Guide to American Express transfer partners

One of the most mysterious aspects of credit card award travel is learning how to boost rewards with transfer partners — namely hotel and airfare accommodations. In most cases, transferring your rewards to travel partners provides a higher redemption value than redeeming rewards for statement credits, cash or gift cards. This is especially true for cardholders who can make a high-value redemption, such as airfare in a premium cabin or a luxurious hotel stay in a far-flung corner of the world.

The American Express Membership Rewards program is one of the most popular award travel ecosystems. It offers a large variety of transfer partners, and its network includes many popular airlines and hotels. If you have an eligible Amex credit card and want to stretch your points value further, redeeming your points through the Amex travel portal or for partner travel should be top of mind.

In this guide, we’ll go over all Amex transfer partners, some pros and cons of transferring points and how to maximize your rewards.

American Express airline partners

Amex’s airline partners typically offer transfers at a 1,000-point:1,000-point (or 1:1) rate. However, many Amex airline partners have alliances that allow you to expand your flight options and, at times, boost the value of your points.

Here’s the chart of Amex airline partners, along with their transfer ratios and estimated transfer times:

It may take some time to connect the dots to find great deals, but if you’re flexible with your dates and destinations, there are plenty of deals that can get well over the 1:1 redemption ratio. And if you’re strategic about your redemptions, your Amex Membership Rewards points value could be around 2.0 cents per point or more, according to Bankrate’s points and miles valuations guide.

For example, you may not think you’d get much use out of transferring points to an airline like British Airways. However, you can use the British Airways Executive Club currency, called Avios, to book flights on all oneworld Alliance carriers including American Airlines and Alaska Airlines. Unfortunately, using Avios on British Airways flights carries substantial fuel surcharges, making your points much less valuable with those flights.

However, if you focus on British Airways partner flights, you can score significant value due to the airline’s distance-based award chart.

There are a number of U.S.-based short-haul flights where you may be able to get economy fares starting at just 6,000 points — whereas these same award flights on another airline could cost 20,000 points or more for the same destinations and dates. When you start looking at aspirational travel options like international flights in first or business class, you stand to earn even more value for your points.

You’ll have to research these connections and understand exactly how the alliances work, but you can garner significant discounts for flights once you get the hang of it.

Should you transfer Amex points to an airline partner?

For the most part, transferring Amex points to an airline partner will offer you more value. Here are some pros and cons to consider when transferring points:

American Express hotel partners

Transferring your Amex rewards to hotel partners may not offer as much value as transferring rewards to airline partners, but it can still be a good use of your points under the right circumstances. Plus, you may find better deals and value for off-peak accommodations.

Here’s a look at Amex’s hotel partners:

Should you transfer Amex points to a hotel partner?

Situations where transfers to a hotel partner can help you get more value for your Amex rewards aren’t as plentiful as you’ll find with airline partners. Consider the pros and cons of transferring Amex points to hotels before you make this move.

How to transfer Amex Membership Rewards points

First off, remember that only certain Amex credit cards earn Membership Rewards. This includes the brand’s travel credit cards, but not its range of cash back credit cards.

Before making any transfers, you must connect your hotel or airline loyalty account to your Amex account. Note that the name on your loyalty account must match either your name or the name of an authorized user on your credit card account. Once your loyalty program account is linked, you can transfer your Amex points with the following steps.

1. Log into your American Express account and click on “Explore Rewards.”

Head to your American Express online account management page and log in. From there, you’ll click on the rewards section of your account to move onto the next step.

2. Choose the option to transfer rewards.

Once you’re in the rewards section of your account, you’ll go to the dropdown menu under “Earn and Redeem” and select “Transfer Points” to see a list of all available American Express transfer partners.

3. Choose an airline or hotel partner.

From here, you can browse available airline and hotel partners. Note that all partners have a set minimum and maximum number of points you can transfer. Typically, you must transfer at least 1,000 points.

4. Initiate the transfer

Choose a transfer partner and begin the transfer. This step is easy to take care of completely online.

While many partners say it can take up to 48 hours for a point transfer to go through, anecdotal evidence suggests most transfers are instant. Either way, you can log into your account once the transfer is complete and use your new loyalty points for airfare or hotel stays.

How to maximize value when transferring points

If you want to get the most out of your Membership Rewards points, here are a few tips that can help:

• Consider being flexible with your travel destinations and dates to score the best deals.
• Watch out for transfer bonuses through Amex Offers that boost your points value by 20 to 50 percent.
• Make sure to verify that award reservations are available for the dates you’d like to travel before you transfer points.
• Check for alternative booking options, like alliances that have distance-based award charts versus dynamic award flight pricing.
• Check award pricing for business and first-class fares for more luxurious travel options at lower rates.
• Be mindful of additional costs, like fuel surcharges (British Airways) and federal excise taxes for transfers to U.S.-based airlines (Delta SkyMiles, JetBlue TrueBlue or Hawaiian Airlines HawaiianMiles).

The bottom line

Amex transfer partners can help you get more value for each point you earn, but you’ll want to be sure this is the case before you move your points. You can do this by comparing the cash rate for travel bookings you want to make, and by checking how much flights and hotels cost (in cash or points) in the Amex travel portal.

Whatever you do, don’t transfer your points to a partner until you know you can use them. Since Amex point transfers are a one-way deal, you can’t change your mind and move your points back to the card issuer.