A few weeks ago, I posted that American Express was running a 40% bonus for transferring Amex Membership Rewards Points to British Airways. That deal is set to end today, January 31, so if you haven’t transferred your points over to British Airways, now is the time to do it!
As a reminder, British Airways points can be used for flights on American Airlines and US Airways. The Mrs. Guru and I have redeemed British Airways points to Ireland, New York, Chicago, Washington DC, Jacksonville, and the Bahamas – all for 50-75% fewer points than it would cost when booking through American or US Airways. They key is that British Airways has a distance-based award chart, so the number of points that they charge for an award is based on the distance that you fly. As a result, short, nonstop flights (even within the US) are as low as 4,500 points one way, compared to the standard 12,500 points that American and US Airways charge:
So for us, living in North Carolina, we can get almost anywhere up and down the east coast for 9,000 British Airways points roundtrip (or at most, 15,000). Normally, the transfer ratio for moving points from American Express to British Airways is a simple 1:1 conversion, but this 40% Amex transfer bonus makes a huge difference.
For a little perspective, back in 2013, American Express offered 3 different transfer bonuses for moving points to British Airways:
- In January, 2013 they offered a 30% bonus
- In May, 2013 they offered a 35% bonus
- In October, 2013 they offered a 20%
In 2014, there weren’t any bonuses at all, so it doesn’t seem likely that we’ll see another Amex transfer bonus to British Airways anytime soon. Either way, 40% is the highest bonus I’ve ever seen (the last time there was a 40% bonus was back in 2012), so this matches the largest bonus I’ve seen. So if you have Amex points in your account, this promotion is tough to beat!