IN BRIEF | Commonwealth Bank Awards credit card points can now be converted into frequent flyer points with 9 new airline partners – spanning Oneworld, Star Alliance, SkyTeam and beyond – and into hotel loyalty points with InterContinental as well.

Among the newly-added options are direct points transfers to United MileagePlus, JAL Mileage Bank, Air France/KLM Flying Blue and more. Here’s the full list, along with how many CBA Awards points are needed to snag one point or mile in each of the programs.

  • AirAsia BIG: 2.5 CBA points = 1 BIG point
  • Air France/KLM Flying Blue: 3 CBA points = 1 mile
  • China Eastern’s Eastern Miles: 3 CBA points = 1 point
  • Etihad Guest: 3.5 CBA points = 1 mile
  • EVA Air Infinity MileageLands: 3 CBA points = 1 mile
  • IHG Rewards Club: 2.5 CBA points = 1 point
  • JAL Mileage Bank: 4 CBA points = 1 mile
  • Lufthansa Miles & More: 4 CBA points = 1 mile
  • Malaysia Airlines Enrich: 3.5 CBA points = 1 mile
  • United MileagePlus: 4 CBA points = 1 mile

These options are now available across all CBA Awards credit cards, which mostly provide one CBA Awards point per $1 spent on Mastercard purchases, except for the bank’s Diamond World Mastercard which generates 1.25 CBA Awards points per $1 spent.

However, even with that boosted earning rate, every $1 spent on a Diamond Mastercard only earns the equivalent of 0.31 United miles, 0.35 Enrich miles, 0.41 Flying Blue miles or 0.5 IHG Rewards points, so while it's nice to have these new options, sticking to Qantas or Velocity points may prove more rewarding.

Commonwealth Bank also issues American Express cards which earn more points than Mastercard on certain spending categories (but fewer points on other transactions), although these will no longer be issued from September 1, and all existing CBA AMEX cards will become inactive on November 1: leaving cardholders with a Mastercard only.

Read: Commonwealth Bank axes American Express credit cards