Wells Fargo has recently reentered the credit card arena and will be enabling users to transfer their points to travel partners starting April 6, 2024.
Although Wells Fargo currently has a pretty limited batch of transfer partners so far, there's a lot of potential, especially when we see what they've been able to accomplish with Bilt. In this article, we'll highlight Wells Fargo's current transfer partners, which ones are good, and what the future could entail.
Wells Fargo's Transfer Partners
Wells Fargo currently has 5 airline and 1 hotel transfer partners. The programs they have access to aren't anything particularly unique—they're amongst the most widely accessible transfer partners around:
BRAND
Airline Transfer Partner
Transfer Ratio
(WF → Partner)
Transfer Time
Aer Lingus AerClub
1:1
TBD
Air France-KLM Flying Blue
1:1
TBD
Avianca LifeMiles
1:1
TBD
British Airways
1:1
TBD
Iberia Plus
1:1
TBD
BRAND
Hotel Transfer Partner
Transfer Ratio
(WF → Partner)
Transfer Time
Choice Privileges
1:2
TBD
How To Earn Wells Fargo Points
Wells Fargo has launched two exciting new cards that are eligible to both earn and transfer points to partners.
While this fresh card has a standard welcome offer, it comes with best in class spending multipliers that give many of the existing incumbents a run for their money:
- 5x points on hotels (direct bookings, not portal!)
- 4x points on airlines (direct bookings, not portal!)
- 3x points on travel and dining
- 1x points on all other purchases
The card also comes with up to $50 in airfare statement credits each year and decent travel insurance benefits.
This no annual fee card is giving a lot of the incumbents a run for their money, with a slew of strong earning categories and the ability to transfer points to partners:
- 3x points on restaurants, travel, gas, transit, popular streaming services, and phone plans
- 1x points on all other purchases
Surprisingly, despite no annual fee, the Autograph also comes with Visa Signature® perks and no foreign transaction fee.
Examples Of High Value Transfer Partners
Air France/KLM Flying Blue
Flying Blue is one of our favorite transfer programs for a multitude of reasons. With reasonable award pricing and free stopovers, there's a lot to like about it.
They have one of the best US/Europe deals around: you can fly business class on Air France or KLM to/from Europe via the contiguous 48 United States, Canada, and Mexico for just 50,000 miles each way.
Examples Of Ok Value Transfer Partners
Choice Privileges
Using your Wells Fargos points to book Choice Hotels could be an ok way to get some value out of them. Choice uses dynamic pricing to determine the cost of their award nights, which can make it more difficult to find good value redemptions.
For example, this stay in New York is running at a base rate of 222 USD (before taxes & fees), but costs 30,000 per night. With a 1:2 transfer ratio, this starts to net you about 1.5 cents per point. However, other redemptions may not prove as friendly—definitely a case by case basis.
Conclusions
Wells Fargo has reentered the points space with a bang, and we're excited to see where they take this. Based on their existing work with Bilt, they've been able to develop some incredible, never before seen transfer partner relationships. Perhaps we could see Wells Fargo partnering with American Airlines... or Hyatt... but these are pipe dreams at best.
