A few days ago I received an email from American Express highlighting an interesting promotion. The email informed me that from now until mid-November I can transfer American Express Membership Rewards points to British Airways and receive a 40% bonus.
Typically I don’t pay much attention to emails like this. In this case though I am without a doubt going to take advantage of the offer. I’ll get into why I think this is such a great promotion in a minute.
Transfer Membership Rewards Points To British Airways Avios With A 40% Bonus
When I opened the email from American Express I found the following message.
The email included a link which took me directly to the transfer page. Further down in the body of the email was a brief description of British Airways’ Club World Business Class product.
Personally, I don’t think the above description really sold the Club World business class product, but at least they’re honest in that British Airways Club World isn’t that great. However, I could never complain about flying a lie-flat seat across the Atlantic.
Above is a picture of an 8 across Club World cabin.
Why I’m Taking Advantage Of This Offer
As I mentioned earlier, I typically don’t bite on offers like this. In general I prefer to maintain flexible points currencies (read: Amex MR points) over fixed currencies such as British Airways Avios. However, over the years I’ve found British Airways Avios are incredibly useful. For that reason, I try to maintain a “small” balance of about 50,000 Avios at all times. With this promotion I plan on boosting my British Airways account to about 68,000 Avios.
The reason I’m sticking to about 68,000 Avios is because that’s the exact number of Avios required to fly British Airways First Class between London and Chicago. One of my goals for the upcoming year is to finally fly in First Class on British Airways. While First on British is nothing special compared to others, it’s still worth trying to review this upcoming year.
However, I also don’t mind hoarding Avios because I often use them for short-haul flights. I’ve used Avios to cheaply travel between cities in the United States and in Europe on many occasions. Often short-haul flights that I have to take end up being quite expensive. Considering these short and expensive flights only cost 7,500 Avios it ends up being a great redemption. The redemption is even sweeter knowing that it actually only cost about 5,400 Amex points!
How To Transfer Membership Rewards Points To British Airways
If you received an email from Amex highlighting this promotion you can click the embedded link to reach the transfer points page. From there, click on the British Airways tile to begin the points transfer process. On this page you will only see a 1:1 transfer ratio. Begin entering a value into the points to transfer box and then click to log-in to your account.
Once logged in you’ll find that 1:1.40 points transfer ratio as promoted by American Express. From there, enter any number of Amex points (in 1,000 point increments) to transfer.
After entering the number of points you wish to transfer you must verify your credit card information before points will transfer. Once everything is verified the points should transfer within a day or two. In some instances, if you’ve transferred. points between accounts before, the transfer may be even quicker.
Final Thoughts
This transfer might not be right for everyone, but overall I don’t think you can go wrong transferring a few thousand points. Avios are incredibly easy to redeem on either British Airways or OneWorld partners so there is little risk of them going to waste.
That being said, if you have no intention of booking a BA or OneWorld flight in the near future this transfer probably doesn’t make sense for you. instead, I’d hold onto my Amex MR points for a bit longer and hope for a similar promotion with a Star Alliance partner.
