If you’re collecting miles & points through credit card spending, I always recommend doing what you can to accrue transferable points currencies.
That’s because these points are much more flexible than when you’re earning an individual airline or hotel points currency. You have the ability to transfer these points to all kinds of travel partners, and you’re safeguarded from a devaluation in a specific points currency.
With that in mind, in this post I wanted to address all the basics of transferring Amex Membership Rewards points. How many partners does Amex Membership Rewards have, how long does it take for points to transfer, who can you transfer points to, etc.
In this post:
How many airline and hotel partners does Amex Membership Rewards have?
As of now, Amex Membership Rewards has 20 airline and hotel partners — that includes 17 airline partners and three hotel partners.
Airline Partners | Hotel Partners |
|---|---|
Aer Lingus AerClub | Choice Privileges |
Aeromexico Club Premier | Hilton Honors |
Air Canada Aeroplan | Marriott Bonvoy |
Air France-KLM Flying Blue | |
ANA Mileage Club | |
Avianca LifeMiles | |
British Airways Executive Club | |
Cathay Pacific Asia Miles | |
Delta SkyMiles | |
Emirates Skywards | |
Etihad Guest | |
Hawaiian Airlines HawaiianMiles | |
Iberia Plus | |
JetBlue TrueBlue | |
Qantas Frequent Flyer | |
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer | |
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club |
How long does it take to transfer Amex Membership Rewards points in May 2023?
Below is a chart with how long it typically takes to transfer Amex Membership Rewards points to airline and hotel partners:
Membership Rewards Transfer Partner | Transfer Ratio | Transfer Time |
|---|---|---|
Aer Lingus AerClub | 1000 : 1000 | Instant |
Aeromexico Club Premier | 1000 : 1600 | ~4 to 5 days |
Air Canada Aeroplan | 1000 : 1000 | Instant |
Air France KLM FlyingBlue | 1000 : 1000 | Instant |
ANA Mileage Club | 1000 : 1000 | ~2 to 3 days |
Avianca LifeMiles | 1000 : 1000 | Instant |
British Airways Executive Club | 1000 : 1000 | Instant |
Cathay Pacific Asia Miles | 1000 : 1000 | Instant |
Delta SkyMiles | 1000 : 1000 | Instant |
Emirates Skywards | 1000 : 1000 | Instant |
Etihad Guest | 1000 : 1000 | Instant |
Hawaiian HawaiianMiles | 1000 : 1000 | Instant |
Iberia Plus | 1000 : 1000 | ~4 to 24 hours |
JetBlue TrueBlue | 250 : 200 | Instant |
Qantas Frequent Flyer | 1000 : 1000 | Instant |
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer | 1000 : 1000 | Instant |
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club | 1000 : 1000 | Instant |
Choice Privilege | 1000 : 1000 | Instant |
Hilton Honors | 1000 : 2000 | Instant |
Marriott Bonvoy | 1000 : 1000 | Instant |
As you can see, transfers to all but three partners are typically instant, and even the partners that aren’t instant tend to process points transfers pretty quickly.
Are there fees associated with transferring Amex Membership Rewards points?
Of the major transferrable points currencies, Amex is the only one that charges fees to transfer points to some partners.
Amex Membership Rewards charges a federal excise tax for points transfers to US frequent flyer programs (which include Delta, Hawaiian, and JetBlue). That means non-US frequent flyer programs, as well as hotel programs, don’t have any fees.
For those programs with fees, the cost is 0.06 cents per transferred point, up to a maximum of $99. In other words, transferring 100,000 points would cost $60.
If you transfer more than 165,000 points then there’s no incremental cost to transfer points, since you’ll have paid the $99 fee, and the fee is capped at that.
Can you transfer Amex points to someone else’s Amex account?
No, you cannot. Amex lets you combine the Membership Rewards points you’ve earned across all your cards that earn Membership Rewards points, but you can’t transfer your balance of Membership Rewards points to someone else’s Amex account.
Can you transfer Amex points to someone else’s airline or hotel accounts?
Amex only lets you transfer your Membership Rewards points to an airline or hotel account that’s in your name or the name of an authorized user on one of your cards.
Fortunately, Amex lets you add authorized users on many cards at no additional fee, which is a great way to transfer points to someone else. However, you can only transfer Amex points to the account of an authorized user if they’ve been on your account for at least 90 days.
What cards earn Amex Membership Rewards points?
Some of the best Amex cards for earning Membership Rewards points include the following:
- 4x points at restaurants
- 4x points at U.S. supermarkets, on up to $25,000 in purchases annually
- 3x points on flights booked directly with airlines or through amextravel.com
- $250
- Earn 4x Membership Rewards points on airfare purchased directly from airlines
- Access to Amex Offers
- Redeem Amex Points Towards Airfare
- $295
- Earn 5x points on flights purchased directly from airlines or through Amex Travel (up to $500k/year)
- $200 Annual Uber Credit
- Amex Centurion Lounge Access
- $695
- Earn 1.5x on purchases of $5,000 or more in a single transaction on up to $2MM per calendar year
- Redeem Points For Over 1.5 Cents Each Towards Airfare
- Amex Centurion Lounge Access
- $695
- 2x points on purchases up to $50k then 1x
- Access to Amex Offers
- No annual fee
Note that you can earn a welcome bonus on each of the above cards, and pool all those points toward one Membership Rewards account. Having multiple Amex cards is a great way to maximize your points earning potential. See my post about the best cards for earning Amex Membership Rewards points.
