Frequent Miler's latest team challenge, Million Mile Madness, is almost done! The last two weeks Greg, Nick, and Stephen competed to earn 1 Million SAS miles by flying 15 airlines. But who completed the challenge with the most Speed, Affordability, and Style?
Amex Membership Rewards points are transferable to many airline and hotel partners. In this post, you’ll find a complete list of Amex transfer partners as well as quick tips for best uses.
Tips to Redeeming Amex Membership Rewards
Don’t transfer until ready to book: Don’t transfer points until high value awards are available and you are ready to book them. Transfers are one-way only. Membership Rewards points are valuable for their flexibility. Once you transfer, you are locked into a single program that may or may not have awards available.
It’s possible to transfer points to a friend’s loyalty account: You can transfer points to a friend’s loyalty account as long as you add them as an authorized user or employee to one of your Membership Rewards accounts. Once your friend has been an authorized user for 90 days you can transfer points to their loyalty accounts.
Watch out for transfer bonuses: Amex often offers improved transfer ratios through limited time transfer bonuses. You can see the full list of current transfer bonuses below.
Always have at least 1 transferable credit card account: Some Membership Rewards cards do not directly allow point transfers (such as the discontinued Blue for Business card), but most do. As long as you have at least one card that permits transfers, then you’re good to go. The best fee-free options that allow transfers are: Blue Business Plus (my preferred choice) and Amex EveryDay.
Don’t forget about the pay with points option: Usually, paying for travel with Amex points results in poor value: 1 cent per point or less. However, the Amex Business Platinum card makes it possible to get approximately 1.5 cents per point value or more on certain flights. See our Membership Reward’s Guide for details.
Current American Express Transfer Bonuses
If Amex is running any transfer bonuses, details will appear here:
| Transfer Bonus Details | End Date |
|---|---|
| 35% transfer bonus from Amex Membership Rewards to Marriott Bonvoy | 11/30/24 |
| 15% transfer bonus from Amex Membership Rewards to Cathay Pacific Asia Miles | 11/30/24 |
| 15% transfer bonus from Amex Membership Rewards to Avianca LifeMiles | 12/31/24 |
Amex Membership Rewards Transfer Partners: Hotels
Transfers to hotel programs from Amex rarely results in good value except when transfer bonuses are in effect. Here are the standard offerings:
| Rewards Program | Best Uses | Amex Transfer Ratio (and transfer time) |
|---|---|---|
| Choice | Choice Privileges points seem to be randomly valuable within the US, but dependably valuable internationally in expensive locations such as Scandinavia and Japan. Points can sometimes offer great value when used towards participating Preferred Hotels of the World. | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Hilton | 5th Night Free awards. Best value is usually found with very low end or very high end Hilton hotels. Bonus: award nights are not subject to resort fees. Note that Hilton points often go on sale for half a cent each and so its rare for point transfers to Hilton to be a good value. | 1 to 2 (Instant) |
| Marriott Bonvoy | 5th Night Free awards. Opportunities to get outsized value exist but can be hard to find. | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
Amex Membership Rewards Transfer Partners: Airlines
It is free to transfer Membership Rewards points to foreign airlines. For transfers to US airlines, however, Amex charges an “excise tax offset fee” of $0.0006 per point (with a maximum fee of $99). Airlines subject to this fee are noted below.
Best Amex Airline Transfer Partners
In our opinion, the airline transfer partners below represent the best potential value.
