Ultimate Guide to Amex Transfer Partners: Best Redemptions for Each Airline and Hotel Partner

American Express has an excellent array of transfer partners that are one of the best ways to redeem Membership Rewards. Amex points transfer to 18 airline partners and three hotel partners. Most transfers happen at a 1:1 ratio. In this article, we'll show you how redeeming your points through Amex transfer partners is the way to maximize the value of your rewards.

The advantage of transferring Amex Membership Rewards over redeeming through the American Express Travel^® is that you'll often spend fewer points for a comparable itinerary. Generally, Amex's airline partners provide better value than hotel partners, but it can also sometimes make sense to transfer Amex points to hotel partners. Below, we'll cover all the Amex transfer partners and highlight which redemption options we consider the best.

It's important to understand the unique benefits and drawbacks of each partner program. Because of this, we’ve put together this comprehensive guide to help you make the most of your American Express travel rewards.

Why Are Amex Transfer Partners a Great Deal?

First off, transferrable points — such as Amex Membership Rewards — are incredibly valuable for their versatility. They give you exponentially more options than if you simply earned airline miles with a single frequent flyer program like Delta SkyMiles. Since you can transfer Amex points to Delta, you can use them to book flights with any of the SkyMiles redemption partners. This gives you a decent number of options.

But since your Membership Rewards can also be converted into nearly 20 other types of airline miles, you also get access to flights with any of the partners from those airlines, as well. Therefore, you can book awards on most major airlines with your Membership Rewards points.

Related: Best Ways to Redeem Amex Membership Rewards Points for U.S. Domestic Flights (From 3k Points!)

Credit: Toa Heftiba/Unsplash

In addition, the flexibility to pick your transfer partner when you’re ready to book is key. Rather than locking your miles into one carrier's loyalty program, you can hold onto them as Membership Rewards points until you need to use them. This lets you look for awards with multiple programs, greatly increasing the odds of finding an ideal itinerary. This is especially true if you have extra flexibility for travel dates.

Related: All of the Cards That Earn American Express Membership Rewards Points

Difference between miles and fees

Also, there are significant differences between the number of miles and out-of-pocket fees charged by different Amex partners for the same itinerary. For example, you can use both Air Canada Aeroplan and ANA Mileage Club to book United Polaris business class flights to Europe.

Both Air Canada and ANA are Amex transfer partners. With Aeroplan, you'll pay 120,000 to 140,000 miles round-trip — depending on the distance. However, ANA charges just 100,000 miles for this round-trip ticket! Since United doesn't levy carrier surcharges, so you'll want to book through ANA.

In some cases, though, Aeroplan may be a better deal. ANA Mileage Club passes along carrier surcharges, so it may be a poor choice for booking a Lufthansa round-trip between the U.S. and Europe (as Lufthansa charges extremely high surcharges that you'll be on the hook for). You'd likely be better off paying more miles via Aeroplan for the same itinerary to save over $1,000 out-of-pocket. This is why learning the ins and outs of the various Amex transfer partners is so important.

In a nutshell, having flexible points that you can transfer to an array of partners lets you shop for the best award deal. Now, let's dig into the transfer partners themselves.

Related: How To Transfer Amex Points: A Step-by-Step Guide

Amex Airline Transfer Partners

Below, you’ll find a breakdown of the best ways to redeem with each of the 18 American Express airline partners:

Note: If you transfer miles to a U.S.-based program (Delta, Hawaiian, or JetBlue), you’ll have to pay a tax offset fee of $0.0006 per point. There is a maximum fee of $99 per transfer. Amex lets you cover this cost with Membership Rewards points instead of cash, but it's a terrible value. You can use your points at a much better value in other ways. Make sure to pay this fee using your Amex card.

Additionally, the transfer times discussed below come from data points from AwardWallet users transferring their points and miles. You can check our database of transfer times.

Related: How To Redeem American Express Membership Rewards Points — And Which Options Are Best

Aer Lingus AerClub

Aer Lingus is part of the Avios family, along with Iberia, Finnair, British Airways, and Qatar Airways. Outside of redeeming directly through Aer Lingus, you can transfer Avios between AerClub and the loyalty programs belonging to Iberia, Finnair, Qatar Airways, and British Airways. Each program has its own best ways to use rewards and a few unique redemption partners, so pay attention to unique sweet spots in each program.

Aer Lingus has historically had good rates on a few of its own routes, including:

• U.S. East Coast to Ireland for as few as 13,000 Avios one-way in economy on off-peak dates.
• Rest of the U.S. to Ireland for 16,250 Avios one-way in economy on off-peak dates.
• Business class starting at 50,000 Avios one-way.

