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Holy transfer bonuses, Batman! Somebody at Amex has opened the floodgates on transfer bonuses because we have woken up today to not one, not two, not three, but twelve transfer bonuses from Amex Membership Rewards. I don’t ever recall seeing so many transfer bonuses from a single program before. The Amex points parade continues to march on there is something for everyone right now. Note that most of these bonuses are valid through 9/30/22 (but the bonuses to Choice and Marriott are scheduled to run through 10/31/22).
The Deal
- American Express has launched twelve transfer bonuses today as follows:
- Airline transfer bonuses
- Aeromexico: 1,000 to 1,920
- Aer Lingus Avios: 1,000 to 1,250
- Air Canada Aeroplan: 1,000 to 1,150
- Air France / KLM Flying Blue: 1,000 to 1,250
- Avianca LifeMiles: 1,000 to 1,150
- British Airways Avios: 1,000 to 1,250
- Hawaiian Miles: 1,000 to 1,200
- Qantas Frequent Flyer: 500 to 600
- Virgin Atlantic Flying Club: 1,000 to 1,300
- Hotel transfer bonuses
- Choice Privileges: 1,000 to 1,250
- Hilton Honors: 1,000 to 2,600
- Marriott Bonvoy: 1,000 to 1,200
- Airline transfer bonuses
Key Terms
- Most of the bonuses above are scheduled to run rom 9/1/22 to 9/30/22 (the exceptions are Choice Privileges and Marriott Bonvoy, which are scheduled to run through 10/31/22)
- See individual program for specific terms
Quick Thoughts
We have at times seen Amex run a couple of transfer bonuses at once, but I don’t think we’ve ever seen so many transfer bonuses at once — even when including transfer bonuses from other issuers. September may turn out to be a great time to be booking your 2023 travel.
Those looking closely may say that the total number of transfer bonuses here is really more like a dozen minus one. While the British Airways Avios and Aer Lingus Avios programs are separate and have separate award charts, you can move points freely between the programs, so a bonus to one is also a bonus to the other. Notably, that’s also true of Iberia, but interestingly Iberia is not included in this transfer bonus. That’s not really a big deal since you would ordinarily want to transfer first to British Airways anyway. That’s because transfers from Amex to British Airways are instant, whereas transfers to Iberia are not. If you’re looking to ultimately transfer to Iberia, the fastest way is to transfer from Amex to British Airways and then from British Airways to Iberia. That said, you do need to make sure that your British Airways account is not part of a family pool and that the details of your British Airways and Iberia accounts match exactly. See this post for more detail.
Along the same lines, you could use this bonus to ultimately move Avios from British Airways to Qatar Airways Avios if you so desire.
While the number of transfer bonuses is unprecedented, the transfer ratios are not. These are fairly typical transfer bonuses for the most part. We have seen better bonuses in the past to British Airways (as high as 40% as I recall), Virgin Atlantic (also a high mark of 40% in the past), and Air Canada Aeroplan, though I believe higher bonuses to Aeroplan have only been available on a targeted basis. While a transfer bonus to Aeroplan is on the one hand exciting, on the other hand keep in mind that their award chart devalued today.
Still, some transfer bonus beats no transfer bonus and the best transfer bonus is the one that is available at the time that you are booking your trip. How I do wish that these bonuses had been around a month or two sooner for our coming 3 Cards 3 Continents challenge!
For inspiration about how to put these bonuses to use, see our Amex Membership Rewards sweet spots post. We will get all of these transfer bonuses added to our Current Point Transfer Bonuses page shortly.
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Will Hawaiian Airlines do another transfer bonus from Amex? It’s been almost 2 years…
Hi all, Hope somebody can help me out or point me in the right direction. Although my wife and I have been using points to travel for a few years now and really enjoy it (mostly Southwest) I’ve never transferred points to an airline and this looks like a good opportunity. I’m retired and my wife is retiring in January. We’d like to spend a week next year (March, April or May) in Ireland and Scotland. We usually fly out of Albany, NY but we have points and a Southwest Companion Pass so we can travel out of other cities. I have around 300,000 Membership Rewards points and my wife has around 100,000. I realize the transfer bonuses expire in two days. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Look for a SW destination that also has service on Virgin to Edinburgh. Traveling from New Orleans, Orlando was a great path to Scotland. Good Luck.
Tried both cities. Wouldn’t let me book with points. Sorry, no reward flights are available for your search, some flights don’t operate every day. Try selecting flexible dates to see more availability.
Nick, I’ve been trying to see when Virgin was last 40% as you said in the post, but coming up empty-handed.
I’m honestly considering transferring to Choice. I almost never have choice points and they’ve always been super useful when I do. Just last week I needed a hotel last minute, Choice was the only chain selection. I didn’t have my amex with me so ended up using Cap one points, still got over 1.2cpp. I have tons of airline miles so don’t need those so much
Any suggestions to use transfer bonuses for flights in April 2023 from EWR to OSAKA (any) and then from TOKYO (any) to EWR?
Additionally, roundtrip EWR to London (any) in September 2023
HI, is the transfer bonus available in south africa?
If you have an AmEx account in RSA, just log in and navigate to the transfer partners. They’ll be marked with the offer.
in RSA , the amex acc. is handled by a bank; Nedbank.
We cannot transfer the amex to avios online, but have to phone the bank; &
they have no idea as to whether I will get the transfer bonus….
Do you consider this a good transfer for Hilton? Don’t have anything planned but thought it looks like a good deal?
Only if you have a specific transfer in mind, Juli. I would not recommend transferring to Hilton speculatively, ever.
Waldorf Cabo San Lucas is 120,000 Hilton points or $1525 plus 31% tax and service charge, or $1985 per night. That’s about 4 cents per Amex point.
… assuming you would pay $1985 or even $1525 a night !!!
I just transferred 127K Amex points to Hilton and was able to book 3 nights in an overwater pool villa at the Hilton Maldives Amingiri with no other cash due. Was definitely worth it for me!
Good for you! That sounds like a great redemption. I just don’t have anything planned but maybe should try to find something!
Deal. If You like boredom
It’s smack dab in the middle of a month-long around the world trip, so yes, I want to relax and boredom sounds great. Thanks for the comment though.
This is good news for us since this puts pressure on Chase, Citi, and Capital One to offer transfer bonuses on their transfer partners too 🙂
I have a general question. Can I transfer AA award miles to BA Avios points or do I have to book my air through AA?
In general you cannot transfer points between airlines. The main exception are airlines that use Avios where you can transfer between them. There are sometimes other paths to transfer to another airline but they are almost never a good deal (outside of the intra-Avios transfers). So if you have AA points you’d need to book via AA.
Philco has that all spot on.
And this is why Amex wins the title of best transferable points. (Also they have ANA)
Agree in the strongest terms!
Didn’t Amex do this Transferpalooza last September as well? I held off booking an Air France award until today, hoping that Amex would give us a good transfer bonus for September. Glad I waited, I was able to save 10000 points for my family of 4, 42,000 Amex points for the 4 of us in economy with a checked bag to Europe is amazing value.
42k MR points combined – how?
Some routes are pricing at 15K each way right now: https://frequentmiler.com/flying-blue-economy-30k-round-trip-between-the-us-and-europe/
Child tickets get a 25% discount, so four 1-way tickets would be 42K.
Exactly Nick. And good availability, even over spring break!
Yes, they did a similar transfer slate last September.
Holy moly! Now your turn chase!