Membership Rewards Guide (2021)
Easily Earn Points for Free Travel, Introduction to 'Transferable' Reward Points
Amex’s reward program is called Membership Rewards. Membership Rewards homepage.
Membership Rewards is the best rewards program for people who plan to use their points for frequent flyer tickets and is the easiest program for earning massive amount of points from signup and other bonuses.
Membership Rewards has the most airline partners of the big three “transferable” points programs (although not as many as Marriott). Unlike Ultimate Rewards, it frequently offers promotions where you receive extra frequent flyer miles when you transfer your points to specific partners.
But Membership Rewards is not nearly as valuable as Ultimate Rewards for people who don’t want to mess around with frequent flyer tickets.
However, if you have the Business Platinum card, you can get 1.54 cents, rather than 1 cent, when you use your points to purchase premium-class airline tickets or coach tickets on your preferred airline. If you pay the high annual fee for this card, you'll have a way to more easily "cash out" your points at good value.
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Airline transfer partners
Most transfers happen instantly. However, it can take a few days for points to transfer to Aeromexico, ANA, Cathay Pacific (Asia Miles), Iberia, Singapore (KrisFlyer) or Virgin Atlantic.
| Star Alliance (United) |
SkyTeam (Delta) |
Oneworld (American) |
Other |
|---|---|---|---|
| Air Canada (Aeroplan) | Delta | British Airways | JetBlue (1000:800) |
| Avianca (South America) |
Air France / KLM (Flying Blue) |
Cathay Pacific (Asia Miles) |
Hawaiian Airlines |
| ANA (Japan) |
Aeromexico (1000:1600) |
Iberia | Etihad |
| Singapore Airlines (KrisFlyer) |
Alitalia |
Aer Lingus | Emirates |
| Qantas | Virgin Atlantic (1000:500) | ||
| El Al (1000:20) |
Avianca and Air Canada allow you to avoid fuel surcharges on Star Alliance flights. ANA offers great values to many destinations, especially Japan.
Cathay Pacific and Iberia often let you spend fewer miles than British Airways when booking Oneworld awards. Singapore, Flying Blue, and British Airways offer many good award options, but are available through other the other credit card programs.
It is helpful to be able to transfer points directly to Delta, rather than a partner, so that you can book non-saver award space (which sometimes only requires a small number of additional miles) and you can combine with miles from the Delta credit card or your Delta / SkyTeam flights.
Remember that you can use miles from any of these programs to book awards with any of that program’s partner airlines. So, you can transfer your Membership Rewards points to Air Canada and then use those points to fly United, any of the two dozen or so other airlines that are part of the Star Alliance, or any of Air Canada’s other airline partners. Between all the partnerships, you can redeem your Membership Rewards points on over 100 airlines.
- You need to pay a .06 cent per point fee when you transfer Membership Rewards points to a U.S. frequent flyer program. Transferring enough points for a 50,000-point ticket would cost $30 in fees. Transfer fees are capped at $99, so any additional points over 165,000 are free to transfer.
- Membership Rewards frequently runs promotions where you’ll get a better-than-normal rate for transferring your points to a specific partner airline. For example, you might get an extra 25% Cathay Pacific miles when you transfer your points during the promotional time-frame. If you expect to have good opportunities to use points with a specific airline, you can transfer points during one of the promotions. You’ll give up the flexibility of using the points with a different program later, but you’ll get more miles from your points. See Take Advantage of Transfer Bonuses to Get More Value from Your Reward Points for more information or visit Frequent Miler’s Current Transfer Bonuses page for a list of current bonuses.
Hotel transfer partners
The typical value that you can get from many types of hotel points is well under 1 cent per point. As a result, it will rarely make sense to transfer your points to a hotel partner.
| Hilton (1000:2000) |
Marriott (1000:1000) |
Choice (1000:1000) |
Cashing out your points
If you don’t want to mess with frequent flyer tickets, Membership Rewards points are typically only worth less than 1 cent per point.
That's what American Express will give you when you purchase certain gift cards or buy flights through their website.
