Sep 19, 2014, 7:20 am

FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides

Membership Rewards (USA) points can be transferred to airline and hotel accounts in the name of the primary cardholder -or- the name of a supplementary cardholder on any card account linked to the same Membership Rewards account. You only need to request a supplementary card. It need not ever be given to the cardholder, nor used for any purchases. American Express will not issue cards for children under age 13.

Bear in mind that American Express (USA) generally limits customers to four credit cards, plus an unspecified number of charge cards. Most of the cards which can be used to add free supplementary cardholders are credit cards, choose one that you actually want to use,

These products allow you to add free Supplementary cardholders:

PERSONAL CARD ACCOUNTS

Premier Rewards Gold charge card. $175 fee for primary card, up to five free supplementary cards.
Mercedes-Benz credit card. $95 fee for primary card, free supplementary cards.
Everyday Preferred credit card. $95 fee for primary card, free supplementary cards.
Everyday credit card. No fee for primary or supplementary cards.
Blue from American Express credit card. No fee for primary or supplementary cards, but this card participates in Membership Rewards Express. Express points are not eligible for transfer unless you also hold a card participating in the full Membership Rewards program. Caution: Blue Cash, Blue Cash Everyday, Blue Cash Preferred, Blue Sky and Blue Sky Preferred do not participate in Membership Rewards, and supplementary cardholders are not eligible to receive transfers.

SMALL BUSINESS CARD ACCOUNTS

Business Gold Rewards charge card. $175 fee for the primary card, $50 for the first supplementary card, but additional supplementary cards are free.
Blue for Business credit card. No fee for primary card or supplementary cards, but this card participates in Membership Rewards Express. Express points are not eligible for transfer unless you also hold a card participating in the full Membership Rewards program. This is the best Membership Rewards card for general spending because it earns a 30% annual bonus on all spending.

AMEX (USA) kills ability to transfer MR to non-account holder's airline or hotel acct

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Oct 26, 2016, 12:16 pm

#151

gpicur

Join Date: Dec 2008

Location: SRQ

Programs: UA Plat-Million Miler (1.6MM), IHG-Plat Amb; Amex Plat-P, Marriott-Gold;Hertz Gold; Hilton-Gold

Posts: 762

Can U walk me thru this ?

Quote:

Originally Posted by mia

You cannot transfer points from your Membership Rewards account to your wife's Membership Rewards account, even if she is holds a Supplementary Card on your account. You can transfer to one of her airline or hotel accounts. Is that what you are trying to do? (You can do this for no more than $45, and probably at no cost, depending on how quickly you need to transfer.)

MIA: Thanks for your contributions to this Forum !! Can you walk me thru the mechanics of such a transfer ? For instance, my wife has a USA Gold Amex and I have a USA Platinum Amex. My wife wants to transfer her MR points to my Emirates FF Acct. We both have the same Last Name. Even when I temporarily de-link my MR account from my Emirates FF Acct and Link my wife's MR account to it, she always get an error message when trying to transfer the points to my Emirates account. When I delink her MR account and re-Link my MR account, the transfers flow to Emirates without incident.

What am I doing wrong ?

Oct 26, 2016, 12:24 pm

#152

mia

Moderator

Join Date: Jun 2003

Location: Miami, Mpls & London

Programs: AA & Marriott Perpetual Platinum; DL & HH Gold

Posts: 48,954

Quote:

Originally Posted by gpicur

... My wife wants to transfer her MR points to my Emirates FF Acct.

Sorry, Emirates is an exception and I am not aware of a solution. They will allow only one card account to be linked. You cannot add or substitute another account. Brief discussion here:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...nt-number.html

I also recall another thread in which a poster (perhaps in the UK) was unable to link an American Express card because he had previously linked another type of card to the same Emirates account. I will add a link if I find it.

HERE: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...mex-cards.html

Last edited by mia; Oct 26, 2016 at 7:34 pm

Oct 26, 2016, 4:00 pm

#153

murphy

Join Date: Dec 2003

Location: Washington, DC

Programs: Hyatt Globalist, AA Executive Platinum

Posts: 1,932

Quote:

Originally Posted by bodiddely

I believe you can add your wife as a supplementary Green cardholder on your Platinum account for free. Should be able to verify with a quick call and add her on the phone/transfer to her DL account immediately if so.

Thanks, that's helpful. I'll give it a try if I can't get an Everyday 25K offer to show.

Oct 26, 2016, 6:25 pm

#154

bodiddely

Join Date: Dec 2015

Location: DCA

Posts: 818

Quote:

Originally Posted by murphy

Thanks, that's helpful. I'll give it a try if I can't get an Everyday 25K offer to show.

Good luck! I was able to get the 25k Everyday offer show up for my brother about 6 weeks or so ago, but it took a lot of tries with Incognito browser (probably 70-100 refreshes over a couple of hours with breaks). Just be persistent.

Nov 7, 2016, 3:22 am

#155

hungarianhc

Join Date: Jan 2007

Location: SFO

Programs: United 1K, Marriott Platinum, SPG Platinum

Posts: 1,990

Question about transferring points to an authorized user's account

Hi There!

I want to transfer some points to my wife's Virgin America account. Right now she's not an authorized user... I have the platinum card, the everyday preferred car, and the no fee blue cash card.

Does she have to be an authorized user on a membership rewards earning card for her name to show up as someone I can transfer points to? Or can I add her as an authorized user on the Amex Blue Cash card? Thanks!

