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American Express Membership Rewards offers Amex cardholders the opportunity to earn one of the four big transferable currencies in the miles & points world – Membership Rewards Points – and these points can be transferred to a variety of other loyalty programs affiliated with major airlines and hotel chains.
The strength of the Amex transfer partner lineup is a big reason why Membership Rewards points are viewed as an excellent way of keeping a miles & points portfolio well-diversified.
At the time of writing, American Express Membership Rewards partners with 20 loyalty programs split between 18 airlines and 3 hotel chains. That’s more transfer partners than any of the other three big transferable currency programs.
Amex airline transfer partners
The list of Amex airline transfer partners is impressive and covers a significant number of airlines across the three major alliances (oneworld, Star Alliance & SkyTeam) as well as a number of useful ‘independent’ airlines (Emirates, Etihad, Hawaiian).
The value that each person gets from transferring Membership Rewards points to these airline programs will vary depending on what the points are eventually used for but, with British Airways Avios offering great value on expensive short-haul flights and Singapore Airlines offering some of the best premium cabins in the sky, you don’t have to look too hard to find some fantastic uses for Amex Membership Rewards points when booking airline awards.
Amex hotel transfer partners
Amex may only have 3 hotel transfer partners, but that’s no worse than Chase or Capital One and it’s one more than Citi.
Two of the three hotel transfer partners are also two of the biggest hotel chains in the world, but on the whole, I’m not a fan of using Amex points for transfers to hotel programs as I don’t think the transfer ratios offer good value.
I value Membership Rewards points at 1.5 cents each while I value Choice, Hilton, and Marriott points at between 0.4 cents and 0.6 cents each so, on that basis, even the 1:2 transfer ratio on offer when you transfer between Amex and Hilton isn’t particularly tempting.
A transfer may be fine if you’re looking to top off an account with a few thousand points, but most people will be getting a very poor return on their Membership Rewards balance if they choose to transfer over a significant number of points to a hotel program.
Transfer times
As far as transfer times go, the information you see in the tables above is a guideline only – some transfers can be reliably instantaneous while with others the time taken to transfer Membership Rewards points can vary significantly.
I generally avoid moving points across to an airline program that doesn’t reliably offer instantaneous transfers unless I can put the award(s) I want to book on hold – the last thing I want to happen is for award availability to disappear in the time between actioning a transfer and the points arriving in my airline loyalty account.
Transfer fees
Annoyingly, American Express is the only one of the big three transferable currency issuers to charge a fee for transferring points, but, fortunately, it’s not applied to all transfers.
Transfers to US programs (like Delta and Hawaiian) will incur a charge of $0.0006 per point transferred up to a maximum charge of $99. Transfers to all foreign programs are free of charge. The math dictates that for transfers of over 165,000 points to US programs, only the first 165,000 points incur a fee.
Transfers to other people’s loyalty accounts
Amex prohibits users from transferring Membership Rewards points into loyalty accounts where the name on the recipient account doesn’t match with the Amex cardholder or the name of an authorized user.
Since 1 September 2019, authorized users of Membership Rewards earning cards have needed to have been authorized users for a period of 90 days before their loyalty program accounts can be linked to the primary Membership Rewards account. This applies to personal cards as well as business cards.
Transfers to other people’s Membership Rewards accounts
Amex prohibits two or more cardholders from pooling their Membership Rewards points.
Suggestions for Amex Membership Rewards cards
Consumer Cards
- The Platinum Card® from American Express – 5 points/dollar on up to $500,000 of spending on airfares booked directly with airlines or through Amex Travel per year & 1 point/dollar thereafter + great benefits (terms apply).
- American Express® Gold Card – 4 points/dollar on up to $25,000 of spending at US supermarkets per year (1 point/dollar thereafter) and 4 points/dollar on up to $50,000 of spending at restaurants per year (1 point/dollar thereafter) (terms apply).
- American Express® Green Card – 3 points/dollar on most travel and on dining (terms apply).
Note: All information about the American Express® Green Card has been collected independently by Traveling For Miles. The American Express® Green Card is not currently available through Traveling For Miles.
Business Cards
- The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express – 2 points/dollar on up to $50,000 of eligible spending per year and 1 point/dollar thereafter (terms apply).
- American Express® Business Gold Card – 4 points/dollar on the two categories* in which a cardholder spends the most each month on up to $150,000 in eligible spending per year and 1 point/dollar thereafter (terms apply).
*Restricted to select spending categories – see the card’s t&c for more
Bottom line
American Express Membership Rewards has the strongest lineup of transfer partners out of the four main transferable currency programs, and that’s a big part of why Membership Rewards points are so popular. Add to that the fact that Membership Rewards offers transfer bonuses a lot more frequently than Chase, Capital One or Citi, and you start to see why credit cards that earn Membership Rewards points are as popular as they are.
Hi
This is all good – but I am surprised that you have not noted the massive increase for the Amex platinum card in the UK – uo from £450 to £575 pa. Some new benefits but none of any real value
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