Taxes and fees have also been reasonable. Tickets booked through Aer Lingus usually have lower taxes and fees than British Airways bookings, but not always. However, there are two issues, currently, with booking Aer Lingus flights:

1. The ability to book Aer Lingus flights has disappeared from the Avios.com website. You can't even search for Aer Lingus routes (e.g., entering an origin of BOS and destination of DUB isn't possible). Also, you are redirected to log into ba.com after you search and select flights.
2. You can use Avios when booking through Aer Lingus. But the rate appears to reduce the cash cost at a rate of 0.60-0.65€ per Avios.

Paying with Avios when booking through the aerlingus.com website would seem like a plus, as it previously hasn't been possible. However, the rate is terrible.

Avios redemption options for a Aer Lingus flight: Credit: Aer Lingus

Membership Rewards transfer instantly to Aer Lingus AerClub at a 1:1 ratio in increments of 1,000 points. Until a better way to redeem Aer Lingus Avios reemerges, we don't recommend using them at this time.

Aeromexico Rewards

Aeromexico Rewards (formerly Club Premier) can be a confusing program since its awards are priced in kilometers instead of miles; you have to divide its award prices by 1.6 to get an accurate comparison to other airlines’ award programs. This is also why American Express points transfer to Aeromexico at a 1,000:1,600 ratio. Aeromexico is a member of the SkyTeam alliance, which includes Delta, Air France, and KLM, among many others.

Aeromexico Rewards isn’t great for most tickets. The dynamic pricing model it leverages has resulted in few tickets being a great deal. Economy flights from the U.S. to Europe can run from 40,000 to 80,000 Membership Rewards points one way, with the fuel surcharges for Air France-, and KLM-operated flights passed right along.

The best business-class options are from Mexico City to Europe for just under 100,000 Membership Rewards points, plus around $100 in taxes, fees, and surcharges. This isn't utterly astronomical. But there are few deals to be had with Aeromexico's dynamic pricing.

Example Aeromiexco award from Mexico City to Madrid. Credit: Aeromexico

Overall, Aeromexico is one of the poorer airline partners you have among the Amex transfer partners. There is little upside to the program, given that Flying Blue is another Amex transfer partner, and that program's prices are usually better. If you do transfer points to Aeromexico Rewards, they are typically processed immediately.

Air Canada Aeroplan

Air Canada is a member of Star Alliance and partners with United, Lufthansa, Singapore, Thai Airways, and other Star Alliance members. Its program is called Aeroplan, and award prices tend to be similar to United's for domestic flights and European itineraries.

For example, flying from the U.S. to Europe in economy class costs 35,000 points. Compare that to United, which now charges 40,000 miles one-way. But also consider that you can use ANA Mileage Club to fly this route for 55,000 miles round-trip, which is one of the best options for Star Alliance economy flights between the two continents.

That being said, Aeroplan has its uses. Business-class award prices to Europe fall between pricing with Avianca LifeMiles and United MileagePlus. LifeMiles is still a better deal, but it has painful cancellation penalties. Some quality uses of Aeroplan points include:

• Fly business class to Europe on Star Alliance carriers.
• Fly Etihad business or first class.
• Short-haul domestic flights on United within the continental U.S.
• Fly to Hawaii from the U.S. West Coast on United for just 12,500 Aeroplan points (from a limited number of closest departure points).

Award on Turkish Airlines from Chicago to Istanbul. Credit: Air Canada

Watch out for mixed-cabin Aeroplan awards! Sometimes, it's worth saving the extra miles and taking one flight in economy, but watch out for itineraries with the long-haul segment in coach while charging you for business class on the whole ticket.

Aeroplan eliminated carrier surcharges on partner awards, which improved its usefulness for Lufthansa Group airline tickets. However, it did tack on a new partner award fee. Prices are generally reasonable. Note that there are change and cancellation fees, although they aren't as bad as some of the competition. You can easily modify awards online (for a $100 CAD fee).

Related: The 40+ Airlines You Can Book Using Aeroplan Points

All Air Canada seats are bookable with points, albeit dynamically. Sometimes, the award prices are ridiculous. For both Air Canada awards and partner tickets, Aeroplan uses a blended region-based and distance-based award pricing scheme. Aeroplan still allows stopovers on awards — a popular feature of the program, which you can book online (for just 5,000 points apiece).

Amex points transfer instantly to Aeroplan at a 1:1 ratio.

Air France–KLM Flying Blue

Air France and KLM share the Flying Blue loyalty program. Both airlines are part of the SkyTeam alliance, so you can use its miles to book travel on Delta, Aeromexico, Korean Air, and other member airlines, including SAS, the newest SkyTeam member. Unfortunately, the program has experienced some recent devaluations.

One great way to maximize your miles though the Flying Blue program is through the routinely available Flying Blue's Promo Rewards. These awards are released at the beginning of each month for travel within the next several months. You unfortunately can't use them to lock in a ticket nearly a year out, if you like to get a jump on your travel plans.

