American Express Membership Rewards is slashing the rate at which members can transfer their points to the Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer and Emirates Skywards programs. The change will take effect from 4 October 2023.

But there’s a silver lining. Amex Membership Rewards members will also soon be able to transfer their points into two new frequent flyer programs: Qatar Airways Privilege Club and HawaiianMiles.

KrisFlyer, Skywards transfers devalued

From 4 October 2023, conversions from Amex Membership Rewards to Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer and Emirates Skywards will take place at a 3:1 rate. The current conversion rate is 2:1, meaning your Amex points will soon be worth 33% less when transferring to KrisFlyer or Skywards.

At this stage, American Express is not making any changes to redemptions into other frequent flyer programs. The earn rates on American Express credit cards also remain unchanged.

Nonetheless, this is an unpopular move with the many AFF members who use their credit cards to collect KrisFlyer miles. Many have voiced their opinions about this change on our forum.

American Express has at least given cardholders three months of notice about this change. The existing transfer rates will remain in place until then, so there’s still plenty of time to transfer any existing Amex points to KrisFlyer or Skywards at the 2:1 rate.

However, keep in mind that both KrisFlyer miles and Skywards miles expire after a fixed period of three years. So, only transfer points into these programs if you plan to redeem them within the next 36 months!

The change comes just days after St.George Bank announced it will reduce the rate at which Amplify Rewards points convert to KrisFlyer miles.

This is the first time American Express Membership Rewards has made changes to airline redemption rates since April 2019, when Amex devalued the conversion rate from 1:1 to 2:1 for all airlines.

Transferring to Velocity and then KrisFlyer could soon be better value

Although Amex points in Australia will soon convert to KrisFlyer miles at a 3:1 rate, transfers from Amex to Velocity will remain at a 2:1 rate. As it happens, you can also convert Velocity points into KrisFlyer miles at rate of 1.55:1.

Currently, if you transferred 100,000 Amex points to KrisFlyer, you would receive 50,000 KrisFlyer miles. That will reduce to 33,000 KrisFlyer miles from 4 October 2023.

On the other hand, if you transferred 100,000 Amex points to Velocity Frequent Flyer, you’d get 50,000 Velocity points. You could transfer those 50,000 Velocity points to KrisFlyer and receive 32,258 KrisFlyer miles.

That’s still not quite as many KrisFlyer miles as you’d get by transferring directly from Amex Membership Rewards to KrisFlyer at the new rate. However, Velocity Frequent Flyer generally offers around 15% bonus points on transfers from credit card programs including Amex Membership Rewards every May and November.

With a 15% bonus at play, your 100,000 Amex points could become 57,500 Velocity points. That’s equivalent to 37,097 KrisFlyer miles – which is more than you’d get by transferring directly from Amex to KrisFlyer at the new rate.

Amex adding transfers to Qatar Airways & Hawaiian Airlines

The good news is that you’ll soon be able to transfer Amex Membership Rewards points to Qatar Airways Privilege Club or HawaiianMiles, the frequent flyer program of Hawaiian Airlines.

Transfers from Amex to Qatar Airways Privilege Club launch in mid-July 2023, and will take place at a 2:1 rate. The HawaiianMiles partnership will launch in October, with transfers also at a 2:1 rate.

This is particularly exciting news because Qatar Airways uses Avios as its loyalty program currency. You can use Avios to fairly easily book flights in Qatar Airways Business Class, when booking far enough in advance. Partner airline redemptions are also now fairly good value, and Qatar Avios can be converted at a 1:1 rate to British Airways Executive Club Avios.

Australians can already redeem points for Hawaiian Airlines flights through the Velocity Frequent Flyer program. But the HawaiianMiles partnership is still interesting because HawaiianMiles members get access to more award seats than Velocity members on Hawaiian Airlines flights.

You can also redeem HawaiianMiles for flights on Virgin Australia, Virgin Atlantic, Japan Airlines, Korean Air and JetBlue.

Overview of new Amex Membership Rewards transfer rates & partners

Here’s a full list of loyalty programs that you’ll be able to transfer your Australian Amex points into from October 2023, after all of these changes take effect:

What do you make of these changes? You can join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum:

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 90 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include economics, aviation & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.