Transferring Amex points means moving your Membership Rewards balance from an eligible American Express card into a partner airline or hotel loyalty account. You log into your Amex account, pick a partner, enter your loyalty number, and confirm the amount. Most transfers post instantly, and almost all are permanent once submitted.
Which Cards Can Transfer Points
Only cards enrolled in the Membership Rewards program can transfer. Cash-back products like the Blue Cash Preferred, and co-branded cards tied to a single airline or hotel such as Delta SkyMiles or Hilton Honors cards, earn their own currencies and don’t participate. On the personal side, the Platinum Card, Gold Card, Green Card, and EveryDay cards earn transferable points. On the business side, the Business Platinum, Business Gold, Business Green, and Blue Business Plus do.
Your account also needs to be in good standing. If you fall behind on payments or violate the cardmember agreement, Amex can freeze your rewards balance until the issue is resolved.1American Express. What Happens to Amex Points When You Cancel
How to Transfer Your Points
Log into your Amex account and open the Membership Rewards transfer page. Pick a partner, link your loyalty account by entering the member number, and enter the amount. The name on the partner account should match the name on your Amex card, or the transfer can be rejected.
Most partners require a minimum of 1,000 points in 1,000-point increments. JetBlue is one exception, allowing transfers as low as 250 points in 250-point increments. Qantas starts at 500 points in 500-point increments. Nearly every transfer posts instantly to the partner account. ANA Mileage Club is the outlier and can take up to 48 hours.
Once points leave your Membership Rewards balance, they’re gone. There’s no way to reverse a transfer, so confirm award availability and pricing in the partner program before you submit.2American Express. How Do I Transfer Membership Rewards Points
Where Points Can Go and at What Ratio
Amex partners with roughly 17 airlines and 3 hotel chains in the U.S. program. Most transfer at a 1:1 ratio, meaning 1,000 Membership Rewards points become 1,000 miles or partner points. A few ratios are different:
- Hilton Honors transfers at 1:2, so 1,000 Amex points become 2,000 Hilton points.
- Aeromexico transfers at 1:1.6, giving you 1,600 Aeromexico points per 1,000 Amex points.
- JetBlue transfers at 1.25:1, so 1,250 Amex points produce 1,000 TrueBlue points.
Airline partners include Delta, British Airways, Air Canada Aeroplan, Air France/KLM Flying Blue, Singapore Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, Emirates, Qatar Airways, ANA, Avianca, Cathay Pacific, Iberia, Aer Lingus, and Qantas, among others. Hotel partners are Hilton, Marriott Bonvoy, and Choice Privileges. The lineup does change occasionally.
The Excise Tax Fee on Airline Transfers
When you transfer points to a U.S. domestic airline partner, Amex charges an excise tax offset fee of $0.0006 per point, capped at $99 per transaction. This covers the 7.5% federal excise tax on the purchase or transfer of frequent flyer miles. The fee applies only to domestic airline programs, not to international airlines or hotel partners. On a 50,000-point transfer, the fee works out to $30. It posts to your next billing statement.
Can You Transfer Points to Another Person
You cannot send Membership Rewards points to another person’s Membership Rewards account. Amex is explicit: the points in your account are not transferable to any other person or account.3American Express. Can I Transfer Membership Rewards Points Into Another Person’s Membership Rewards Account
The workaround is to transfer your points into an Additional Card Member’s partner loyalty account. If your spouse is an additional cardholder on your Platinum, you can send your points directly to their Delta SkyMiles or Hilton Honors account. The Additional Card must have been on your account for at least 90 days before you can link their partner loyalty account for a transfer.2American Express. How Do I Transfer Membership Rewards Points
Combining Points Across Your Own Cards
If you carry more than one Membership Rewards-enrolled card under the same account, the points automatically pool into a single balance.4American Express. American Express – Frequently Asked Questions Your Gold Card and Platinum Card earnings sit together, ready for one transfer.
Business and personal accounts are a separate matter. If you hold a personal Platinum and a Business Gold, those balances live in different pools, and Amex does not allow combining them.5American Express. Corporate Membership Rewards You can still transfer from either account to the same partner program, but it takes two separate transfers.
Transfer Bonuses
Amex periodically runs promotions that add bonus points on transfers to specific partners, typically 10% to 30% extra. A 20% bonus to Hilton, for example, turns 100,000 Amex points into 240,000 Hilton points: the standard 200,000 at the 1:2 ratio, plus 40,000 bonus. These run a few times per year and usually last a few weeks.
There’s no fixed schedule. If your plans are flexible, waiting for a bonus on your target partner can stretch your points. If you already have award space held and a trip booked, locking it in usually beats gambling on a promotion that may not come.
Protecting Points From Forfeiture
Membership Rewards points don’t expire as long as you have at least one enrolled card open and your account is in good standing.6American Express. Do American Express Points Expire The trap is closing your last enrolled card. If you cancel the only Membership Rewards card you hold, the entire balance is forfeited immediately. New York cardmembers may have a 90-day window to redeem after account closure, but outside New York, forfeiture is instant.1American Express. What Happens to Amex Points When You Cancel
Once points are transferred to a partner, they follow that program’s rules, not Amex’s. Some airline programs expire miles after 18 to 24 months of inactivity; others have no expiration. Check the partner’s policy before moving a large balance you won’t use soon.
Making the Transfer Worth It
Transferring is usually the highest-value way to spend Membership Rewards points. A statement credit returns roughly 0.6 cents per point. Booking through the Amex Travel portal returns about 1 cent per point on flights. Transferring to the right partner for the right redemption can push that to 2 cents or higher, particularly on premium international flights.
Work in this order: search for award availability on the partner airline or hotel first, confirm how many points the booking costs, then transfer exactly that amount. Transferring speculatively and then finding the seat or room is gone is the most common and most avoidable mistake. Because transfers are instant for nearly every partner, there’s rarely any reason to move points before you’ve confirmed the booking.