I have varyings amounts of points that I am holding with several credit cards.
Since these can be transferred to either velocity or kris flyer, I have not transferred them over to a particular one.
Is there any difference to me when this is done?
Is it best to hold on to them as reward points until you are actually ready to do a reward booking with a specific airline?
The reason this question came up is that I noticed bonus % for transferring to certain points. So it got me thinking if I should be taking advantage of this, but then the issues if I need the points with a different airline.
I’ve always held CC points until a bonus transfer is on offer. The perfect example is the 15% bonus with Velocity ATM. Across multiple cards, the 15% bonus soon adds up. On occasion you’ll find that FF redemption may have a % discount also, so you end up double dipping on the bonuses. This can happen whether the redemption bonus is at the same time or later. For example, say you transfer 100K in CC points to a given FF program - that’s 15K bonus points for a click of a button. Then, say that same FF program, a few months later, offers a redemption discount of 10%. On a redemption of 95500 points plus $ (one way business Aus to USA with Velocity) that’s 9550 points you don’t spend - so you really only redeem a littel under 86K in points. That’s 24550 points still sitting in your account (15K bonus transfer + 9550 redemption discount).
As for which FF program - I generally go with Velocity just because their availability is generally better. And you can transfer to Krisflyer from Velocity if you need to.
Without repeating Wally’s advice, my take is that it’s all about confidence. If you’re confident you’ll be using your points either with KrisFlyer or Velocity, but probably Velocity, then transferring during a bonus point period is savvy.
But if you think you might want to push them to Asia Miles or another program altogether, then obviously moving them out of your bank rewards program takes that option away.
All depends on your planned redemptions, the amount of points you have, and how confident you are in how and when you’ll be using your points.