Should I Transfer My Amex Points to BA?

American Express Membership RewardsI’ve been thinking of transferring my American Express Membership Rewards points for quite some time and now might be the time to do so.

A couple of years back I got a great offer for a new American Express card but had to fight to get my 100,000 Membership Rewards points bonus.

Besides the bonus, I also have other Membership Rewards points, some of which were transferred over the years to airlines like Continental and JetBlue.

I still have over 100,000 Membership Rewards points and also recently got approved for a 75,000 miles Amex Gold Business card. (I have not hit the required spend yet so I do not have the extra 75K in my account yet.)

I’ve been waiting for a solid bonus transfer offer to come around for quite some time from American Express. From what I recall, the last time I considered transferring points was probably around a year back.

With Amex currently offering a 40% bonus to transfer Membership Rewards points to British Airways, I am almost ready to make the move.

American Express Membership RewardsSince the transfer bonus offer is  good until January 31, 2015, I figured rather than act fast, maybe I should evaluate the options I have for a bit longer.

Odds are, my best option is to transfer my points to BA since I don’t see many other airlines that work for my family’s travel needs.

American Express Membership Rewards
Amex’s airline transfer partners

Since I have a bunch of SkyMiles left, that could be (dare I say) an appealing option if a big bonus offer came up. The problem is that with Delta typically pricing awards at very high amounts, this might be about as good as throwing the points away.

I’d definitely consider JetBlue as an option but with a lousy transfer rate (250 Amex= 200 JetBlue) and the upcoming addition of bag fees, this isn’t ideal either.

The rest of the transfer partners really don’t excite me either. If I traveled solo, I’d definitely consider KrisFlyer, Asia Miles or ANA.

In the end, I plan to make a move soon and send my current Membership Rewards points to British Airways. When adding these point to my current Avios haul, it will make for a healthy account which will give Kim and I some flexibility for future trip options.

If my 75K bonus from my Gold Business card posts before the bonus transfer deadline, then I’ll really have something to think about.

What do you think about the current 40% Avios transfer bonus offer from American Express? Are you going to take advantage of this offer or hold off until you have a need for your points?

4 thoughts on “Should I Transfer My Amex Points to BA?

  1. Points With A Crew- Sounds like a pretty solid plan. The main problem I see is limited options with the transfers so I hope the leftover 25K can get you the flight you might need in the future.

    Kevin- Definitely some good points. We fly mainly in coach and would hope to use them for the short flights, the Caribbean & South America.

    Matt- Meaning?

  2. The transfer bonus is attractive but in practice I find it hard to find premium cabin award space from North America on BA. Plus their booking fees are quite high. I’m less enamoured with Avios than I used to be.

  3. I have no firm travel on BA or any other airlines right now, but I plan on speculatively transferring enough for maybe 3-4 4500 Avios flights. I figure odds are good I’ll want to use those before too long. I only have about 50K Amex points right now, so I want to make sure to keep enough in there to be able to have at least 25,000 Amex points in case I need to transfer those for an emergency domestic roundtrip.

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