American Express Offering Increased Transfer Bonuses for Many Membership Rewards Travel Partners
If you have an American Express Membership Rewards earning credit card on which you have a stash of Membership Rewards points just waiting to be used, now might be the time.
American Express is currently offering increased transfer bonuses for many Membership Rewards travel partners.
While Amex has confirmed the increased transfer bonuses are part of a promotion it is currently offering, what’s not clear is whether the increased bonuses and specific travel partners are the same for every cardholder.
So, while we’ll provide examples, it’s best if you log in to your American Express account to see what partners and transfer amounts are available to you.
Membership Rewards Points
If you’re familiar with Membership Rewards points and how they can be used for free travel opportunities, you can skip this section.
Membership Rewards is American Express’ rewards program. Points are earned via spend on select American Express credit and charge cards.
Membership Rewards points can be used in a variety of ways, the most lucrative being to transfer to travel partners for free airline tickets and hotel stays.
Transfers of Membership Rewards points to U.S. airline frequent flyer accounts incur an excise tax offset fee of $0.0006 per point with a maximum fee of $99.
For example, if you transferred 50,000 Membership Rewards points to your Delta SkyMiles account, your linked credit card would be charged $30. The same would be true for transfers to Hawaiian Airlines and JetBlue.
Most American Express travel partners have a 1:1 transfer rate – one thousand Membership Rewards points equal 1,000 airline miles or hotel points.
Except when a transfer bonus is being offered. Which occurs somewhat regularly, but often only with one travel partner at any given time.
Right now, we’re seeing multiple travel partners with increased transfer bonus amounts. Which, depending on your travel preferences and situation, might make now the time to transfer your points.
Amex Membership Rewards Transfer Bonuses
The airlines that are part of this bonus and the percentage increase include:
40% – Aer Lingus, British Airways and Iberia
30% – Virgin Atlantic
25% – Air France/KLM, AeroMexico, Hawaiian
20% – Air Canada, Qantas
15% – Avianca LifeMiles
And the hotel programs that are receiving a bonus include:
30% – Hilton and Marriott
This increased transfer bonus promotion is supposed to run through September 30 for the airlines and October 31 for the hotels. That, of course, may change, especially considering American Express never “officially” announced this promo.
Personally, I wouldn’t transfer to any of the partners – increased bonus amounts or not – unless I had a specific travel opportunity to book.
Remember, once transferred to a travel partner, Membership Rewards points cannot be reclaimed. And, depending on the travel partner, if you don’t use the points in a timely manner, they may be lost due to expiration policies.
So, if you’ve got a Hilton stay you want to use points for, this might be the time to transfer.
Or you’ve found award ticket availability for a trip you’re going to take, but need that airline’s miles to book it, the bonus will help get you to the amount you need.
But, transferring just in case you might take a trip…probably want to think about that before pulling the transfer trigger.
