Using American Express Membership Rewards Points to Travel for Less

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American Express is one of our go-to cards for every day spend. Whether you carry the EveryDay Card or the Platinum Card, there’s something for everyone to be able to transfer Membership Reward (MR) points to travel partners. Here are a few awards that we like.

British Airways 

We love the distance based award chart for British Airways Avios. It’ll cost just 12,500 Avios in economy for one-way flights between 2,001 and 3,000 miles in length. A perfectly good use of this is on American or Alaska Air from western US to Hawaii. You can search and book directly with on BritishAirways.com.

 

 

Air France / Flying Blue

Back to the well with Hawaii here. If you’re on the East coast, it won’t make sense to use British Airways so use Flying Blue Miles instead. It’ll only cost you 15,000 miles one way in economy. Flights are with Delta but if you book with them it’ll cost you 45,000 roundtrip! Book easily at AirFrance.us.

 

All Nippon Airways (ANA)

A very good redemption point on ANA’s award chart is from the US to Asia for 85,000 miles roundtrip in business. Avoid fuel surcharges by flying United and Air Canada.

 

Singapore Krisflyer

United flights with Singapore Krisflyer redemptions are a great value. Transcontinental economy flights to/from Newark to either SFO or LAX will only set you back 20,000 KrisFlyer miles instead of 25,000 MileagePlus miles. Call Singapore Air to book. Another nice redemption is in Singapore Suites aboard the A380. It’ll cost 57,375 KrisFlyer miles from JFK to Frankfurt. The saver award will show 67,500 but there’s a 15% discount for KrisFlyer members.

 

 

The full list of transfer partners include (1:1 transfer unless where indicated):

  • Aeromexico (1,000 MR : 1,600 Premier Points)
  • Air Canada Aeroplan
  • Flying Blue – KLM and Air France
  • Alitalia MilleMiglia
  • ANA Airlines MileageClub
  • Asia Miles
  • British Airways Avios  (250MR : 200 Avios)
  • Delta Skymiles
  • El Al  (1,000 MR : 20 Matmid points)
  • Emirates Skywards
  • Etihad Guest
  • Hawaiian Airlines
  • Iberia Plus  (250 MR : 200 Avios)
  • JetBlue TrueBlue (250 MR : 200 TrueBlue points)
  • Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
  • Virgin America Elevate (200 MR : 100 Elevate points)
  • Virgin Atlantic FlyingClub
  • Choice Hotels Privileges
  • Hilton Honors (1,000 MR : 1,500)
  • Plenti Points

Consider these American Express cards to pad your Membership Reward points balance:

  • Amex EveryDay Card ($0 annual fee)
  • Amex EveryDay Prefered ($95 annual fee)
    • 50% more points if card is used 30 times or more in a billing period
    • 3x points at US Supermarkets; 2x points at US gas stations; 1x points on all other purchases
  • Premier Rewards Gold Card ($195 annual fee, waived the first year)
    • 3x points on airfare purchased with airlines; 2X points at US restaurants, US gas stations, and at US supermarkets; 1x points on all other purchases
    • $100 airline fee credit
  • Platinum Card ($450 annual fee)
    • 5x points on airfare purchased with airlines or at American Express Travel
    • $200 airline fee credit
    • Global Entry or TSA Pre✓ credit
    • Centurion® lounge and Delta Sky Clubs access

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Comments (3)

  • RR 7 years ago Reply

    SQ Suites for 60K MR one-way sounds nice on paper, but how do you find availability at the Saver tier? Even trying to book 350 days out is showing only waitlisted awards.

    jw 7 years ago Reply

    luck of the draw; once in a while you’ll see wide open avail

  • Anthony Sanchez 7 years ago Reply

    Great

Leave a Reply to Anthony Sanchez Cancel Reply