How to Transfer American Express Membership Rewards To Airline Miles

One of the best ways to redeem American Express Membership Rewards points is to transfer them to airline partners. You can often more value out of each point when you turn it into an airline mile. These can then be redeemed for first class travel or to take advantage of a sweet spot in a partner award chart.

For one of my favorite ways to use Membership Rewards with partner airline British Airways, check out my post on flying from the West Coast to Hawaii for only 12,500 British Airways Avios miles each way!

I will be giving here a step-by-step guide for transferring your Membership Rewards points to airline partners.

Certain premium American Express cards that earn Membership Rewards points have the ability to transfer these points to airline miles. This applies to the personal cards Amer­i­can Express Pre­mier Rewards Gold Card,  Amer­i­can Express Plat­inum Card, American Express Mercedez Benz Platinum Card as well as the business cards Amer­i­can Express Busi­ness Gold Rewards Card and Amer­i­can Express Busi­ness Plat­inum Card.

Let’s start with a few important points for transferring American Express Membership Rewards to airline partners. 

1. Most transfers are quite quick. I have only transferred to Delta, British Airways, JetBlue and AirFrance and all these were instantaneous.
2. If you make the transfer online, you can actually link anyone’s airline account and transfer the points to miles in his or her airline account. The names on the accounts do not have to match.
3. Transfers are irreversible. Once you have transferred your Membership Rewards points to an airline account, you cannot undo the transfer. So make sure to check on award availability before completing any transfers and don’t get stuck with miles in an account that you can’t use.

American Express Membership Rewards has many airline partners:

• AeroMexico
• Aeroplan
• Alitalia Airlines
• All Nippon Airways
• Asia Miles
• British Airways
• Delta Air Lines
• EL AL Israel Airlines
• Flying Blue
• Frontier Airlines
• Hawaiian Airlines
• Iberia Plus
• JetBlue Airways®
• Singapore Airlines
• Virgin America
• Virgin Atlantic Airways

To transfer your American Express Membership Rewards points to miles with any of these partners, here is a step-by-step guide:

Step 1: Log into your Membership Rewards account on the American Express website.

Step 2: Select your Membership Rewards Credit Card among the credit card options and you will be taken to your account information for the card. Click on Show Points & Savings Summary. 

 

Step 3: This will drop down your points summary and you can then click on Go to Membership Rewards. 

 

Step 4: Once on your personal Membership Rewards account page, click on the Option to Use Points. This will trigger a dropdown and then you can choose Airlines.

 

Step 5: You can now choose your airline partner. For my example, I will select British Airways Avios since they have been my favorite airline partner so far.

 

Step 6: You now need to make sure your airline frequent flyer account is linked to your Membership Rewards account.

You will need a frequent flyer account with the airline before you can transfer points. If you have not created an airline account at this point, you can click on the option to Create the airline account and it will take you to the registration page for that airline.

I already have an airline account so I just need to make sure it is linked. I will click on Link your Executive Club Account. 

Step 7: Find the option to link your frequent flyer account.

On the bottom right, you will see a list of all your Linked Travel Programs. To link another airline partner frequent flyer account, click on Link additional programs.

Step 8: Select your program and enter your information. Once you have entered the information, click on ‘Link Programs’. Although it says it will take up to 5 days or up to two weeks, it is actually usually instantaneous.

 

Step 9: Now that you have linked your frequent flyer account to your Membership Rewards account, you are ready to transfer the points to miles. You can enter how many points you would like to receive and the screen will calculate how many points you will need to transfer. You then click on Transfer this Amount and accept on the next page.

Summary

• Transferring American Express Membership Rewards points is a lucrative way to get good value for your Membership Rewards points.
• Before transferring the points to airline miles, you need to register for a frequent flyer account with the airline.
• You can follow my step-by-step guide to turn your Membership Rewards points into airline miles.
• The points can be transferred to anyone else’s account, not necessarily just your own. The names on the account do not need to match.

For some ways you can use miles with American Express Membership Rewards partners, check out:

• West Coast to Hawaii for 12,500 British Airways Avios Each Way!
• Redeeming British Airways Miles on Alaska Airlines Flights
• Four Girls to Cancun Mishap: Completely Rebooking Tatyana at T minus 58 hours

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