Some other great Flying Blue redemption ideas include:

• U.S. to Europe or North Africa for 25,000 miles one-way in economy
• U.S. to Europe or North Africa starting at 60,000 miles in business class one-way
• Virgin Atlantic Upper Class between the U.S. and Europe starting at 68,500 miles one-way
• Europe to Southeast Asia in business class, starting at 85,000 miles

Air France awards to Morocco can cost the same as to Europe. Credit: Air France.

Air France–KLM Flying Blue is an instant, 1:1 transfer partner of Membership Rewards. Look for the occasional transfer bonus to save even more.

Related: Air France-KLM Flying Blue Award Sweet Spots

All Nippon Airways (ANA) Mileage Club

ANA Mileage Club offers great value for round-trip itineraries on Star Alliance carriers like United, Air Canada, Air New Zealand, and Turkish Airlines. Interestingly, ANA has a huge advantage over other programs when considering miles required for awards, though you'll also see higher out-of-pocket costs if your flight is operated by an airline that imposes fuel surcharges. With flights on ANA and Star Alliance partners like Lufthansa and Austrian Airlines, you can expect round-trip business-class fees in the $500+ range. On the other hand, if you fly with United, you'll pay far less.

But for those with fewer miles available, it's hard to beat ANA's award pricing. For example, round-trip awards from the U.S. to Europe cost just 55,000 miles in economy and 100,000 miles in business class. The taxes on United flights to Europe typically run between $100 and $400.

ANA award on United from SFO to LHR. Credit: ANA

Other great uses of ANA miles include:

• United flights from the U.S. to South Africa in business class for 130,000 miles
• Turkish Airlines flights from the U.S. to Turkey in business class for 100,000 miles
• Air New Zealand flights from the U.S. to New Zealand in business class for 145,000 miles
• United flights from the U.S. to South America in business class for 96,000 miles

These are all partner flights. Prices for ANA flights vary seasonally, but they are generally a solid deal in both business and first-class between Japan and most worldwide destinations. Surcharges on ANA flights are an issue, though, as they can be in the $400–$500 range.

Here are a few award-booking restrictions to keep in mind with ANA Mileage Club:

• You must book a round-trip or open-jaw itinerary; one-way awards are not allowed.
• You can’t create or change a reservation within 96 hours of departure. Changes before that are free, however, and cancellations cost just 3,000 miles.
• Awards are only bookable for people related to the account owner (more details here).

Transfers from Membership Rewards to ANA Mileage Club will be at a 1:1 ratio. A big downside is that they take two days to process, on average.

Related: ANA Mileage Club Award Charts and Stopover Rules

Avianca LifeMiles

Avianca LifeMiles offers some great options for travel on Star Alliance carriers like United, Air Canada, and Lufthansa. In addition to a competitive award chart, Avianca does not pass on fuel surcharges from partner airlines. This can save you hundreds of dollars compared to booking the same flights with Aeroplan, ANA, or Singapore miles.

Another benefit of Avianca LifeMiles is that you can choose between economy, business, and first-class on a flight-by-flight basis. And you’ll usually pay a discounted rate for mixed-class itineraries. Most programs charge you the full business-class rate if one segment of your trip is in business class — even if it’s the shortest flight!

For example, below is a mixed-cabin itinerary from San Francisco (SFO) to Lisbon (LIS) on Lufthansa via Frankfurt (FRA). The San Francisco–Frankfurt segment is in business class, and the Frankfurt–Lisbon leg is in economy. This trip comes to 65,520 miles instead of 69,000 miles to fly the entire route in business. Given how minimal intra-Europe business class is, I'd be glad to save the miles.

Example Lufthansa itinerary illustrating per-segment LifeMiles award pricing. Credit: LifeMiles.

Other positives include regular transfer bonuses from Amex to LifeMiles and booking domestic flights on United for as little as 6,500 miles.

Downside to booking with LifeMiles

Perhaps the biggest downside to booking with LifeMiles is the website. You won’t always find award seats, even if they’re available to book through another Star Alliance partner. Or you’ll sometimes find award space when searching segment by segment but not for an entire trip. You could try calling LifeMiles to have it booked over the phone, but there are no guarantees. And LifeMiles eliminated its email booking service that previously handled this issue.

Finally, keep in mind that LifeMiles charges as much as $200 to cancel a ticket. The highest fees apply to international business- or first-class itineraries. However, you can now avoid change fees with the new LifeMiles+ subscription which may be advantageous for avoiding fees, in addition to its other benefits.

Membership Rewards transfer to Avianca LifeMiles instantly at a 1:1 ratio. You can learn more about this excellent program in our guide to Avianca LifeMiles.

