American Express Membership Rewards is offering a 30% bonus when you transfer points to Aer Lingus AerClub, British Airways Executive Club or Iberia Plus Avios. Keep in mind that Finnair and Qatar also share the Avios program, so you can transfer your Avios on to those programs after taking advantage of the bonus Amex is offering.
The Deal
- American Express Membership Rewards is offering a 30% transfer bonus to Aer Lingus AerClub, British Airways Avios and Iberia Avios
Key Terms
- Minimum transfer is 1,000 Membership Rewards points.
- Redeem for this exclusive offer from 12:00 a.m. MT on 8/1/2024 to 11:59 p.m. MT on 9/30 to receive 30% additional Avios.
- Additional Avios will be awarded at the time of transfer.
- Generally, transfers are immediate but please allow up to 72 hours for the transfer to be completed.
Best Uses for Avios
- Business class to Europe from 34K one-way via Iberia. This is probably my favorite Avios redemption and have one booked this year already. Iberia charges as few as 34K miles off-peak for one-way in business class on its own flights from New York, Boston, Chicago, or DC to Madrid during off-peak season. The fuel surcharges are quite reasonable and they also run seasonal promotions (usually during the Winter) where the prices drop down even further.
- Business class South America from 22K one-way via British Airways. I've used this once and availability can be tricky to find. But when you can find it, BA has excellent pricing for shorter distance non-stop American Airlines award flights.
- Long Haul Business Class on Qatar Airways. After Qatar's addition to Avios, BA lowered many of their award prices on Qatar. It's now possible to travel between the United States and Doha in business for only 70,000 Avios with minimal surcharges.
Things to Know
- Avios Purchases are processed by Points.com and DO NOT count as airfare.
- Avios can be easily transferred between Aer Lingus, Iberia, Finnair, Qatar and British Airways
- Avios expire after 36 months of no activity
- British Airways has near-extortionate fuel surcharges when flying on BA metal. It's best to keep Avios for use with partners or the Iberia Plus
Quick Thoughts
We’ve seen Amex occasionally offer a 40% transfer bonus to Avios, but 30% is still very strong and can make some sweet spots a bit more indulgent.
I probably wouldn’t speculatively transfer in this case, both because I prefer keeping transferable points flexible and because we sometimes see a higher transfer bonus, but if you are confident that you’ve got some near-term uses in mind, it makes sense to strike while the iron is hot on this bonus. Given that the expiration date isn’t until the end of September, that provides a good window of time to find a use.
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Do you know on what basis Amex makes these bonus offers? Inconsistent clearly 🙁 Nothing is showing in my Amex Plat UK account and it’s super frustrating as the bonus would be the perfect amount to tip me into a long-haul redemption I’d like
I just messaged Amex on my platinum U.K. account only to be told this offer does not exist and only offer is for Marriott 30% bonus not BA
It’s so confusing :/
A week ago, I was looking for how to get from Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Minh City. I was planning to use Delta Skymiles on Vietnam but nothing was showing up on the Delta website in any class (same with Flying Blue). Then I found out through Google Flights that Qatar has a 5th Freedom flight between the two cities and business was available. I only had 1500 Qatar Avios, but since I had previously linked my BA account with Qatar, Qatar automatically just took the remaining Avios out of my BA account–I didn’t have to manually transfer them. We have a household BA account but that wasn’t an impediment to the automatic transfer. I was impressed–so easy!
yay! i have been awaiting this for cathay pacific redemptions on iberia!!! easy 2+cpp even on economy!!!