U.S. Bank Now Has Points Transfer Partners, With Ethiopian As A Weird Interesting Sweet Spot

U.S. Bank just launched points transfers for Altitude Reserve cardmembers. That’s a product that isn’t even available to apply for anymore, so surely it suggests they’ll roll it out to more cards or introduce a refreshed Altitude Reserve or replacement product that includes transfers? To start it’s a tiny slate of offerings and a bit unusual. Air France KLM Flying Blue (of course, they partner with everyone) ALL – Accor Live Limitless (2:1) Qantas Frequent Flyer Ethiopian ShebaMiles The unique value in Altitude Rewards is 3x on mobile wallet purchases up to $5,000 per billing cycle, plus 3x on travel. Here’s a recent primer I wrote on taking advantage of Air France KLM Flying Blue. Looking back I realize there are things I left out like reasonably-priced SAS and WestJet long haul awards, China Airlines transpacific value, Delta short haul, and that North Africa prices as Europe. I use Qantas for better award availability on its own flights than offered to partners, which matters for my family traveling Australia – U.S. They have some interesting partner opportunities like El Al redemptions and Aircalin flights between Noumea and Sydney and Brisbane. Plus, free lap infants. But the really interesting case here is ShebaMiles because it’s a first as a transfer partner and the unique opportunity is their own flights on fifth freedom routes: 10,000 economy one-way 15,000 business one-way Here are their current fifth-freedom flights: Abidjan — Conakry Abidjan — New York Bamako — Dakar Bangkok — Hanoi Geneva — Manchester Harare — Lusaka Lomé — Newark Lomé — Washington Dulles Malabo — Douala Milan — Zurich Monrovia — Freetown Ndola — Bulawayo Niamey — Ouagadougou Ouagadougou — Conakry São Paulo — Buenos Aires Seoul Incheon — Tokyo Narita Singapore — Kuala Lumpur Stockholm — Oslo Victoria Falls — Gaborone Vienna — Copenhagen Yaoundé — Libreville Long haul pricing is decent for U.S.–Addis Ababa at 76,000 one-way in business and U.S.–Lome at 80,000. Ethiopian Airlines ET-AVJ taking off from Tel Aviv, credit: LLBG Spotter via Wikimedia Commons I honestly hadn’t looked closely at ShebaMiles in a long time. Their Star Alliance chart displays what appear to be roundtrip prices of 105,000 business between North America and Europe, 75,000 between North and South America, and 120,000 between North America and Oceania. But the page has geography errors, and returns different prices depending on direction. The website and app also reportedly show different inventory and struggle with connections. Downsides are $100 to cancel and redeposit awards and that miles expire by tranche after three years. Qualifying activity during the expiration year extends the expiring tranche one additional calendar year, but not the full balance. (HT: Frequent Miler) Topics on this page