NFH

Membership Rewards points are earnt and converted to BA Miles in various countries and currencies at the following rates:

• £1 spent = 1 GBP-based MR point = 1 BA Mile
• €1 spent = 1 EUR-based MR point = 1 BA Mile
• $1 spent = 1 USD-based MR point = 1 BA Mile

American Express will happily convert between Membership Rewards balances held in different currencies and countries. Between EUR-based and USD-based MR balances, the conversion rate is 1:1, but between GBP and other currencies, the prevailing FX rate is used to convert between MR accounts.

Therefore with GBP/USD currently over 1.6000, you can do the following:

1. Earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent in the normal way (including existing balances)
2. Get a USD-denominated Amex card, even issued in the UK
3. Convert GBP-based MR points to USD-based MR points at 1 GBP-based MR point = 1.6 USD-based MR points
4. Transfer USD-based MR points to BA Miles at 1 USD-based MR point = 1 BA Mile

If GBP/USD goes up above 2.0000 again, then you'll get 2 BA Miles per £1 spent. It also could make sense to cease using a UK Amex BA card each year after the companion voucher has been earnt and then switch to an Amex chargecard for the rest of the year if you believe that GBP/USD will remain above 1.5000.

This is not so much a loophole, but shows up the raw deal that Amex UK customers receive on their rewards. The earning rate ought to be 1.5 MR points per £1 spent, but in the UK we get a worse deal than Amex customers in other countries. Similarly, compare the UK Amex BA Premium Plus card to the equivalent Russian version, which gives 1.75 BA Miles per RUB 25 spent or 2.25 BA Miles per RUB 25 spent on BA, which equates to 3.5 BA Miles per £1 spent or a whopping 4.5 BA Miles per £1 spent on BA.

Raffles

All well thought through.

Of course, if BA Miles are your goal you would be getting 1.5 BA Miles per £1 with the BA Amex anyway. And it wouldn't be easy to run a US$ card if you live in the UK, as you'd be paying the 2.75% currency conversion fee on every purchase and you'd be messing about transferring $ every month to pay your bill.

As a one-off hit, though, for someone with a huge MR balance, it might be worth a look.

NFH

The goal (as in the subject) is to get >1.5 BA Miles per £1 spent.

No, you've misunderstood. You don't need to use the USD-denominated card to pay for anything. You just need to open the USD card account so you get the accompanying USD-based Membership Rewards account as a conversion vehicle. You would use a GBP-denominated Amex card to pay for everything and earn MR points. The FX occurs only on MR conversions, not on purchases, so don't worry about 2.99% FX fees.

Paralytic

And great for those of us who have not had the 40% bonus offer from Amex

Thanks nfh.

mmdpkaaa

great post...
how would one go about opening a US card account from the UK?
Based at current earnings would this mean for example if you have 10k MR points currently they would become 16k by doing this? or am i misunderstanding the concept?

Raffles

I understand the point. I'm not sure, though, if Amex would be happy to make regular sweeps of points for you rather than a one-off when you open the new account.

One other benefit of this is that US MR promos tend not to be targetted as far as I know - at the moment, everyone in the US can get the 40% BA bonus, for example, whilst the UK scheme is targetted.

Note there is a $35 fee per year to join MR and a $100 annual card fee on the Green Card, which is the lowest you can have whilst still earning MR points.

NFH

• If you have a UK Amex card and you happen have a US address, click here.
• If you don't have a US address, click here.

Yes, 10,000 GBP-based MR points would get you 16,000 BA Miles when converted via USD-based MR.

NFH

So if you have a way of getting a US-issued card, that would result in 2.24 BA Miles per 1 GBP-based MR point, i.e. 1.6000 x 1.40 - even better!

I believe this is often waived in the first year. And if you have GBP-based MR through a Platinum card, they might waive the MR annual fee too. For US-issued cards, there's also a Blue card with no annual fee at all that earns MR points.

janed9388

I like the way your mind works need to look into this a little more but it would definately seem worthwhile for converting the 42,000 bonus from my recent platinum card referal and as an added bonus save me the exchange free on all our spending on our 3 week USA road trip coming up soon.

If I can get them to wave the $100 fee - even better

NFH

Remember you'll need a USD bank account to settle the bills if you actually want to spend on the card too as opposed to just using its associated MR account as a conversion vehicle.

janed9388

grrr..... knew it was too simple - take it I couldn't pay it with my paypal pre-pay or anything simple like that ? (still worth it for the conversion though)

baggageinhall

Sadly there are many examples of this. The BA Amex in India gives you between 2.85 and 4.29 miles per £1 for normal spending and a whopping 4.29 to 6.43 miles for spending with BA. (It's tiered, level one is for the first £3100 spent per annum, level two for the next £3100 and level three beyond that).

However, I have my eye on the Amex Kingfisher Platinum card which gives you automatic King Gold status. Given that King Gold is one rung below their top tier, I would expect it to be classed as a OW Emerald card in due course once KF join OW.

The drawback is that getting an Indian credit card without an Indian address is rather difficult.

NFH

No, you have to settle by USD cheque or by wire transfer to Standard Chartered in New York. I'm talking about UK-issued USD cards, not US-issued ones, which have many more payment options.

baggageinhall

If you have an HSBC account in the UK then provided you can show it will be used regularly, they will assist you in opening a US HSBC account

NFH

Indeed, but paying the bill for a UK-issued USD Amex card from an HSBC USA account is a nightmare. Amex accepts wire transfers at Standard Chartered NY or cheques at a UK postal address. Even with HSBC USA's online banking "Bill Pay" service (not available to non-US residents), you can only specify a US postal address for the payee, no destination bank details. So instead of sending the payment electronically, HSBC send a cheque in the post! But they can't send the cheque to a UK address anyway.