What’s changedThe airlines you can transfer Amex points to have changed.
The real value of American Express Membership Rewards points is achieved when you transfer them to an airline’s frequent flyer scheme. At first glance, you can move these points to a host of airlines, but look closer, and you’ll spot some gaps. Those gaps are about to get bigger as – without fanfare – Amex has removed a critical airline partner from their roster.
What’s changed
If you have an American Express card that collects Membership Reward points – not the British Airways basic or Premium Plus cards – then you’re probably familiar with transferring these points. The best value can be achieved by shifting them to an airline, but you can also convert them to vouchers, or Hilton, Marriot or Raddison.
Our points collection focuses on Avios through the BA credit cards, but that currency can easily be swapped over to Qatar, Finnair, Iberia, Aer Lingus or Vueling. You can also use Avios points to book a host of other partner airlines through BA, such as American Airlines or Alaskan Airlines. If you’re looking to capitalise on a BA Companion Voucher, then you can only use it for flights on BA, Iberia or Aer Lingus metal.
There have been a few occasions – more so recently – where we’ve needed to fly with an Airline that isn’t in the oneworld family. For example, we flew Turkish in December, and we’ve got two flights in 2025 with Singapore Airlines. To do that, we’ve utilised membership reward points that we get through our Platinum card and two currency cards (USD and EUR). We used Singapore miles to book the Turkish Airlines flights, as there was no direct way to transfer MR points directly to Turkish Airlines.
As of today (3rd Jan 2025) Singapore Airlines is no longer listed as a partner to transfer MR points to. That means missing out on some great connections to Asia, but it also removes the ability to use their points to book partners that were not transfer partners for Amex.
We’ve been lucky, as we booked two flights with Singapore a month ago using MR points. That included their A380 first class, a bucket-list experience for us.
Which Amex cards are affected?
Any that allow you to earn Membership Reward points rather than frequent flyer points directly so:
- Amex Gold (Personal and Business)
- Amex Platinum (Personal and Business)
- Amex Rewards Credit Card (Personal)
What’s interesting is that Singapore is still listed as a transfer partner for our USD and EUR cards. These cards offer up a couple more options too: Malaysian Airlines, Air France and KLM’s Flying Blue plus Singapore Airlines. These airline options are NOT listed for UK Amex cards that collect Membership Reward points.
If you don’t already have a currency card (either personal or business) then getting one might be tricky. As of today, you can no longer apply for either card type. It’s not clear whether this is a temporary or permanent block by Amex.
Which airlines can you transfer UK Amex MR points to?
| Airline / Scheme | Points Ratio (GBP Cards) |
|---|---|
| Cathay Pacific / Asia Miles | 1 membership reward point equals 1 Asia Mile |
| British Airways / Executive Club (soon to be The Club) | 1:1 |
| Delta / Skymiles | 1:1 |
| Emirates / Skywards | 4:3 |
| Etihad / Etihad Guest | 1:1 |
| Iberia / Iberia Plus | 1:1 |
| Qantas / Frequent Flyer | 1:1 |
| Qatar / Privilege Club | 1:1 |
| Sas / EuroBonus | 1:1 |
| Virgin Atlantic / Flying Club | 1:1 |
How critical are Membership Reward points?
This really comes down to whether you’re happy flying with BA and partners. For a long time we were solely focused on just BA. When Qatar joined the Avios party, it opened up some interesting new options for us, and it also saved us when we could get to a destination but not back with BA. Now that Finnair, Iberia and Aer Lingus use Avios you can get to most parts of the world using Avios. Add in the partners – we’ve used Alaskan and AA recently – and the World is your oyster.
One use of points is to get to a destination, but there’s another side which, for some, will be even more valuable, and that is the experience. We’ve used MR points to fly in Etihad’s The Residence, and later this year, we’ll fly in Singapore First Class Suites. This is now a bigger factor for us as we want to try out new planes and seats, and that’s just not possible with Avios alone.
Dropping Singapore is a real step backwards for Amex. If they lose any more airlines, then there will be a question mark over the value of MR, especially given that you can earn up to 1.5 Avios per £1 spent on the BA cards versus the typical 1 MR per £1 on the regular Amex cards.
Is it easy to transfer MR points to Airlines?
What’s good about collecting Membership Reward points is how easy it is to move them to an airline partner. The process requires that you add in the frequent flyer number of the airline you want to transfer to (and once you’ve done this, you can’t change it) and then select how many miles you want to move. For some airlines, this has to be done in blocks, so, for example, 1,000 points at a time. For others you can transfer any amount that you want.
Where things differ is the speed at which points get transferred across. For some airlines, it’s less than twenty-four hours, whilst for others – like Singapore – it can take up to 15 working days.