British Airways Club

British Airways Club is a favorite among Amex transfer partners. When you transfer Membership Rewards to Avios, you can book travel with Oneworld alliance members like American Airlines, Qatar Airways, and Japan Airlines. In addition, you can book travel with Executive Club's non-alliance partners like Aer Lingus and Fiji Airways.

Like other Avios programs (e.g., Aer Lingus, Iberia, and Qatar), British Airways uses an award chart based on the distance flown. Some partners, such as American Airlines and Alaska Airlines, may have higher pricing than other Avios programs, so it always pays to cost compare. Unfortunately, British Airways raised the rates for its awards within the Americas. Here's our full post on using Avios to book American Airlines flights.

British Airways has hiked the prices for American and Alaska flights. Credit: British Airways

Some great uses of British Airways Avios include:

• U.S. domestic nonstop hops on American or Alaska starting at 12,000 Avios one-way
• West Coast U.S. to Hawaii for 20,000 Avios on nonstop American or Alaska flights
• East Coast U.S. to Dublin, Ireland in Aer Lingus economy starting at 13,000 Avios one-way
• Other short, nonstop flights on Qantas, JAL, or Oneworld carriers

An inexpensive economy award from Boston to Dublin. Credit: British Airways

Another benefit of the Club program is its cancellation policy. You’ll be charged a maximum of $55 to cancel your ticket and redeposit miles. If the taxes and fees on your award ticket are less than $55, you’ll only forfeit your taxes and fees. And while you might see outlandish taxes and fees on some awards, it's possible to avoid high fuel surcharges on Avios bookings.

Amex points transfer instantly to British Airways at a 1:1 ratio. You can find additional resources on maximizing British Airways Avios in our program guide.

Cathay Pacific Asia Miles

Cathay Pacific is part of the Oneworld alliance, so its Asia Miles program is great for booking award flights on American Airlines, Japan Airlines, and Qantas. It’s less ideal for airlines with fuel surcharges like British Airways and Qatar Airways, since you’ll still have to pay those fees. Cathay Pacific Asia Miles is an often-overlooked program but offers a few key benefits.

Award prices are generally comparable to other programs and sometimes offer significantly better value — especially in premium cabins — but an October 2023 devaluation changed some of the value. There are still sweet spots to book, but they look different than they used to.

Some great uses of Asia Miles include:

• Round-the-world business class trips
• Long-haul Cathay Pacific itineraries greater than 7,501 miles
• One-way awards in business class with partner airlines (long-haul flights on Qatar Airways, Finnair, and more)
• Short-haul flights on Alaska Airlines, including transcontinental routings, from 15,000 miles

Although it's not especially difficult to book Cathay awards, they have among the most complex award pricing and routing rules of any airline program. We won't go into detail here, but we want to highlight the around-the-world opportunity. If you include two or more Oneworld partner airlines (a Oneworld multi-carrier award — separate award chart), you can have a whopping five stops on a round-trip itinerary. Award pricing is distance-based and calculated on your total trip distance.

Transfers from Membership Rewards to Cathay Pacific Asia Miles are at a 1:1 ratio and usually post instantly, though within nine hours at other times. It's a good idea to make a test transfer before moving all the miles required for your redemption.

Delta SkyMiles

Delta SkyMiles is the largest of the U.S.-based Amex airline partners. Part of the SkyTeam alliance, Delta has global reach, plus one-off partnerships with several other airlines, including LATAM, Hawaiian Airlines, and WestJet. Since Delta uses dynamic pricing for its awards, booking flights with Delta miles can be a great deal one day and a laughably bad option the next. The number of miles required has also increased substantially over the past several years, and finding a deal for premium cabin tickets can be next to impossible.

For example, I searched for flights from Los Angeles to Paris several months out. The roundtrip ticket price is tolerable enough at 68,000 miles in economy. But look at the insane Delta One pricing! Sadly, these sky-high SkyMiles fares are relatively consistent between the U.S. and Europe.

Example Delta round-trip award prices from LAX to CDG. Credit: Delta

Make sure you compare the round-trip and one-way fares. Unlike airlines that use a region-based award chart where you generally expect the same price in each direction, Delta doesn't promise this. If you want to book the exact same ticket as a one-way flight on the same departure date, Delta will charge you 50,000 miles in economy. For many international itineraries, one-way prices are generally 65-75% of the round-trip price. Keep this in mind when booking Delta awards.

Example Delta one-way award prices from LAX to CDG. Credit: Delta

Given the lack of an award chart, it’s hard to know in advance what will or won’t be a good deal to book with Delta SkyMiles. You just have to search the website and see what happens. When Delta is offering decent prices with miles, it's necessary to check prices with Virgin Atlantic Flying Club and Air France–KLM Flying Blue. It's common to find a better deal using one of these programs to book a Delta-operated flight.

Related: The (Unofficial) Delta SkyMiles Award Chart for Flights from the U.S.