- If you have the Business Platinum card, you can use your points for certain airfare tickets at 1.54 cents each. When you use your points to buy business or first-class airplane tickets or coach tickets on your preferred airline, you will receive a 35% rebate. For example, if you wanted to purchase a $300 ticket, you would need 30,000 points. Then you’d get 10,500 points refunded to your account. This essentially gives you 1.54 cents in value for each point you use. For people who are don't want to mess around with frequent flyer tickets, this makes Membership Rewards considerably more competitive with the Ultimate Rewards program.
- If you have the business version of the Gold card, you can use your points for certain airline tickets at 1.33 cents each. It provides essentially the same rebate as the Business Platinum card above, except that you get 25% of your points back, rather than 35%. The annual fee for this card is lower ($295) and it comes with a great reward rate on up to two business-related categories, including US Restaurants.
- If you have the Charles Schwab version of the Platinum card, you'll receive 1.1 cents per point (1.25 cents until September) when you deposit them into your Schwab account. This card is a good option for people who have accumulated a large stash of Membership Rewards points and are having difficulty finding good opportunities to redeem them for frequent flyer tickets. You need to be a Charles Schwab customer to get this card, but there are no fees for opening a Schwab account.
Of course, not everyone is eligible to get the Business Platinum card or will get enough extra value to justify its annual fee. If you are interested in getting a Platinum card anyway, are eligible for business cards, and aren’t sure about committing yourself to frequent flyer redemptions, it can be a great option.
If you are collecting signup bonuses, hold off getting the Schwab version of the Platinum card until you are almost finished earning bonuses from other American Express cards. Then, get this card, and you'll have the option to cash out some or all your points.
If you have one of these cards, you can use the card's feature to cash out any of your Membership Rewards points, not just the ones you earned from that specific card. For example, if you have the Charles Schwab version of the Platinum Card, you can deposit the Membership Rewards points you earned from the Everyday Preferred card into your Schwab account, not just the points you earn from the Schwab card.
Membership Rewards credit cards
Targeted signup offers are sometimes available that are higher than the typical signup bonuses shown below. Most Membership Rewards cards are charge cards, not credit cards—these are starred below. The reason this is relevant is that charge cards don’t count against Amex’s 5 card at a time limit.
| Card | Typical Signup Bonus | Bonus Categories | Effective Annual Fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amex Platinum Card* | 60-100,000 | 5x airfare
5x hotels (prepaid at Amex Travel only, not very useful) |
<0-$695 |
| Schwab Platinum* (must be a customer) | 60,000 | <0-$695 | |
| Morgan Stanley Platinum* (must be a customer) | 60,000 | <0-$695 | |
| Goldman Sachs Platinum* (must be a customer) | 60,000 | <0-$695 | |
| Amex Platinum Business Card* | 75-150,000 | 5x airfare (at Amex Travel) | $195-595 |
| Amex Gold* | 25-50,000 | 4x US restaurants
4x US supermarkets 3x airfare |
$30-250 |
| Amex Green Card* | 30,000 | 3x Travel
3x Restaurants |
$150 |
| Amex Business Gold* | 25-50,000 | 4x in top 2 categories each billing period: US advertising in select media, US computer related purchases, US shipping, US gas stations, US restaurnts | $295 |
| Morgan Stanley* (must be a customer) | 10,000 | 2x airfare
2x US restaurants 2x select rental car companies 2x select department stores |
$0 |
| Amex Everyday Preferred | 15-30,000 | 4.5x U.S supermarkets
3x US gas stations 1.5x everywhere else (Assumes 50% bonus for making 30 transactions per month) |
$95 |
| Amex Everyday | 10-20,000 | 2.4x US supermarkets
(Assumes 20% bonus for making 20 transactions per month) |
$0 |
| Amex Business Green* | 5,000 | - | $95, waived first year |
| Blue Business Plus | 10,000 | 2x everywhere | $0 |
Because of Amex's extremely large number of cards and the lack of a rule like Chase 5/24, you can earn very large quantities of Membership Rewards points from signup bonuses.
You can only earn each signup bonus once per lifetime, but you can earn the signup bonus for every version of a given card. Try to sign up when they are running a promotion for extra points. Occasionally, you may receive a targeted offer that allows you to earn the signup bonus, even if you had already earned it.
