American Express Membership Rewards - MR First vs Regular MR vs MR Express?

I'm interested in understanding the differences between the various tiers of the AMEX Membership Rewards program.

From reading through the forums, it seems that the key difference between the Express MR program and the regular program is the ability to transfer points to FF airlines, are there any other differences?

What about the MR First program, what key distinguishing features does this have compared to the regular MR program?

If these have been covered elsewhere, please point me in the right directions, thanks!

The main diff is that MR Express cannot be transferred to airline FFPs or hotel guest programs while the others can.

You can go to http://www.membershiprewards.com/tier/tierComparison/tierComparison.aspx to see a full comparison.

I'm not positive about this - but here is what I think the difference is between MR and MR First:

1) When using "Pay With Points" to book travel, you get a 20% points rebate, making points effectively worth 1.25 cents per point.
2) You can use points for "Everyday Charges" which amounts to being able to redeem points for cash at 1 cent per point.
3) There are some merchandise and travel items available for point redemptions that are not available through the regular Membership Rewards.

As mentioned by uszkanni the official comparison is here:

http://www.membershiprewards.com/tie...omparison.aspx

Real differences:


Increase Points Advance allowance from 15,000 to 60,000 points
20% rebate when using Pay with Points for travel
One additional point per dollar when shopping through americanexpress.com/earn



...
3) There are some merchandise and travel items available for point redemptions that are not available through the regular Membership Rewards.

There are some additional giftcard options, but to be clear there are no additional airline or hotel transfer options.