Finally, I want to highlight one of the few ways to get good value from Delta miles — use them for tickets where your itinerary does not touch the U.S. For example, I booked a one-way business class itinerary from Australia to Europe for 90,000 SkyMiles, flying two long-haul segments on Vietnam Airlines. This sort of value is virtually impossible to find for flights from North America to either Europe and Asia.

Membership Rewards transfer to Delta instantly at a 1:1 ratio. Amex charges an excise tax of $0.0006 per point on transfers (with a maximum fee of $99). Although you can pay this fee using points, it's a terrible value. Always cover this fee with your credit card. For more inspiration, check out our post on the best ways to redeem Delta SkyMiles.

Emirates Skywards

The Emirates Skywards program isn't as popular as many others; that's in large part due to Emirates charging hefty fuel surcharges on its own flights. As a result of the high surcharges, the best value often comes for Emirates flights originating in countries that limit or forbid fuel surcharges, like Brazil and Hong Kong.

One potentially useful redemption for U.S.-based flyers is on Emirates’ U.S.-Europe flights. If you’re flying between New York (JFK) and Milan (MXP) or Newark (EWR) and Athens (ATH), you can get economy tickets for just 35,000 miles round-trip. Business and first class are decent value at 108,000 miles and 204,000 miles round-trip, respectively. It can be hard to find them priced at this award level, however.

Emirates fifth freedom business class award example. Credit: Emirates

You can book one-way awards, but these are more expensive than half the cost of round-trip awards since Emirates only sells them at the Flex Plus level.

One of the only places to find high value with Emirates Skywards is partner flights. They are a reasonable option for some Korean Air flights. Emirates also partners with Qantas and JAL, but there are better Amex transfer partners for booking these airlines' flights. Skywards uses a distance-based award chart for its partner flights.

Emirates is a 1:1 transfer partner, and Membership Rewards should post instantly to your Skywards account. Skywards allows you to hold award tickets for 24 hours on Emirates-operated flights, but you have to call to hold a flight.

Etihad Guest

Etihad Guest offers some solid value through its eclectic network of partners – including some major ones like American Airlines and Brussels Airlines and some smaller carriers like Air Serbia, Hainan Airlines, Gulf Air, and Oman Air that are hard to book otherwise. Oddly, the program is pretty terrible for booking flights on Etihad itself.

American Airlines flights were historically an excellent deal using Etihad’s previous award chart. However, Etihad made changes that removed the bulk of the value. These changes hit partner awards hard across the board.

But buyer beware: Etihad has one of the most strict and punitive award cancelation policies. A good practice is to book through another program unless your plans are set in stone. Otherwise, you'll have to tangle with Etihad's confusing refund policy.

Amex points transfer at a 1:1 ratio to Etihad Guest. Although points are occasionally delayed, transfers usually post instantly.

Hawaiian Airlines HawaiianMiles

Hawaiian Airlines uses a pseudo-dynamic award pricing model. Thus, it can be a bit hit or miss when hunting for a good deal using Hawaiian Airlines HawaiianMiles. If you’re flying from the U.S. mainland to Hawaii, flights start at just 10,000 miles each way in economy and 40,000 miles each way in business. However, awards can go as high as 130,000 miles each way. On the other hand, award availability tends to be quite good.

Hawaiian award flight option from SFO to HNL. Credit: Hawaiian

You also can use HawaiianMiles to book award travel on partner airlines like Japan Airlines, JetBlue, Korean Air, Virgin Atlantic, and Virgin Australia. However, none of these award charts offer particularly good value. But there is an excellent new option for booking flights on other airlines.

Transfer Amex points to Alaska Airlines

The big news is that Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines have merged. Brilliantly, the airlines' frequent flyer programs allow you to move miles seamlessly between them at a 1:1 ratio. There are some solid uses of HawaiianMiles, but I will venture to say that you'll often find better value through Alaska MileagePlan. This merger allows backdoor transfers from American Express Membership Rewards to Alaska miles through HawaiianMiles as an intermediate step. An additional plus is that this development has resulted in a reduction in award prices between the U.S. mainland and Hawaii.

As with Delta Skymiles, Amex will pass on an excise tax of $0.0006 per mile transferred to Hawaiian. Be sure to pay this fee with your credit card. Using Membership Rewards to cover the cost will get you a measly 1¢ per point. HawaiianMiles is an instant 1:1 transfer partner of Amex Membership Rewards.

Iberia Plus

As mentioned above, Iberia Plus also participates in the Avios program, but redemption possibilities are slightly different than with British Airways, Qatar Airways, or Aer Lingus. What is similar between Iberia and the other programs is that the longer the flight you take, the more miles you will have to pay.

