Transferring your points from a credit card to a travel loyalty program is one of the easiest and cost-effective ways to book airline tickets or hotel stays. Unfortunately, different credit card banks have different travel partners they work with and it’s not always easy to figure out how to move your points to those travel partners.
American Express cards earn Membership Rewards points that you can transfer to 22 different airline or hotel loyalty programs making it one of the best currencies out there. Here’s a quick list of the airline and hotel chains you can move your Membership Rewards to:
Airlines
- Aeromexico
- Aer Lingus
- Air Canada
- Air France KLM
- Alitalia
- All Nippon Airways
- Avianca
- Cathay Pacific
- British Airways
- Delta Air Lines
- El Al Israel Airlines
- Emirates
- Etihad Airways
- Hawaiian Airlines
- Iberia Airlines
- JetBlue Airways
- Qantas
- Singapore Airlines
- Virgin Atlantic
Hotels
- Choice Hotels
- Hilton
- Marriott
You can transfer your American Express Membership Rewards points to any above the above partners by following a simple, 6-step process.
Step #1 – Log into your American Express card account
One of the first things you should always do when getting a new credit card is setup an online account. It should only take you a couple minutes to do so (and you likely already have). If, however, you have not done so already, then you’ll need to do that first.
American Express also allows you to link all your cards to one account, so if you have multiple cards with them then you should do that to make your life easier. On a side note, they also have a pretty good app that will allow you to manage your cards and points right from your phone as well.
Step #2 – Go to the Membership Rewards home page
After logging in to your account, you’ll be taken to the home screen for your credit card. From there, you’ll want to click either the “Rewards” link on the navigation bar at the top of the page or the “Explore Rewards” button off to the right side under where you’ll see your current amount of points.
Both options will take you to the Membership Rewards home page.
Step #3 – Choose to “Transfer Points” then “View all partners”
Once arriving on the Membership Rewards home page, you’ll be faced with some options across the center of the screen. You should click on the “Transfer Points” option as seen in the image below.
Next, you’ll see a new tab open with some featured partners listed below. Ignore those for the moment and click the blue button that is labeled “View All.”
Step #4 – Choose your desired travel partner program
You should now be taken to the complete list of travel partners that American Express offers. Scroll down until you find the airline or hotel program that you’d like to transfer your points to and then click on the icon.
You may see that some of them have a little orange box in the top left that says “OFFER”. This denotes that the indicated travel partner is currently offering a transfer bonus where you could get more points than usual through your transfer. These offers can be quite beneficial and often change from month to month.
Step #5 – Link your account
After selecting a travel partner, you’ll be asked to link your loyalty program account number from that airline/hotel to American Express. Make sure you have this number handy and your credit card since you’ll likely have to verify that it’s you making the transfer.
If you need to find your loyalty program number for the airline/hotel, you can usually access it quickly by logging into that account online in a new window. I do recommend keeping a spreadsheet with all your account numbers on your computer for easy access though.
Step #6 – Transfer your desired amount of points
After linking your account, all you need to do next is select how many miles you’d like to transfer and pull the trigger.
Most transfer will be instant, but there are reports that some may take up to 48 hours. If you already have a ticket you plan to book with points, you may want to call up the airline and put a 24 hour hold on the ticket just to be safe.
Conclusion
Credit cards that let you earn transferrable points are incredibly valuable because they give you lots of options when it comes to using your points. Since many of the best deals are had by using airline partners, you’ll want to choose credit card companies that offer significant travel partners and relative ease when completing transfers.