| Rewards Program | Best Uses | Amex Transfer Ratio (and transfer time) |
|---|---|---|
| Aer Lingus Avios | Fuel surcharges are sometimes lower when booking with Aer Lingus rather than British Airways, Qatar, or Iberia. It's possible to move points (Avios) between Iberia, British Airways, Aer Lingus, and Qatar. See also: Avios Sweet Spots for Award Tickets. | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Air Canada Aeroplan | Redeem for Star Alliance flights and/or flights with Air Canada partners (such as Etihad). No fuel surcharges; $39 CAD award booking fee; 5,000 points to add stopover on one-way award. See: Air Canada Aeroplan: Everything you need to know. | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Air France KLM Flying Blue | Monthly Air France Promo Awards often represent very good value. Air France miles can be used to book Sky Team awards, including Delta awards. Air France often offers very good business class award pricing between the US and Europe & Israel. | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Alaska MileagePlan | Alaska Airlines offers decent oneworld award pricing, excellent short-distant pricing, and uniquely allows free stop-overs one one-way awards. Additionally, Alaska allows free award changes and cancelations (although they do have a small non-refundable partner award booking fee) | 1 to 1 via Hawaiian (Instant) |
| ANA Mileage Club | Redeem for Star Alliance flights. Multiple stopovers allowed. ANA offers many great sweet-spot awards, including flying around the world in business class for as few as 115K miles! See also: ANA - a terrific Membership Rewards gem. | 1 to 1 (~1 day) |
| Avianca LifeMiles | Avianca LifeMiles can be great for Star Alliance awards. They offer reasonable award prices and no fuel surcharges on awards. They also offer shorthaul awards within the US (for flying United, for example) for as few as 7,500 miles one-way. Best of all, their mixed-cabin pricing can lead to fantastic first-class award prices. See this post for details. | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| British Airways Avios | While flights on British Airways itself often incur outrageously high fuel surcharges, many BA partners charge low or no fuel surcharges. Excellent value can often be had in redeeming BA points for short distance flights outside the US. It's possible to move points (Avios) between Iberia, British Airways, Aer Lingus, and Qatar. See also: Avios Sweet Spots for Award Tickets. | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Cathay Pacific Asia Miles | Cathay Pacific has a decent distance based award chart, but they don't allow stopovers longer than 24 hours. Cathay Pacific Asia Miles can be a good option for booking American Airlines flights with a distance based award chart, especially if other OneWorld Alliance miles aren't available. For long distance flights, it is possible to reduce the cost of a premium cabin award by adding on a lower cabin segment. See this post for details. | 1 to 1 (~1 day) |
| Hawaiian Miles | Hawaiian Miles can be converted instantly to Alaska Mileage Plan miles. Alaska Airlines offers decent oneworld award pricing, excellent short-distant pricing, and uniquely allows free stop-overs one one-way awards. Additionally, Alaska allows free award changes and cancelations (although they do have a small non-refundable partner award booking fee) | 1 to 1 plus excise tax (Instant) |
| Iberia Avios | On their own flights, Iberia offers low award prices and a very reasonable 25 Euro cancellation fee. Partner awards can offer good value under some circumstances as well, but these are usually nonrefundable. Fuel surcharges are sometimes lower when booking with Iberia rather than British Airways, Aer Lingus, or Qatar. It's possible to move points (Avios) between Iberia, British Airways, Aer Lingus, and Qatar. See also: Avios Sweet Spots for Award Tickets. | 1 to 1 (~12 - 72 hours (slower over weekend)) |
| Qatar Privilege Club Avios | Qatar has reasonable award prices for flying Qatar itself. Points are now transferable 1 to 1 to British Airways (and from there to Aer Lingus or Iberia). It is now also possible to book JetBlue flights with Qatar Avios. | 1 to 1 (12 - 24 hours) |
Useful Amex Airline Transfer Partners
The following transfer partners can be terrific options when using sweet spots:
| Rewards Program | Best Uses | Amex Transfer Ratio (and transfer time) |
|---|---|---|
| Delta SkyMiles | Delta no longer charges change or cancellation fees on awards originating in North America. Flash award sales and flights to/from locations other than the U.S. or Canada can offer great value. See: Best uses for Delta miles. | 1 to 1 plus excise tax (Instant) |
| Emirates Skywards | The best use of Emirates miles has been to fly Emirates itself. Unfortunately fuel surcharges can be extremely steep. One workaround is to book select routes such as JFK to Milan or Newark to Athens. See: How to find and book Emirates first class awards. | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Etihad Guest | Etihad offers a distance based award chart for flying Etihad and another for its partners. Points may offer good value for expensive but short-distance flights. | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Finnair Plus+ | Finnair points are now "Avios" and points can be moved to/from other Avios programs. Finnair uses zone based award charts rather than distance based. As a result, Finnair sometimes has better (and sometimes worse) pricing than other Avios programs. | 1 to 1 via BA (Instant) |
| JetBlue | JetBlue points offer the most value when cheap ticket prices are available and when award taxes are high relative to the overall cost of the ticket (more details can be found here). The JetBlue Plus Card and the JetBlue Business Card offer a 10% rebate on awards, so you can get more value by holding one of these cards. | 250 to 200 plus excise tax (Instant) |
| Qantas Frequent Flyer | Best use is probably for flights on El Al with no fuel surcharges. Also useful for short AA flights. Qantas offers distance based award charts similar to Cathay Pacific. Both are OneWorld Alliance members. I recommend comparing award prices across both programs before transferring to either. Qantas offers round the world business class awards for only 280,000 points (but with many restrictions) | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
| Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer | Use to book Singapore Airlines First Class awards (generally reserved for their own members), Alaska Airlines economy awards, or for Star Alliance awards (including United Airlines). | 1 to 1 (~1 day) |
| Virgin Atlantic Flying Club | Virgin Atlantic offers a few excellent sweet spot awards. See: Best uses for Virgin Atlantic points (Sweet Spot Spotlight). | 1 to 1 (Instant) |
The Other Amex Airline Transfer Partners
Here are the transfer partners that didn’t make our “best of” lists, above. Note that some of these can still be worth considering under certain circumstances.