Iberia now prices American Airlines flights by segment, which cut much of the value from Iberia's program. Iberia now uses the same award chart as British Airways for using Avios on American Airlines and Alaska Airlines within the Americas. Another major drawback of the Iberia Plus program for this type of itinerary is that all partner flights are non-refundable. So, partner flights aren't the best use. You'll want to use Iberia Avios for the airline's own flights.

My favorite use of Iberia Plus Avios is off-peak flights between Boston, Chicago or New York City and Madrid in business class for only 34,000 miles each way. Most airlines charge around 30,000 miles one-way in economy to fly between the U.S. and Europe. This Iberia flight is an absolute steal if you can find availability. Flights from hubs like Miami and Los Angeles are also a solid deal at 42,500 miles one-way. Still, a mere 34,000 miles for seven hours in business class is a screaming deal.

Iberia award flight from ORD to MAD. Credit: Iberia

Transfers to Iberia can take up to 24 hours to process. If you’re in a hurry to book, you may want to transfer points instantly from Membership Rewards to British Airways. Then, you can transfer from British Airways to Iberia instantly.

JetBlue TrueBlue

Of all the Membership Rewards partners, JetBlue TrueBlue is by far the easiest to use. Unlike other loyalty programs that charge a fixed number of miles from one part of the world to another, the number of TrueBlue points needed to book a ticket depends on the cash price of the flight. Like, Southwest Rapid Rewards, the JetBlue TrueBlue award program is fully revenue-based.

While this eliminates the potential to get disproportionately high value from your points, JetBlue compensates by making the booking completely painless. With TrueBlue points, there are no blackout dates or award availability restrictions, so you can always use your points if there's a seat for sale. AwardWallet users get an average value of 1.24¢ per point. The actual value at the time of booking varies from one flight to the next, ranging from 1.0–1.5¢ per point.

Alternatively, you can use TrueBlue points to book partner airlines like Hawaiian Airlines, Qatar Airways, and TAP Air Portugal. Your points will go a lot further with these partners. For instance, you can book Qatar Airways Qsuite between the U.S. and Doha starting at 70,000 points. You can fly the long distance between Los Angeles and Doha starting at 90,000 points.

Use JetBlue TrueBlue points to book long-haul premium cabin Qatar awards. Credit: JetBlue

Tip on booking through Amex Travel

A quick note: if you have The Business Platinum Card^® from American Express, you'll get a 35% points rebate on business- and first-class tickets booked through Amex Travel (up to 1 million points back annually). The points rebate also works for economy flights with the airline you've selected as your preferred airline for the annual airline fee credit. In this case, you can get more from your Membership Rewards points by booking JetBlue Mint or economy fares if you see a good deal and opt to pay with points through the Amex Travel portal. Enrollment is required for select Amex benefits.

Make sure to compare prices on Amex Travel before transferring from Membership Rewards to JetBlue or to any of the other lower-value Amex transfer partners.

Transfers from Amex to JetBlue occur at a 250:200 ratio and should post instantly. You'll find more details in our guide to maximizing JetBlue TrueBlue points.

Qantas Frequent Flyer

Qantas Frequent Flyer uses a distance-based award chart that calculates the price of your ticket based on the total distance flown, rather than the distance of each segment (the method British Airways uses). The best value usually comes from short trips. You’ll pay 8,000 points each way for trips under 600 miles and 12,000 points each way for trips between 600 and 1,200 miles. Qantas prices tend to be higher than other Amex partner airlines for tmost itineraries, but you can find situations where transfers can make sense.

The Qantas website is much better at searching for and booking complex itineraries — like travel between small U.S. airports — than the Iberia or British Airways search engines. For short-segment, connecting AA itineraries, Qantas can't be beaten.

Credit: Qantas

Membership Rewards transfers to Qantas should post instantly at a 1:1 ratio. You can learn more about Qantas award prices and fees here. Though, we should note that Qantas has scheduled a program devaluation for August 5, 2025, so if you see something you like, consider booking sooner rather than later.

Qatar Airways Privilege Club

As yet another Amex transfer partner that uses the Avios currency, you can freely transfer points between British Airways and Qatar Airways (here's how) at a 1:1 transfer ratio. After recent changes, the Qatar partner award chart largely matches other Avios programs. That means it generally won't matter if you transfer Membership Rewards to British Airways or Qatar Airways. The award rates should be the same for non-BA and non-Qatar awards.

Where Qatar Privilege Club comes in handy is booking awards on Qatar's own flights. We've found that Qatar offers more award availability to its own members than through partner programs. Other than that, there's not a huge reason to use the program.

Qatar Airways Qsuite business class. Credit: JT Genter/AwardWallet

Membership Rewards transfer to Qatar at a 1:1 ratio and usually take less than a day.

Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer

Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer is a great program to consider if you also have other transferrable points currencies like Citi ThankYou^® Rewards or Chase Ultimate Rewards. As a member of the Star Alliance, Singapore KrisFlyer miles can be used to book flights on all 20+ of the other member airlines. In addition, you can use Singapore miles to fly with Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Australia, and Alaska Airlines.

Related: American Express^® Gold Card vs. Chase Sapphire Preferred^® Card(Rates & Fees) 

One of our favorite ways to redeem KrisFlyer miles is to snag a Spontaneous Escapes award. Every month, Singapore Airlines discounts select routes by 30%, which can mean fantastic savings — especially on some of the airline's business-class routes between the U.S. and Europe or Japan. For instance, we've seen one-way business class awards between New York and Frankfurt cost as little as 56,700 miles!

Spontaneous escape pricing for business class from JFK to FRA. Credit: Singapore Airlines

Other suggested uses of Singapore KrisFlyer miles:

• Fly United Airlines from the U.S. to Hawaii in economy for 19,500 Singapore miles.
• Fly any Star Alliance member airline from the U.S. to Europe for 30,500 miles in economy (watch out for fuel surcharges with some carriers).

Like Virgin Atlantic, Cathay Pacific, and Aeroplan, the KrisFlyer program passes on fuel surcharges to consumers, so your out-of-pocket cost can vary dramatically from $5.60 to $500 or more, depending on the airline operating your flight. If the cash component of a Singapore booking is too high, Avianca LifeMiles may be a better option within the Membership Rewards ecosystem. With Avianca, you should be able to book the same flights for less cash and (sometimes) more miles. We've rounded up a few other great deals in our post on Singapore KrisFlyer sweet spots.

Transfers from Membership Rewards to Singapore KrisFlyer are at a 1:1 ratio and usually take less than a day.

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club is one of the most underrated Amex transfer partners. This is largely because of its favorable award rates — and more so because it introduced dynamic pricing to Virgin-operated award tickets. Ordinarily, dynamic pricing means higher rates — which is still the case with Virgin — but the move introduced fantastic prices between the U.S. and the U.K. Think hopping across the pond from 6,000 points in economy or 29,000 in Upper Class.

Alongside this move to dynamic pricing, Virgin Atlantic also slashed the tax and fee component of award tickets. What used to be a lot in taxes and fees is now a totally reasonable out-of-pocket cost.

Credit: Virgin Atlantic

Virgin Atlantic is part of SkyTeam and partners with airlines like Delta and Air France. It also partners with Air New Zealand, Singapore Airlines, Virgin Australia, and All Nippon Airways (ANA) — and you can unlock great value on these carriers as well.

Related: The Best Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Sweet Spots

Value of booking ANA flights using Virgin Atlantic points

We can't conclude any discussion of Virgin Atlantic Flying Club without mentioning the value of booking ANA flights using ANA miles. You can book roundtrip flights between the mainland U.S. and Japan for 60,000–65,000 Virgin points in economy, 90,000–95,000 points in business class, or 145,000–170,000 points in first class. This is immense savings over what most other programs charge, even after a 2023 devaluation to ANA first-class awards.

Most flights with Virgin Atlantic, Delta, KLM, and Air France are bookable online. But other partner bookings will require calling Virgin Atlantic at 800-365-9500. It’s slightly inconvenient, but the points savings can be worth it! Fortunately, Virgin has one of the best call centers of all major loyalty programs. Hold times are usually short, and the staff is knowledgeable and friendly.

Flying Club agents can put a flight on hold for 24–72 hours (depending on the partner) — a huge advantage that most airlines no longer offer. Virgin Atlantic is an instant, 1:1 Membership Rewards transfer partner.

Amex Hotel Transfer Partners

In general, the three Amex hotel partners offer terrible value compared to what you can achieve with Amex airline partners. A good flight redemption can easily fetch a value of 3¢ per point (and sometimes far more), yet hotel bookings rarely get you more than a penny for each Amex point. If you're desperate to use points for hotels, you're better off opening one of Amex's co-brand hotel cards like the Hilton Honors American Express Surpass^® Card or Marriott Bonvoy Business^® American Express^® Card.

You can transfer Amex points to these hotel partners at the following ratios:

Choice Privileges

Most Choice Privileges hotels in the United States are budget properties like Econo Lodge and Travelodge that don’t offer much value for points redemptions. However, you can find a solid number of historic, boutique, and unique hotels within the Ascend Hotel Collection. Choice Hotels in Europe also tend to offer excellent value. This is because even budget properties tend to be nicer than its U.S. counterparts.

Also, Choice has a wide variety of properties in several expensive European cities. Free nights range from 6,000 to 35,000 points per night (except in Australia, where nights can go for as many as 75,000 points). You'll also want to check out the list of Preferred Hotels where you can use Choice points.

