Update – YES! 1:1 is the New Norm
After posting the news that American Express increased the transfer rate to British and Iberia Avios, I was contacted by Amex who actually confirmed that it is indeed a change. MR points with transfer 1:1 to Avios from now on, instead of 5:4.
They also added the following details:
American Express now leads the industry in reward program partners
- Today, two of Amex’s Membership Rewards airline transfer partners, British Airways and Iberia, are increasing the transfer ratio for their rewards program, Avios. The transfer is increasing from a 5:4 to a 1:1 transfer ratio.
- With this update, Amex’s Membership Rewards program now offers the most 1:1 airline transfer partners – 11 in total.
- Membership Rewards now also offers Card Members the opportunity to transfer points to 21 reward program partners, which is more than any other U.S. credit card rewards program.
Membership Rewards 1:1 Transfer to Avios! Is it the New Norm?
The regular rate for transfering American Express Membership Rewards to British and Iberia Avios has been 250:200 for a while now. Occasionally there’s promotions that make the transfer rate 1:1.
The Offer
Right now you can transfer 250 Membership Rewards points to 250 Avios. That’s a rate of 1:1. What’s interesting though is the fact that this is not showing up as a promotional rate, but rather as the normal transfer rate.
Previous promotions showed the regular rate and the promo rate together.
Conclusion
This is definitely great news if this was to become the new norm for transferring MR points to Avios. Even if it doesn’t, this is a good time to transfer points if you are in need of Avios. If you plan to transfer points, do this sooner rather than later, since there’s no guarantee that this rate will last.
Would be best not to transfer points speculatively though, even with this increased rate.
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[…] was some talk about whether this was intentional or just a glitch, but Miles to Memories has heard that it IS an intentional change and represents the go forward exchange rate for both British […]