Last Chance: How to Maximize Amex Transfer Bonuses Before Most Ends Today

news7g09/30/2022

11 5 minutes read

Editor’s Note: This post has been updated with new information.

About a year ago, American Express launched a record number of transfer bonus from Membership Rewards to various airline and hotel partners.

And this month, Amex has brought in another huge transfer bonus. However, many of these are expected to end today – September 30, 2022. So if you have a card like Platinum Card® from American Express or American Express® Gold Card earn Membership Rewards points, time is running out to transfer some points and book a ride.

There are 12 transfer bonuses to Amex . hotel and airline transfer partner. The current transfer bonus ranges from 15% to 30%, depending on the transfer partner:

Using these transfer bonuses can unlock great redemption options for flights and to a lesser extent hotel stays. However, these transfer bonuses are not the highest we have seen for many of these partners. We therefore recommend that you do not transfer your Membership Rewards specifically to airline or hotel partners.

However, if you are looking to transfer and then book a high value bonus, these transfer bonuses could be the catalyst you need to book your ride. But again, most of this will be gone by 11:59 p.m. Mountain Time tonight.

To help inspire you, let’s take a look at some of the best ways to maximize your Rewards for American Express members bonus transfer.

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Cheap domestic flights with Avios and LifeMiles

If you want to book domestic travel, you can take advantage of these transfer bonuses to fly with fewer points on American Airlines, Alaska Airlines, and United Airlines.

On the US and Alaska side you can use 25% Avios transfer bonuses to book short-haul domestic flights with a value as low as 6,000 Amex Membership Rewards points. After all, domestic flights up to 651 miles cost 7,500 Avios one way British Airways Distance-Based Awards Ranking. You can transfer 6,000 Membership Rewards points and get 7,500 Avios in this bonus.

Flights from 651 to 1,151 miles cost 9,000 Avios, or 8,000 Membership Rewards points are transferred to 10,000 Avios during this promotion period (since you can only transfer Membership Rewards to Avios in 1,000 increments).

Also you can put US domestic award ticket with Avianca LifeMiles. Rewards start at 7,500 LifeMiles – or 7,000 Membership Rewards go to 8,050 LifeMiles in this 15% transfer bonus – one-way for local flights. You can even find prizes cheaper than this on some routes.

Longer flights usually cost more miles. For example, it would typically cost you 12,500 LifeMiles to fly from Los Angeles to New York. This is only 11,000 Membership bonus points in this transfer bonus.

Review your dates and destinations to see which transit partner is best for your next domestic flight. It can save you a lot of money with relatively few points.

Business Class to Spain with 28,000 points

You can also take advantage of the 25% transfer bonus to Avios to book an Iberian business class cruise to Spain; it will only cost 34,000 Iberia Avios on off-peak days from select hubs in the east of the US

This redemption is usually an amazing deal, but the 25% bonus reduces this to just 28,000 Membership Rewards Points that go to British Airways. (Then you can Transfer Avios from British Aways to Iberia.)

The off-peak days last most of the year. You can see the list of peak and low days on Iberian websiteand the Iberian search engine will show the exact price.

Transatlantic Delta One with 39,000 points

Delta One suites is one of my favorite ways to get to Europe. I have found that the product is consistently better than what is offered by other major airlines such as American and United; it also stacks up well against many international enterprise-grade products. Better yet, some of the Delta jets fitted in the suite (Airbus A350s and A330-900neos) have sliding doors for added privacy.

The best way to book a Delta One award to Europe is to take advantage of its partnership with Virgin Atlantic Flight Club. The program only charges 50,000 Virgin points for a non-stop business class flight from anywhere in the US to Europe. This drops to just 39,000 Membership Rewards Points with a current 30% transfer bonus.

You can book all Delta award tickets right on the Virgin Atlantic website. Search for your flights and remittance points after finding an open prize space.

Around the world in business class with 184,000 points

Aeromexico Club Premier offers one of the most flexible forms of booking around the world. It only charges 224,000 or 352,000 km for economy or business class tickets around the worldcorresponding.

Aeromexico transfers typically process at a 1:1.6 transfer ratio, but a 20% bonus is expected to increase this to a 1:1.92 ratio. This reduces the price of a round the world ticket up to 117,000 Bonus points for members in economy class and 184,000 in business class. Note, however, that you are responsible for paying taxes and other surcharges.

These tickets can have up to 15 stops, must start and end in the same country and continue east or west for the entire journey. You can use these rules to build some pretty special itineraries.

That said, booking these tickets isn’t easy. You need to find the prize space using favorite SkyTeam award search engine Or with ExpertFlyer (owned by TPG’s parent company, Red Ventures). Then you have to call Aeromexico to book the itinerary. We’ve heard of readers getting mixed results, so we recommend finding out your itinerary over the phone before transferring your score.

Low cost Hilton bonus nights

I would rarely recommend transferring Membership Rewards Points to Hilton Honors, but pairing these transferable points with the right hotels can provide great value.

Membership Rewards typically transfer to Hilton Honors at a 1:2 transfer rate, meaning 10,000 Membership Rewards are equivalent to 20,000 Hilton Honors points without the transfer bonus. Right now you can transfer to Hilton with 30% bonus which means you can transfer at 1:2.6. So the same transfer of 10,000 Membership Rewards yields 26,000 Hilton points through September 30th.

This transfer bonus opens the door to some great rewards. Remember, The price of Hilton all awards remain automatic, so the price varies according to the property and the date of your stay. However, if you can find reasonably priced buybacks at high-priced properties, you can make a bargain.

For example, a five-night stay at Conrad Bora Bora Nui will cost $5,890 after tax in December. Alternatively, you can reserve 480,000 Hilton points on the same day or 185,000 Membership Rewards points with a 30% bonus. This gives about 3.18 coins per point of value – much higher than TPG’s Amex Valuation is 2 cents/point.

Do the math and see if it makes sense for you to transfer your Membership Rewards points to Hilton before your next vacation. You probably won’t get a great value on most redemptions, but it can be a good way to save money on your next stay.

Key point

American Express’ latest transfer partner bonus round offers some great opportunities to redeem fewer points for more travel. You can achieve this by combining existing sweet spots with a transfer bonus, giving you an even better deal than usual.

However, most of these bonuses will end today (September 30, 2022), so if you’ve been waiting for the completion of your plan, now is the day to do it.

Additional reporting by Katie Genter.

news7g09/30/2022

11 5 minutes read