Should you transfer Amex points to travel partners?
In general, the best use of Amex Membership Rewards points is to convert them into airline miles. However, you only want to do this once you’ve figured out the award you want to book, have verified availability, and are sure you understand how that program works.
There is one good way to redeem Amex points toward the cost of the ticket, and this is the best value if you have The Business Platinum Card® from American Express.
If you have this card then you can get a 35% refund on all “Pay With Points” redemptions, when either redeeming for travel in first or business class, or redeeming for travel on your designated airline in any cabin. The catch is that the refund is only processed weeks after you book, so you’ll need to initially have enough points for the entire cost of the ticket at the rate of one cent per point.
You ordinarily get one cent of value per point using the Pay With Points option, so when you’re getting a refund of 35% you’re potentially getting 1.54 cents of value per point, which is pretty good. Personally, I value Amex Membership Rewards points at ~1.7 cents each.
Bottom line
Amex Membership Rewards points are one of my favorite points currencies out there. Not only does Amex have some great transfer partners, but the points are pretty easy to rack up as well across the card portfolio. Hopefully the above is a useful rundown of what to expect if you’re going to transfer these points.
If you have any data points on how long Amex Membership Rewards points transfers have taken you, please share them below, so that I can keep the chart as accurate as possible!
| Want to learn more about points transfer times? See our series about how long points transfers take with Amex Membership Rewards, Capital One, Chase Ultimate Rewards, and Citi ThankYou. |
Iberia an take up to 7 days. That's how long it took for me last year and my Iberia account is 10 years old. Easier to transfer to BA which is instant and then transfer from BA to Iberia which only works if initiated from the Iberia account.
My transfer to Virgin Flying Club was not instant. Still waiting and site says it can take up to 6 weeks. Jeez I hope that isn't the case.
MR points transfer to AsiaMiles on Mar 1st, 2023, but till today Mar 11, 2023, no points show up on my AM account.
For what it's worth, my Avianca transfer (63k points for OW BER-BOS via ZRH), took about 8 hours to process. Not that bad unless you're looking for the very last seat in the cabin.
The Business Gold card offers a 25% pay-with-points rebate on flights (subject to the same limits as the Business Platinum: premium cabin or preferred domestic airline), which translates into a 1.33 cents per point valuation (plus the value of elite credit and mileage earning on the revenue ticket, plus (IINM) the MR earnings on the Amex Travel ticket before the rebate). It's not as good a value as the best transfers could be, but it's...
The Business Gold card offers a 25% pay-with-points rebate on flights (subject to the same limits as the Business Platinum: premium cabin or preferred domestic airline), which translates into a 1.33 cents per point valuation (plus the value of elite credit and mileage earning on the revenue ticket, plus (IINM) the MR earnings on the Amex Travel ticket before the rebate). It's not as good a value as the best transfers could be, but it's generally better value than a transfer to a program like Delta's which has a consistent floor valuation.
For what it's worth, I did my first-ever Lifemiles transfer recently and it was not instant -- it took maybe 18-24 hours. I then needed to do another transfer, though, and I think that was more like instant. So people should perhaps be forewarned that the first transfer may not always match these times? Not sure.
“In general, the best use of Amex Membership Rewards points is to convert them into airline miles.”
@Ben - perhaps that is true for you. But sometimes the best use of Amex MR’s is to buy international J with a platinum card - you get a 305 or 35% rebate, and you earn miles (or LP’s) toward status. I wound up “spending” 260k MR’s (after rebate) for a J ticket JFK-SIN on JAL. Will wind...
“In general, the best use of Amex Membership Rewards points is to convert them into airline miles.”
@Ben - perhaps that is true for you. But sometimes the best use of Amex MR’s is to buy international J with a platinum card - you get a 305 or 35% rebate, and you earn miles (or LP’s) toward status. I wound up “spending” 260k MR’s (after rebate) for a J ticket JFK-SIN on JAL. Will wind up earning close to 50k LP’s - or 25% of what is needed to qualify for EXP. I wish you would do a post about alternative uses like this once in a while.
“you get a 305 or 35% rebate”
Oops… 30%
Need someone to decode this for me ♂️
Decode what exactly?
Is this with a business Platinum card?
To be fair, Ben's last roundup (in September) of best options for redeeming MR points (https://onemileatatime.com/guides/redeem-amex-membership-rewards-points/#can_you_pay_for_flights_with_amex_points) covered pay with points on the business gold/platinum card in some depth.
Interesting that SAS Eurobonus is a transfer partners in Europe, but not in the US.
These posts are really helpful for setting expectations; thank you for periodically posting these!