I think everything in the press release has been mentioned piecemeal over the past several months, but it's good to have all the changes summarized in one place.
Not sure why they renamed Membership Rewards
Options to Membership Rewards
Express. Need to verify that credit cards
linked to a charge card will still earn full Membership Rewards points that can be transferred to other programs.
It's apparently a good marketing decision to give the Points Advance feature a new name. Few seem to realize that the Gold card had this feature for at least two decades. Here is a mention from 1999...
http://flyertalk.com/forum/archive/i.../t-139929.html
The footnotes listing the 2007 partners are confusing because it is not possible to
transfer to all of the listed airlines or hotel chains. Many of them offer only redemptions for specific awards, typically economy class flights
.
Triple points year-round on purchases made through BonusPointsMall.com may make it worth using for some merchants who offer only one mile per dollar at airline online shopping portals.