Membership Rewards (MR) is the points program from American Express. MR points can be accumulated via a number of their credit cards including the Premier Rewards Gold Card, Platinum Card®, American Express® Green Card, Blue Sky from American Express®, Amex EveryDaySM Credit Card and Amex EveryDaySM Preferred Credit Card. Some of these cards ean bonus points when shopping at certain merchants.
One of the great things about MR points is that they can be transferred to a number of travel partners including:
- Aeroplan (Air Canada)
- British Airways Executive Club
- Alitalia (1000:750)
- Asia Miles (Cathay Pacific) (1000:750)
- Delta (1000:750)
- Etihad (1000:750)
- Hilton
- SPG (1000:500)
One of my favorite uses for MRs is transferring them to British Airways as BA Avios are great for short haul trips on American Airlines as they transfer at a 1:1 ratio vs. some of the other ratios we see above.
Unfortunately that’s changing on October 1. Starting on that date the transfer ratio to British Airways (and Iberia, which also uses Avios) will be 250 MRs to 200 Avios, which is a 25% devaluation. While that won’t be a huge hit for short haul trips, it would make a big difference when using Avios for long haul trips, like my upcoming trip to Australia. I didn’t have enough Avios in my account and topped it off with MRs so I’d have enough to make the reservation.
I suppose this is to be expected as we’ve learned that nothing stays the same in the world of points and miles but it’s still disappointing.
2B Traveling 
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