Jan 17, 2015, 11:52 am
Last edit by: mia
Q. Where can I find a list of the airline and hotel transfer partners?
Partner airline and hotel programs, transfer ratios, and rules vary by the country where your American Express card is issued:
Australia: Airlines & Hotels
Canada: Airlines & Hotels
Germany: Airlines & Hotels
International Dollar & Euro Cards: Airlines, Hotels
New Zealand: Airlines & Hotels
UK: Airlines, Hotels
USA: Airlines & Hotels Transfer ratios explained below.
Q. What are the transfer ratios to USA airline and hotel partners?
(The Canadian transfer ratios are listed directly on the Canadian site.)
Q: After I transfer, when will my miles expire at that airline/hotel program? Is there anything I can do to avoid expiration there?
The Miles/Points that Do and Don't Expire wiki lists all of the Amex USA airline/hotel transfer partners and their respective expiration policies.
Q. How long does it typically take to compete a transfer?
MR USA airline and hotel partner transfer times.
Q. How can I use Membership Rewards points to travel on American Airlines, United Airlines, Alaska Airlines or other carriers which are not transfer partners?
Membership Rewards (USA) points can be transferred to three or more frequent flyer programs in each of the international alliances. Any program can arrange award travel on flights operated by all members of the same alliance. Points cannot be transferred from one frequent flyer program to another, instead you redeem for a partner award. The number of miles required is determined by the program through which you redeem, not by the airline operating the flights. Programs in the same alliance will require different amounts of miles, and different co-payments, for the same flights. Do not transfer until you understand the full cost of the flights you need. Do not transfer until you have confirmed availability for your specific dates and route.
To travel on American Airlines or any other OneWorld carrier redeem through:
American also has partnership outside OneWorld with:
To travel on Delta Air Lines or any other SkyTeam carrier redeem through:
To travel on United Airlines or any other Star Alliance carrier redeem through:
To travel on Alaska Airlines redeem through:
Q. Rather than transferring now, can I preserve my Membership Rewards USA points balance without paying any annual fee?
Apply for an American Express Everyday card, and link it to the same Membership Rewards account. You may then close the other cards.
Partner airline and hotel programs, transfer ratios, and rules vary by the country where your American Express card is issued:
Australia: Airlines & Hotels
Canada: Airlines & Hotels
Germany: Airlines & Hotels
International Dollar & Euro Cards: Airlines, Hotels
New Zealand: Airlines & Hotels
UK: Airlines, Hotels
USA: Airlines & Hotels Transfer ratios explained below.
Q. What are the transfer ratios to USA airline and hotel partners?
For most frequent customer programs, 1,000 Membership Rewards points will equal 1,000 miles, points or credits and must be transferred in 1,000-point increments unless otherwise noted.
In the USA version of Membership Rewards the exceptions are:
El AL Israel Airlines: 1,000 points = 20 Matmid points
Hilton®: 1,000 points = 2,000 Honors points (as of 1/11/2018)
JetBlue Airways: 250 points = 200 JetBlue TrueBlue® points
In the USA version of Membership Rewards the exceptions are:
El AL Israel Airlines: 1,000 points = 20 Matmid points
Hilton®: 1,000 points = 2,000 Honors points (as of 1/11/2018)
JetBlue Airways: 250 points = 200 JetBlue TrueBlue® points
Q: After I transfer, when will my miles expire at that airline/hotel program? Is there anything I can do to avoid expiration there?
The Miles/Points that Do and Don't Expire wiki lists all of the Amex USA airline/hotel transfer partners and their respective expiration policies.
Q. How long does it typically take to compete a transfer?
MR USA airline and hotel partner transfer times.
Q. How can I use Membership Rewards points to travel on American Airlines, United Airlines, Alaska Airlines or other carriers which are not transfer partners?
Membership Rewards (USA) points can be transferred to three or more frequent flyer programs in each of the international alliances. Any program can arrange award travel on flights operated by all members of the same alliance. Points cannot be transferred from one frequent flyer program to another, instead you redeem for a partner award. The number of miles required is determined by the program through which you redeem, not by the airline operating the flights. Programs in the same alliance will require different amounts of miles, and different co-payments, for the same flights. Do not transfer until you understand the full cost of the flights you need. Do not transfer until you have confirmed availability for your specific dates and route.
To travel on American Airlines or any other OneWorld carrier redeem through:
- Asia Miles (Cathay Pacific)
- British Airways
- Iberia Airlines
- Qantas Airways
American also has partnership outside OneWorld with:
- Etihad
To travel on Delta Air Lines or any other SkyTeam carrier redeem through:
- Delta Air Lines (DL permits one-way awards as of 01 JAN 2015, however trips originating in Europe carry additional surcharges; Delta also imposes surcharges on trips using some partner airlines such as China Eastern or China Southern, but notably not on trips involving its European partners (as long as the trip originates outside Europe) or Virgin Australia.)
- AeroMexico
- Alitalia
- FlyingBlue (Air France, KLM, Air Europa, Kenya Airways, Aircalin and Tarom.)
To travel on United Airlines or any other Star Alliance carrier redeem through:
- Aeroplan (Air Canada) No fuel surcharge on flights operated by UA and many other airlines. Read current list HERE. See also transatlantic strategy discussion HERE. Read about changes to redemption charts in December 2015 HERE.
- All Nippon Airways. Read about ANA fuel surcharges HERE. Read about changes to partner redemption charts in April 2015 HERE.
- Avianca Airlines
- Singapore Airlines. Read HERE
Read about Singapore Airlines' reciprocal mile conversion arrangement with Virgin Australia HERE.