Nov 7, 2016, 6:12 am

#156

mia

Moderator

Join Date: Jun 2003

Location: Miami, Mpls & London

Programs: AA & Marriott Perpetual Platinum; DL & HH Gold

Posts: 48,954

Quote:

Originally Posted by hungarianhc

Does she have to be an authorized user on a membership rewards earning card for her name to show up as someone I can transfer points to?...

Yes.

Jan 13, 2017, 10:01 am

#157

kciflyer

Join Date: Jan 2016

Posts: 127

Transfer Wife's MR points to my Account

I just signed my wife up for an AmEx Bus. Plat. I want to be able to transfer the MR points she earns through the bonus and otherwise to my AmEx MR account. I have several AmEx personal and business cards. I don't want to add her as an authorized user to any of my AmEx personal cards because I don't want her AU status to show up on her personal credit report and count against her for purposes of Chase's 5/24 rule. If I have her add me as an authorized user on her AmEx Bus. Plat card (with an AmEx Green card instead of an AmEx Bus Plat - since I don't want to pay the $75 fee), will that allow her to transfer MR points to my account? If not, is there a way I do it without making her an AU on one of my personal AmEx cards (I have two Business AmEx cards I could do it on)? Thanks.

Jan 13, 2017, 10:07 am

#158

bodiddely

Join Date: Dec 2015

Location: DCA

Posts: 818

If she makes you an AU, she could transfer MR to your airline accounts, but not to your MR account.

Jan 13, 2017, 10:12 am

#159

mia

Moderator

Join Date: Jun 2003

Location: Miami, Mpls & London

Programs: AA & Marriott Perpetual Platinum; DL & HH Gold

Posts: 48,954

In which country are your cards issued? I cannot think of a USA card with a $75 fee for a supplementary card.

Assuming it is the USA:

You cannot transfer points from one Membership Rewards account to another. There is no mechanism.
You can transfer points from her Membership Rewards account to one of your airline accounts if you hold a supplementary card on one of her card accounts.
You can transfer points from your Membership Rewards account to one of her airline accounts if she holds a supplementary card on one of your card accounts.
American Express business cards are invisible to Chase.

Jan 13, 2017, 10:34 am

#160

kciflyer

Join Date: Jan 2016

Posts: 127

Quote:

Originally Posted by mia

In which country are your cards issued? I cannot think of a USA card with a $75 fee for a supplementary card.

Assuming it is the USA:

You cannot transfer points from one Membership Rewards account to another. There is no mechanism.
You can transfer points from her Membership Rewards account to one of your airline accounts if you hold a supplementary card on one of her card accounts.
You can transfer points from your Membership Rewards account to one of her airline accounts if she holds a supplementary card on one of your card accounts.
American Express business cards are invisible to Chase.

Thanks. We are in the US. As far as the supplementary card, it's actually $175 to add an AU to an AmEx Bus Plat card (I mistakenly typed $75). Being able to transfer her MR points to one of my airline accounts should suffice. I assume the same holds true for transferring her MR points to one of my hotel programs - is that right?

Jan 13, 2017, 10:45 am

#161

mia

Moderator

Join Date: Jun 2003

Location: Miami, Mpls & London

Programs: AA & Marriott Perpetual Platinum; DL & HH Gold

Posts: 48,954

Quote:

Originally Posted by kciflyer

...s actually $175 to add an AU to an AmEx Bus Plat card

The fee is $300 for each supplementary Platinum card on a Business Platinum account, but you can add a supplementary Green card for free. ($175 is the fee to add up to three to a personal Platinum card.)

The rules are the same for airline and hotel transfers.

Jan 21, 2017, 9:01 pm

#162

plainheart

Join Date: Jul 2011

Posts: 72

Quote:

Originally Posted by mia

For a business platinum card, does "supplementary card" actually mean "employee card" on amex website? I did add an employee Green card under my wife's name, but still cannot link her airline account. (To be more specific, my name is still the only option when linking airline account) Any misunderstanding here? Thanks.

Last edited by plainheart; Jan 21, 2017 at 9:29 pm

Jan 22, 2017, 5:33 am

#163

mia

Moderator

Join Date: Jun 2003

Location: Miami, Mpls & London

Programs: AA & Marriott Perpetual Platinum; DL & HH Gold

Posts: 48,954

Quote:

Originally Posted by plainheart

For a business platinum card, does "supplementary card" actually mean "employee card" on amex website?

Yes. The rules say: The frequent customer program account that you transfer points into must be held by you or an Additional Card Member linked to your program account. I have an unrelated employee who hold a card on my Blue for Business card and her name appears when I select an airline and click (example) the Link an additional Delta Airlines account.

Jan 22, 2017, 2:15 pm

#164

plainheart

Join Date: Jul 2011

Posts: 72

Quote:

Originally Posted by mia

Thanks for the clarification.

Last edited by plainheart; Jan 23, 2017 at 8:55 am

Feb 27, 2017, 9:37 pm

#165

joelfreak

Join Date: Dec 2002

Location: Long Island, NY

Programs: United 1K, AA Plat Exec, DL Plat, Marriott Titanium Lifetime Elite, Hilton Gold, Hyatt Globalist

Posts: 1,872

What are the rules on a corporate amex? We have an older Corp amex, where the ceo is the named cardholder. He used to be able to transfer points (miles, not Mr points) to the employees accounts without issue. Now, after the rule change, we are not able to transfer to anyone other than the ceos milage accounts, and he doesn't travel. Amex says we should book travel from the ceos milage accounts, but many airlines won't allow booking of third parties travel unless there is a direct relationship. Amex says that getting a card in the employees name won't help, as you can't disperse points to another name... Does anyone have a way to help us unlock the points that we earned, but now can't use?