| Rewards Program | Best Uses | Amex Transfer Ratio (and transfer time) |
|---|---|---|
| AeroMexico ClubPremier | AeroMexico is a SkyTeam partner. Club Premier points can be used to book flights on AeroMexico, SkyTeam alliance members (such as Delta or Korean Air), or on select partner airlines. Unfortunately many have reported that awards are extremely difficult to book through AeroMexico so we do not recommend transferring points to this program. If you want to fly AeroMexico, look to transfer points to another SkyTeam partner (such as Air France) and then book AeroMexico with that program. | 1 to 1.6 (Instant) |
Amex Transfer Partners: Indirect
In some cases it is possible to transfer to an airline or hotel program in order to then transfer from that program to another program. We’ll leave it to the reader to decide whether or not it is a good idea to transfer in these ways (hint: they usually represent poor value).
| Rewards Program | Amex Indirect Transfer |
|---|---|
| IHG | 10K to 10K via Virgin Atlantic |
See Also
- Amex Transfer Partners (this page)
- Capital One Transfer Partners
- Chase Transfer Partners
- Citi Transfer Partners
- Marriott Transfer Partners
- Transfer Partner Master List
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How to get the Amex EveryDay.?
I can’t get United app or the website to give me award availability without logging in. The signon dialog pops up as soon as I ask for Award quotes and I can’t dismiss it, even in incognito. I’m using Brave browser…should I try a different one?
Sorry, that was only happening on my Android phone. Website works OK on my Windows laptop, still using Brave. But it’s still odd that the phone operates differently, both app and website in Brave.
Amex to Bonvoy is 2:3 as of today, not 1:1. Makes the transfer math a bit better.
Where are you seeing that? There is a 35% transfer bonus currently in effect which makes it 1:1.35 (1,000 Amex Points = 1,350 Marriott Bonvoy Points), but I’m not seeing 2:3
Right on marriott.com: https://www.americanexpress.com/en-gb/rewards/membership-rewards/partner/Marriott-Bonvoy/Marriott-Bonvoy/MAR
Even better with the 35% kicker but I’ll leave the calculus to you.
Ah, that’s only for the Great Britain version of Membership Rewards. They have different transfer partners and transfer ratios.
Since amex discontinue the no annual fee everyday card. One option to keep alive your points is the Amex Checking account that earns MR points .
Great point. We’ll have to update that part!
Not sure why Aeromexico gets a bad rap here, particularly for flights on AM metal. The website is a little cagey and hard to navigate at first, and sometimes award prices change a bit on the final screen. However the points exchange at 1/1.6, and at that rate you can get decent to very good value on business class flights to Mexico City or a resort town, with good availability.
Air France is generally a better transfer route for economy AM flights, although the availability isn’t always there.
Thanks for the tips. We’ll have to look into that!
Just curious do Amex points expire?
No, but point inflation is a real thing.
So if I cancel all my Amex cards, I won’t lose my points? Also am about to cancel a personal Amex platinum..can I get my 200.00 in airlines before I do?
If it’s your only MR point-earning card then YES transfer your points somehow before cancelling the card.
So is Financial Review. If that snake strikes, it’s game over for both cards and points and into the future too.
I find Aer Lingus Avios useful as they often are the lowest point option on many dates for economy travel to Europe (19.5K) from east coast connecting through Dublin with lower taxes and fees than British Airways or Virgin Atlantic, lower point cost than Avianca, and better availability than the 15k Flying Blue economy awards through Paris. .
Regarding the paragraph on “It’s possible to transfer points to a friend’s loyalty account:”: Does this AU method work for transferring points to a friend’s Membership Rewards account, or does “loyalty account” just mean the friend’s MR partner accounts?
partner only
No you cannot transfer Membership Rewards points to another person.
How frequently is this page updated? Can I count on it in the future?
Short answer: this page is updated frequently (whenever there is a significant change).
Long answer: Whenever things change regarding transfer partners, we update that info in a database as soon as we can, and that info automatically shows up on this page.
Should have had 2 extra columns: Mileage expiration policy and Fuel Surcharges (high, medium, low)
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