Through 3/10/2016, American Express is offering a 50% transfer bonus from Membership Rewards to Virgin America Elevate.
The Offer
Get 50% more points when transferring Membership Rewards to Virgin America Elevate. The normal rate of 2:1 becomes 2:1.5.
Example:
- 200 Membership Rewards becomes 150 Virgin America Elevate
- 10,000 Membership Rewards becomes 7,500 Virgin America Elevate
To transfer points, simply add your Virgin America Elevate number to your Membership Rewards account and then go to the transfer section under “Travel”.
Excise Tax Offset Fee
American Express charges a fee equal to $.0006 per point when transfering Membership Rewards to U.S. based loyalty programs (up to $99). For example, a transfer of 10,000 Membership Rewards points will cost $6. Amex gives you the option to use an additional 1,200 points to offset the fee, but that is a terrible deal.
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[…] has been known to offer a transfer bonus to Virgin America. Recently, they offered a 50% bonus that was available until March 10th. If this were repeated, the above process would mean the ability to convert Membership Rewards to […]
I am planning a trip to either Japan or UK this summer and I go to Lihue frequently. I’ve never used VA before, but I see that all these destinations are accessible through VA’s partners. There is also a 30% off award sale to UK until 2/24.
Maybe a dumb question, but doesn’t this deal mean that I can access Japan for 20k MR RT (instead of 40k) via Singapore Air, London for ~10k MR RT (instead of 25k less 30% deal) via Virgin Atlantic, and Lihue for 10k MR (instead of 20k) via Hawaiian?
What am I missing?
Correction: that shouldn’t have been 1:1, but the numbers still work out less that competing programs. If I can stack this with the V Atlantic promo, I can get to London for a tiny amount of points and a little cash. Just need to find a flight back to avoid London taxes.
I was thinking the same thing. A 50% transfer bonus plus a 30% deal on Virgin seems like a pretty amazing deal. Daniel – did you find a way to fly back w/out leaving from London? Newbie here trying to figure out if I can/should take advantage of what seems like a great deal.
There are plenty of ways to get back – just do a little googling. Look into aerlingus, air Berlin, Iberia, etc.
I ended up going to Japan and I do not believe the 30% applies there, so I just used AA on JAL metal.
thanks for the report — though it alerts me how really awful the transfer rate to VA was in the first place. 50% up from that, not so impressive. I’m waiting for Amex to boost the transfer rate to JetBlue (esp. after that was reduced last year) Keen to get out of Amex MR’s — before the nasty af hits in June. (and yes, that excise fee is, in itself, awful…. another reason to get out of amex mr programs)
what is the af?