, and many happen quickly, but a few may take 24–36 hours. Don’t wait until the last minute to transfer (speaking from experience 😅).

The bottom line

If you’re thinking of staying home in the U.S. for the foreseeable future, you have a LOT of options for booking cheap flights around the country.

As always, check out our Top Cards Page and list of current Elevated Welcome Offers if you need inspiration for your next card.

👩‍🏫 Join our masterclass on Monday

Speaking of transfer partners…

Next Monday (March 30), we’re hosting a live masterclass where we’ll cover ALL the things you need to know about transferable points.

It’s called Transferable Points 101: The Secret to Making Your Points Go Further.

The class will take place at 12:00 PM Eastern Time (sorry to steal your lunch break 😉).

You can register using the link below:

Whether you’re totally new to the idea of transferable points or you just want a refresher, all are welcome.

And we’ll have a Q&A at the end if you have any burning questions about travel, points, the meaning of life, my favorite exotic meat – literally anything.

See you there. 😉

P.S. If you can’t make it live, we’ll send out a replay to all who registered 👊

✈️ Save 40% on Southwest flights (today only)

Southwest Airlines just dropped a tasty promo to get a phat 40% discount on base fares.

And yes — it’s one of those annoying ones that’s basically over as soon as you read this.

Here’s the deal:

• Use code BUZZER

• Book by TONIGHT

• Travel between April 13 and June 11

• Continental U.S. and inter-island Hawaiian travel only

• Blackout dates: May 21, 22, 25 (aka Memorial Day chaos)

• Check out the sale page for all of the details

So yeah… not complicated. Just… fast.

Let’s look at an example

I pulled a random route: Cleveland to St. Louis in April, and found that most days, the route was discounted significantly:

But here’s the best part about Southwest promos:

They also apply to award bookings. Here is the same search from earlier, but with points:

Even if you might travel this spring/early summer, this is a great opportunity.

Because remember: Southwest has very friendly change and cancellation policies (which vary by fare type).

So, worst case? You cancel later. Best case? You just locked in a really solid deal.

A couple of quick gotchas

Just so you don’t get burned:

• The discount only applies to the base fare (taxes are still there)

• Only works on new bookings (If you change the flight later, you lose the discount)

• Not every flight/date has availability

That’s it, folks. I hope you enjoyed this newsletter about all things domestic. I’ll see you tomorrow to finish off the week.

Byeeeeeeeeeee,

59.4370° N, 24.7536° E

With contributions by McKay Moffitt and Sam Anthony