To travel on Alaska Airlines redeem through:
- BA British Airways
- CX Asia Miles https://www.asiamiles.com/en/earn-mi...irlines#redeem
- EK Emirates https://www.emirates.com/us/english/...-airlines.aspx
- SQ Singapore Airlines https://www.singaporeair.com/saar5/p...s_AwdChart.pdf
Q. Rather than transferring now, can I preserve my Membership Rewards USA points balance without paying any annual fee?
Apply for an American Express Everyday card, and link it to the same Membership Rewards account. You may then close the other cards.
Transfer Membership Rewards points to which airline or hotel program? (2015 - 2021)
May 24, 2016, 11:47 am
#436
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 1999
Posts: 11,468
I got to decide pretty soon on a 100K xfer. With UA, AA as my primary FF programs I am in a bind. Secondary options are BA Avios (now down to 80%) and Starwood. I don't see any reasonable path to UA/AA, so I might have to put up with Avios to burn them on AA. Anything I am missing?
May 24, 2016, 5:08 pm
#437
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: home = LAX
Posts: 25,933
I got to decide pretty soon on a 100K xfer. With UA, AA as my primary FF programs I am in a bind. Secondary options are BA Avios (now down to 80%) and Starwood. I don't see any reasonable path to UA/AA, so I might have to put up with Avios to burn them on AA. Anything I am missing?
Now, you have to learn the rules for each airline program, and make sure first that there's availability (because among the rules that may different can be drastically different mileage expiration policies than you're used to with US-based airlines), but there are multiple ways to redeem MR for flying AA and UA, even though those airline's own programs are not in Membership Rewards.
Last edited by sdsearch; May 24, 2016 at 5:15 pm
May 25, 2016, 11:46 am
#438
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: SFO
Posts: 266
Look into transferring to Virgin Atlantic (VA) to redeem on Virgin America (VX). VX started flying DEN-SFO last year, and VA hasn't updated their award chart to show the cost of this route. However based on other routes of similar distance I imagine it will be either 15k or 20k round trip. Through the end of this month there's a 30% bonus for transferring Amex MR to VA, so the 15k price would only need 12k Amex points. That should be > 2 cpp. If the price is 20k VA then you'd need 16k Amex points and it may be borderline on your 2 cpp minimum.
Background:
I assume you're referring to the "spend miles" portion of this table on Virgin Atlantic (VS) website. http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/us/en...n-america.html
Question:
VX points are $ based. What happens if you want to redeem for a flight that costs more (or less) between the selected destination?
Example:
For example, LAX to SFO is 10k on the table. When you price a flight on VX website for LAX to SFO, it can cost as low as 2,638 points ($69) or as high as 10,208 points ($224).
So to get the 10,000 VS points needed to fly LAX to SFO, you need to transfer 7692 MR points accounting for the 30% bonus. But if you simply want the $69 flight, you only need to transfer 5276 MR points to get 2638 VX points directly.
By going through VS and if you want the cheaper flight option, it's not a good deal, you'd rather just go MR to VX directly.
Last edited by mdosu; May 27, 2016 at 10:51 am
May 26, 2016, 5:18 am
#439
Join Date: May 2016
Programs: Amex
Posts: 1
If i would like to get a ticket from LAX-BKK for korean, asiana, singapore,etihad or emirate which would be the best way to transfer to get the best deal of it.
May 26, 2016, 8:01 am
#440
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 1999
Posts: 11,468
Sorry, for not outlining that beforehand and thanks for your reply.
May 26, 2016, 8:05 am
#441
Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Miami, Mpls & London
Programs: AA & Marriott Perpetual Platinum; DL & HH Gold
Posts: 48,954
May 26, 2016, 11:14 am
#443
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: SFO
Posts: 266
Open up the Everyday Card BEFORE you close your the MR business card. You need to link you Everyday card's MR account with your other MR account. If you close the business card first, you could loose your MR account and the points in it.
Also, there are 2 Everyday Credit cards. One carries a $95 fee and one has $0 fee. Both are cards that enroll you into MR, the major difference practically in your case being the sign up bonus. Either would work for the purposes of preserving MR points from an outgoing card.
May 27, 2016, 7:10 am
#444
Join Date: Oct 2015
Posts: 168
For 100K MR points, I want to get 2 round trips in economy to Asia or Europe, what is the best way to go? Excluding Japan cause that's been done already.
May 27, 2016, 7:27 am
#445
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Brooklyn
Programs: Delta Diamond, Bonvoy something good; sometimes other things too
Posts: 5,050
Some shorter trans-Atlantic flights booked using BA Avios can also require significantly less than 50K miles, though that is less appealing than it used to be since you only get 800 Avios for every 1,000 MR points.
This could require some work and hassle but you could potentially even get to Europe in business class for less than 30K miles: http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.c...sels-airlines/ -- note especially the caveat about limited award availability on Brussels Airlines though, so definitely don't transfer to Etihad unless you have already found flights you want to redeem for, or else you'll be stuck with Etihad miles that aren't worth as much aside from this particular opportunity.
If you find a Europe flight option for 30-40K miles roundtrip, you should have enough leftover to do an Asia trip through a few different programs with the remaining miles.
May 27, 2016, 9:02 am
#446
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: YVR to SEA
Posts: 2,534
Or just look on the flight deal and book something on cash and call it a day.
YVR had deals to Vietnam just this past week for 450 cad on Ana as an example from my main hub
YVR had deals to Vietnam just this past week for 450 cad on Ana as an example from my main hub
May 28, 2016, 9:20 am
#447
Join Date: Oct 2015
Posts: 168
How many MR points should you have if you wanted 2 round trips to asia or europe? VS awards redemption are out of question as the taxes are ridiculous, I could buy a round trip with those just tax fees outside.