American Express Membership Rewards - How to Liberate my Cousin's ~35k MR Points

Alright FT - here is an interesting enigma for you:

My cousin has access to ~35k MR points. He is an authorized user on his bosses AMEX Blue card, and therefore cannot transfer the MR points to partners, just to use it through the Amex Travel booking engine. I gave him 50k Marriott Rewards points to pay for he and his family to stay 2 nights in a Marriott for my wedding, and was going to trade me the 35kMR points as a transfer to ANA. I didn't realize that he couldn't make the transfer unless he had a Gold/Platinum card.

He and his boss have a huge balance on the card, and their credit is shot so there is no chance of he or his boss getting an Amex Gold/Platinum card.

Assuming I am OK taking the risk of having him as an authorized user, could I:


add him as an authorized user of my Amex Gold Small Business Card in good standing
then using this as the medium to "activate" his 35k MR to transfer to my ANA account
once the transfer is done, remove him as an authorized user


Please help me poke some holes in this idea to see if this is a feasible way to get his 35K MR points to my ANA account.

I'm not sure how adding him as secondary on your card will free up his blue points for transfer.

If his credit is shot (and his bosse's) I would run as fast and as far away as I can. Last thing you want is to be part of a bankruptcy or collection.

Best thing would be for him to order something from the MR catalog for you, perhaps a gift card?

Or maybe he can upgrade his card to gold (or at least try). If his credit is good enough to keep the Amex cards, they may allow him to upgrade.


Congrats on your wedding !!!!

My cousin has access to ~35k MR points. He is an authorized user on his bosses AMEX Blue card, and therefore cannot transfer the MR points to partners

Are those 35,000 points in a separate Membership Rewards account, or is his employer merely willing to permit him to redeem 35,000 points from the employer's account?

Are those 35,000 points in a separate Membership Rewards account, or is his employer merely willing to permit him to redeem 35,000 points from the employer's account?

I believe the points are in his employer's account, which he has access to. When he calls the Amex Service Center and gives his card number and credentials, he has access to redeem them for the general Amex MR catalogue.

To my knowledge becoming an authorized user on an unrelated Membership Rewards account is not going to have any effect on the status of the points in his employer's account.

Any chance the cousin's spouse's credit is sufficient for a Green or Gold card application?

imho, this is a loss. Your cousin is only a secondary/authorized user on the account so the points are not his they are his bosses and even if his boss lets, the only way to save those points would be for his boss to take out another card or a business card using his bosses social so they could link them.

Just because he can redeem them, doesn't mean he can transfer the points. I think the only way to liberate them is for the same entity that has the card now, to get a green/gold/plat card. Amex is liberal about some things, but transferring MR points to a different account is definitely not one of them.

It wouldn't be easy, but you could try to find someone with a green/gold card who plans to redeem their points for travel, and try to trade with them. That's all I can think of offhand.

Thanks for your responses. It looks like a tall order.

To clarify, I am looking to transfer his 35k in AMEX Membership Rewards into 35k in All Nippon Airways (ANA) points (not my Membership Rewards account).