However, with few exceptions, Choice points are worth far less than airline miles, so the 1:1 transfer ratio from Amex to Choice Privileges makes this partnership a non-starter for many. The only reason to consider this option is if you are only a few thousand points short of a redemption. Even then, it's probably better to buy Choice points rather than transferring valuable Amex points.

Also, consider transferring Citi ThankYou^® Points or Wells Fargo to Choice Privileges. The transfer ratio for both is 1:2, meaning you'll get double the number of points you transfer. If you know what you're doing and can extract high value from your Choice redemptions, these can make sense in limited situations.

Inexpensive Choice Hotels awards in Tokyo. Credit: Choice Hotels

Hilton Honors

You should note that Hilton Honors award night prices range from 10,000 to 150,000 points per night. Membership Rewards points transfer to Hilton at a rate of 1:2 (1,000 Amex points yields 2,000 Hilton Honors points). So, you’ll need between 5,000 and 75,000 Amex points to book a free night through Hilton. Occasionally, Membership Rewards will run a Hilton Honors transfer bonus. We're a big fan of the Hilton Honors loyalty program, even if transfers from Amex aren't a good deal.

Variable award pricing

Make sure you understand that Hilton Honors uses variable award pricing. In fact, depending on how many rooms are available, prices can fluctuate dramatically even at the same hotel. Here’s an example of several different award prices over a month for a random New York City hotel for a two-night stay.

A sample month of award availability showing Hilton dynamic pricing. Credit: Hilton

If you have Hilton elite status, you’ll also get the fifth night free on award stays of five nights or more. Since award pricing is complex, you’ll want to confirm the numbers for your dates. In addition, you should compare with cash rates before transferring any Amex points to Hilton Honors. Even with the 1:2 transfer ratio, it's hard to justify a transfer to Hilton. This is especially true when you can pick up a pile of points with the welcome offer on one of the multiple Hilton co-branded credit cards.

Marriott Bonvoy

As a general rule, transferring Membership Rewards points to Marriott Bonvoy won't be a good use of your points. This is because Marriott’s award chart has some pretty inflated prices, owing to its move to dynamic pricing. You'll sometimes need 150,000 or more Marriott points to book a top-tier property. Of course, this depends on the time of year. These days, Marriott's awards are priced more in line with Hilton. The reality is that you could get two or three nights at a top-tier Choice Hotel property for the price of a single night at a top-tier Marriott property.

Do the prep work

That said, if you’re set on using your Membership Rewards for a Marriott hotel, do the math to ensure you’re getting good value from your points. For instance, if a hotel costs $800 per night because of an event in town, but you could book it for 40,000 Marriott points, it might not be a bad choice.

Use the flexible date search to see the range of property prices. Credit: Marriott

Although Marriott isn't a good choice for Amex points transfers, the Marriott Bonvoy program is definitely worth a deeper look. This is thanks to the ability to transfer Marriott points to nearly 40 partner airlines.

How Long Do Points Take to Transfer to Travel Partners?

AwardWallet tracks the transfer times to Amex transfer partners. Transfers to most programs are immediate. The ones you'll need to watch out for include the following:

• ANA Mileage Club: Can take about a day
• Cathay Pacific Asia Miles: Can take 9 hours on average
• Iberia Plus: Less than a day
• Marriott Bonvoy: Not always immediate; can have a brief delay
• Qatar Avios: Can take up to a day
• Singapore KrisFlyer: Sometimes instant, but can take up to a day

Tips for Maximizing Amex Transfer Partners

• Always confirm flights or hotel nights are available with points before transferring points. Put Virgin Atlantic and Emirates awards on hold before you transfer, when possible.
• Check the cost of booking the same flight or hotel through the Amex Travel portal. In some cases, you’ll spend fewer points and less cash booking this way, instead of transferring to a partner program. Especially true when using a revenue-based program like JetBlue TrueBlue.
• Each of the airline transfer partners has its own list of partner airlines. Amex points can book flights with over 100 unique airlines, giving you great coverage of the entire globe.
• Transfers are irreversible. You can never transfer points back to Membership Rewards, so plan your transfers carefully.
• Compare prices. Several airlines can be booked with multiple Amex transfer partners. Compare the taxes and fees and points required before you decide where to transfer points.

Remember:

• Delta, Air France, AeroMexico, and Virgin Atlantic can book Delta flights.
• British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Etihad, and Iberia can book American flights.
• Air Canada, ANA, Avianca, and Singapore can book United flights.
• British Airways, Cathay Pacific, and Singapore can book Alaska flights.

For rates and fees of the cards mentioned in this post, please visit the following links: Chase Sapphire Preferred^® Card (Rates & Fees)

AwardWallet Tip of The Day

Did you know that you can view your account balances across all airlines within one of the global alliances? Click the alliance icon in the list of accounts next to any airline in an alliance to see the details.
Show me how

Hide image