Today (January 14, 2013) is the last day to transfer your American Express Membership Reward points to British Airways Avios with a 30% bonus. In the past 12 months, a transfer bonus offer has been quite common. I personally transfered about half of my Amex point balance back in April with the 50% transfer bonus. There haven’t been too many transfer promotions, so this is one of the better offers on the table. It has been over a year now since we’ve seen a Delta transfer bonus and all of the other bonuses are no where as lucrative. I really really hope this British Airways promotion becomes a tradition with the American Express program. While I personally would suggest transferring during a 50% bonus offer, there really is no way of knowing if that will ever come back. With any other bonus opportunities, it is always like playing the lottery.
I personally like that my American Express Membership Reward points have the flexibility to be used for many programs, so I am not transferring anymore points since I already have a ton of BA Avios points. But if you typically use British Airways Avios or know of an upcoming need for them, this is a great promotion to take advantage of.
Also, if you currently are short of American Express points you can actually do a Membership Rewards point advance. Depending on the card you have determines the amount you can advance in a calendar year: Amex Platinum = 60,000 points; Amex Gold = 15,000 points; Amex Green = 5,000 points. Even if you have multiple cards you can only cash advance to the amount of the highest card you have. You must earn the number of points advanced back within 12 months or you will be charged purchase points transaction rate, which can be quite expensive. To do this though, you must have been a card member for at least 6 months and your account must be in good standing. I know many people were able to get on the recent 100,000 point American Express welcome offer and since those points have yet to hit your account this could be a way to at least use some of them, if that is of interest to you.
If you are not as aware of the British Airways Avios points, make sure to read these prior posts. It really can be a great program for many!
- 100,000 Avois Points for British Airways Credit Card
- Earning and Redeeming a British Airways Companion Ticket
- Creating a Household Account with British Airways
- Top 10 Redemption Opportunities for British Airways Avios Points
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how much do you value amex points in $$ sense? 1 pts = 1 cents?
@Chris – I value them at 2 cents per point, however, many will value them less and more. If you redeem for business class tickets, you’ll get a higher value out of them, but again you’ll be using more points. I do not redeem unless I can get 2 cents per point. Those who could not go on vacation without points should not worry about the value and redeem and go on the vacation!
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i know its a different subject but i finally found a Walgreen that had tons of reloads vanilla card and when i came to pay the register gave a pop up CASH ONLY so.. any where else that i can buy it with cc ?? please help
@mr g- That seems to be happening at all Walgreens. CVS has them.
hmm i tried like 10 cvs and they did not
@mr g – Yeah, not all of them carry them. And when they do, they go quick.