Unlike the other credit card companies, Amex allows their cardholders to refer their friends to any credit card, not just to the ones they already have. If the person you refer winds up using your link to get a card, they get an often better than normal signup bonus and you get a bunch of extra points.
For example, lets say you have the Amex Platinum card and you refer your friend. When they use your referral link, they will be taken to a "You've Been Referred" version of the Amex Platinum card webpage. But if they use the "Explore Other Cards" section, they can actually sign up for any card. If they choose the Hilton Surpass card, you'll get the referral bonus for the Amex Platinum Card (let's say 15,000 Membership Rewards points), and when they meet the spending requirements, they'll earn the bonus on the Hilton card.
In rare cases, Amex may alert you during the signup process that while you can apply for the card, you won't receive the signup bonus (even though you've never had the card before). If you see this alert, you can try applying without the referral link. In some instances, you will then be entitled to the signup bonus (but you'll unfortunately miss out on the referral).
Referrals from airline and hotel cards can only be used to sign up for other airline or hotel cards from the same brand. But referrals from "regular" Amex cards can be used to refer to almost any Amex card, including hotel and airline cards, and even including small business cards.
If you sign up for an Amex card without using a referral link, you are leaving points on the table. Ideally, you have a spouse you can refer and who can refer you. If not, try to trade referrals with (or just be nice to) a friend.
Amex will occasionally give you an offer where they will give you additional points if you upgrade to another card. Even if you had previously received the signup bonus for the upgraded card, you’ll still receive these additional points. In general, if you haven’t previously had the new card, decline the offer to upgrade, so that you can eventually earn the signup bonus for the new card.
Amex has periodically mailed out offers to add the "Pay Over Time" feature to their charge cards. This gives you the option of carrying a balance on your card (and paying interest charges), which is something that we would never recommend.
But they give you 10,000 points (per card) for signing up, and there is no obligation to use the feature, so it always made sense to take advantage of the offer.
Now, you don't have to wait to receive an offer in the mail. You can use this link to check to see if the offer is available for any of your cards. Thanks to Doctor of Credit for pointing this out.
Bonus category opportunities
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The Blue for Business card offers the highest possible rate for everyday spending. It earns 2x Membership Rewards points, regardless of the purchase category. However, it is a small business card and the 2x rate is only available on the first $50,000 of purchases each year. | |
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The EveryDay Preferred Card earns the best possible rate on groceries (capped at $6,000 spending per year) and gas and can be a good everyday option for people who can't or don't want to get a business card. But you need to be willing to make the effort to qualify for the bonus points you receive when you make 30 transactions per month. If not, you might consider the Blue Cash Preferred Card card instead. | |
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The Gold card offers great reward rates on groceries (capped at $25,000 spending per year), along with restaurants and airfare. | |
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The Green card offers a great reward rate on travel, although you'll probably want to use another card for airfare. If aren't likely to spend a lot on groceries, it is a less expensive, but less lucrative, option than the Gold card for restaurant spending. | |
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In general, you are better off with non-Membership Rewards cards for travel and restaurant spending, with the possible exception of the 5x Membership Rewards points you can earn on airfare with the Amex Platinum card. Chase offers generally better options from business cards (if you can get them), and Amex doesn’t have a rotating category card. |
Point transfers and expiration
All your Membership Rewards points should accrue to a single account, even if you have multiple cards. If you have at least one active card that earns Membership Rewards points, you won’t forfeit your points. Getting or converting-to a no-annual-fee EveryDay card or Blue Business Card is a great option to keep your account alive.
You can’t transfer Membership Rewards to another person. However, you can transfer your points into a partner program account that belongs to an authorized card holder. For example, you can make your spouse an authorized cardholder on one of your cards (in most cases with no additional fee). Then you could transfer points from your Membership Rewards account to one of their frequent flyer accounts. As of September 1, 2019, you can only transfer points to frequent flyer accounts of people who have been authorized cardholders for at least 90 days. This eliminates last minute transfers. If you are likely to want to move miles to a partner's account, try to set up at least one jointly held card ahead of time.
