Amex Membership Rewards Avios Transfer Bonus
Back in 2015 American Express made a change to their partnership with British Airways & Iberia and lowered their transfer ratio from 1:1 to 250:200. Thankfully last year they reversed course and reinstated 1:1 transfers. Now, we have the return of their awesome transfer bonus to these programs. Let’s take a look.
The Offer
Special Offer: Get 40% more Avios when you transfer Membership Rewards points through 11/15/18. This bonus applies to transfers to British Airways, Iberia and/or Aer Lingus. (USA Membership Rewards accounts only.)
What This Means
As part of this limited time promotion, every 1,000 Membership Rewards transferred will net you 1,400 Avios. The promotion should show on your Membership Rewards account when you go to the “Transfer Points” screen.
Note that British Airways, Iberia and Aer Lingus all have their own separate programs so you’ll need to choose which one to transfer to. All three programs currently have the 40% bonus.
Amex Membership Rewards Avios Transfer Bonus – Analysis
The best transfer bonus happened a few years ago when they offered 50% more giving a 1:1.5 ratio. With that said, this is a pretty amazing offer and one I plan to take advantage of to pad my Avios account balance.
Avios are quite useful for shorter flights. Flights under 650 miles are only 4,500 Avios one-way in most of the world and 7,500 one-way in North America. Even some longer routes make a good amount of sense to book with Avios (on routes with no full surcharges), especially considering the nice 40% bonus.
Conclusion
This Amex Membership Rewards Avios Transfer Bonus usually surfaces at least once a year. I always use it as a tool to ensure my Avios balance stays healthy while ensuring that I am extracting the maximum value out of my Membership Rewards. Happy Xfering!
Are you planning to transfer your Amex Membership Rewards points to one of these airlines? Share your plans in the comments!
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card is the old king of travel rewards cards. Right now
bonus_miles_full
Learn more about this card and its features!
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Is AVIOS sale back on with American Express, or did I get a one-time offer? I am being offered 1400 AVIOS points per 1000 Membership Rewards Points on my Amex Platinum account but my wife is not being offered this exchange rate on her Amex Gold account.
Under Terms & Conditions on the Amex points transfer page it says: “If you return to redeem points later, this offer may no longer be available.” But maybe it always says that?
Does anybody know if there is an expiration date on this thing, or how long it will last, and if it’s Platinum members only?
I want to use the miles for Hawaii to Japan and rest of Asia but it’s so hard to find availability on JAL using the BA site. You could see some of the available flights popping on Alaska’s site, but they would not be available on BA.
I have found Avios points to be absolutely worthless. I have 200000 and have never been able to use them for a free flight from the US to London even when trying to book 4 months in advance.
London is a bad use for BA miles with the fees etc. The best way to use them is flying American Airlines metal.
[…] HT: MtM […]
[…] Hat tip to MtM […]
[…] Hat tip to MtM […]
Thank you AlexL and gus. Though this isn’t exactly what I wanted to hear (the bad news that I can’t use my MR to cover the rest of the costs), this is wonderful and very helpful info for me to use in the future.
@AlexL why does Singapore airlines KrisFlyer seem to be the best option for me? What makes this different than the other options?
@Jo: If you’re using a travel voucher to book the trip on united.com, then you can’t use points to cover the rest, because that’s not how this stuff works. You can’t even use United miles to cover the rest.
You can definitely transfer MR points to ANA and also Aeroplan (Air Canada’s program), to book UA flights (with ANA they have to be round trip, on Aeroplan one-ways are possible – both are excellent programs giving you access to star alliance flights). However, in that case you can’t use your voucher on the same trip.
I’m a rookie to the miles and points game. Can anyone tell me if BA, AL, or Iberia points can be used for United flights? I’m planning a trip and have a travel voucher that isn’t coming remotely close to covering the cost. I was hoping that I could use my MR to cover the balance.
If BA,AL,and Iberia dont work with United, are there any other airlines I could use my MR that can be used for United flights? TIA!!!
You can transfer your points to 3 other Star Alliance airlines:
Singapore Airlines
ANA
Air Canada
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer seems to be the best option for you.
This is great! Especially for last minute flights (if you can find availability) as the fuel charges are only ~$5 each way with the generous cancellation policy. In addition, if you fly into small airports (such as EGE), this can be incredible value!
Hi Shawn,
What card do you use for MS now after spg card devalued? Thanks
Wow, this is great. I needed to transfer over some MR to Avios to make some bookings that open up in a few weeks and this is going to make it even cheaper. Thanks for heads up!
Is this for the USA only? I’ve just had a look from the UK and it is still only showing 1:1.
Yes I believe USA only. I have added that to the post to avoid confusion.